Hola from El Sal! My name is Kelley and I'm a Junior nursing student at BC. After a fun night of card tricks and riddles, 6:30 came pretty early this morning. Being welcomed by the bright sunshine of El Salvador and the sounds of roosters cocka-doo-da-ling made the early morning a little less early. A little. We prepared for our hard day of work with morning prayer and another delicious breakfast. We were all excited to ride to the sites in trucks like the locals. Once we got to the location, the work began. After much measuring, sawing, hammering, and trial and error, the houses started to take shape. Group 2 lead the "competition", having the most of their house finished before lunch. Much to their dislike, Father Justin was on their team and let the other teams know. But don't worry, "Its not trash talking if its true" said Fr. Justin all in good fun. Luckily I am on this team and didn't have to experience any of the sass:) We took turns doing the dirty work and playing with the children, that were more than happy to play with us and spend time with us. Even the older children and adults were elated to help anyway they could. After a few quick hours it was lunch time! We returned back to headquarters for a scrumptious meal and a little down time. And back to work we went. With full tummies and the bright sun, the work slowed down a bit, and unfortunately Group 2 let the other groups feel like they were making some progress. After a few more hours of work visiting with the families and children of the community, it was time to say goodbye until tomorrow. We returned to have Mass at HQ and enjoy the chilly, but refreshing showers. We enjoyed another dinner and are currently having some fun, fun, fun!
Hasta luego!!
Kelley Farson
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
"Thank You For Loving Us" [Day 2]
Hey, everyone! It's Leslie again! Just a handful of photos from today! I'll let the previous posts explain what's happening here. :]
Peace,
Leslie
Hola! Como estas? Me llamo Zak... And that's about the extent of what I was able to say today...
I'm a sophomore at BC studying business management and economics.
Today we did a variety of things ranging from mass to dancing and everything in between. We went to a spanglish mass this morning at Sacred Heart parish her in Santa Ana, it was great because we all thought we knew the mass but it is actually very different down here as far as when you stand, sit, and kneel. We definitely made fools of ourselves being funny Americans who had no idea what was going on. The readings and gospels were in both English and Spanish but the rest of the mass was only in Spanish.
Afterwards we went to La Communidad Manuel (where we will be building the houses) in order to get to know the families we will be helping. The family I am helping to build for is a family of 4, two parents (which is very rare), a 9 year old son and an 18 son. The 9 yr old goes to school while the older brother goes to work. The father collects recyclables in order to make a living, the mother also sews to make some money while acting as tailor for the community and fixing all the clothes that need it.
After yet another amazing home cooked meal for lunch we went out to some Mayan ruins in order to learn a little bit more about some of these communities through a presentation that was given by some of the kids on scholarships. This consisted of a couple of skits and dances. The dance ended in all of us volunteers being pulled up and swung around in a ridiculous attempt at Salvadoran salsa dancing. Jake Scott was king of the dance floor with a young gentleman who was tearing up the dance floor (videos to come later)!
After the dancing and getting to know another community we were able to walk around the ruins a little bit and take some pretty awesome pictures and get to know each other better (again pictures to come later). We were able to experience a Salvadoran market place outside the park that the ruins were in, some people bought stuff some people are waiting for Saturday when we will be able to go to a much bigger market.
After a pretty full day we came back to the new CFCA facility in Santa Ana and ate a little not quite ripe mangos (very tart yet very good). We had once again a great home cooked meal! The food so far has been fantastic! Yes, I'm a man so that's what I notice... Don't judge me... =)
We have great staff here at the facility, "Mama" is making sure we're taking care of ourselves and eating enough. Mario and Jessie don't speak English but most of us have had at least some spanish and can quasi communicate with them, we also have 3 english speaking staff and 3 fluent speakers on the trip.
We're all excited to start building tomorrow and get our hands dirty. Being a construction worker it will be interesting breaking about every code in the book but it'll be awesome to work with my hands and love these people at the same time! Some of these people are so broken and simply in need of someone to love them.
Being the second oldest of 11 kids I also have a love for little kids and they're super cute... I think there's a rule or something that says hispanic kids are automatically super cute. A lot of them will follow us around and play with us constantly. We played hot potato with a boy in the street today, many of them borrowed our cameras and started taking pictures of everything.
We're all super excited for the rest of the week!
God bless!
-Zak Larsen
I'm a sophomore at BC studying business management and economics.
