Walking With El Salvador

We couldn't possibly turn down an invitation to learn about the work of our young doctor friend.  After all, we have known her since she was in the university, and she has been helping us with the Missions of Healing for 6 or 7 years.  So, on Day #2 we loaded up our backpacks with water and set off bright and early for San Pedro Puxtla.  We had directions.  We had a map.  We still got lost.  We stopped many  times for directions, and thanks to a really kind guy in the street who, in the rain, sketched out a map for us in his own notebook, we eventually found our destination. Our friend (la Doctora) is the coordinator for an ECOS ( Equipo Comunitario de Salud) Familiar:   a community-based family health team.  (Usually the Salvadorans just call it an ECO.)  The creation of ECOS throughout the rural areas of El Salvador has been a key strategy within the healthcare reforms that began in 2009.  Each ECO consists of a physicia...

Exterior of the Unidad de Salud One full day.  What would we learn by spending just one full day at the Unidad de Salud  in Guazapa?  It was our first observation day, so we did not know what to expect and we had no reference frame from which to make comparisons.  We were a little nervous - we did not want to be intrusive! In the morning, these chairs are filled with waiting patients The local Lutheran pastors had made the appropriate arrangements for our visit and the director of the Unidad  greeted us warmly.  He is new in his position, but already seemed to be a little familiar with the work of the Lutheran Church pastors and health promoters within the church.  Deb, the nurse practitioner, and I introduced ourselves as representatives of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church and its accompanying sister churches from our synod of the ELCA. (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).  We explained our purpose:  to look, listen and learn, ...

We came to look, to listen and to learn.  The two of us, a nurse practitioner and a church worker, did not come to see patients, did not come to bring medications, did not come to fix anything.  We came to look, to listen and to learn. For nearly fifteen years our synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) has accompanied the Salvadoran Lutheran Church in a ministry we call "Missions of Healing."  The Mission of Healing was born at a time in which the people in our sister church community and throughout poor communities in El Salvador did not have access to attentive check-ups or basic medications.  Public clinics hosted long lines of patients who would wait as long as 8 hours for a 1-minute consultation with a doctor and a visit to an empty pharmacy.  Education, especially about sexually transmitted diseases, was sorely needed. The first mission of healing team had seven US members. We broke off from a synod delegation to spend four days in ...

Sometimes it happens.  Plans fall through, transportation becomes a challenge, walking is not an option, so even if it is not your plan A for the day, you end up hanging out at Metrocentro. If you live in San Salvador or visit San Salvador, you know about Metrocentro.  It's a mall.  It's gi-normous.  It's a bus-hub. You go there to window shop.  You go there to meet up with people.  If you are part of a delegation, you go there to run errands at the Dollar Store or Super, or you walk in circles trying to find the food court. One day, recently, a friend and I found ourselves with plans that just could not get organized and there we were, with several hours to spend at Metrocentro.  We decided to embrace the experience, walking and walking, eating and eating, shopping and shopping.  This was hard-core, delegation-leader research:  figuring out which food courts have the best seating, which fru-fru coffee drinks are the tastiest, which place...

Photo taken in the Cultural House in Dulce Nombre de Maria, Chalatenango If you search the internet for Caballero de la Noche  (literally "Cowboy of the Night"), you will find an endless list of references to Batman.  However, throughout the countryside and small hamlets of El Salvador, a question asked about the Caballero de la Noche  brings forth tales of fear and the devil... The Horse-Rider of the Night is a being which causes panic and fear.  Of course, if the Devil appeared to us as himself, we would die of fright because of his monstrous image.  But as you know, the Devil is a clever devil, and to appear as an ugly animal would be absurd.  So he appears in the most attractive way possible. It is said that a long time ago, some land-owners suddenly disappeared, and then some reappeared as dead horsemen with insides made of nothing but straw.  How did this happen?  It is said that whenever bad luck surrounded men or for reasons of ...

In honor of Halloween...here is the story of La Carreta Chillona This photo was taken in the Cultural House in Dulce de Nombre de Maria, Chalatenango Throughout El Salvador, the midnight sound of squeaky wheels rolling down pavement, cobbles or pathways of a town brings fear to those who hear it.  The cart passes by at the time when everyone should be asleep, so that no person of the town would be exposed to the company of cadavers traveling by cart on their funeral route.  Some believe the cart is filled with the bodies of those who have dared to look upon the squeaky cart as it passed by. Many people claim to have heard the squeaky cart, and many people will describe its distinctive adornment with skulls, but I have not yet met a person who has taken a peek as it passes by in the night. Historians believe that versions of this tale were spread throughout the Americas by Spanish rulers, who wanted to discourage the local people from venturing out after dark to conspire...

"See you at the fair!"  As we made our way to church early in the morning on Sunday, women from the community made their excuses and made their way to the bus stop.  Church is important, but the opportunity to market themselves and their products took priority. After worship, we made our way to Tonacatepeque, to the sidewalk in front of the mayor's office.  The fair was small, but the mood was hopeful.  There were not too many people buying things.  We wondered how well the event was promoted to customers. We wandered from table to table, and we did do a little Christmas shopping - which means our purchases are still top-secret!  I asked if I could take a photo of the woman who sold me a beautifully crocheted item...as a memory for the person who will receive the gift.  This creative business woman also sells natural medicine made from herbs in her garden. The hand-made items ranged from embroidered cloths and blouses, to knit and crocheted i...