Walking With El Salvador

"Drop us off in Nejapa; we'll wander around; we'll figure out how to get ourselves back to Apopa; we'll be fine!" In the early years, our sister church pastor would not have gone for this idea.  Even 15 years into our sistering relationship he was a bit skeptical, but he was busy and we wanted to hang out and take in some everyday life, so with a little trepidation, he drove off and left us in Nejapa. Of course, this was not the first time for my friend Deb and me to experience Nejapa.  Over the years we have driven through the town center on our way to the nearby pool complex , and we often love to eat at the Pupusodromo  on the edge of town.  Deb and I (and a team of many) had just completed a week of holistic healing at the nearby Lutheran Church site at Fe y Esperanza. We drove into Nejapa early that morning to Unidad de Salud  (government health clinic) to express thanks to the director and all of the doctors and nurses who has assisted us during the ...

"Corn ... es ... vida." Our very first visit in El Salvador.  These words came carefully from the mouth of our pastor who was a little nervous while preaching in the tiny church in Los Héroes.  We all remember this moment:  the people were crammed into every corner of the space, our sweaty pastor holding an ear of corn out to the crowd and daring to try a bit of Spanish, "corn es vida," and the translator looking puzzled and finally blurting out, "maiz es ... vida" as everyone giggled. Corn es vida .  Corn is life. It was harvest time during that first visit.  We walked the pathways of our sister community for the first time, shyly accepting invitations into people's homes as we went along.  "Pase, por favor.  Come in.  Sit down.  Are you hungry?"  We were handed warm ears of corn, warm tortillas, or warm plastic cups full of sweet corn milk.  Corn es vida . "We are the people of the corn."  The Mayan story of creatio...