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.