Today we did a variety of things ranging from mass to dancing and everything in between. We went to a spanglish mass this morning at Sacred Heart parish her in Santa Ana, it was great because we all thought we knew the mass but it is actually very different down here as far as when you stand, sit, and kneel. We definitely made fools of ourselves being funny Americans who had no idea what was going on. The readings and gospels were in both English and Spanish but the rest of the mass was only in Spanish.
Afterwards we went to La Communidad Manuel (where we will be building the houses) in order to get to know the families we will be helping. The family I am helping to build for is a family of 4, two parents (which is very rare), a 9 year old son and an 18 son. The 9 yr old goes to school while the older brother goes to work. The father collects recyclables in order to make a living, the mother also sews to make some money while acting as tailor for the community and fixing all the clothes that need it.
After yet another amazing home cooked meal for lunch we went out to some Mayan ruins in order to learn a little bit more about some of these communities through a presentation that was given by some of the kids on scholarships. This consisted of a couple of skits and dances. The dance ended in all of us volunteers being pulled up and swung around in a ridiculous attempt at Salvadoran salsa dancing. Jake Scott was king of the dance floor with a young gentleman who was tearing up the dance floor (videos to come later)!
After the dancing and getting to know another community we were able to walk around the ruins a little bit and take some pretty awesome pictures and get to know each other better (again pictures to come later). We were able to experience a Salvadoran market place outside the park that the ruins were in, some people bought stuff some people are waiting for Saturday when we will be able to go to a much bigger market.
After a pretty full day we came back to the new CFCA facility in Santa Ana and ate a little not quite ripe mangos (very tart yet very good). We had once again a great home cooked meal! The food so far has been fantastic! Yes, I'm a man so that's what I notice... Don't judge me... =)
We have great staff here at the facility, "Mama" is making sure we're taking care of ourselves and eating enough. Mario and Jessie don't speak English but most of us have had at least some spanish and can quasi communicate with them, we also have 3 english speaking staff and 3 fluent speakers on the trip.
We're all excited to start building tomorrow and get our hands dirty. Being a construction worker it will be interesting breaking about every code in the book but it'll be awesome to work with my hands and love these people at the same time! Some of these people are so broken and simply in need of someone to love them.
Being the second oldest of 11 kids I also have a love for little kids and they're super cute... I think there's a rule or something that says hispanic kids are automatically super cute. A lot of them will follow us around and play with us constantly. We played hot potato with a boy in the street today, many of them borrowed our cameras and started taking pictures of everything.
We're all super excited for the rest of the week!
God bless!
-Zak Larsen
Dear family and friends,
My name is Angela Porretta. I am a nursing student in my junior year at Benedictine College. This is my second year on this mission trip to El Salvador with CFCA, and I am thrilled to be back. Here is a quick update of the first full day of our trip.
This morning, everyone joined for breakfast at 7:15. It was a fantastic breakfast and everyone was much more lively and talkative after a good night's sleep and being even better acquainted after our flights and car trip here together. We left for Sunday Mass at 8:30 with the community. It was a beautiful little church and the community was so very welcoming and friendly. Fr. Justin concelebrated mass with the parish priest. Following mass, all the students mingled with the parishioners and were able to practice their Spanish in conversation, particularly with all the children who were thrilled to see us and full of questions.
Following this, we traveled to the community where we will be working this week to meet the families and see the areas were were to be building the houses. The community welcomed us with open arms. There are many children in this village, so all the students are eagerly looking forward to playing with them throughout the week.
After this, we headed back to the CFCA headquarters for a tasty lunch (they feed us very well), and now we are off to go visit some Mayan temple ruins for fun for the afternoon.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
We made it! [Day 1]
Hey friends, family, followers! My name is Leslie Naden. I'm a graduating Senior at Benedictine College majoring in English and minoring in Art and Theology. This is my first time on the El Salvador Mission Trip, and I feel absolutely blessed to have made it here safely, thanks to the planning of everyone in charge and the prayers and support from all the sponsors. I'll probably be posting semi-frequently with photos from the thousands I am likely to be taking over the next week.
I got an early start this morning after trying to catch a few hours of sleep. Fr. Justin celebrated Mass for us before we took off for KCI. I got to watch the sun rise from our first flight to Atlanta. It was beautiful!
We had a short layover in Atlanta, but I was pretty impatient to board for El Salvador.
After a fairly bumpy flight, we touched down in El Salvador! From the flight, we had a pretty long wait to get through immigration and customs, but everything went smoothly: no missing luggage and no hold-ups!
