Escapades in El Salvador, Day Dos: Blood, sweat, and painted faces

Our team from left to right: Top row - Kendell Hale, Matt Marrs, Daniel Miller, Perri Miller, me, Selah Tilden, Liz Tilden; Bottom row - Leah Booth, Madi Hale, Kalynn Marrs

The first complete day in El Salvador is now behind us and it was a solid day. I woke up around 6:30 and started my day with some quick time with Jesus while waiting for the bathroom. Our mixed sex team of ten were sharing a bathroom with two toilets, two sinks, and two showers so there was a bit of trepidation involved in who could use the bathroom and when. Definitely a knock first atmosphere. After getting ready, we headed to the kitchen for a nice, warm breakfast prepared by Milena and some of the older girls. I always enjoy getting my meal in the morning because it's a bit of a chance to practice my less-than-stellar Spanish and try to improve. The VBS team, which consisted of myself, Liz, Selah, Perri, Daniel, and Leah, met with our second translator, Valmori, to figure out the plan for the evening and otherwise enjoy our breakfast.

After our meal was over, we headed outside to play with the kids. One of the older boys, Harsen (pronounced kind of like Harrison, not to be confused with Fox) had laid down the challenge to us the previous evening for some futbol action between the Americanos and the El Salvadorians. Cool side note, the kids actually referred to it as soccer instead of football for the benefit of our team. During the course of the game, I decided that I wanted to try and play defense against Harsen. Just in case anyone was wondering, Harsen's soccer skills considerably dwarf my lack thereof. In fact, Harsen definitely realized that he could toy with me a bit. Still, I was determined to try my best and play stellar defense. As the game went on and I got beat time after time, I started to get sloppy and eventually had my feet slip out from under me. As I get up, I realize that my knee is bleeding everywhere. Good start to my soccer career. I take a quick break from the game to run up to the house to clean it out and when I come back the game had ended sadly. 

 Not a clear view, but gets the point across.

About this time, Matt, Kendall, Antonio, and Jason returned from a trip to town to get supplies so that we could paint the inside of the church for one of our mission projects. Ironically, this was the same church that I had assisted a bit on the building of two years prior. Milena had chosen a shade of yellow that was very similar to the Sprint color. Kendell led the painting crew which consisted of myself, Liz, Matt, Daniel, and Leah for today. By the end of our session, we would have about half of the inside painted.

Before circa 2012

Completed circa 2014

After our lunch break in the afternoon, Antonio rounded up our team to go down into the village area near the orphanage and go door-to-door to advertise for the revival service and VBS for tonight. We didn't really know what we were in for. We went to the first several homes without incident. We even saw a member of the MS-13 gang that just lives in the area. We asked Walter if that was a concern and he stated that they have no issue with Christians. After going to the first few homes, Antonio begins to lead us down heavily forested roads throughout the community to little country homes. None of us had really prepared for this as some of our team was already sporting their dress clothes for the evening and I was in a pair of shorts with no bug spray. I totally kept finding myself swatting mosquitoes and gnats off of my fresh knee wound. After what felt like two miles, we headed back to the truck and loaded up to head back to the orphanage and get ready for VBS.

The church service began at 4:30 pm with music services. It's always a really different atmosphere when you're in a worship service and you can't understand the words of the songs or recognize the music. After four songs, the VBS team headed into the church with the kids. Tonight, I was responsible for leading the lesson which was over the parable of the Lost Sheep. After leading the lesson, which I was kind of dismayed with since the kids weren't really focused, we began activities and games with the kids. The first activity involved face painting. At my station, a mother with her baby daughter sat down in a chair with me kneeling beside. The mother pointed to the flower design that she wanted painted on her daughter's arm and I began painting the design. As I was finishing up, the mother chose that moment to take out her boob and begin breast-feeding her daughter less than five inches from my face. Definitely an uncomfortable moment for me and one of those cultural differences that a person can experience on a mission trip. Luckily the remainder of my face-painting experience was uneventful except for creating the worst dog-face in the world. 

Not too pretty but at least he seems to be happy with it...

Once the church service ended, we headed into the kitchen for our dinner. We were surprised to see that Milena and the kitchen staff had prepared hot dogs for our dinner.  After eating a great dinner, our team retired to the house for the evening just to relax and debrief. Kendell had a great idea to bond as a group by sharing our most embarrassing tales with each other which sounded difficult but was actually really fun. I decided to tell the story of my weirdest concussion which elicited a lot of laughter and also resulted in a lot of jokes of how closely everyone would have to monitor me for head injuries during our trip. **Sarcastically** I'm so glad that I've already gained that reputation. LOL.