Today, we got up at 2:00 a.m. after what seemed like about 15 minutes of sleep. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Revere, MA, which has a shuttle every half hour so that we could sleep a bit later (not much!) and also go to the airport all together. We took the 3:00 a.m. shuttle, arriving at the American terminal at Logan Airport around 3:30.
We flew to Miami and then to San Salvador, arriving around 1:00 p.m. The airport was quite clean and modern; every immigration and customs official was welcoming and friendly. Outside the airport was an enormous crowd with many taxi drivers offering their services, but we immediately saw our translator, Alvaro Duran, holding up a sign with the Episcopal seal on it. He and our driver, Arcelio, had soon gotten our luggage onto the roof and whisked us away in the Diocesan van toward the guesthouse in San Salvador. The weather was warm and humid, but not unbearable. The skies threatened a bit of rain, but as it is the rainy season now, it is to be expected.
Alvaro is a young, dedicated, layperson in the Diocese of El Salvador, who lived in London during the salvadoran civil war. He is friendly, outgoing, and immediately put us at our ease. He speaks excellent English and also has a good sense of how to interpret his country and church for us as well as the language.
When we arrived at the Diocesan guesthouse, we were thrilled that Doñas Blanca and Mercedes were waiting to greet us, along with Jenny, Mercedes' daughter. Two of us had met this family on our last trip (four years ago) and had hoped to see them again. Blanca and Mercedes are incredible cooks, and we looked forward to their gourmet meals all week long! Our youngest teammember, Brittany, picked up her friendship with Jenny where it left off four years ago, although neither speaks more than a few "palabritas" of the other's language. We brought lots of craft supplies for them to do together.
After dropping our things in the rooms and eating a quick but delicious lunch, we were graciously welcomed by Bishop Barahona and Jose Lopez, an attorney, who spoke about his work in the areas of refugee and human rights. The Bishop also told us about his major concerns for the Diocese: evangelization, education and health. We left two suitcases of donated school supplies, over-the-counter medications and altar linens with the Bishop to be distributed as needed.
Back at the guesthouse, we settled into our rooms. There are four rooms, three with two bunk beds each and a fourth larger room with four bunk beds. There are also three restrooms with showers, although one is a tight fit. There is a bottled water cooler, a refrigerator, and a hallway sitting area with a bench. Underneath, around the back, is the open air kitchen and eating area.
We ate dinner at about 6:30. It included rice, beans and handmade corn tortillas that are thicker than the Mexican-style that we are used to. It also included chicken, juice and water, salad, and dressing. Everything was delicious and nicely seasoned, and I hope you'll forgive if we rave about the food!
So far it has been an extremely (and unusually) smooth entry into this very different culture.
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