Visit El Salvador!
A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH AND HOPE
March 6-13, 2011
Deacon Don Leach, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Plymouth, Michigan, in conjunction with Christians for Peace in El Salvador, is organizing an 8-day Educational Pilgrimage to El Salvador.
OLGC pilgrimages to El Salvador are learning experiences that provide an opportunity to explore a different reality and to build relationships with the people of El Salvador.
Special emphasis is given to the voice and experience of the poor and marginalized. There will be evening group reflections on what is being experienced.
Visit: Martyr sites, grass roots organizations, rural communities, Christian based communities, small cooperatives, etc. Hear speakers on history, politics and economy of El Salvador.
Participants with the assistance of CRISPAZ will construct the itinerary for the trip. They will also choose a theme that will shape the group’s itinerary and provide in-depth learning about a specific topic. Examples of Themes: Current Struggles and Future Hope of Youth; Survival, Sustainability and Solidarity of Rural Communities; Church of the Poor.
To prepare for the trip educationally and logistically, participants will read and discuss the content of a Participants Manual, read articles and books on Salvadoran issues. Four (4) prep-trip meetings will be held, one each month starting in December 2009. A minimum of two (2) post-trip meetings will be held to reflect on the pilgrimage and to discern group or individual actions.
Participants will stay in a simple guesthouse when in the capitol city. There will be an overnight stay in the rural countryside where accommodations are more rustic.
An informational meeting will be held October 4, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fr Lefevre room at OLGC for those who express an interest in the trip. A minimum of seven (7) people must sign up for the trip to occur.
Cost for the pilgrimage, including room, board, airfare, in country transportation and excluding health concerns that need to be taken care of before departure is approximately $1500.00 (final cost depends on airfare charges at the time the group reservation is made in December, 2010.
To convey your interest and to obtain more information call Coordinator Deacon Don Leach at 734-453-0326 x 223 or email him at donleach1@gmail.com
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Thoughts after El Salvador
I arrived in El Salvador on July 1, 2010 and went to the Center for Peace through the Arts in Suchitoto where we would be staying and to meet an old friend, Sr Peggy O'Neil. We sat talking about a young man who was an honor student in the school at Los Almendros where the kids from our sisiter community of Haciendita Uno attend school. He was a talented musicisan and had a wonderful spirit. His only problem was that the gangs in El Salvador were trying to recruit him. His father went to the leader of the gang and warned him to stay away from his son. A few days later the young man was found tortured to death as a way of sending a message to his dad and the community. Sr Peggy told us that it is a Salvadoran custom to pray for the dead for nine days after their death and then to have a final grand prayer service for them.
Around six p.m. my phone rang and I thought I should check it because it was the contact number for anyone calling our group from the U.S. I saw it was from my daughter and the message said to call right away. When I called, she told me that my mother had died that morning as we were traveling to El Salvador. She had been sick from a stroke and was 92 years old. I called my sisiter and talked to her about the funeral arrangements and they all wanted to wait for me to return so that I could attend the funeral. They had the funeral set for July 10, 2010.
As I reflected later that night it struck me that it would be nine days until my mom's funeral and that it was appropriate to use the next nine days to pray for her as was the custom in El Salvador. I was taken aback by the convergence of this idea that I had just heard and the notification of my mom's death.
Though several miles apart, the world is often the same for us in the US and in El Salvador. We only need the eyes and ears to see and hear.
Around six p.m. my phone rang and I thought I should check it because it was the contact number for anyone calling our group from the U.S. I saw it was from my daughter and the message said to call right away. When I called, she told me that my mother had died that morning as we were traveling to El Salvador. She had been sick from a stroke and was 92 years old. I called my sisiter and talked to her about the funeral arrangements and they all wanted to wait for me to return so that I could attend the funeral. They had the funeral set for July 10, 2010.
As I reflected later that night it struck me that it would be nine days until my mom's funeral and that it was appropriate to use the next nine days to pray for her as was the custom in El Salvador. I was taken aback by the convergence of this idea that I had just heard and the notification of my mom's death.
Though several miles apart, the world is often the same for us in the US and in El Salvador. We only need the eyes and ears to see and hear.
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