Day 7 - Cinquera to San Salvador

Tonight we’re back in San Salvador after a long day of playing tourist. We first visited the town of Cinquera where we listened to Don Pablo Alvarenga tell us the story of the reasons behind, beginning of , and some of the atrocities of the civil war in El Salvador that began in the late 70’s. We had a translator again – this time it was Raul – who did a wonderful job of telling us the story while Don Pablo did. We sat on the front porch of the house next to his for more than two hours and he had to cut it short for us. He could’ve talked for 5-6 hours, we were told. Horribly, he lost 5 of his sons & daughters in that war, so he’s very passionate about it and tries to get the real truth out to those who want to hear it.

Next, we had lunch on top of a hill right there in Cinquera – it was fried chicken and it was waiting for us when we trekked up there. One again, there was a beautiful view outside the building. Raul joined us, as well as our microbus driver, Alfredo, who came to pick us up this morning at the pastoral house.

And speaking of the pastoral house… we had to say good-bye this morning. It was a tough one, but I was told by Blanca (pictured here) that I was only to say “Hasta Pronto” which means, “See you soon”. So, after lots of hugs and a few tears, the pastoral team sent us off with Alfredo and Kathy on to pick up Raul. He was taking the bus to meet us in Cinquera, but was delayed, so we were picking him up somewhere along the way. I have no idea in which town that was… they’ve all run together this past week and as I mentioned before, my sense of direction was checked at the airport in Des Moines, Iowa. I’m just hoping to pick it up again when we get back.

We next went to San Salvador where we dropped of Raul and said our thanks and goodbyes to him. He was headed home back in Usulután. We went on to visit UCA (University of Central America). We went to the building where in 1989, eight people were murdered – six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter. They were activists speaking out about the atrocities of the El Salvador military and government. It was a very moving place to visit, knowing what had taken place there. There were paintings, photographs, books, a rose garden; all things that showed very graphically what a horrible situation took place there on that day in 1989.

It was very beneficial for me to be able to see and learn about such very important things in the history of El Salvador. These were very important things in shaping the country that exists now and you can see it in the choices of things hanging on the walls in the pastoral house.

We went back to the guest house, Los Pinos, in San Salvador late afternoon. We ate out down the street – walked two blocks and had a great meal of chicken, fish, iguana, and other goodies. Dessert was another block away where we had ice cream cones. Oh wait – some of us had two ice cream cones. I guess we’d been deprived for a week – most were surprised that we’d never made it to the ice cream shop in Berlin.

Our financial guy, Larry (Lepper), affectionately called by us, “Moneybags” finished up paying our bills and informed us that we did have some money left over that we were going to be able to leave in our account at the pastoral house for a further project. That’s always great news! We really appreciate Larry taking on that responsibility for us all week and making sure that we were staying within our budget.

With a 4:45 a.m. wake-up call coming, we had our last evening of reflections together and turned in by 9:30 p.m. And tomorrow it’s time to go home again.

–Betty