A note about the upcoming posts

So, even though it has taken me way too long to get these up, I have tried to write them as if I were able to write and post every night on the trip. It may seem a little ridiculous, but I'll also be posting once a day over the same time period as our trip. Please enjoy!

Our “Los Buenos” Family and Community

Today's guest blogger: Cappie!

First Trinity’s Habitat team worked in the "Los Buenos" neighborhood on the rural outskirts of the city of Ahuachapan in Northwest El Salvador (about 2 hours from the Capital, San Salvador). "Los Buenos" translates to "Good Things," possibly implying "A Great Place To Live." No surprise that this wording comes from the last name of our family: "Bueno." (Good).

We don't really know how far "Los Buenos" stretches along the winding, steep, one-lane rutted roads that took our team to the work site each day, but we do know that most everyone in the small homes near the house we were building were siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and other direct and indirect members of the (very) extended Bueno family.

The house in which “our” family was living when we arrived is a partial cement-block structure with corrugated-metal covered space added over a hard-packed dirt floor. In this “extra” space the family cooks in the rainy season, keeps household supplies, and slings hammocks for little ones. The homes in the neighborhood have electricity, but, as far as we could tell, little or no running water during the dry season, which is when we were there. Water for cooking, washing, as well as for our construction work was drawn from a communal water spigot about a quarter of a mile up the rocky road. The work of filling large plastic jugs with water and lugging them home falls mostly to women and girls, although the men of our team amused children and grownups alike by balancing these jugs on their heads to bring water to our work site in order to fill huge oil drums from which we drew water to make the cement and mortar we needed to lay blocks for the new house. Here, the girls with us are helping to fill the jug of a neighbor, waiting to carry it back--on her head!

Maria del Carmen Bueno is the grandmother and matriarch of the family with which we worked. She said she was born in this same community, as was her husband, Juan Bautista Bueno. Juan Bautista looks to be in his sixties, although he seems older, yet for two days he worked quietly but hard alongside our team lugging earth, making “chispa” and “mescla” (cement and mortar) to strengthen and hold the cement blocks together, and pounding down the floor of what is to be his daughter's new home.

Heidi Ruth Jimenez is Maria del Carmen and Juan Bautista's second daughter. She was born in her parent's home some 20 years ago. She and her husband, Gabriel Jimenez, are the couple for whom we were building our Habitat home. Gabriel works as a policeman in a nearby town like Sonsonate, which is more than an hour’s distance by bus away. This means that he gets back to his small family only on his days off. Yet it is because of his regular salary that the Jimenez family has enough income to qualify for Habitat's help in building a home.

Heidi and Gabriel have a little daughter named Abby, 18 months old. When we arrived, Heidi was very pregnant with their second child due in mid March. On Thursday of our work week, February 24, a Habitat truck heading into nearby Ahuachapan offered Heidi a ride to her regular doctor’s checkup and it turned out that just then she went into labor and Gabriel's and Heidi's second child, a son, was born. If all continues to go well with building the Jimenez’ family’s home, this little boy will be the first in his extended family and neighborhood to grow up in an earthquake-proof home that has an indoor bathroom.

Heidi's younger brother, Juan who is about 15, also lives in the family’s current home, which adds up to seven people and three generations living in that one structure. Just up the hill from the house we were working on, beyond the outhouse and through banana trees lives Heidi's older sister and her husband, Cesar. Their three children, Cesar, Jr., about 10, Jasmine, about 7, and Henry, 4. (That's Cesar, Jr. back row on right, Jasmine in center front, Henry on the far left in the front row.) They were constant companions to our work team. Cesar Sr. works as a guard in Santa Ana. Since it is over an hour's ride on several busses to get to his work, Cesar, like Gabriel, comes home to Los Buenos just on his days off.

Extended family members who came to help us on the work site were Don Guillermo and Don Jose, both nearby neighbors in their fifties or sixties. They appeared for a day or two, worked quietly alongside us, often doing the heaviest tasks, then disappeared. Even though they had no English, they gave us the feeling that they supported with their "sweat equity" the home-building task we were doing for Heidi's family.

