Walking With El Salvador

It is late in the evening.  Moths flutter by the light bulb.  The white plastic chairs are gathered in a circle.  The door is open to let the heat of the day escape from the house.  This is story time. "One time, I was walking through the woods, and I heard something beside me.  I stopped and looked, but I did not see a thing.  Then I kept walking.  I sensed something by my side.  Then," the teller gasps... Just then a cockroach starts zooming around the room like a hummingbird playing pinball off of our heads.  We all gasp and swat at the warm air as the teller says, "I saw it -- it was the white cadejo. " The other women in the circle nod.  They had all experienced the presence of the white dog.  "The white cadejo walks beside the woman, protecting her from danger.  One time, when I went to the river to do the laundry, the white dog was with me." A husband speaks up.  "I have spied the black cadejo  from th...

Today I was meandering through some old video files, looking for some footage of singing in El Salvador, with the goal of finding audio for songs which we could sing with our congregation on an upcoming "El Salvador Sunday."  In the meandering, I came across a video entitled, "Four Boys." Click. The title appears.  This is one of the videos we created as a promotion for the scholarship ministry we coordinate with our sister church community.  A boy's first name emerges in white letters on a black screen, and then the image transitions to the face of a teenage boy.  He's wearing a Tazmanian Devil t-shirt.  The camera follows him as he shifts nervously from foot to foot.  Subtitles appear as he talks.  "I'm [complete name].  Greetings to the brothers and sisters at [sister church name], especially [boy name] who is sending help to me.  What I want to say...what I want to say...is thank you for the help that you have sent me, and take care o...

"Be sure to have a cake.  Usually there is a cake.  We couldn't afford a cake, and we were a little bit sad about that, but it was OK, right?  The cake should have layers and be tall and pretty like a wedding cake." We had a cake.  And balloons, lots of balloons.  And streamers and pink tablecloths and pink sparkly stuff and a princess in a pink dress and pink lemonade. From the beginning, we had planned two quinceañera celebrations to honor our fifteen years together as sister churches:  one in El Salvador and one in the US.  Even though we were sad to say good-bye to our Salvadoran friends at the end of our time with them, we had some fun together planning for the party "in the north."  We probably would not have dancing.  We would decorate using colorful balloons and streamers just like the Salvadorans had done.  And there would be cake. The party in El Salvador was planned by the community, and we had sent some funds ahead of...