Central America Revisited – Day Thirteen

Today we met at the church at around 8:30. We started with devotions and singing. When the bus arrived, we all loaded in and began our journey to San Salvador. We stopped at a historic site of Mayan ruins in Chalchuapa. Today must have been the field trip day for students from all around because there were children everywhere. They were taking notes and even asked some of the members of our group questions. We only stayed for around twenty minutes. About half of the group took advantage of the fact that a shop close to our bus was selling Saritas (a brand of ice cream). John and Craig have become the masters of finding Saritas in Guatemala and El Salvador.

When we finally arrived in San Salvador, the Romero museum was closed, so we went to the church where he was killed. The guide that presented his ministry and his death was very engaging and had all of us stand at the altar where he was killed and pray that God would lead us in the same way that God led Romero. She then opened the museum for us even though it was outside of the normal hours. The museum is the house where he lived across the road from the church.

We then went to the cathedral where they conducted his funeral service and visited his grave under the cathedral. One thing I did not learn until this trip was that his heart was buried in the garden alongside his house. There is now a fountain over the burial site of his heart. The cathedral is quite something to behold.

I decided that I would not attend worship tonight since it has been a full day and I am very hot and tired. I feel bad because Craig is preaching again and I wanted to support him. Flor is the only team member attending the service. Craig said that if the situation were reversed, especially since he is preaching the same sermon he preached on Sunday, he would not attend either.

I found out that Juan’s father went into a little panic last night. He had given me a ride to the church and then wasn’t paying attention to the time. When he went back to pick me up, Brian had already taken me home, but he didn’t know where I was. Brian told me that Juan’s father drove over to his house to find out where I was.

One little tidbit I picked up today was that only about 1% of the population in El Salvador is indigenous, whereas, almost 40% of the population in Guatemala is indigenous. I asked Juan about this because I had noticed that I did not see the indigenous people in El Salvador like I did in Guatemala. In Guatemala you see people everywhere in the native Mayan dress, but in El Salvador I haven’t seen any. Juan said that even the 1% live in the rural areas so we would not see them.

Tomorrow is our last full day of dialogue. It is interesting to me that last year we were in Central America for three weeks and I felt as though I could stay longer. This year we are only here for two weeks and I am definitely ready to go home.

(Posted after returning home due to no internet availability in El Salvador)