We've made it safely to El Salvador and wow has it been a whirlwind of a first 24 hours in country! We arrived at Dulles airport around 3:00am, had a smooth flight, landed in El Salvador 30 minutes early, made it through immigration without issue... then the fun began. We found some of our bags, then discovered that 8 of our bags were still in Washington. This required that we fill out some extra paperwork, which then resulted in us being caught up in customs because the paperwork wasn't done correctly. By the grace of God, we had a wonderful TACA agent helping us, and thank goodness for Luca and his amazing translation skills! It took us a little time, but in the end, everything worked out, of course! We have now been reunited with the missing luggage and we are enjoying life in El Salvador!
From the airport we went to the Market for breakfast, went to Pastor Martinez's home and then went to see the place we'd be calling home for the next couple of weeks - Via Olimpica. This is definitely the nicest living arrangements we have ever had in El Salvador. It is an incredibly safe, gated community. We have air conditioning, bunk beds with mattresses, huge bathrooms, and it is all within a huge athletic complex so there are weight rooms, boxing rings, fields, courts, pools, Tae-Kwon-Do arena, etc. etc. etc. The team's faces during the tour looked like they had died and gone to heaven.
After settling in, we ran some errands to set up the cell phones, go to the super market, and visit the school where the women on the team will be doing outreach programs on Monday and Tuesday. The team had a blast with the kids, they even participated in the relay races. After a delicious lunch at Carnitas, one of our favorite restaurants here, we went to Zacamil (the community that we have always stayed in prior to this trip) and ran into some friends. After socializing with them for a bit and showing around the team members who haven't been here before, we went back to take naps because we were all basically falling asleep at this point.
In the evening we went to meet up with Pastor Martinez at the church, and started meeting some of the church community. We had such a blast getting to know them! We struggled to ask as many questions as we could piece together in Spanish, and they did the same in English. Luca and Kate were pulled back and forth between various conversations to translate, and did so joyfully! What a blessing they have been! After many hours of fellowship with them, we went back home to get some rest for another busy day to follow.
Thank you for keeping us in your prayers! Please be praying for us today as we work out a lot of logistical details for the trip. We will be in touch!
Vaya con Dios
ReplyDelete