We met up with the CFCA staff and began our trip to the CFCA Program Center in Santa Ana. As we drove along, I spent most of my time soaking in my surroundings: the smells, the sounds, the vividly colorful buildings, the varying architecture and landscape, the feel of the air, the vegetation, the people, and-- inevitably-- the other cars on the road.
I got an early start this morning after trying to catch a few hours of sleep. Fr. Justin celebrated Mass for us before we took off for KCI. I got to watch the sun rise from our first flight to Atlanta. It was beautiful!
Finally, we made it to the CFCA Program Center in Santa Ana. It's a brand-new facility, and we're the first group to have the privilege to use it.
In case you were wondering whether we all made it, here we are! :]
We were provided a wonderful supper, settled in a little, gathered for night prayer, and then spent time enjoying the beautiful El Salvador night air before calling it a night.
More to come, inevitably!
Peace,
Leslie
Safe and sound...
Dear family, friends, and benefactors,
Hello from Santa Ana, El Salvador! My name is Andrew Ochs. I'm a first year MBA student at BC, and this is my first year on the mission trip to El Sal. Every day a different student will be posting on the blog to let you know about our trip.
Our day began at 2:45 this morning. Fr. Justin Dean, a monk of St. Benedict's Abbey and our chaplain on the trip, said mass for us in the St. Joseph Chapel in the crypt of the abbey, and we hit the road at 3:30. We took the bus down to the Kansas City airport and crashed Delta's self check-in system because there were so many of us (there are 27 of us)...so they kindly moved us off and got us all taken care of. We flew to Atlanta for our connecting flight to San Salvador, and arrived in El Salvador around 1:30.
Shortly after taking off from Atlanta, we hit a bit of turbulence in the air...actually it was quite a bit of turbulence, the kind that makes your stomach drop and reminds you that God is the one in control of the trip! Fear not, dear mothers.We all arrived safely, and had no more problems in the airport.
After standing in line for about an hour and a half to get through customs, the CFCA staff met us at the airport. We walked out of the airport and in to 90 degrees of sunshine and Central American humidity! The palm trees and mountains made it quite clear to us that we weren't in Kansas anymore. (I'm sorry, I had to throw it in there at least once.) We loaded into three vans to begin out drive to our lodging at the CFCA headquarters in Santa Ana.
As our drivers navigated CRAZY traffic on the highways and in the cities, I was struck by the beauty of the mountains and the tropical trees that are like nothing what you would find back home. It was entertaining to drive through the city of San Salvador and see everything from combination wrist-watch and pocket knife stands, to flea market-esque shops practically sprawling into the heavy traffic, to good old American McDonald's and KFC. The billboards brandished everything from local political ads to Spongebob Squarepants. From our drive, I gathered that while El Salvador certainly has its own rich feel and culture, American culture has made it's impact. I'm looking forward to seeing the difference between the city and the villages the we will visit tomorrow.
After two hours on the road, we arrive at our home for the next week. CFCA has recently built it's new El Salvador headquarters, complete with offices, lodging for volunteers and Wi-Fi! We are occupying four bedrooms, two for the men and two for the women. Everyone has their own bed, and each bedroom has its own bathroom. (We have hot water for showers this year!)
The CFCA staff treated us to a DELICIOUS dinner of chicken and mushroom cream sauce, salad, and baked potatoes. It was so nice to have a real meal after essentially feeding on snacks all day long! After dinner, the staff here laid down the house rules, remind us to ONLY drink bottled water (even when you brush your teeth), and introduced us to the two dogs! Zack Larsen and Angela Porretta were very happy to have some animals around, as were the rest of us. And now, as I write this post, everyone's taking time to recoup, play cards, journal, and get ready for our first full day tomorrow. It's a beautiful night here in El Salvador.
Thank you all for your support and prayers. Look for more posts from us tomorrow.
Quote of the day from Jake Scott: "Welcome to not America!" Thanks Jake. Glad to be here.
Friday, March 2, 2012
It's here! It's here! It's here!!!!!!
Just wanted to let you all know we will be leaving campus at 3:30am and should be arriving at our final destination in El Salvador by mid-late afternoon. Please pray for safe travels and strength to get through a long day of traveling.
We will be sure to write another post when we are settled in the CFCA facility! Thanks for your love and support family and friends! This wouldn't have been possible without you!!!!
:)
-2012 BCM El Salvador Missionaries
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