A Lull in the Action: El Hogar Inmaculado Corazon de Maria

12/30/2012

"We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own."
- Oscar Romero

Today was a crazy day! The six volunteers from AFLV arrived last night, so the bus was packed full when we rode to church. Sr. Gloria read us the Gospel in English on the way to church since the mass was going to be in Spanish. The church we went to was a local church called Don Bosco. The church was huge, and it was packed. The mass was very centered around children - when the priest processed in there were about 50 children that processed in with him, and at the peace of christ all the children in the church ran up to the altar and hugged the priest. After the mass, we took pictures inside and then got back on the bus to go to the cathedral.
We saw the plaza at the center of the city of El Salvador where the National Palace is located, as well as the cathedral. This is the site of many important historical riots in El Salvador. When Oscar Romero was assassinated, they held his funeral outside in the square so that all the poor people could be present. There were so many people there that snipers from the government started shooting into the crowd. Over 40 people were killed by gunshots or trampling. Apparently, there were thousands of shoes found in the square the next day that had fallen off people's feet when they were running away from the square.
We went into the basement of the cathedral where Oscar Romero used to hold mass for the poor. His crypt is down there, and we took pictures of that and of the beautiful stations of the cross. On the tomb of Oscar Romero there are 4 men (one on each corner) - representing Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are wearing robes that form a blanket that is covering Romero, and it looks like they are lifting him up to heaven. There is also an orange marble in the center of the statue of Romero, symbolizing where on his body he got shot.
After this we went up into the cathedral to take more photos. Lynette told us that the cathedral was relatively plain because Oscar Romero told the people that he would not decorate the cathedral until his people were no longer starving.
Next we went to the indoor market, where we got all sorts of traditional handmade goods. The outdoor market is too dangerous, so we went to the indoor one and Sr. Gloria introduced us to her friends who gave us great deals on anything from hammocks to soccer jerseys to handmade jewelry and pottery.
After the market we returned to the volunteer house and ate lunch. We changed our clothes and packed up all sorts of fun toys and games to take with us to the orphanage and hit the road. It was about an hour away, to the west of San Salvador.
I had no idea what to expect when we got to the orphanage. When I thought about orphanages in the past, the first thing that came to my mind was the play "Annie." With our foster care system in the U.S., there aren't really any orphanages, but going to a third world country for the first time I wasn't sure what to expect. I guess I was expecting to feel very sad, and I was expecting a dismal, drab, plain place with sad and lonely children. When we got there the place was very simple, but vibrant. Buildings were painted bright colors, the children's outdoor play area was tiled with bright colored tile, and the smiles on the kids faces melted my heart instantly. Before I had even made it through the door, two little girls about the age of six came running up to me and gave me a huge hug. They were excited I knew Spanish, and the kids glommed onto us like we were the coolest things they had ever seen. Sr. Gloria told us she goes with volunteers every Sunday, so the kids were expecting us. I brought a soccer ball, and began a pickup game with 6 kids and a few other volunteers. They were so funny, pulling us volunteers around and drafting us onto their teams. One little girl in particular was a huge tomboy, and could kick harder than most of the oldest boys! Her name was Melida, and she was quite a bundle of energy. Sr. Gloria told us that the children there both live at that orphanage and go to school there. They boys stay until they are around 10 years old and then go to a special home just for boys. The girls stay until 16, when they either leave or become nuns and help take after the younger children.
After soccer I got out my camera and started taking pictures. Two little girls who I had played with earlier came running up and wanted to see the camera. I took pictures of them, and they wanted to see all of them. They loved seeing pictures of themselves, and I even took a video of them playing a hand-clapping game that they got a kick out of. Their names were Maria Jose and Luz America. Luz told me she was starting second grade in January, and Maria looked like she might be in fourth. I played with them most of the afternoon, playing hide and go seek and looking at my camera. They asked to see pictures of more "gringas" or white people, and also asked to see pictures of my country. I didn't have any to show them, and for that I felt really bad. However, I started showing them pictures of El Salvador that I had taken that morning, and quickly realized that they had most likely never been to San Salvador, or even outside the orphanage for that matter. They new absolutely nothing about the country the lived in. Some children were orphans, others were taken from their parents because they were being neglected. But they were all so happy, and they all took such good care of each other. They treated one another kindly, and the bigger ones always were helping out the little ones. One girl, Nicole, was the cutest baby I have ever seen. She stumbled onto the soccer field, and then I accidentally hit her in the head with the ball! She looked to be about 2 years old, and she was very tiny. I rushed over to her and picked her up to make sure she was ok and to get her off of the field, and she immediately latched on to me and gave me a hug and rested her head on my shoulder. She refused to talk to any of us, and she was by far the youngest child I saw there all day.
Being at the orphanage was a very emotional experience, it was extremely difficult to leave at the end of the afternoon. I felt so bad that this was their life, their reality, and although it seemed nice and they seemed happy, their life is not what childhood is supposed to be like. They should know a world outside the barbed wire walls of the orphanage. I know that after this experience, the faces of Nicole, Maria, Luz, Melida, and the rest of the children will stick with me and help to remind me of what I learned and experienced that day at the orphanage.
When we arrived back at the volunteer house we listened to a talk by Gene Palumbo, an american journalist who works for NPR and Reuters. Gene has lived in El Salvador since the 1970's, and covered the civil war in El Salvador in the 80's and 90's. He gave us a brief history of El Salvador and the reasons behind why the war started in the first place. He told many interesting stories, and helped us all to connect the pieces of El Salvadoran history that we already knew together. I found Gene's talk incredibly interesting since he is an international journalist. I have often thought about what it would be like to be an international journalist or even an embedded journalist, and Gene's life-story allowed me to catch a glimpse of how exciting and also how dangerous that lifestyle can be. Gene was arrested 3 times during the war and he was lucky he lived to tell us the stories, but he also got to meet amazing people like Oscar Romero and the six bishops who were eventually murdered at the University of Central America (UCA) in 1989. He has spent so much time away from his home, but his work has influenced El Salvador tremendously, by spreading the word about the atrocities committed by the El Salvadoran army against its own people. Gene exemplifies what I think of when I think about what responsible journalism is, and because of that I was very inspired by him.
Tomorrow we get back to work!

Hasta luego,

Julia Marie

Inside Don Bosco Church

Ceiling of the Don Bosco Church

Back of the Don Bosco Church

Outside the Don Bosco Church

Oscar Romero's Tomb

Inside the Cathedral

A shrine to Oscar Romero inside the Cathedral

Inside of the Cathedral

Government building in the plaza in the center of San Salvador (snipers shot into the crowd from the roof of this building during Oscar Romero's funeral)