I just read the most recent blogs from Tracey, Amanda and Coby and I cried the whole way through. I couldn't have said it better, although I thought I would sit down now that we're home and try to add something more. They have said it so eloquently that I can only say I ditto that ! Thank you for putting it into words so beautifully.
Perhaps I will add a few more "capsules" if I may.
I want it all to stick like the mud stuck to our shoes!
I haven't been able to get the image out of my mind of the building of houses 4 and 5. The mud was a foot deep in places and was actually more like quicksand or cement. I felt so bad for the people who were building those houses. The mud was so thick on their shoes and up and over their shoes. I really didn't think they would be able to put up a house at either of those sites, because it was also a very tight space. I say "they" because I spent most of my time sitting on the rocks around the site, drawing with the children or playing frisbee with them, while the others sloshed through the mud in a very tight space, my heart shuddering all the while that someone would get hurt on that construction site.
Whenever I started feeling like I was too hot and dirty for my liking, I only had to look over at those doing the slugging work and feel like I had the easier job for sure. But also, I was so pleased and honoured to share in the dreams and hopes of these children to have a dry house in their very near and real future.
I hope that all of the trip sticks with me, and never fades. As I sit in the comfort of my own home on a comfy couch (which is nonexistent there), I hope their beautiful smiling faces will always remind me that a little love can change a life and that these "poor people" on the mountain are not necessarily as poor as those of us with much. I think about the Beatitudes, and Jesus' sermon on the mount is most apropos.
The Orphanage! All God's children.
Wow what a beautiful site. I hope this image also sticks with me as we had an opportunity of a lifetime to "visit the fatherless". They are not forlorn, depressed or feeling sorry for themselves, but rather their smiles and hugs and laughter were beyond description. They were like fountains bubbling over with happiness from the time we arrived to the time to the time we left. So happy to be visited by people trying to be like Jesus. I hope they saw Jesus in me, but the paradox still remains that they seem to give far more to me than I have given to them, As someone who grew up in Sarnia abandoned by a father, the children in El Salvador have shown me that God wraps his arms around the whole world and is a loving Father who does not forsake his children.
May all this and more stick with me forever, but may my heart continue to be broken so it moves my hands and feet, perhaps to return to the country of El Salvador, but also right where I am.
Joan
