El Salvador, Tuesday, March 11th
Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:59:36 -0400
Dear Family,
Today was "hump" day or "wall" day, or whatever. There is not much to it except I try to watch to make sure someone is not having a bad day. If there is going to be someone who is prone to any difficulties then it is usually on this day. The work we are doing is not easy in that we have LONG hours and a little short on sleep. You can run on adrenalin for a few days, but then your "hip pockets" start to drag and you can crash. All in all we did well. I did note that several were dragging, but seemed to be ok otherwise.
HIDEAWAY NURSE
We have a registration station where our clinic begins. It is here that people get their paperwork started, and health aids are passed out and they see a nurse to determine why they have come to the clinic. It is a multi-station operation, so we have to have people to move them between stations and finally out to see the docs. One of our workers from the Mayor's office is a young lady that is very sharp and I am told that she is not only a RN, but a nurse anesthetist. When I found out, I quizzed her as to why was she working in the Mayor's office instead at a hospital. It seems that she had been working in a big hospital in San Salvador, but returning home each evening. There seem to be surrounding smaller towns where a lot of people live that are out of the major "hustle and bustle" of the capital city. In some of the small towns there are some bands of thieves who are too lazy to work, and since there are few police they make demands on those honest people who do to give them money. She told me that a group where she was living threatened her, but she ignored it. Later she said she was assaulted. She went that day and renounced her job and left for Tonacatepeque where it was quiet and safe. I asked her if there were any surrounding places that have these types of hoodlums that might cause us any problems. She assured me that there weren't. They don't mess with towns that have a good police force. I can tell you that there is always two or three policemen around wherever we go. We have two permanent guys who do nothing by stay at our rented house where our cooks work and our Latin brethren are staying. We take very good care of these guys. We have NO sense of danger here, although I constantly stress awareness and prohibit any walking anywhere in the dark or going outside our hotels at night. As my mama always said, "a stitch in time saves nine" or "better to be safe than sorry".
FACES IN THE LINE
One of the things I like to do each day is to go outside the compound and greet the people. The line outside is about a block long. Today, they were lined up when we got there at 6:45 am. When I go out the gate, I start shaking hands and talking to each one in line as much as possible, paying special attention to the children and the elderly. My purpose is to let them know that we will try to do our best to help them and will get everyone in as soon as possible. It is hot out there, and there is not much shade. Yesterday, I found about 4 or 5 people where were over 80 years old, and as you recall one who was 94. The line was longer today than yesterday. I took some pictures of the kids in the line and have posted these "faces" on my web page. Check them out at: http://groups.msn.com/PanamaJacksplace/elsalvador2008.msnw
BIBLE STUDY
There is a playground near the front gate. In that playground is an apparatus for the kids to crawl over with a fort like affair as the center piece. From that fort tower, I can see inside the compound and also the line outside. While I was standing there looking around, one of the Mayor's office workers who has been assigned as our liaison for whatever our needs are. She walked up the ramp to where I was at and after some brief chit-chat, she asked me "Who was the founder of our church?" That opened the door to begin a study with her. We talked for about 1 hour before lunch about what she and her family were. She is Catholic in name only, not remembering when she was at her church last. She had 4 kids in their teen years who are take classes to prepare them to take their first communion. Her husband is (was) Jehovah Witnesses. I determined that she did not feel like she would go to heaven if she died now. Our conversation broke up for the lunch time.
After lunch, she came by again and I asked if she would like to STUDY some from the Bible. She said she would. We studied from about 2:30 to 5:00. She seems interested and accepted what was taught, but at last she just said she wanted to "think" about it. I encouraged her to be baptized but I did not try to obligate her. She has agreed to study tomorrow. Please keep her in your prayers.
That's about it for today. Keep us in your prayers.
God bless.