Margaret Jane Kling, csjp — El Salvador Visit - PeaceHealth Medical Brigade
What touched me most as I returned to El Salvador? Just being there brings back feelings almost too deep for words. In the 80’s I was privileged to live among displaced Salvadorans for five years of their long civil war, as a volunteer with Jesuit Refugee Service. This time I served with the PeaceHealth volunteers as a medical translator - - a “famous first” for me. But as always, it is the people that recapture my heart: the faces of the children, the old, the weary, the poor. 


PeaceHealth medical brigade volunteers.


Sr. Margaret Jane with one of the people that recaptured her heart.


Did I experience new life on this trip? To be truthful, the country has not changed all that much. But while traveling with 27 PeaceHealth volunteers as part of a medical brigade, signs of new life abounded, as I witnessed their reaction to the reality that is El Salvador. For most, it was all-new, and the environment brought many challenges. 

But when faced with the seemingly endless lines of men, women and children who came to us, searching for health care, for medicine, for pain relief, for understanding, every single member of the brigade was touched, and changed in some way by this profound experience. Often, tears flowed, emotions surfaced, life was seen in a different light, and among the volunteers themselves, community formed. 
Seemingly endless lines of patients waiting to be seen by the PazSalud volunteers.

In the words of Ruben Nelson, “I know of no other activity which is as revolutionary or as healing as the creation of friendships within which we talk with each other about what really matters to us.” This, I believe, is what we experienced during our ten days together. It was new, and it was life-giving.



Sr. Margaret Jane translating during the weeklong medical brigade.


Did I make any connections with our CSJP vision? In this tiny, overcrowded, impoverished country, why was I surprised that at Sunday morning Mass at the Cathedral of San Salvador the theme for the day was ecology? That the homilist was the leader of an ecological group dedicated to reforestation? That the slogan “Planting a tree we are sowing life, as did Archbishop Romero” adorned tee shirts ($4.00 each) and banners around the altar?


And only a day later, headlines of the local papers screamed “National Emergency Declared because of Diarrhea”. The articles describing the drastic increase in new cases reported,
and deaths registered (15 and rising) were accompanied by other articles relating to the grave water problems of El Salvador, including unsafe drinking water and industrial contamination of ground water.

For us, sometimes decisions about water and ecology may seem like options; we can take it or leave it. For the Salvadoran people these are matters of life and death. How can we 
fail to do our part? How can we fail the poor?

Margaret Jane Kling, csjp 2/13/05



Dr. Barry Jarvis and Sr. Margaret Jane.

 

 

© El Salvador Health Mission