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Our Journey today began prayer and breakfast together. After packing our gear for the day we all headed out in minivans to the edge of town where we climbed into three four wheel drive trucks. These trucks are the main way of travel into the mountains of El Salvador. We traveled steadily upward for more than an hour bouncing our way over deep ruts and mudholes. Thankfully we never had to get out and push!
The mountain scenery was breathtaking. At the top of the pass the children of the village of Esquipulas came to meet us. We were already an hour late to celebrate mass together but no one seemed to mind. Sunday mass is a rare event at Esqipulad. It was a joyful celebration in spanish and english and we were all moved by the experience.
After mass we separated into groups to visit homes and learn about the reality of poverty. In these beautiful mountains the people live an extremely poor existence. Very few of these people have steady work and most barely survive by growing beans, corn, and coffee. The homes are all made of sticks, bare earth floors, straw, and a tin or clay roof.
We all then returned to the center of town which is a four room school building. We enjoyed a lunch together with the children of the school and then they perfomed several folkloric plays for us. The youngest did a dance called “The Painted Bull.” The middle grades did a dance that brought strength and courage to people during the revolution and the older girls did a traditonal harvest dance.
As a going away present the children presented us with some crafts that they did to honor our visit.
The trip down the mountain was more hot and dusty than the ride up and we all arrived home eager for showers and dinner together.
Each evening we have dinner together and then talk with our leaders about the days experiences and the work of the missions here in El Salvador.
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