A loss for words

Day 1 - full day

This is going to be quite the week. I am really at a loss for words as to what I have experienced just today. It will take some time to process... But I will share my initial thoughts and feelings.

We started the day with on of the guys sharing Gods word. He was talking about that since Jesus isn't here in a physical form right now, we need to be His hands and feet and take care of those in need. Very fitting for this week.

Soon we all climbed into the back of the trucks (love getting around like this) and drove about 45 mins to the little village of Rio Frio, where we will be building this week.  As we came up the road the whole village was there to great us and had chairs set up like they were ready for a town meeting. We all sat and we got to hear from the town committee. The town committee are the ones who will decide who gets a house and when (eventually everyone in the village will get a house).  Then we went from family to family to meet them and hear a little bit about their stories.

Now in my travels I have seen poverty, but somehow this seems different..... This seems more extreme than what I have ever seen. I've seen a mud hit here and there or a house with cardboard for walls but there would only be a few among some brick (nicer secure) houses. Well this is a whole village of mud huts that have what they would call a door, I don't believe it provided any form of security and barely any privacy.

The family that really hit me hard was a single mom, 31 years old (younger than me) she has three kids. Two boys ages 12 and 10 and a little girl that's 8. She works in the fields farming corn and beans. And sells bread in the next town over, she said she is proud that her children are never without food. But when asked how a new house will change her life she said she will be able to sleep through the night and not get up, light a candle and walk around the room to #1 check that all her kids are still there and safe and #2 that no water is dripping on them from the holes in the roof. I couldn't imagine this being a daily fear. And it was one were heard from pretty much every family.

It's hard to explain and it's hard for those who don't see it to comprehend. We are so spoilt in Canada with our government assistance and food banks. Here if you don't work, or your crops aren't good... You're unable to provide basic food for your family. One man works as a security guard at a gas station and has a wife and two daughters. They live in a very simple mud shack.  I forgot to mention there isn't electricity in this village and they cook over fires.

This has been a lot to take in. We will be heading back to the village tomorrow and will be building 8 houses in one day. I am so excited to see how these houses go together.

After we met each family someone in the group was asked to pray for them. Our team leader asked me to pray for the last family and I hadn't met the translator yet so Chris told play a trick on the translator and to just pray in Spanish... He was a little lost as to what to do. Oh the little games we play.

I should talk about the team I am with. There around 24 of us I think. A group of mostly men, 6 women.  They are all very passionate about El Salvador and about the poverty they have seen here. They can get emotion when talking about their experiences from how God called them to come to El Salvador and about how much it has changed and blessed their own lives. It's only been day one I can't wait to hear more about their passions for this country as the week goes on.

We got to attend a church service in the afternoon, it was a good hour drive away. There was probably around 200 in the congregation, a very traditional church with the ladies on one side and the men in the other. I was very excited that I knew three of the five songs we sang.  The pastors name is Pastor so they call him Pastor Pastor... So strange. It was great to be back in a Spanish service, once again I felt at home.