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Today’s plan was a visit to the town of Esquipulas, a small village in the mountains of El Salvador. We got an early start, and after a morning prayer led by Matt and Joe and breakfast, we departed for Esquipulas. The journey to Esquipulas was expected to be about an hour long, and we had planned to get to the village by 10:00 for a mass at our sister parish. Unfortunately, due to the roughness of the roads, we were delayed by about two and a half hours. After a tight truck ride in the back of a pickup, several of the people in the group decided to get out and walk to the town rather than taking the truck.
Along the way, we encountered a group of several native boys who also happened to be heading towards the town, and who served as our escorts. We were each able to practice a little of our Spanish while speaking with the boys during our long walk to the church.
We were warmly greeted once we reached the town, where we entered the school grounds where the first events of the day would be held. Once the entire group came, all of us hot and exhausted from the walk and the heat, we were stationed in desks under a tent. The children of the school preformed dances and presented us with gifts that they handmade in their class. You can really tell how much the town appreciated our visit by all the hard work and effort they put into the decorations and events. After eating lunch in a classroom, we were given free time to socialize with the kids, take pictures, and present them with little gifts. The children were flocking around us as we gave them balloons, stickers, and candy. What for us would be silly little trinkets, these children acted as excited as children at Christmas, which was pretty amazing.
After running out of balloons and candy, we set up a soccer game (futbol) between the natives and ourselves. I am sorry to say that our soccer skills are far from perfect, and they pretty much destroyed us. With the thunder in the background threatening a storm, we decided to leave the school grounds, but not before presenting the town and sister parish with a donated chalice and priest’s vestments.
Once we left the school grounds, we split into two groups and each group visited a house of one of the families in Esquipulas. The particular house in which I visited was very small, with no electricity or running water. What struck me was that there were only two beds in the house for a family of eight. This concluded the events for the day, and we departed in pickups – after hiking a good few miles through the mountains – and arrived back to the house.
Today’s trip to Esquipulas was a truly moving and inspiring experience for me, and I can imagine for the rest of the group. When you see these people who have so little in a material sense, yet so much love, happiness, and faith, it makes you realize that you don’t need a lot to make you happy. When I decided to take this trip, I was expecting that I would be the one to help the natives, but as of yet, they have been the ones who have inspired me.
Therese Federowicz
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