Camp

Wow, what a week. Was this my vacation? What a week. Let’s see if I can sum this up. April 4^th - 8^th I went with local VIDES volunteers to an outlying town for “camp.” Camp is kind of like a missionary trip where we do a vacation bible study for the local kids in the afternoon, home visits to read the bible in the morning, services for the church after VBS, and feed and evaluate ourselves everyday.

Saturday: Arrive; set up; cook dinner and eat; prayer and prep time

Sunday: Mass for Palm Sunday at local church; procession up a small hill for blessing of palms; lunch; 2 hours with kids; prayer service; dinner and reflection

Monday: Home visits in the morning; lunch; afternoon with kids; dinner and reflection

Tuesday: Prep for different services (I folded and sorted clothing to be sold at the church that we had brought along); lunch; afternoon with kids; time sitting with wet cloth on head to help headache; selling of clothes and general amusement and locals looked through clothing and suggesting funny clothes for their friends J.

Wednesday: Pack up; initiation ceremony into VIDES; hop the back of a pick up to get back home.

Favorite parts of the five days: riding in the back of pickups; showering behind a tarp with buckets of cold water; preparing dinner (also my least favorite!); falling in love with some of the kids; laughing with locals while searching through clothing to try on; the walks each day to the other church for VBS; getting to know the other volunteers; home visits (this was also very challenging)

Least favorite parts: Getting sick (I was sick the last day and night), eating pupusas (which were at least 3 meals during those 4 days), sleeping on the hard floor, or not sleeping, really; not knowing anything that is going to happen.

Reflection: We visited houses to share the Word with the locals since there is not a daily service at the parish which has no resident priest. At each house we came to there was a sick and usually home bound person. It was my first look at home life in El Salvador and I walked away not knowing what to think.

At the same time we were staying at the church a doctor was visiting for any who wanted to see him, of which there were always plenty of people. After leaving the homes of the homebound I thought what they really need here is a traveling doctor who can visit them in their homes. A regular traveling doctor – but I know that will never happen.

I was left wondering why I had been allowed to see this suffering? There is nothing I can do about it. These people are suffering terribly, their loved ones doing what they can to assist, but all the time watching the condition worsen. I felt even more like a foreigner then, I just wanted to go home, this isn’t my country and I can’t help, so I didn’t want to know. But now I do know. The other groups had the same news to report, many houses they visited had homebound patients. It’s just the way it is for these people, they know it’s not easy, but they don’t have any other options, so they do the best they can. We offered what medical advice we could while we visited and we prayed with them. I will continue to pray for them as well; it’s what I can do.