Saturday, 17 October 2015

By Dean Olson

San Salvador, El Salvador; 4 p.m. (1 hour behind Illinois)

We are in San Salvador!  The day began early with most of us waking up about 3 a.m. to get to the Good Shepherd west parking lot for a 3:45 a.m. departure.  I was very happy to see Betsy Kakoma waiting in the dark, cold air (38 degrees) with the cookies she promised!  (Oatmeal, by the way.)  We shared a big, warm hug.  In addition, my local Thrivent rep, Rick Craig, was in attendance.  I had sent him an e-mail just a couple days earlier telling him about our departure plans – what a great thing for him to attend!  I believe Thrivent will again donate $8000 to Habitat for Humanity here in El Salvador.  Jason Fisher was also present to see us off, and we’re pretty sure he slept in the church to not disturb his family during the night.  He wanted to go to El Salvador again this year except his cousin’s wedding is today in or near Chicago.  We were also happy to see in attendance Jeff Davis, plus Ron and Ruth Meyer.  We formed a circle and Jason offered a prayer to our work in this country.  He offered a terrific sendoff: “Via con Dios”, “Go with God”.  Our group of 8 is:

Jim Hack

Pam Hack Scott (Jim’s daughter, who came here in 2013)

Joe and Jodi Davis

Luke and Tim Smith

Zack Meyer (taking a week off college courses)

Dean Olson

We drove to the Bloomington airport (Jim and Tim) to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Atlanta.  No problem, but it takes time to check in a group who all need their passports checked and both boarding passes stamped.  Interestingly, Jim and Pam got through with un-signed passports, but they did not get out of Atlanta without their passports being signed.  The flight to Atlanta was about 90 minutes, with some of it waiting to land.

In Atlanta, our departure gate clearly had a good number of Spanish speakers.  Several of us went back to a café while waiting to get a breakfast panino.  Tim and Luke paid in advance, and waited, waited, and waited but no panini emerged.  After waiting until the last boarding call to San Salvador (the capital of El Salvador), the two raced down the concourse with no panini and no refund.  Perhaps Tim will get this fixed up in his return trip through Atlanta next Sunday!  It was also to meet other people going to El Salvador for relief work.  We met 5 doctors who where headed to San Salvador then meeting a local contact and driving to Guatemala.  Each had a different specialty, from pediatrics, to opthamology, to pharmacy.  They were all friends from northeast Georgia.  Once the flight left, we were in San Salvador in 3 hr and 15 min.  It was raining when we arrived, and the glide path in was a little bumpy.  Through the graces of the people of Good Shepherd, none of us paid for air fare this year – it all came from the Mission Fund.

Upon arrival in the capital, we stood in line for a passport check and customs ($10 fee), then then went on to baggage retrieval and customs again, where we turned in our forms.  We took a few steps outdoors, and as expected, our host from last year, Francis Padilla, greeted us like old friends.  As last time, she will be with us all week, keeping an eye on us from dawn to dusk.  From the coastal airport location, we drove for about 1 hour in a luggage-packed van driven by Ricardo.  We stopped for lunch in the same hilly spot we stopped last year – it’s part nursery, part garden, part bar, part health spa, and part restaurant.  At about 1:30 local time we nearly had the place to ourselves, but others started arriving as we left for our hotel.  The rain mostly stopped, and the food was very, very good.  Most of us had cheesy or veggie-laden sandwiches with a salad or fries, with soft drinks and bottled water.  We’re not allowed to drink tap water anywhere in the country.  Lunch is prepaid by Habitat as part of our week here. 

After lunch, we were at our hotel in about 15 minutes – the Crowne Plaza San Salvador; you can look it up.  It’s pretty nice, and rooms are double booked (4 rooms) at $90 per night according to Expedia.  However, I bet Habitat got a deal.  My guess is they are paying about $70 per night.  Standing in the lobby while Francis and Jim checked us in, a man, a total stranger, walks in and introduces himself and explains that he is with a group of Canadians working on a Habitat project!  How did he know to walk up to me and say hello?  Maybe it was our look-alike blue shirts.  They had a group of 11 and were heading to a beach location for some building.  But, they too are staying at the Crowne Plaza.  I told the man that the basis of our group was that we were all from the same church.  He said that was great, but they were simply a bunch of friends, and they had interviewed some people for the trip!  Different than what we did, but you have to be glad they are here.

The Crowne Plaza is fine, has a pleasant, open lobby, and a very nice pool, and a conference center, but it’s not your grandfather’s Crowne Plaza.  Our room has a window air conditioner, some spots on the rug, a sufficient but tiny bathroom, and just one lock on the door (none of those extra locks many of us are used to).  Those aren’t complaints by any means, but it is quite clear that Habitat is a thrifty organization and spends our donated dollars frugally.  The TV works, which is more than I can say for any TV I encountered in Sicily (that’s another story).  Our hotel room (for tonight only) has a couch, a chair, a desk, and a shower with decent water – we have no complaints, and are thankful to be here and consider it a privilege to be so warmly welcomed.  Katy, someone from the Habitat last year, dropped by the hotel to say hello, and it was very good to see her again.  In addition to Habitat staff we know, several hotel staffers walked up to us and said hello and welcome in English.

Jim just walked in with 2-for-1 beers ($2 of his own money, bottled, Cerveza Suprema).  Time to make a blog post and take a break.  Dinner is at 6:30 and Francis says we are going out somewhere.  Though San Salvador suffers from terrible gang violence, we trust the Habitat staff to always keep us safe, much like friends would keep friends safe visiting downtown Chicago.  In fact, we are leaving the capital city for our dinner tonight, and perhaps that’s a safety consideration.

Francis helped with this actual post because Google came up in Spanish, at first.

All for now, and thanks for reading.