The AUMC Habitat for Humanity group took the opportunity today to visit El Salvador's capitol city, San Salvador. We're staying in town, of course, but coming into town at night in a crowded van with darkened windows doesn't let you get much of a feel for the place.
Come to think of it, traveling in two crowded vans doesn't let you get much of a feel for the place either, since I think the bus drivers went around in circles at least twice on the way to UCA, the University of Central America. But what awaited us there, I thought, was truly inspirational. Someone will probably correct me on the exact name, but the Centro Monsenor Romero on the UCA campus put into focus exactly the kinds of sacrifices Archbishop Romero went through before he was assassinated in 1980.
Possibly my favorite part of the exhibit had to do with some quotes from Msr. Romero, very powerful words about how best to serve God in the face of injustice. Yes , I took pictures, but it's not likely I'll be able to post them until I get back. The quotes were in Spanish, so I suspect they struck me harder than they did the others in the group.
Pastor Jack knew some of the people involved in the conflict, as I'm sure you probably know if you're reading this, and it was both interesting and inspiring to see a picture of one of the priests on the wall and hear Jack tell about how he'd talked with this same man -- in the same room -- about dealing with the injustices the people of El Salvador were suffering.
I spent a good deal of time in San Jose, Costa Rica in high school, and San Salvador, the city, reminded me somewhat of that -- very similar culture, same crazy drivers, and so on. San Salvador is much bigger, though, with perhaps 500,000 people living in the city. We visited the National Cathedral downtown and got a little bit of a feel for the city that way. The cathedral houses Archbishop Romreo's crypt, and we were able to see the beginning of a mass.
I'm sure someone else will talk about the memorial to the victims of the Civil War, which we visited after lunch (and in my case, a very yummy cone of strawberry ice cream). Imagine the Vietnam War memorial -- the names of the known dead were simply written in bronze. It tthe sheer size of the monument, will affect anyone. There were two panels covering towns in which massacres took place. And the memorial only covers those people known to have been murdered or disappeared. Nobody knows how many more people were affected.
Tomorrow, we head to a worship service at the Lutheran cathedral, then to the hotel which will become our home for the next few days. I don't know whether I'm more eager to meet the people of Ahuachapan, or more dreading working in heat and humidity...
Come to think of it, traveling in two crowded vans doesn't let you get much of a feel for the place either, since I think the bus drivers went around in circles at least twice on the way to UCA, the University of Central America. But what awaited us there, I thought, was truly inspirational. Someone will probably correct me on the exact name, but the Centro Monsenor Romero on the UCA campus put into focus exactly the kinds of sacrifices Archbishop Romero went through before he was assassinated in 1980.
Possibly my favorite part of the exhibit had to do with some quotes from Msr. Romero, very powerful words about how best to serve God in the face of injustice. Yes , I took pictures, but it's not likely I'll be able to post them until I get back. The quotes were in Spanish, so I suspect they struck me harder than they did the others in the group.
Pastor Jack knew some of the people involved in the conflict, as I'm sure you probably know if you're reading this, and it was both interesting and inspiring to see a picture of one of the priests on the wall and hear Jack tell about how he'd talked with this same man -- in the same room -- about dealing with the injustices the people of El Salvador were suffering.
I spent a good deal of time in San Jose, Costa Rica in high school, and San Salvador, the city, reminded me somewhat of that -- very similar culture, same crazy drivers, and so on. San Salvador is much bigger, though, with perhaps 500,000 people living in the city. We visited the National Cathedral downtown and got a little bit of a feel for the city that way. The cathedral houses Archbishop Romreo's crypt, and we were able to see the beginning of a mass.
I'm sure someone else will talk about the memorial to the victims of the Civil War, which we visited after lunch (and in my case, a very yummy cone of strawberry ice cream). Imagine the Vietnam War memorial -- the names of the known dead were simply written in bronze. It tthe sheer size of the monument, will affect anyone. There were two panels covering towns in which massacres took place. And the memorial only covers those people known to have been murdered or disappeared. Nobody knows how many more people were affected.
Tomorrow, we head to a worship service at the Lutheran cathedral, then to the hotel which will become our home for the next few days. I don't know whether I'm more eager to meet the people of Ahuachapan, or more dreading working in heat and humidity...
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