A Lull in the Action: Starfruit and Soccer

12/31/2012

"Have the courage to lose control. Have the courage to feel useless. have the courage to listen. Have the courage to receive. Have the courage to let your heart be broken. Have the courage to feel. Have the courage to fall in love. Have the courage to get ruined for life. Have the courage to make a friend."
- Dean Brackley

"Fall in love, have your heart broken, and return, ruined for life."
(While in El Salvador, we often used and talked about this phrase, which is adapted from the Dean Brackley quote above. It is a common quote that is used by people on mission trips in El Salvador to talk about and understand their experiences living and working in the country.)

Today we did our second day of service. I went back to Ciudad Arce. Joaquin drove us in his van, and we listened to El Salvadoran music on the way. In the morning we continued cleaning the grass and began work on a second trench. We listened to Don Miguel's story while we worked. He was a guerrilla fighter in the civil war, and lived up in the mountains as a recruiter. He witnessed many horrible atrocities by the government, and was ultimately inspired to join the fight by Romero's teachings, and to this day sites Romero as his teacher and spiritual leader.
We worked hard all through the morning, and at lunchtime we took a walk up the hill to the community center and ate in the shade of a few trees. The place we ate is the cite that they celebrate La Virgen de Guadalupe feast every year. A lady who lived in one of the nearby houses brought us soda and starfruit from the trees in her garden as a thank you to us for all of our work. We took them home with us to be sterilized, and enjoyed them with dessert after dinner!
After lunch, some boys from the neighborhood came to the site and watched us work for a bit. We decided to take a break, and got a soccer ball out of the van and invited them to play with us. As soon as they saw the ball, they got really excited and started running to the outdoor gym. Deena, Andrew and I played with the boys, and I served as the main translator among the group. However, even though Deena and Andrew spoke very little Spanish, it didn't really have an effect because we had such a good time playing. I witnessed that day for the first time the power of sports, specifically soccer, as an international language. We didn't need to exchange words to have fun, and communicated through our bodies, our laughter, and the ball. The boys names were Daniel, Johnny, Elias, Kevin, Irving, and Walter. We played for 2 1/2 hours, barely stopping for water! I dont think any of the boys owned a soccer ball of their own, but they were all absolutely amazing. Many people in the town would stop and watch as they passed by while running their daily errands. They were sad when we packed up to leave at the end of the day, but we told them we would be back to play later that week, and would bring more games for them.
When we got back, Joaquin treated us to a mini concert on the front porch of the volunteer house. Joaquin is really good at playing the guitar, and he sang us several popular El Salvadoran folk songs and some popular love songs that we all knew!
That evening, after dinner and reflection the new years celebrations began! From about 11pm until 2am there was a constant stream of cojetes (fireworks) going off. It was like nothing I had ever heard! I got up at midnight and watched from the window. It was a surreal experience to see the fireworks up in the mountains and dotting the skyline, and to hear them echoing endlessly around the hills and the countryside.
Unfortunately we couldn't participate in any of the festivities, because we leave for Guatemala tomorrow morning at 4am!

Hasta luego,

Julia Marie