Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Ants in my pants

"Ants in my pants"
no longer just a figure of speech for thomas and I ....but here I am getting ahead of myself.

Let's start from the very beginning (a very good place to start)

Last weekend thomas and I went on a camping trip with the youth group from Emmanuel Baptist Church (the church david and suzannah work with here)to a city about 2 hours away called ¨Alegria¨ (Which means joy in Spanish) Here we are getting ready to pile into our mode of transportation......a little pick'up truck that is made for 5 but can magically fit 13 people and their luggage! (they don´t make trucks like this in canada).


After a very long 2 hours of being smooshed together and driving up winding roads (Alegria is on top of a volcano) we finally arrived...only and hour and a half late for breakfast!
The purpose of this trip was to make some connections with the youth in Alegria. However, once we arrived we discovered that things weren´t quite how we had expected they would be. Instead of us hanging out with the youth group and doing service projects together it ended up that a handful of the older youth there were planning to lead a camp for our youth to build them closer together (encourage team work, etc.). All great things, but not exactly what we were expecting.

Suzannah said that things like this happen all the time in Latin America. Apparently people are not as direct when they communicate so it is not unusual to arrive somewhere and find out that things are different than you had thought they would be.
this time we were lucky that the miscommunication wasn´t a bad thing.



Within El Salvador there are two major opposing political parties that try and gain power. One is ARENA which is more right wing and is currently in power. They have been in power for the past 15 years or so i believe. David and Suzannah told us that the founder of ARENA was the man who ordered the assassination of Archbishop Romero (who we will talk about later on). It´s crazy to see how power is abused here.

The town of Alegria is an FMLN stronghold.
the FMLN is the name of a guerilla group that emerged during the civil war here. The group was named after a socialist peasant leader Farabundo Marti (whose photo was spray painted on a wall right next to Romero) who was killed by the military in the thirties.
I am by no means an expert on the subject, but i know that the group was made up primarily of peasants fighting for rights and an end to violence and injustice against them, as well as some left wing intelectuals. Basically they were a conglomerate of different groups fighting for rights in different ways, some of which were violent.
It was after the peace accords in 1992 that the FMLN became a political party and they continue to attempt to win elections, although ARENA remains in power.

Different areas of the country hold different political affiliations and it is easily depicted by the massive spray painting all over...well....everything. I wasn´t able to get any photos but if you drive down the high way in a pro ARENA zone you will see red, white, and blue (no, it´s not after the american flag...or the french.) spray painted on almost every single post, and even random rocks sticking out of the side of a cliff. Anything big enough to hold these three colours is quickly tagged).

Above is a photo from Alegria of FMLN spray painted on the side of a building

This photo above is also from Alegria and is a spray paint impression of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was a martyr here in El Salvador during the Civil war. Romero was appointed as Archbishop of El Salvador in....1977 i believe.
Romero was chosen because the oligarchy, the right, and military (who were controlling the country) felt he was a ¨safe¨ choice (someone who would not vocally oppose them). In march of 1977, however, Romero's close friend Bishop Rutillio Grande was murdered and many believe this was the point/beginning of his "conversion".
After this point Romero began to speak out against the repressive acts the military was committing and to stand with the poor. Jon Sobrino (who you will hear more about later) says that from this point on Romero recognized that the God he believed in was a God that stood with the poor and the oppressed. He could no longer separate the poor from God.

While we've been here thomas has learned quite a lot about Romero from an interesting book he is reading. Here is some of the information he has uncovered:

Although originally not a supporter of the church entering into the political realm, because of his fear of the church partnering with the government rather than the people, after his conversion it became apparent to him that the church should be rejoicing at the fact that in making a stand with the poor and the oppressed it was being a testimony of the church incarnate in the problems of the people. He was learning that it is to the glory of God to stand with the persecuted.
He was also learning that those whom he had thought were living out their faith by not entering into the political realm, by not recognizing the persecution of campesinos, they were showing that they had greater connections to power, rather than the people.
"A church that suffers no persecution but enjoys the privileges and support of the powers of this world- that church has good reason to be afraid! But that church is not the true church of Jesus Christ" -Archbishop Romero.

Although opposition from the institution of the church was very disheartening, it gave Romero solace to know that radical following of the gospel has historically always been met with opposition and division.