Across the rutted road from where Heidi’s and Gabriel’s home is growing lives Dona Rosa, the "engine" of the community according to Tania Mesa, our Habitat site coordinator. Dona Rosa met us as our work team first arrived and introduced herself as the "presidente" of the community. She is the one who made the connection to Habitat that has resulted in Heidi's and Gabriel's home being built. She also turned out to be one of the many cooks for our final "thank you" celebration meal on Friday afternoon, making all sorts of Salvadorean specialties on several outdoor fires.

Since there is no mail service (just as there is no garbage pickup) in the community, we are hoping that we can get photos of our team members and especially of “our” family as well as of the community’s many children to Dona Rosa via Habitat's Tania as our First Trinity team wants the people of Los Buenos to remember us just as we will remember Heidi, her extended family, and especially the children of Los Buenos.

The Story of the Subversive Cross

While I am still gathering pictures to be able to properly do daily journals, I thought I’d share the story of the “Subversive Cross,” which we saw when we worshiped in San Salvador our first Sunday in El Salvador. The story itself is powerful enough, but we were incredibly blessed to hear it in first person from Bishop Gomez after the service.

In the fall of 1989, both the government and guerilla forces were gearing up for a final battle in San Salvador. Bishop Medeardo Gomez led his congregation in a ceremony whereby a cross, painted white, is then inscribed with the sins of El Salvador and prayers for the country and its people.

A few weeks later, on November 16, the situation had gotten even worse. Bishop Gomez learned that government forces were coming to arrest and possibly even to kill him, and he took refuge in the German embassy. Sure enough—shortly after he left his church, the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, soldiers appeared, seeking the Bishop.

At the same time, soldiers were headed to the Central American University. There, six Jesuit priests were murdered execution-style.

But at the Lutheran church, the soldiers only found an international group of witnesses, holding a vigil. They arrested 15 people, along with the cross, saying that the church was using the cross to teach subversiveness. The cross was taken to the jail, where individuals were interrogated (and possibly tortured) in front of it. Bishop Gomez eventually had to flee the country to save his life.

When the war ended and Bishop Gomez returned, the American ambassador worked to get the cross returned; it had, somewhat miraculously, not been destroyed. The cross was brought to the house of the President of El Salvador, who then personally presented it to the Bishop. The “subversive cross” now resides in the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection as a reminder of the war and all that happened.

Day 1--We made it!

It has been a VERY long day, so I´ll just keep this short. We successfully arrived in El Salvador, and we were met by Alex, our Thrivent Builds assistant, who will be with us all week. He studied English (as in for a higher education degree) for three years, and he has a lot of fun stories.

For tonight, we are in a beautiful, extremely comfortable hotel in San Salvador (note the computer access that, if I had more time or energy, would also allow us to post pictures immediately). After church tomorrow we will transfer up to the hotel we will be at for the rest of the week. We are still not sure what sort of internet access we will have there, but rest assured that we will do our best to keep you posted on what we are up to!

For now, buenos noches to all our friends, families, and followers out there! And if anyone knows how to create the "at" symbol with a Latin American keyboard, I would love to hear about it.

Final Countdown

Today at First Trinity, service focused on El Salvador. Throughout Epiphany we have been highlighting a different world culture, celebrating the message of Epiphany that Jesus came to Earth to share God's message of love to all people. And so, as a send-off to our Habitat team, this week we celebrated the Salvadoran music and culture. In addition to special music and hymn selection, our post-service reception featured Salvadoran-style quesadillas and delicious tamales!

I also gave a "mission moment" during the announcements. Due to a printer malfunction, I realized once I got to church that the first page of my speech had never made it to a hard copy. As a result, the text below is not quite what I actually said, but I think it still worked!

¡Hola! Buenos Dias, hermanos y hermanas.

Hello! Good morning, brothers and sisters.

My name, for those of you who don’t know me, is Amanda Wahlig. I am here this morning, full of excitement and joy, to thank you on behalf the 11 people that you, the people of First Trinity, are helping to send to the beautiful country of El Salvador for a week to build a house with Habitat for Humanity.

When many people think of El Salvador, they think of the horrible civil war that ravaged that country throughout the 1980’s. And that war has left deep scars that will take lifetimes to heal. But since the peace accords were signed in 1992, the country has been undergoing a dramatic turnaround and rebuilding process.

