Hello again friends!
Well, I have finally returned to the United States and my trip to Central America came to a successful conclusion. I have yet to summarize the past three weeks since I left Guatemala so I'm taking an initial stab at it here, but may come back later and add some more highlights. But, as you may recall from my last blog entry, the plan was to spend 10 days at COAR in Zaragosa, El Salvador before joining Serving Christ Through His Poor for the service project (building a youth center) in Mizata, El Salvador.
Both legs of my El Salvador journey were quite successful. Many of the children at COAR remembered me and we had a great time getting reacquainted. I spent my time there serving in a capacity I would label as something close to "kindergarten cop." There was lots of soccer playing, tag, beach ball, running, dancing, jump rope and other varieties of the fun 'mayhem' in which children engage. Running around with the COAR kids in the heat of El Salvador was good preparation for bricklaying and other work on the project in Mizata.
Another added benefit of having visited COAR before with Patrick Anderson and Mike Denk was that I had that COAR video to show. On this trip I took my laptop and went to each of the children's houses (10 in total) and showed the video slideshow (COAR: A Visit 2006) to all the children and their house moms. Needless to say, it was well received, but not nearly as much as the breakdancing video and robot dance videos I had on my computer courtesy of Tommy Dome. The kids really enjoyed seeing these dances and some of the younger boys even started trying to break dance a little. I felt a little bad because they started dancing on the floor with their school uniforms so I tried to do the 'adult thing' and instructed them that this type of dancing should be done in play clothes. I also showed them the video of my trip to Madagascar with Catholic Relief Services. In Madagascar, we visited several orphanages so the COAR kids, when they saw the pictures of the other kids, really got something out of seeing other children their age who were in very similar circumstances. (I'll work on getting the Madgascar Video out there for you but, unfortunately, I don't have the time right now).
One of the really cool things I did with the kids was to join them on a field trip. Some of the third graders were being rewarded for their school work with an outing to a local water park. I joined them early one Saturday morning and we (11 kids, 3 chaperons, the driver and me) drove by mini-bus to the water park. On the way, we stopped to pick up a picnic lunch of fried chicken, bread, and cole-slaw from Pollo Campero (a Guatemalan fast food fried chicken chain that is Central America's answer to KFC). I could tell by the look of amazement on the kids faces and their fascination with the buildings, parks, and especially the people that we passed that for many of them this was a first time experience. Its unfortunate, but true, that field trips with the kids is a challenge. Because of this, it is really a special treat and it doesn't happen all too often. But, it was neat to be there to see the kids experiencing something really new.
When we got to the water park, the kids were even more thrilled. I think some of them had been to the park before, but for many, this was new (some had never even been swimming before). So, the park itself appeared to be almost as big as Geauga Lake's water park. Imagine the wave pool, a big general swimming pool, and a pool for about 4 large water slides and you get the idea for most of it. (I wonder if in a way this would have been like how Cedar Point started as a beach and water park...before the advent of roller coasters.) For safety and group management reasons, we kept the kids off the water slides, but we all had a great time in the other pools. For some of the kids who had never swam, I tried to teach the basics. Despite not knowing how to swim, none of them seemed afraid to get into the water (they just stayed close to the edge). So, I tried to go over the basics of a swim kick with arm motions and breathing. Aside from the class, I had also brought along a beach ball and we all had fun passing that around.
Weather wise, our timing was perfect. The day was very clear all morning and early into the afternoon, so much so that I got burned on the top of my head where my hair isn't as thick as it used to be and I didn't have sunscreen. My shoulders also ended up getting burned but that was more from the kids grabbing me around my neck and wearing down my sunscreen in the water. It was completely worth it. As we got into the vans to go back to COAR, the sky was starting to let loose with an afternoon rain so we really did well for this little expedition.
Just so as not to leave the impression that COAR was all play and no work, I do want to acknowledge that aside from the games, I did help many of the kids with their English homework. They all study English from the first grade on through high school so the kids always welcome help. I also helped a couple of the students with some of their religion homework. In fact, there were also four other young women working at COAR from the Cleveland area teaching English classes at the school. Not a bad way to spend a summer if you ask me!
On my last day at COAR, I made a gift of balloons to each kid. This was something I'd done before so I knew how the reaction would go...and I was right...they went crazy with their balloons: blowing them up, letting them fly all over the room, hitting each other with them, blowing them up until they popped, tossing them to each other, etc. They always seem to get a big kick out of it.
When I had some time for myself at COAR, I got to work on writing reflections for the Serving Christ Through His Poor mission trip that would follow. I had volunteered to help lead the morning and evening prayers for the mission trip and, knowing that I wouldn't have too much time to write once the mission trip got underway. (Once I get them typed up, I think these reflections will be added to the SCTHP web site. I may try to post them here as well for those who are interested. I'll let you know.)
So, that pretty much brings me to the end of my time at COAR this summer. I will be visiting parishes in Philadelphia and Kentucky to speak on behalf of COAR the next couple weekends. If you'd like to donate to their cause, their website provides the information here. I'll be catching up on the Serving Christ Through His Poor mission trip in the next few days so look for another update soon. Until then...peace!
