Walking With El Salvador

Inspired by my fellow blogger's recent story entitled "Traffic Report" on El Salvador Perspectives , today I bring you a long overdue episode of "Just Click."  This series of 2022 photos is brought to you by Salvadoran traffic congestion.   We frequently drive near Estadio Cuscatlan. On big game days, vendors set up their wares early in the morning, which can be annoying when people stop to make a purchase.  This practice also serves as the early warming system to avoid the area later during game time. Typical mid-morning traffic. This is not rush hour. Fortunately there are plenty of billboards for one's reading enjoyment. Speaking of reading while meandering through traffic, whenever a new fast food item advertisement hits a primo location on a pasarela, we do make our assessments on whether we would eat it, or not. I believe this particular ad elicited from yours truly a confident, "ooh, I'd eat that" (because I would). Stuck at a stoplight?...

After coffee and lunch and a lovely walk through the gardens above Lake Coatepeque , we set out for our next vacation destination: the Tazumal archeological site. Just west of the city of Santa Ana, the small city of Chalchuapa is currently home to about 75,000 people and has the distinction of having the longest period of continuous human habitation in El Salvador. The name, Chalchuapa, means "River of Jade" in the Nahuat language. GPS is helpful for finding the park entrance, or follow the signs and ask for help when you miss the turn.  Parking is on the street, and a local entrepreneur will gladly keep your vehicle safe for you, and be sure to give a nice tip.  Pyramids at Tazumal - photo credit: Mary The park is open on Tuesdays through Sundays from 9 am to 4 pm. The entrance fee is $5 for foreigners. If you have time or are a frequent visitor in El Salvador, a visit to the Guzman National Museum of Anthropology  prior to do some background study prior to visitin...

During the first part of May, we went on vacation - in El Salvador. My husband and I and another couple from our US neighborhood decided to take a life break and do the touristy thing.  We traversed the country, from San Salvador to Auachupan to La Unión, driving along the coastal highway and enjoying plenty of good food and fun. This is a thing the four of us do together in the US, so we know that we are compatible travelers who can live together, drive a distance together, and agree on food places. In the US we do a lot of exploring of new places. Our mutual goal for the vacation in El Salvador was to relax, so we chose a mix of experiences that were tested out by my husband and me and some which were a little more unknown.  When traveling around in El Salvador, it is wise to use a guide for anything off the beaten path, to do your research, to enter neighborhoods with trusted folks and to confirm plans by phone shortly before you head out.  When the four of us travel, ...

Plan. Train. Go! In a nutshell, this describes the Mission of Healing 2022: Plan , Train , Go. If you are coming into this story in the middle, you really should take a moment to click on PLAN and then on TRAIN . This episode celebrates GO.  CELEBRATES!  Yup, that all caps shout-out is so all of you sister church relationship coordinators and international companion synod cheerleaders in the back row can enjoy a celebratory trajectory moment with our Mission of Healing North team. Whether you've been working on a ministry project with your companions for 3 years, 5 years or 25 years, we suspect you know the challenges of visioning mutually, adapting with time and circumstances, and developing local sustainability - sustainability not only (or necessarily) in terms of local economic independence, but in terms of local local leadership, local leadership development, local creativity, and local enthusiasm.  During the Teach the Teachers event, we collected names and WhatsA...

The pandemic brought lots of changes to the way we could do ministry together, locally and globally. In 2020, we put on the Mission of Healing North Family Wellness Fair just before COVID locked down the world. In 2021, we did a year-long, remote, community education event.  In 2022, we jumped into a new era of community health education in El Salvador and created a training event called "Formación de Formadores" (we used "Teach the Teachers" in English).  2022 Teach the Teachers Event Curriculum Development As I mentioned in the previous installment of the Teach the Teachers story, the Salvadoran Lutheran Church Health Ministries Coordinator, Pastor Conchi, suggested we develop curriculum for the Mission of Healing North Teach the Teachers workshop with a focus on each of 4 human body systems:  Digestive, Circulatory, Respiratory and Reproductive. We started by planning the general information charla for each system. We created big colorful posters and simple ...