Saturday, March 21, 2009

Happy Birthday to Me, a little belated

My birthday was on March 1, but because we were on our way to El Salvador that day it was decided that the celebration wouuld be postponed until sometime later. That amount of time was ambiguous, and truthfully I figured that it would just be forgotten. However, leave it to my sweet DH to not forget how important birthdays are to me! Last night he declared that we were going to celebrate my birthday, and asked me where I wanted to go. Well, a few years ago just after some friends of ours' daughter died, I had wanted to take them out to help celebrate my birthday as sort of diversion. We all went to Benihana's, and although I'm not sure if it was really a diversion for the family we were with (what really could be in such a sad situation?!), we had a good time watching our food being cooked at our table, trying to eat with chopsticks, and experiencing something different.

So I decided that we should go to Benihana's again, this time as a family of 5 instead of 4. So off we went. DH was thoughtful and called ahead for a reservation, so we didn't have to wait at all when we got there. We were seated with another family of 4, that appeared to be mom, dad, 1 teenage daughter, and one 8 or 9 year old daughter. They were not very talkative, and actually I thought they didn't seem very happy. At any rate, we didn't interact too much. I was more interested in Grace's reaction to the whole grilling at the table thing. She surprisingly liked the soup, and ate the entire bowl! That was good, because that's about all she ate, with the exeception of my complimentary birthday bowl of chocolate ice cream that she ate at the end of the meal.

So how did she react? Well, really not too much at all. She was interested in watching our chef (I guess that's what you'd call him?), but not overly intersted. I thought she would get excited watching him cook, flipping the spices and trying to entertain the table guests. She wasn't too impressed. Mostly she just ate her soup. The other girls liked it though, and all of us tried sushi. My first time, along with DD1 and DD2's first. DH had had it before. I can't say that I hated it. It was more of a feeling of "why would I order this as it's nothing special" feeling. I think DD1 felt the same way I did. DD2 didn't like it, and even took the salmon off to finish up the one roll she had.

DD1 and DH ended up eating most of the shrimp and steak, and both said they were stuffed. I ate a little shrimp and steak, but mostly chicken. I really liked the fried rice, and the salad. I think although it wasn't the best birthday I've ever had, it was a nice time. We bought an about to be expired mini birthday cake at Miejer to top off the evening, but alas, we didn't even slice it. Everyone was too full, and it was too late by the time got home. So another birthday celebration behind me. The good thing about birthdays is that there'll be another one next year!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

San Salvador Men's prison

One of the most inspiring things that we did while we were in El Salvador was visit a men's prison and share in their worship service with them. We were late arriving, so the inmates were already singing. It was quite moving to watch these men who may be imprisoned for 20 years, worship with such passion. The service was run by prisoners too, so the pastor and the musicians were also prisoners.

In watching and participating in this service, I realized that although these men are imprisoned, they really understand the message of hope and freedom that Jesus brings for all of us. Not just for the priviledged few here in the USA, but for all of his children.

Here's some of that service.

San Salvador Special needs school visit

While we were in San Salvador, we visited a special needs school. I can't remember the name of the school, but it was quite a pleasant place. Evidently it used to be a women's prison, and was converted to this school in the 1970's.

All the children were very well behaved, and seemed happy. The special needs of the children that we saw were pretty mild. It is a public school, but I guess the children travel from all over to go to school here.

One of the classes that we visited was for the 16 to 21 year olds. They were learning how to make enchilladas which were deep fried dough. They were also making little paper bags to be able hold the enchilladas to be able to sell them. Here's a video of that class.



We also visited the music room while we were there. It was pretty pitiful the musical instruments that they had, and showed the need for these children. Here's a video I took while we watched the teacher teach the children.

St. Vincente de Paul Orphanage

We also visited another orphanage that was state owned, but run by sisters from the order of St. Vincent de Paul. This was a very large orphanage compared to the other two that we visited. There were 300 children living here, ages ranging from birth to 12 years old. I guess when the children reached 12, they were sent to other homes specifically for their age. The sister that took us on a tour said that the children get up at 4:30 a.m. everday to start their day!!!

When we first got there, there was a group of 5 and 6 year old girls outside playing. When they saw us, they ran up and started singing and hanging all over some of our group. Here's a video that shows them singing and shows some of the orphanage.



We also got to see where they same little girls slept, along with the 5 year old little boys. Here's a video of that room

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Getting caught up

I know I didn't post like I wanted to while we were in El Salvador. We are back home now, as of late Friday evening. I have a little bit more time, and a lot more bandwidth to download photos and video. So I'll pick up posting on our 3rd day. We visited a home for pregnant teenagers that was supported mostly by Pro Life. There were 7 girls living at the home, and each one had babies. The youngest girl was 11 years old, and had an 18 month old baby!! It was really heartbreaking to see the girls in such a situation where the fathers of the babies were uncles, brothers, fathers, and grandfathers of these girls!!! Most of the girls go back to their homes with their babies when they are ready. The perpetrator has been removed because he is in prison for incest. So the home is safe for the girls. I don't know how long most of the girls stay, but it was refreshing to hear that the girls are not put out of the home just because of having their babies, hitting a certain age, or a certain time period they've been in the home. The director of the home, Geraldine, was very nice and really loves the children. The girls were not overly friendly, but they seemed better off than they would've been without the home. Here's some video that I shot while I was there. The two Salvadorian women in the video were volunteers that were there to train the girls in cosmotology. They own their own salons and come in to help out on their own time. We brought the girls little cosmetic bags filled with personal items, so that what they are opening and looking at in this video.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

2nd Day Out

I know I am a day behind, but with everything that we're doing each day it's hard to post. So this post is about Tuesday.

