Walking With El Salvador

At this time, across the United States, millions of families are living under stay-at-home orders from their governors.  In my state, the order allows families to go to the grocery store, to the pharmacy, and to pick up foods from restaurants.  Businesses identified as "essential" remain open.  Churches have been identified as "essential" and that means groups of 10 people or fewer can work in the church, keeping distances of 6 feet or more between workers.  Most churches, like ours, are closed to everyone except for a few staff people.  Worship is run from an empty sanctuary or a pastor's living room - sometimes live, sometimes recorded. Our church in Milwaukee feeds people, literally, with food.  We cook and serve hot meals.  We provide food security for families who "shop" in our food pantry.  We grow thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables which are free for the neighborhood.  Individuals and families in our neighborhood nee...

We left El Salvador.  It was a planned departure, and did not take place exactly as planned, but we made it home.  We are self-quarantined, by choice, because of encountering crowded conditions during travel.  So far, so good. If you are following the news from El Salvador, you might know that the President took very strong measures to protect the country before there was a single case of Covid-19 in the country.  If you have been to El Salvador, you can understand why he made this choice.  El Salvador is crowded - really crowded.  El Salvador's medical care system barely functions under normal circumstances.  Minimizing the impact of the virus by limiting the movement of people is the only hope.  Before we left, we received advice:  Drink warm beverages.  Don't drink anything cold.  You need lime juice.  (Salt and lime juice are used to clean things.)  Drink tea with ginger.  Eat garlic.  And - a funny one t...

It has been about a month and a half since the last time I posted random car photos.  These are a few of the Just Click photos I took during February and the first part of March. Entrepreneurship out on the Streets Swimwear available for sale outside the Estadio El Mágico Yes, buying underwear off the street is a thing.  Check out the saleswoman, comfortably seated to the right of the tree, and check out the guy looking or maybe trying not to look like he is looking at her collection. No matter how hard San Salvador tries to eliminate the informal market outside of the formal market, sellers set up their stands.  Yes, this is the place to buy toilet paper. Small eateries built at the edge of the road overlooking beautiful valleys is a thing.  And I always wonder who was brave enough to construct such a thing. Pushing a little cart around all day in the hot sun cannot be easy. Appliance repair?  Random appliances for sale?...

I remember when I was a little girl.  Padre Rutilio would come here to visit - to this very house.  He was very kind.  He would play with us.  He would even play soccer in the field.  He came here often. We were in the hills outside of Guazapa at a small Lutheran Church which had been built alongside a home.  This was a site for one of the 2020 Mission of Healing Family Health Fairs, and during my teaching charla, a local woman was very eager to share her memories with me.  I was giving a nutrition charla, and perhaps because we were talking about the blessing of the tortilla on the Salvadoran table, she was reminded of Padre Rutilio Grande.  She remembered thats he talked about being welcome at the table and that he would never turn down an opportunity to share a humble meal in a home in the community.  As she talked about Padre Rutilio, the middle-aged woman's face lit up with the joy of a little girl.  Clearly Father Rutilio was ...