From Cunen Guatemala 4
Mon, 21 Jan 2008
Hello from El Salvador/ By the way, the time is exactly the same as it is at home if anyone is interested.....doesn't seem like it should be.
It's a lot warmer here. At the elevations we were at in Guatemala {5000ft} the nights could get quite cold, but here it is like a warm summer evening even at 10pm today was a travel day. Padre Gerry Lestrat took us to Antigua, the old Capitol City, where we browsed around it the market. There are a lot of churches and cathedrals there that were damaged during the earthquakes. We didn't have much time there because we had to make El Salvador by evening. The market was an experience in overstimulation and I have a bit of a stomach bug, as do a few of the others, so the last thing I felt like doing was bargaining and haggling.
Padre mentioned today that there are 150,000 widows in Guatemala as well as 200,000 orphans because of the war.
Those are pretty daunting numbers!
We are now travelling around in a bus from El Salvador as the padre had to go back to his real work. The scenery was again one of beautiful vistas because of the volcanic mountainous terrain. We even saw smoke spewing out of one of the volcanoes. The rest of the projects will be driving distance from this area so we can stay put for awhile...which is nice. Tomorrow we will go to see the church where Oscar Romero we shot and killed as well as learn more of the history of it all.
Well that's it for today. I am going to go and try to sleep off this bug!
Sounds like I am missing some cold there. I will try to enjoy this warmth all the more!
Chow
V ^ C