Asides

After a tour of the Compassion center facilities and a home visit, we retuned to the center for a little vacation bible school.  I was asked by our group leader to read a bible passage written in Spanish.  I was prepared to give it a go but apparently it got bumped and never came up so I handed out suckers and blew bubbles instead.  We also made animals with silly putty.  I think the lesson must have been on Noah’s ark because the bible passage I didn’t read had to do with God promising not send another flood.  That explains the emphasis on making silly putty animals.  I tried my hand at it but the bubbles and suckers went over better.  A little boy absconded with my bubbles but I had more.  Later when we were about to leave and after the group picture with the center staff, the staff people handed out little gifts to our group: paper flowers in a nice bamboo holder for the ladies and a pen in the same bamboo holder for the gentlemen.  My little friend who I gave the bubbles to talked the staff people into letting him give me my gift.  From the rock star welcome we received on arrival, the warmth and friendliness of the people all through the day through the parting gifts, well, I’ll just say it warmed the heart of this old sinner.

Our guardians, guides and interpreters for the week were the four young people you see in the picture.  I was impressed with their diligence and dedication in seeing that our group worked through our itinerary safely.  El Salvador is a dangerous place and more so for Norte Americanos.  These four whippersnappers were ever vigilant lest we wander off and run amuck.  They were also good company.  Throw in our bus driver Nelson and it would be hard to imagine a more pleasant and capable group to spend the week with.

There came a downpour during our Wednesday home visit.  We were at another Compassion center and made the short walk to visit.  The rain demonstrated that the occupants of the house, which was pretty much the same as the one we visited the day before, would remain dry, mostly.  The husband and father was present in this family and they only had the two children, though there was another little boy, Santiago, to start with but we were told he was a neighbor boy.  This visit was briefer than the day before and our buss drove up the road to pick us up so we didn’t have to slide down the hill in the mud.  Ashlea (sp?) was a little charmer.  Her brother attends the Compassion center and is a pretty cute kid himself.