El Sal Day Numero Uno

      At 2:45 this morning, all 35 of us met in the abbey and loaded up the bus to head to MCI airport. Most of us were operating on an hour or less of sleep. One bus ride, two planes, and a van trip later, (during the majority of which I was making up for lost sleep) we arrived at the Santa Ana office for Unbound in El Salvador. We spent our afternoon basking in the 80 degree weather, enjoying the gorgeous tropical scenery and mountainous landscape, and playing on the center's playground which featured recycled tires made into swings. We met Yassenia, Henry, Jorge, and Mama who work full time at the center here. Additionally, two dogs named Tacho and Oso run wild around the Center's enclosure and are always looking to lick faces and get head pats.
     Dinner was some chicken, soup, and salad made by Mama and her kitchen help. I sat with Jorge at dinner and he gave some background to Anna Mol, Megan, Meredith, and me. Unbound is an international group that matches up sponsors with under-priveleged children and families. The organization was founded by Roberto Hentzen, a native of Kansas, and is headquartered in Kansas City. Jorge serves as a translator for the organization, enabling sponsors and children to keep in touch and understand the letters they receive from one another. The organization goes through over 100,000 letters a year.
    After dinner, Henry gathered our group and gave us some ground rules and info about the country and people. Tomorrow is the day of the El Salvador presidential election. For this reason we are planning on staying and working at the center tomorrow rather than going out into the communities, because Americans moving into a poor community to do work on election day runs the risk of being perceived as a political move. It is against the law in El Salvador to buy alcohol in a store on the day before, day of, and the day following a presidential election. Fortunately, our hosts purchased some beers ahead of time and made them available to us.
    Henry told us about the poverty of the people in the communities we will be visiting. 75% of the families consist of single mothers and children. If a woman can get a job in a textile factory, she will earn $200 a month for working 6 days a week. High taxes (including a 13% sales tax on all goods), rent for a home (about $50 a month), bus fare to get to work ($12 a month), and lunch money ($35 a month) cuts off about half of this. Most of the people do not pay for running water, and end up purchasing water in barrels from trucks. This ends up costing about $30 a month.
     We are all eager to get to work tomorrow morning after Mass and breakfast. We're excited to see what God has in store, and how we will learn from and contribute to these people on this adventure here in Tropical Paradise. But now, I need to get some sleep. Good night!

- Peter Harrison