YLA El Salvador Mission Trip Day 3 & 4

So I'm a bit behind so hear we go:

Mon. Aug 8 (Historic Sites of San Salvador)

7:30: Breakfast at the Casa de Alexa Guesthouse

9-12: Historic Sites of San Salvador

The Divine Providence Hospital (Hospitalito)- This is the place where Oscar Romero lived as archbishop.  He was invited to live in a large estate by the church but refused choosing to live simply and among his people; so the nuns at the Hospitalito offered him a room at the back of the chapel and eventually a very modest house within the grounds.  The Hospitolito is a hospital for terminal cancer patients and is run by nuns.  The Hospitalito is also the place that Oscar Romero was assassinated while giving mass (a sniper came into the grounds in a car and through the open doors at the back of the church shot Oscar Romero while he was standing in the front behind the altar finishing his sermon).  This is always a very powerful place to visit, given how important the life and death of Oscar Romero is within the history of El Salvador. 

University of Central America (UCA)- Museum recalling the massacre of the Jesuits and many others along with more information on Monsenior Romero.  A place that I have been many times and is thriving with the energy and power that is liberation theology.

12:30: Lunch at Comedor  Nelly’s (chicken lasagna, casamiento (rice and bean mixture- marriage of rice and beans, and guacamole)

1:30-5:00:More Historic Sites of San Salvador

 Catedral de San Salvador- Crypt in the basement of the cathedral (the area where the popular mass is held and the tomb of Romero)

Artisan Market

Visited the National University of El Salvador and learned about the various murals throughout (in the art school, law school, ect.).  One of the murals we saw was completed by an art teacher who had been killed one week prior by gang violence

6:00: Dinner

7:00- 9:00: Salsa Lesson (salsa, cumbia, bachata, merengue)- absolutely hilarious watching some people learn how to Latin dance.  There was a lot of spinning, slipping, and running into walls.  I loved it.  The YLA also tried to teach the “cotton eyed joe” without music (hilarious).

Tue. Aug 9 (Service Project: JUL from La Primera Via Anglicana, El Pital, Lourdes)-   El Pital is the community in which I will likely be performing a community health assessment and working as a community health coordinator (pictures of the clinic will be posted once I get back to the US).

The day basically consisted of major relationship building with a group of El Salvadorian youth that ranges from 13-28.  The concept of youth is quite interesting in El Salvador as it has a huge age range (seeing as it seems to go up to 30) and also consists of women and men with children.  I feel like in the US, if you have children you are usually considered an adult but that does not seem to be the case in El Salvador.

As the service project with JUL is a big part of the mission trip I want to give some information about JUL provided by Cristosal:  JUL is a group of women working towards “Women’s Empowerment for the Prevention of Violence:  This project seeks to accompany fourteen (now ten) young women in the cultivation of skills, confidence, resources, and social networks necessary to affect permanent sociocultural changes in the community.  The girls will establish permanent programs for development in art, spirituality, and recreational activities that will be shadowed by workshops in the civic, personal, and professional formation.  This training and personal development process will be paralleled by a project for economic development.  The young women will demonstrate their leadership in opening and management of a library café.  The girls will work with other community members to rehabilitate the abandoned community house and convert it into a center for the formation of community identity through art, dialogue, and educational programs (and we got a chance to see the rehabilitated community house which is beaming with colors and decorated with ribbons and piñatas).

For a snack the community shared a delicious food with us called Rigua de Elote (basically a sweet tortilla made of corn with cheese and cream).

For the evening we had two speakers that spoke about refugees and human rights in El Salvador; both very heavy topics and worth saying more about but I’m sure I will have an opportunity to say more about these topics when I come back in a month and a half.