| January 30, 2005 |  |
Taking a break during set up, which is organized chaos. Bins are being sorted before they are relieved of their valuable cargo starting tomorrow. The hacienda seems to be set up well for the clinics, with a distinct location for each specialty. We have electricity, and pre-set areas for lines, marked with different colored string tied to bamboo poles. The hacienda is on the main road, about a 30-minute drive from Suchitoto, 10 minutes from El Paisnal; from the road we have a view of a large volcano.
Laine Herron helps unpack in pharmacy
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Pharmacy is my home base, I’m tucked in the corner of a small room, thankful for the electricity and the chance to record my thoughts and download my photos. Outside of my ‘office,’ vitamins, cold meds and antibiotics are being sorted with great efficiency. Eye care is rapidly setting up their machinery. Gynecology already has two private examination rooms fully stocked. But there’s also the occasional seat-of-the-pants moment (where do we put the baby scale? How do you create a changing room on a porch? Mucho sign language takes place between the gringos and the Salvadorans). |
| What does everyone expect will happen tomorrow when the clinic officially opens? Dan in gynecology is concerned about what to do with the pap smears; will he have someone here to take them? In pediatrics, Lesley thinks tomorrow will be ‘a miraculous day,’ and her able assistant, Maia (age 9, turning 10 on Feb. 8) is ready to do her part, weighing babies and distributing toys donated by Sacred Heart and the PeaceHealth System Office Center for Mission. |
| Eye care is anxious to start distributing the 5,000 pairs of eyeglasses collected and donated by the Lions Club, and they’ve got close to 300 pairs of sunglasses ready to go too. They expect to see a number of glaucoma patients, as well as diabetes related problems. Along with the usual lettered eye chart, there’s also an illustrated eye chart (with figurines of ducks and birthday cakes) for those patients who are illiterate. In General Medicine, Barry expects to be seeing cases of diarrhea, headaches, and some respiratory problems, although both Barry and Rod agree that El Salvador doesn’t seem to be much of a smoking culture (except for the occasional cigar). |  Patty Hamel and Barbara Bigelow learn all about eyeglasses from Cheryl Moller (in blue) |
 The view from La Posada |
Kathy and Jonathan are keeping everything organized. I’m trying to capture everything
while staying out of everyone’s way.
The day began early with breakfast at La Posada, our first chance to see it in the daylight. A lovely place, so nice that Kathy was almost embarrassed. We walked into Suchitoto for mass. The church was completely full. Mass was surprisingly informal; folks walked in and walked out continuously. After mass a few of us walked around town, meeting a friendly older couple that Patty and Diane had met earlier; they seemed to enjoy the interaction as much as we did. |
Orientation followed. Dr. Gloria and health promoter Carmencita, guided us through the process that it took to get us here; how the areas were selected and notified to make sure that those in need were treated as well as assuring that no district was favored or ignored. After the war ended, Carmencita and Dr. Gloria have been promoting the idea that health care should be about more than just medicine, it is also about basic human needs and a decent standard of living. They are passionate and committed, and the admiration from brigade members is obvious.
Then Carmencita told us her story:
“During the war I was a proud guerilla. Now I am a proud civil servant, still fighting
for the people. My family now is my six surviving children and me. Everyone else in my
family was killed in the civil war; my husband, my parents, his parents, all murdered in
the 1980’s. I had to make a decision to either be murdered myself or take up arms and
fight for the people. I fought from the beginning of the war until the end. For each of
our comrades that fell, it was one more reason to continue the fight.
We were fighting for justice. We were fighting for food for our children, and health care for our children. The war is over but you can still see the issues we were fighting for all around us. Now we depend on international solidarity to help us continue the struggle, to get our story to the outside world. We are still afraid to organize, still afraid to protest. With that solidarity, our fear diminishes.”
Tales of war were followed by an inspired idea to help create peace. Sister Pat and Sister Peggy have been in El Salvador for over 15 years. They lived through intensive fighting literally outside of their home in Suchitoto. Their affiliation with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace began in the refugee camps. In the camps they met Sister Margaret Jane and Sister Eleanor, and a friendship and solidarity was formed. Now Pat and Peggy have undertaken a project in the name of peace. The Sisters have leased a complex of buildings in Suchitoto owned but vacated by the Dominion sisters. In the walls of this complex, with its chapel, convent, classrooms and playfield, Pat and Peggy are hoping to create a combination school, museum, resource library and art center dedicated to peace education through the arts. The name of this project is The Art of Peace, The Alternative School of the Americas. Here’s how Peggy described it: “We’ve been protesting a long time, it’s time to build alternatives. We’ve been saying no to so many things, what do we say yes to? Response to conflict is so often silence and passivity or violence, we want to give people tools to confront it in another way.” This vision of peace would extend beyond the cobblestone streets of Suchitoto. They hope to use the convent rooms to house delegations from other nations, also dedicated to the teaching of peace. This dream is inspirational, the amount of work to be done is almost overwhelming; the buildings need major renovation, particularly the chapel, where half the roof lies in ruins on the chapel floor. But we were caught up in the enthusiasm and vision of Peggy and Pat, and if anyone can bring this dream to reality, it is these two determined Sisters.
| Our last stop of the day before dinner was to the memorial built on the site where
Father Rutilio Grande was assassinated. Father Grande was the parish priest in El
Paisnal, near our hacienda clinic, and his work on behalf of the poor lead to his murder. I think we all feel as if we lived a lot in this one day, which started with memories of war, then talk of peace, and ultimately was spent preparing to help others. What would the world be like if every day were spent as this one was? |
 Memorial to Father Grande |