El Salvador October 2014

With some free-time on my hands, I decided to put it to good use and go on my very first mission trip. Lakewood Church listed several mission journeys for 2014 and I decided to give El Salvador and digging a water-well a try. I was a bit aprehensive about going on a mission because I didn’t really know what to expect. But in the end it turned out to be a fantastic experience and definitely something I want to continue doing for years to come.

As for this trip, it began with some preparation including meeting everyone on the team and doing a Garage Sale to raise some money. I’ve done garage sales before and brought in about $50 bucks, so I wasn’t thinking we’d make a whole lot of money with this. Boy, was I wrong! We hauled in more than $2,000!! A garage sale is a very good idea! We also held a ‘packing party’ which meant filling lots of plastic tubs up with lots of plastic products. It was a good way to work and get to know each other for our upcoming journey.

Finally, the big day arrives and we all meet at the airport early in the morning. No issues. No hassles. Everything moves along just fine and we enjoy a smooth airplane ride to El Salvador. We had an added bonus of meeting the El Salvador Futbol team on their way home! They had been playing in Dallas. Friendly guys! They were treated like rock stars on the plane and in the airport. When we arrived in El Salvador, we met up with our hosts at the airport and loaded up the van.

Off we went to the our sleeping quarters not knowing what we’d find…would it be a hut in the jungle?… Sleeping under a tree in a tent?… what?…. but it turned out to be great!! It was Hotel Rancho Estero y Mar (Swamp and Sea) and was FANTASTIC!

The next morning we drove to our worksight which seemed like a long drive, but in reality it was just a short distance from the hotel. However, there wasn’t a direct road from our hotel to the small town where we’d be working, so we had to drive and drive and drive. I didn’t mind, I enjoyed seeing the towns and people and scenery along the way. We also stopped at a gas station each day and loaded up on ice and snacks.

We did a ‘walkabout’ and visited several homes and families in the neighborhood. Most of the houses were extremely poor… shacks, really… by our standards. It was kind of amazing to see how they lived. No one had running water or indoor plumbing. Everyone walked or drove great distances to get bottled water. Or a few lucky families had deep, deep wells from which they could draw water. Everyone cooked outside on wood stoves very much like going camping!

We started working on our first day, and it turned out to be not too terribly difficult. At least not difficult in my opinion. Still, it was dirty, muddy, and sweaty. I stayed wet and covered in dirt for the next 4 days! We had groups of guys from the nearby villages come and watch us every day too. A few of them would even jump in and help. Everyone on our team from Lakewood Church got to work and operate the drill.

While some of us were working with the drill, others were working with kids in the school. I have to say, this was the most delightful part of the whole week. The kids were so excited to have us there and eager to talk and play with us. They brought a lot of joy to the work scene every day! Several of them even tried talking in English with us. A few girls even practiced a traditional dance routine which they performed on the final day. The kids seemed to be interested in every single thing we did, every moment of the day.

The hygiene team spent several hours every day teaching the kids basics of hygiene. Some of it was pretty funny, especially the glitter poop. They kids loved it. They loved getting our packets of toothbrushes and toothpaste, too, which we assembled before we came to El Salvador at our packing party.

When we had some free time, myself and a few of the girls went on a little kayak adventure that was part of the Hotel Rancho Estero y Mar.

On the final day, we put the finishing touches on the well, and then it was picture-time with ALL the kids!

The next morning, we got up early-early on our final day and made our way to the airport. The flight gave us a good view of several volcanos as we were leaving, but other than that it was a regular boring 3 hour trip back in Houston. It felt good to be home!

Update:

I brought home a souvenier…the chicken flu! On the flight back to Houston I actually began to feel a bit sick, but I thought it was probably just exhaustion from the trip. But over the next couple of days I became quite sick. I had a high temperature, nausea, and body aches like I’ve never experienced before. Oddly, though, I didn’t have any congestion at all. No coughing either. I suspected this was the Chikungunya flu… or ‘Chicken Flu”… they had warned us about during our stay in El Salvador. The Central American countries were having an outbreak of chicken-flu, so I figured it was likely I caught the bug. I decided to go to St. Joseph’s Hospital in the Heights of Houston and get myself checked out. Sure enough, it was the flu. But the doctor didn’t confirm whether it was that specific strain of flu called “Chikungunya”. All I know is that I had three main symptoms – severe joint aches, high temperature, and no congestion. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics and sent me home. Within a few days I was okay again. Not fun! I am just really glad I didn’t get sick while I was IN El Salvador. That would’ve been a disaster and a miserable experience.

• The Debilitating Outbreak Sweeping the Americas
• Chikungunya Is On the Move
• It is Coming to the USA!