More than just learning about this great God who stands with the poor, needy and oppressed, and is their liberator, their defender and their life stream, and is crucified for them, and stands with them in their pain, Romero was learning that "With (these) people, it is not difficult to be a good sheperd" - Romero

(much of this information is my/thomas, interpretations of the book by jon sobrino ¨witness to the kingdom¨)

There is SO much to say about this incredible man whose life was a gift to so many Salvadorans (and still is even today).

but now that we have gotten incredibly side tracked
let´s continue with the story....



After a breakfast of pupusas (nothing says El Salvador like pupusas) we started to climb up the volcano. The plan was to climb up to the lagoon (in the crater of the volcano!) and then camp there for the night.
I had previously asked David how long the hike was and he reassured me that it was only 45 minutes or so. I was glad to hear this because I was still getting over my sickness and was weak from so many days of nausea and everything that comes along with that

I´m sure you can guess what happened next...

After hiking for about half an hour we took a rest and i was feeling pretty tired.
It was then that our guide, Pedro, said to us ¨only three hours left¨.
sorry. what was that?
I laughed it off and told tom that pedro was making a joke about it being three hours

A little while later, as i became more and more unsure, I asked Pedro myself....
¨so really...how much longer until we get to the top? it´s not REALLY three hours right?¨
¨No ¨Pedro assured me...¨it´s three hours more¨

THREE HOURS

oh brother.

and here is where the REAL adventure begins (although the 13 of us in a pick up was a good beginning as well).


Here are David and Suzannah with two of the Youth (Danilo and Carlitos) with only 2 and a half hours left to go!! (or so we thought)

so on we hiked....and hiked....and hiked
because we didn´t know that the youth group had planned this hike for us none of the kids had come prepared- almost all were in jeans and a few were even in dress shoes (one girl didn´t even have socks!)

but on we hiked....and hiked....and hiked...

Finally we made it to the top!!
And when we got there, guess what....
It was so cloudy that the beautiful view we had spent hours climbing up to...was no where to be seen!
Apparently, Pedro told us, you can normally see the beautiful green volcanic lagoon.
but all we saw was grey clouds.

BUT
don´t despair!
as we rounded a corner, through the clouds we caught a glimpse of green water
all of a sudden the youth were no longer complaining
it didn't matter that we had been climbing for hours in jeans and dress shoes, or even that it was starting to rain on us.
All of a sudden this feat they had accomplished (climbing to the top of a volcano- which none had done before) overtook all of the complaining and tiredness.
it was so encouraging to see these young people excited about what they were able to accomplish together.


When we got to the top of the crater we found a military base hidden in the wilderness. The soldiers were nice and gave us water to drink.
Part of me wondered what exactly they were doing high above this lagoon...

tom managed to snap a photo of them as we were leaving.

If we thought the way UP the volcano was tough, we didn't know what was coming!
On the other side of the military base we started down a single file path.
While on the way up the volcano we had been climbing up a road that was a good three people wide, all of a sudden we were enveloped by the volcanic jungle all around us.
Up ahead of the group one of the youth from Alegria led the way hacking down bushes and plants with a machete so we could wind our way around this incredibly steep ridge.
Pedro (who was walking at the back with us) told us that because of the altitude and the rainy season the foliage up here grows SO quickly. He said that within only FOUR DAYS this path would be completely covered up again!

As we walked down and up and around and down again along this very steep ridge (that at times was a little scary) the clouds began to dissapear and slowly the lagoon came into sight.
it was beautiful.






we came across a ton of beautiful plants, trees, and flowers including this bush below.
anyone know what it is?



if you guessed coffee than you are correct.
the seeds will turn red when they are ripe and then you harvest them, break them open and the white coffee bean is inside.



Here are tom and I with the lagoon in the background on our left.

Allow me to get back to the title of this post
As we were winding our way along the path i suddenly felt the most intense sting of fire on my leg
"OWWW!"
i yelled
as i pulled up by pant leg to try and figure out where this fire had come from I saw ants crawling all over my leg, all the way up to my knee
I had, unknowingly, been standing on an ant hill and they had climbed up my shoes and then UNDER my pants all the way up my legs.
The bites were awful
For the next few hours I continued to have various ants make their way up my pants and leave me with fire bites.

If i look at my legs, over a week and a half later, I can still see the red bumps from the dreaded "hormigitas".
Thomas also faced the wrath of these guys, although luckily his bites faded away quite quickly.

As we continued to walk the rain came. and came. and came.
sometimes in light spurts, and other times harder
by the time we were done our hike of OVER FIVE HOURS many of us were soaked.
As we walked tom passed the time by picking all the stunning flowers around us (although one was called "the flower of the dead"....so we weren't too sure about that one!) and beautifully adorned my hair with them.
By the end of the hike my head was a walking garden!










