Sunday, June 27, 2010
Soon off to El Salvador
A group is leaving this Thursday for El Salvador to visit our sister community of Haciendita Uno and the La Mora Clinic. I will try to make some entires as we get ready and while we are in El Salvador--not always an easy thing to do in the rural areas.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
A note of reality from Sr Peggy in El Salvador
felicidades..Don you reached your goal.....we just had days and nights of rain and have been on red alert for days. ...the provisional bridges put in after IDA were all washed away with houses like yours there, just gone...houses and everything in them have been swept away by the swollen rivers. Seems like we can never recover.....Mud slides have taken lives and to date there are almost 8,000 people evacuated...some permanently others like here in the center sleeping on mattresses for reasons of prevention. We are just so vulnerable.
What a great thing that your goal was met and many now know more about el salvador. Give our thanks to all who have been part of this campaign...our students are deeply grateful. blessings and love, peggy
What a great thing that your goal was met and many now know more about el salvador. Give our thanks to all who have been part of this campaign...our students are deeply grateful. blessings and love, peggy
Disaster strikes but God is found in all things.....
Musings from the make shift housing Wednesday June 2, 2010
We made it through the night with reports of potential thunderstorms. At 10:00 am this morning, however, a large windstorm came through the Plymouth area and completely turned over the make shift housing we were living in and the rains soaked everything we owned there. I was in El Salvador shortly after Tropical Storm Ida last year. I saw the damage and heard the stories of destruction that came from those pounding winds and rain. Several people in the area of Haciendita Uno lost crops and homes. Several people a short distance away in Agullaries died as the flood waters poured over the swollen river banks in the darkness of night. While I was there, I saw people trying to rebuild their homes in the same areas the floods had recently reached. Many had moved from small homes to housing that appeared to be much like our make shift housing. I had a chance to meet a young Peace Corp volunteer who had barely escaped with his life as his community was destroyed by a mudslide during the rains. Life in El Salvador goes on.
One of the added benefits from the experience of living in the made shift housing has been to hear the people come and say they are learning so much about El Salvador. We have always wanted to find a way for the people at OLGC to learn more about Haciendita Uno and come to a better understanding of life there. So I guess it has been very profitable even over the amount of monies collected.
I thought about education and the need for appropriate supplies to obtain an education. Sr. Peggy asked my wife and me if we would sponsor a young woman from Suchitoto for a two year computer vocational program. We agreed to fund her and at the end of the first year I asked how the studies were going. I met her parents and her younger sister last January and talked to them all. She was sad that she had not done as well as she wanted. I asked her what the trouble had been. She had no computer to do her assignments with. Imagine being in a computer vocational program with no computer. A generous person from here donated a used computer. I had it refitted and a Spanish keyboard added to it. I gave it to her last January in an effort to help her learn. When I gave it to her, the faces of her whole family lighted up. Her father said he was so proud of her and hoped that she would be able to make a good living from this education.
Another group of students Sr. Peggy sponsors in San Salvador have a room they share together. This year they could not afford an Internet connection to use to complete their studies. Someone here gave them the $300.00 they needed and they can now access the computer networks.
Another exciting facet of this experience is the number of people who have said they are interested in traveling to El Salvador now that they know some more about the country and our sister community. If you are interested please send me an email and I will try to develop some trips to accommodate all our needs.
When I saw that the housing was turned over this morning, many people asked if I would turn it over and move back in. I had wondered about the wisdom off doing that and have decided it is not necessary now that a wonderful couple contacted me today. They came in and wrote us a check for $14,000 which took us over our goal. God is good! So any further monies that come in we will put towards trying to get the remaining four students enrolled in a college program.
Thanks to all who have been so supportive in this effort to assist our friends in Haciendita Uno?
Deacon Don
We made it through the night with reports of potential thunderstorms. At 10:00 am this morning, however, a large windstorm came through the Plymouth area and completely turned over the make shift housing we were living in and the rains soaked everything we owned there. I was in El Salvador shortly after Tropical Storm Ida last year. I saw the damage and heard the stories of destruction that came from those pounding winds and rain. Several people in the area of Haciendita Uno lost crops and homes. Several people a short distance away in Agullaries died as the flood waters poured over the swollen river banks in the darkness of night. While I was there, I saw people trying to rebuild their homes in the same areas the floods had recently reached. Many had moved from small homes to housing that appeared to be much like our make shift housing. I had a chance to meet a young Peace Corp volunteer who had barely escaped with his life as his community was destroyed by a mudslide during the rains. Life in El Salvador goes on.
One of the added benefits from the experience of living in the made shift housing has been to hear the people come and say they are learning so much about El Salvador. We have always wanted to find a way for the people at OLGC to learn more about Haciendita Uno and come to a better understanding of life there. So I guess it has been very profitable even over the amount of monies collected.