We left for Si, a La Vida in the morning. It is a home teenage girls that are pregnant. It is a pro life home. We met with director, who was very nice and really cared for the girls and the babies. Her name was Magdelena. It was somewhat of a sad place because the girls were all there because of sad reasons. For instance, the youngest girl was 11 years old, and had a baby that was 18 months old!!! The home, though, was a safe place for the girls and their babies. The babies were beautiful.

Our next stop was Mi Casa orphanage. It is a small orphanage that is really two homes, one for boys and one for girls. It is in the center of the city. The director and his wife run the home. They are a Christian couple that are providing a home setting for the children. We had a wonderful time playing with and interacting with these children. I even played volleyball with a few of them in the backyard!

Next was lunch with the director of Exodo. We were supposed to meet with an official in the government that handles taking applications for adoption to court for finalization, but she was unable to meet with us. We had a very nice, but filling!, lunch with Iris. We were able to ask more questions about Exodo and learn more about the orphanage.

Our last stop for the day was St. Vincente de Paul orphanage. It is a state owned orphanage that is run by nuns. It is VERY large, and well structured. We were very impressed with how this orphanage ran like a well oiled machine. We were able to meet with the 4 and 5 year old girls when we first got on the property. What a blessing that was! These little girls were so cute!!! They even sang impromptu songs for us!

I can't upload any photos because of lack of disk space, so I guess that will have to wait until I get home.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

First Day Out







Sorry I didn't post sooner, but I was just too tired to post anything yesterday. Then we had an early start this morning. So I couldn't post until now.

Yesterday we visited an orphanage call Exodo. It is made up of 4 homes. Each home has house parents and a cook. Two of the homes are for boys and two for girls. Right now they have 47 children living there. They take children as young as 2. The children can stay until they are adults, and have training and can support themselves. It really is a wonderful place, and it's obvious the children are well loved and cared for.

The kids all really liked the Flip, so I took lots of videos of them with it, and they were able to see me play it back right away. It was really fun, but I sure wish I could speak Spanish! It has been so frustrating to not be able to speak to the children beyond hola and adios!!!

Here are a few photos from our visit.

Monday, March 2, 2009

San Salvador Itinerary

For those of you interested. Here's our very flexible itinerary while we are here in El Salvador (BTW, the weather is beautiful here. It's sunny and about 70 degrees right now!):

Sunday- We will be at the airport to pick you up. Return to hotel (about 45 min. from airport)

Monday - ( Breakfast buffet is 6:00-10:30-eat at your leisure). We will meet about 9:30am for an Orientation and time of spiritual preparation to begin the week.

Lunch- We will go to a local mall for lunch (this will give you an idea of where we could eat with a team)

After lunch we will begin the visits to projects and this will continue through Tuesday and Wednesday. Projects that we have planned are:

Visit to Exodo Orphange - this will include a presentation by the Director (sharing vision, goals of the home, structure, etc...time in the individual houses with children and their house parents...I have already spoken to her about the possibility of doing a sort of VBS or children's outreach..she would be very excited about that! The children would love for you to visit their school...where your group in the future (should you decide to take this step) could make a presentation in the school (perhaps drama, mimes, music, puppets...this is a public school, which we hopefully will visit during your time here.

Visit to Orphange San Vicente De Paul - Our team did a project there this week. The children are beautiful and adoptions are available from their home. They currently have a nursery with approximate 30 babies waiting and about 250 other children. Our project this week further confirmed my thoughts that this home probably would not be a good project for a long term commitment...other than visits, perhaps presentations by teams with drama etc and of course the adoption piece would be something worthy of exploration.

Visit to the School where the orphans from Exodo attend exploring options for a future team.

Visit to a small home for girls who are expecting and are all victims of incest. This is the project where you are bringing the cosmetic bags for gifts. This ministry connects us with another organization that makes babies available for adoption. We will need to go together to visit this project...not sure all that's involved or how Grace might connect.

Visit to a worship service inside the prison (Mariona/5,000 inmates) - I think this is an awesome experience and will war m your hearts. While this is not a project connected with orphanges..I would recommend this visit because of the spiritual impact it will have on each of the team. It's truly incredible!

We also have some tour/sightseeing opportunities. Mick is going on one of the tours today with 4 others on our team so he will have a first hand report of all the details.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

We're in San Salvador!

After two days of travel, we are now in San Salvador. We arrived at around 8:45, and got to the hotel around 10:30. The hotel is very nice, and the people that met at the airport were great!! No photos tonight because it's too late, but hopefully I'll take some tomorrow and post them later in the evening.

We talked to each of the girls today too, and they are doing well. So all we need to do is get DH over his sinus infection!!!