One of the biggest remaining effects of the war has been its impact on the Salvadoran economy. Since 1990, El Salvador has experienced an inflation rate of 7%, while its economy has averaged only 5%. Annual remittances from family abroad, particularly in the US, total approximately $2 billion, while external aid is only $500 million per year. The minimum wage is only $145 a month, while the cost of basic necessities for a family of four is approximately $600 a month. This means that there are many families who have to go without the basics of food, shelter, clothing, health care, and education, even if more than one family member works full-time outside the home.

Shelter is the one area that Habitat for Humanity can, and does, help dramatically. In El Salvador, the concrete-block houses are typically 450 square feet, with two bedrooms, living and dining areas. Some houses, depending on the site, will either have an outdoor latrine or an indoor bathroom and shower. In 2007, one of these houses cost between $4500 and $5000, plus land and utility fees. The average family is only able to pay $45 a month.

The housing need is great in El Salvador. Between the poor economy and the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, earthquakes in 2001 and January 2007, plus volcanic eruptions and Hurricane Stan in 2005, there are over 720,000 families in need.

Habitat El Salvador was founded in 1992, and it is one of the fastest-growing and most stable programs in the developing world. Despite the lack of domestic funding and an almost exclusive dependence on foreign volunteers and monies, Habitat El Salvador has been able to build over 8,400 houses all over the country. Since June 2007, Habitat El Salvador has expanded their mission to reach an even lower economic stratum of families, working with so-called “model” communities, providing families with land, a house, basic services, and community development social structures, such as a community center or daycare facility. The goal of this is to encourage the families to unite and work together for their communities.

That’s why our ability to go down as a team is so wonderful. Because we are able to pair up with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Thrivent will be donating an additional $8,000 because of our team!

Our team will be going down this Saturday and, after having a chance to see some of the capital city of San Salvador, will be going to the region of Ahuachapan, the poorest region of the country, and near the Guatemalan border, to worship with a local community on Sunday and then to build for five days. While we don’t know the exact stage of construction the house will be in, we will be moving the blocks around, mixing the mortar, helping to form the dirt foundation for the floor, and perhaps helping to lay the blocks. Through it all we will be working with experienced masons, and, depending on the family’s schedule, with the family who will be living in the house. We will then have one more day to experience some of the incredible natural beauty and hospitality of the Salvadoran countryside before returning on Sunday.

As I finish up, I would like to thank those of you who have supported us, both financially and with your prayers. This trip is a wonderful opportunity for us to do some extremely valuable work in the name of God, and it would not be possible without your help.

One final note—this trip has a blog! There is a link to it on the home page of the First Trinity website. As internet access permits we will update it while in country, and we will definitely post stories and pictures upon our return.

Pr. Tom also spoke about our trip in his sermon today, which can be heard here. Please note this may take a few days to post.

Phase 1 Complete!

Our team is now entirely registered, flights are being booked, and folks are starting to receive their packets with their t-shirts and other helpful info! It's getting exciting around here!

This trip, we will be building with the Thrivent community in Getsemani. Our last trip, we helped ESHFH put together their video bid to be the host for a Thrivent community in Latin America, and it was wonderful that they got it--it's a great program, and this wonderful country has benefited so much from the increased partnership with Thrivent.

Getsemani is located in Ahuachapan, right next to the border with Guatemala. It is one of the poorest departments (the Salvadorian equivalent of states), despite having some of the richest soil for coffee. One-fifth of the families survive on a monthly income of less than the cost of the family food basket.

The area, because it is up in the mountains, is also subject to earthquakes. Habitat houses are seismic-resistant, and therefore represent not only stability for these families, but desperately needed safety.

The Getsemani community seeks to create a holistic community. It will not only be the location of 90 homes, but the project is built around increasing community leadership and economic opportunities. Because many of the volunteers are international volunteers, it is also an opportunity for cultural exchange and education (on both sides).

For more information on Ahuachapan and the Getsemani community, please go to the HFHES website on the project.

2011 Trip is On!

I have been confirmed as another trip leader for a Thrivent trip to El Salvador Feb. 19-27, 2011!

Membership on the trip this time will consist not only of First Trinity members and friends, but also fellow Lutherans from the DC area.

Registration information for trip members is going out soon, and then we'll be able to start the process of booking travel, choosing our activities for our rest days, and pre-departure meetings.

Having so many months before the trip is a luxury compared to our extremely quick turnaround the last time we went down. But I'm getting excited that the ball is moving!