Musings from the make shift housing....the weekend

Some people have asked why there were no musings for the last few days. Well there is no wireless access at the church for the Internet so I could not download anything I would have written. This is the same as being in Haciendita Uno. There is no Internet access from the community so any messages have to be sent to a location in Suchitoto and then retrieved when someone comes into town to get them. So, since I have gone fishing for the holiday I have access to a computer and the Internet to write these thoughts.

A couple of nights ago, Mary and I heard a police car on the PA system giving directions to the occupants of a car they had stopped in the church drive way. We saw the spot lights come on. Mary immediately asked if they were speaking to us. I said no that they had a car stopped and were talking to them. It reminded me of the fear the local Salvadorans have of the national police. I was an International Election Observer in March 2009 and was assigned to the polls in the town of Cojutepeque. I had a young Salvadoran girl as a translator. At one point, I told her I wanted to speak the young police officers who were assigned to the polls. She said no that it was dangerous to speak to them. I explained to her that I was a retired police officer from the US and wanted to talk to the officers. She again said no but I went over to the officers and started to talk. She reluctantly came with me. We talked to a young officer who was from another town and had only been on the force for one year. He was married with a young child at home. He told us how he wanted the police to be better at community policing and hated the fear that had developed of the police since the war. There were some army soldiers patrolling the streets of the town and he felt that was a disaster and created tension for the police. After we were done, the young woman translator told me she was surprised that the officer had spoke so freely. She said he seemed like a very nice young man. I asked her to remember that and to try and always say hello to officers when she encountered them. Peace develops in so may different ways.
I will not know how much money was collected over the weekend until it can be counted on Tuesday when the office opens again. I do remember however that we got one cent from a little 7 year old girl. Her mom brought her out after mass and said she had found a penny on the floor in church. She told her mom she wanted to give it to us for the people in El Salvador. So whatever the amount is I know one penny came from her.

I have heard once again how many people have been reading these musings and the comments that keep coming to me are about the quiet we experience here and the slow pace of life. Some people who stop to talk seem to be anxious and ready to move on since they don’t want to be bothering us. I try to have them sit and be at ease and assure them that their being there is all I have to be concerned about. It reminded me of the translators in El Salvador repeatedly telling me how happy he people of Haciendita Uno are that we come and share our time with them. To share time for them is the greatest gift one can offer. The sharing of time and self is seen as a great honor in their culture. I wish we could remember that at so many different levels in our culture. To just sit and be with each other can and is a great gift. With that having been said, I had better return to the lake and sit with family and fish for a while! I will be back at the make shift housing on Tuesday after work!

Peace and all good, Deacon Don