Hey there!
We have since learned many more Spanish words! Like how to say "I don't know" or "I don't understand" which have become very important phrases while staying in home stays. That being said, however, we have found through notable evidence that actions speak louder than words. And the actions that have been taken towards us have been full of love.
This past weekend we spent with a church in Metapan, El Salvador. We have been blessed to be the first group from RJC to go to this church and meet these people. We have met some of the most caring, kind and generous people. We started the weekend by driving for about 5 or 6 hours to get there, seeing some beautiful scenery along the way. We got to the church in Metapan and went walking to explore the town. We walked to the square and found a soccer stadium that was beautiful. What was the most beautiful thing was the sprinklers that we saw in the middle of the field. It was like an oasis in the middle of a desert. Except in this case the desert was the fact that it was +40 out and we were all wilting. We frolicked through the sprinklers and then got ice cream (a hard day full of hard work)! We then played a really fun game of basketball with the youth of the church and found that it is common to drink water from bags! We then were welcomed into our home stays and had supper and spent time with our host families. Everyone had different families and houses that they stayed at but the common theme that everyone noticed was how welcomed we were.
The next day we woke up and volunteered at the hospital that is a neighbour to the church. Us with the youth of the church washed windows and cleaned up garbage in the parking lot and around the fence of the hospital. It was interesting working with people with language barriers and how easily we were able to communicate via body language, hand signals and broken language. After that work in the heat we had a BBQ in a park with a pool (A pool!!). We ate lunch all together and then dove into the pool for hours of fun and building of friendships. There was lots of splashing and laughter- an over all awesome time. Later that night we went to the youth service at the church and were invited to participate at many points. Some of us had to recite Bible verses by memory- Carter killed it with the Bible's shortest verse so props to him. We also sang in English and attempted to in Spanish. We all ate papusas together (so much food!) and amazed each other with the card tricks we knew. We all then set out to go see the town square at night. The town was so pretty and we went on a little train (carts attached to the back of a car with music blasting) that took us around the square. The donuts we were doing with the train being jam-packed with all of us were crazy (but safe- don't worry mothers).
The next morning we went to church at 8 am (8 am- so early!) and were thankful that they translated the service for us. After church we went to lunch at a pizza place literally next door and returned to find something very undesirable. As we were at lunch, some people had come and broken into our microbus and unfortunately stolen many of our bags. In those bags, among other things were passports. It was very disheartening and disappointing to find this. Police were called and logistics were getting worked out. As this all happened, we experienced the biggest out pouring of God's love from this church. Immediately the congregation wanted to know what they could do to help. Some of the youth went home right away to pick up some extra clothes, tooth brushes, and etc. for us. We all got together, us and the youth, and played games, talked and hung around (with ice cream they bought us) while all the important things were being worked out. We honestly saw God in these people as they put aside their plans for the day and took it upon themselves to look after us. We could not thank them enough. Many hours after we planned to leave, we were finally able to get on the road. We got to the border and sat there for a long time as our hero Nancy worked with the extremely cooperative migration officer to let those without passports cross the border. After a lot of discussion and kindness we were able to cross. We made it back to Semilla late in the night and all fell into bed.
Today, those without passports went to Canadian soil in the Canadian embassy and filled out mountains of paper work. Then a trip to Walmart ensued to replace necessities. We are all getting things worked out and will be fine. This is a tough group and we have been able to roll with the punches. We would not be able to say that if it wasn't for the generosity of the church, the determination of our MCC coordinator Nancy, and the persistence of the migration officer who was set on getting us across the border. Our ALSO theme has become very applicable these last few days as we have seen God in many of the people we have met here. For that we are thankful and humbled.
Sorry this post was so long, we had lots to share. We are all doing alright and still have smiles on our faces and cornrows in Liam's hair. We're also excited for the days to come!
Thanks for reading!
(Written by Katie Rempel)
