In one of Marcus Borg’s recent books, he writes about “thin places,” places where the spirit is visible, palpable—“a means whereby the sacred becomes present to us.” To me, El Salvador is a thin place.
In January, I returned from my third PeaceHealth medical brigade to El Salvador. Each of my trips there has revealed something new.
I first visited the region in 1978, when I spent a year in Guatemala, with the goal of working on environmental problems in the area. This was a period of conflict in Central America, where the tremendous inequalities between rich and poor erupted into civil war in Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. The experience in Guatemala changed my goals and priorities. It led me to choose medicine as a career, and to work periodically in Mexico and Central America over the subsequent years.
In 2001, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and PeaceHealth established a medical mission in El Salvador. I participated in the first PHMG medical brigade, and was able to take my children with me. For me, the trip brought together in one place different components of my life—my past experience in Central America, my roles as mother and physician, my interest in environmental issues. The disturbing memories and images of the civil wars in Central America settled as I worked in clinic with families who had lived through the war in El Salvador and had moved on with their lives. The experience helped me move forward in my mind and heart as
well.