I thought about education and the need for appropriate supplies to obtain an education. Sr. Peggy asked my wife and me if we would sponsor a young woman from Suchitoto for a two year computer vocational program. We agreed to fund her and at the end of the first year I asked how the studies were going. I met her parents and her younger sister last January and talked to them all. She was sad that she had not done as well as she wanted. I asked her what the trouble had been. She had no computer to do her assignments with. Imagine being in a computer vocational program with no computer. A generous person from here donated a used computer. I had it refitted and a Spanish keyboard added to it. I gave it to her last January in an effort to help her learn. When I gave it to her, the faces of her whole family lighted up. Her father said he was so proud of her and hoped that she would be able to make a good living from this education.
Another group of students Sr. Peggy sponsors in San Salvador have a room they share together. This year they could not afford an Internet connection to use to complete their studies. Someone here gave them the $300.00 they needed and they can now access the computer networks.
Another exciting facet of this experience is the number of people who have said they are interested in traveling to El Salvador now that they know some more about the country and our sister community. If you are interested please send me an email and I will try to develop some trips to accommodate all our needs.
When I saw that the housing was turned over this morning, many people asked if I would turn it over and move back in. I had wondered about the wisdom off doing that and have decided it is not necessary now that a wonderful couple contacted me today. They came in and wrote us a check for $14,000 which took us over our goal. God is good! So any further monies that come in we will put towards trying to get the remaining four students enrolled in a college program.
Thanks to all who have been so supportive in this effort to assist our friends in Haciendita Uno?
Deacon Don
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Musings from the makeshift housing Tuesday June 1, 2010
With the amounts collected over the weekend, we only need to collect another $13,790.95 to make the goal!
God is good! I arrived back in Plymouth on Tuesday morning after the holiday break and looked at the housing. There had been a rather powerful thunderstorm come through the area. I feared the worst. Well, it is all dry and looks as though there was no disturbance at all. Praise God! I thought of the many rain storms I have been caught in while In El Salvador. You get wet quickly and you dry off quickly. Perhaps that is what God has in mind over the last two days.
We had a chance to speak to a young woman who was visiting a friend at OLGC over the weekend. She was from Washington, DC and is a nurse. She works part time volunteering her time in a free clinic in Washington. She said about 30% of her clients are Salvadoran. I am remained that there are three large communities in the US that have large Salvadoran populations—Washington, DC, Boston, and Los Angeles. She asked if we spoke fluent Spanish and we both looked at her and smiled. She smiled back and said I can’t speak it very well either. She also asked if we had noticed how gracious the Salvadoran people were when they said we spoke so well when we knew we really did not. She gave us a substantial donation and thanked us for helping to work with the Salvadorans in El Salvador so that they can have a future in their home country.
I reflected on the six year period that it takes to get a college degree in El Salvador. Many of these kids can’t even start college until they are in their early 20’s since they often cannot get through high school until then. I recently completed my second master’s degree and it took me 7 years after I retired from my first career to accomplish. It humbles me to see the struggle that so many of the Salvadorans have to face in trying to get an education so as to make a decent living. Education for me is actually more of a luxury rather than a necessity.
Pray for me as I will continue to pray for you.
Deacon Don
God is good! I arrived back in Plymouth on Tuesday morning after the holiday break and looked at the housing. There had been a rather powerful thunderstorm come through the area. I feared the worst. Well, it is all dry and looks as though there was no disturbance at all. Praise God! I thought of the many rain storms I have been caught in while In El Salvador. You get wet quickly and you dry off quickly. Perhaps that is what God has in mind over the last two days.
We had a chance to speak to a young woman who was visiting a friend at OLGC over the weekend. She was from Washington, DC and is a nurse. She works part time volunteering her time in a free clinic in Washington. She said about 30% of her clients are Salvadoran. I am remained that there are three large communities in the US that have large Salvadoran populations—Washington, DC, Boston, and Los Angeles. She asked if we spoke fluent Spanish and we both looked at her and smiled. She smiled back and said I can’t speak it very well either. She also asked if we had noticed how gracious the Salvadoran people were when they said we spoke so well when we knew we really did not. She gave us a substantial donation and thanked us for helping to work with the Salvadorans in El Salvador so that they can have a future in their home country.
I reflected on the six year period that it takes to get a college degree in El Salvador. Many of these kids can’t even start college until they are in their early 20’s since they often cannot get through high school until then. I recently completed my second master’s degree and it took me 7 years after I retired from my first career to accomplish. It humbles me to see the struggle that so many of the Salvadorans have to face in trying to get an education so as to make a decent living. Education for me is actually more of a luxury rather than a necessity.
Pray for me as I will continue to pray for you.
Deacon Don
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