Henceforth I’ll be calling El Salvador as either “ES” or “The Dor.” El Salvador is just too long to be typing out. Its a funky name anyways. Imagine naming your country “The Savior.” Doesn’t make any sense.
“The Dor” should not be confused with “The Doors” which had some pretty good hits in the 60s. “The Dor” never had any good hits and was only known for having dusty album covers. I never could play any of their records. Way too scratchy.
So I’m slowing getting anxious about this trip. What if I get sick? Seriously sick. The thought of a third world hospital is slightly upsetting. I’d rather not think about that. I hate to think about those things, but somehow I consider the worst case scenerios.
While we are over there telling the El Salvadorians how to wash their hands and to keep clean, we ourselves must keep clean. There’s alot nasty stuff out there. And for some odd reason all the germs must be in The Dor. I’ve been warned countless number of times to always wash my hands…..only drink bottled water. The usual stuff you’re always told, but you always take for granted when you’re in a third world country.
On another note, I’ve broken out my Peter Gabriel “Us” CD. You know, the one with “Steam,” “Digging in the Dirt,” and “Kiss That Frog” on it. My new discovery of “Washing of the Water” prompted my new found interest. It’s a good CD. “Digging…” is one of the better songs. As I remember it, the Dirt video was pretty good. Peter driving around with his girlfriend in a Jeep…with camera angle shot from different perspectives. As a companion to the CD, I have the “Secret World Live” CD, which is sorta just a rehash of the Us CD with a little more hit songs like “Sledgehammer” and “Red Rain.” Am I getting through to you people? Does anybody remember Peter Gabriel? You know, the guy who did “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time” for MTV?

When CoC people decide to get together and have an argument, its not hard hitting stuff like whether or not Jesus came in the flesh or the church’s stance on abortion. Nope. We can all agree on that. Arguments happen over silly stuff like whether or not Adam had a bellybutton.
Yesterday a preacher friend told me a story (could have easily been an urban legend)….about a very conservative church summer camp. One where the girls had to wear dresses and everyone swam seperately fully clothed. We’re talking pants and all in the watering pool. Fully clothed boys swimming seperately from the girls and vice versa. Hearing how the girls swam in their dresses brings back those surreal views of victorian era swimwear.
I find myself worrying about why a bare calf leg is considered sinful in El Salvador yet not considered sinful here. Isn’t a sin a sin no matter where is happens at? Or is it just a matter of perverbial spiritual stumbling blocks scattered throughout the greater Latin American area? Have I been sinning this whole time anytime I mow the grass while my neighbors can see by bare calves from a distance? I realize that I know virtually nothing about El Salvadorian customs. It could be that El Salvadorians see bare calves as nudity in itself. Or it could be that we are just trying to present a positive impression to the people. Once a particular group of people get a bad rap for presenting themselves negatively, the whole town knows about it and the church is shunded by the town.
“No shorts” is an absolute. It doesn’t leave it up for any imagination. Can’t argue with that. There should be some kinda different word to describe shorts. Kinda like how there were 7 different Greek words for “Love.” Shorts is shorts. Nothing like “cargo pants” verses “daisy dukes” to describe those shorts.
No shorts is not completely unheardof. They don’t wear shorts on the stateside mission trips either, which I can totally understand. I guess I’m seeing paradoxical signs. “It’s hot in El Salvador.” However “You can’t wear shorts.” That’s a paradox within itself. But like I said before, mine is not to question the authorities. Maybe I just have questioned it by thinking out loud about this type of stuff.
So I wore some shorts last night. Maybe I’ll post some shots of it so that any El Salvadorian women out there can be titillated by my physique.
Meanwhile, you really should read about the Iraqi Hero to POW Jessica Lynch.