While hiking along I also asked Pedro a bit more about the paths
I was curious to know how old they were, if they were used by soldiers in the war, etc.
Pedro told me that, sure enough, this was the only path that had been used for...well....ever.
He also said that these same paths were used by both military and guerillas during the war.
It was powerful to think that we were treading upon such historic ground.




Unfortunately after our hike the batteries in our camera died so we couldn't capture on film much more of the adventure.

as if the 5 hours of hiking (in the rain...with the ants) wasn't enough, when we got back to the base camp tired and wet and hungry
it REALLY started to rain.
and it rained and rained and didn't stop
we saw two tents set up at the camp, and after a few minutes realized that one of the tents didn't have a bottom.
oh brother.
the lucky people sleeping in that tent would be soaked from the ground AND eaten alive by ants.
The other question in our mind was "how are we supposed to fit 13 people AND our luggage into ONE tent??"
as the rainy and windy afternoon continued we began to re-think this whole camping thing
Looking around we realized that NONE of the youth had rain coats. most were freezing cold and even one had chattering teeth (because he had no sweater! david lent him one though).
Eventually, after being freezing cold, soaked, and standing in the pouring rain playing camp games we convinced the youth from alegria that we should stay back in the town in a large hall.
The youth came around to the idea, but as one of the leaders was saying "maybe we should stay a bit longer" the huge tent (with no bottom) flew over from the rain.
it didn't take much longer to convince him we should leave right away!

we all managed to pile into the truck (this time over 15 of us) and got back to alegria where we ate dinner drenched and cold.

we were SO happy to be sleeping out of the rain though,and some nuns from a nearby church lent us mattresses to sleep on!
During the night the rain was INSANE.
under a tin roof it sounded even louder.
some people found themselves under big leaks and woke up with huge wet spots on their blankets.

In the middle of the night i woke up afraid
I was scared that there was so much rain that there would be a mudslide or that we wouldn't be able to get down the mountain the next morning.

As i sat there in the dark scared I thought to myself "I wonder if this is what refugees in camps feel like"
all of these people crammed together on thin mattresses, wet, tired, itchy from bites...I imagined what it would be like to be in a place like this AND be fearful for your life
I don't know what I would have done if men with guns had burst through the door at that moment.
The fear I felt and the pain i felt for people who are in this situation now or have been in the past was immense.
I'm sure it was only a fraction of what their real pain was like
but it all felt very very real.


The next morning we awoke to, you guessed it, more rain.
it was incredible
it just didn't stop!

The youth from alegria came and met us and we found out they had spent the night at the lagoon! All of them in one tent that leaked horribly. By the morning there was a little pool in the middle of the tent and only 2 of them had actually slept. (and one of them who got SOME sleep actually slept in a truck!)
we were very glad we had not stayed there. i just don't know what we would have done!

after breakfast and some games we were faced with the dilemma of the rain
there was 13 of us to get back to San Salvador (along with all our stuff) and it was raining outside.
In the end all of the kids managed to cram into the cab of the truck while tom, suzannah, and I sat in the back with our rain coats on and hiding under a big black tarp with the luggage
it was a very long 2 hours being cramped back there.

During this time I got to thinking again
Now I was thinking about what it would be like for someone to have to flee from their home under cover
Imagine being, for example, a slave trying to escape their master by hiding in a crate, or under the tarp of a truck
it must have been horrific!
cramped, dark, damp, scary.
Again my heart felt a little of the pain that so many people have had to face.

And just as i had imagined, there were quite a few mudslides that blocked peices of the road....unfortunately we didn't have a chance to take any photos, because our batteries were dead.

The whole ride wasn't a disaster though
Suzannah and I decided to sing as many christmas songs as we could remember
so as we sped along the high way streams of "O holy night" "jingle bells" and "what child is this" floated through the air.
once we had exhausted the christmas theme we moved onto musicals....annie, the sound of music, grease....
and eventually onto worship songs.

finally we made it to the church (after a few downpours and with very achy bums and backs)

after dropping off the kids at their houses we came home and rejoiced in the comforts of a roof over our heads and a warm shower to wash away all the dirt and grime from our trip.


there you have it
camping
El Salvador style.

1 comment:

Lisa said...

I'm not even sure what to say after a story like that...I guess...I'm glad you're both alive. Praise God!