Buddy, our mission trip organizer, stopped by last night and gave my dad the scoop on El Salvador. My dad teaches a Bible class on Wednesday nights and was unable to attend the planning classes.
I’m feel a bit more overwhelmed by it. I guess it didn’t dawn on me that I’d have to supply some of my own food during the meals. I guess Vienna sausage is in order. That and Spam maybe. PB&J. Still trying to figure the logostics of transporting a loaf of bread to Latin America without getting it smashed.
Then again usually when it is so hot, I forget about eating anyways. I don’t get hungry when I am sweating. Thirsty, yes. Hunger, no.
I hope I am doing the right thing. I don’t want to get down there and be completely confused and lost. I hate not knowing what is going on. My whole year is planned out already. Not being able to predict what will happen once I get down there is killing me.
Still I don’t want this El Salvador trip to be an annual thing. I already do 2 camps a year and can’t afford another thing to take up vacation time. I feel as though I do camps better than what I could ever do mission trips. So I should do camps given the choice.
I’m supposed to be the photographer for the mission trip. I don’t think this is a difficult, nor necessary job that HAS to be done. I’m not even that good of a photographer. I hope I’ll do ok. Worst case scenerio is my film gets x-rayed at the airport and all my film is lost. Therefore I’m trying to keep some plastic bags around to keep that from happening.
I’m not a preacher. I’m not a song leader. I’m not even a very good Sunday school teacher. In any other situation I would never consider myself a missionary.

I got these throwaway shirts to wear when we’re in El Salvador. Basically they are misprinted or have some type of flaw on it which keeps them from selling them. After we wear them we give them to the natives for their own sparse collections. Basically I have two types. One is a boy band called “TRUEVibe.” I did some research on them. Found out they opened for Destiny’s Child and Aaron Carter. So in other words, I would never wear this shirt, if only in El Salvador. (Waiting for people to point and laugh). So the flaw might just be the boy band on it. Perhaps there was some big scandal with the boy band which makes it where you couldn’t even give these shirts away in America.
The other shirt is a high school graduation t-shirt with the class’ signatures on the back. I think its from Columbia Central High in Maury County. But I’ve yet to confirm it. No year on it. What’s the use of having no year? That must have been the misprint.
I’m glad we have these shirts. It was either this or having to go to Goodwill and buying a bunch of tshirts….which I won’t be doing.
Still, this isn’t a fashion trip. Scrubs and throwaway tshirts. That will pretty much be it.
We’ll be going to Usulutan, a relatively large city in El Salvador. I don’t have population figures for it, but I’ve been able to find it in alot of El Salvadorian maps.
Things to bring (apart from the usual camping gear):

• Scrubs…thin clothing which should be thin enough to provide with some breathing room during the hot days.
• Air matress. No beds to sleep on. I’ll need that or a cot. Plus we are supposed to “borrow” pillows and blanket from the plane ride down. Supposedly they are going to throw them away after we use them, so we are just making the best use from them.
• Plastic bags to keep each day’s clothing in – Helps keep clothing seperated. And dust free!

Things not to bring:

• Shorts…if only to sleep in. For some odd reason we are supposed to wear pants during our stay there. Mine is not to question the governing authorities there. However I kinda wish the same restrictions were placed on shorts being worn to our home worship services.
• Chocolate – it will melt in the heat. Being without chocolate and pizza for 8 days might be a turning point. Perhaps some chocolate gram crackers are in order.
• Camouflage We don’t want this to look like a military operation.
• Large amounts of money, valuables, jewelry. These people are very poor and some would be likely to steal from you.
• Bad attitudes I keep telling myself to leave any bad attitudes at home. Sometimes you just need to grin a bear it. Things don’t work the same way in El Salvador as it does here. “Tomorrow” might mean 6 months from now.

It seems like this preparation time has come very quickly. Seems like it was just recently that I was just thinking about going. We’ll see how it goes….

I hope I’m not getting in over my head with this El Salvador mission trip thing. I certainly don’t want to be compelled to do this year after year (it gets pretty expensive) and I just don’t have that much vacation time. I know its pretty fickle to be talking about vacation time when people are starving over there.
Anyways I’m sorta wondering what is my role in all of this. I mean I can sorta see why you would need skilled workers like dentists and doctors. However the rest of us…the former Nortel data analyst….the college student….the Walgreens worker….are we really needed? I mean supposedly there’s a translator within arms reach of all of us. Are all of these extra hands needed or are we just getting in the way? Seems like we could streamline the trip by putting translators around doing stuff.
I know I’m just speaking off the top of my head. Having never been to Central America I am totally ignorant of what goes on there. Maybe the crowds are so overwhelming that they actually need 30 of us and 10 translators or however many there are…. I don’t know. I just hope I don’t get glassy eyed and feel compelled to go back year after year. I already do 2 church camps every summer. And I don’t want another thing on my list to do.
I probably need to put together a list of things I need to get/do before the trip. Maybe I’ll post it here for archive purposes…. I already know that I need an air matress. Maybe a visit to Goodwill is in order. They say don’t take anything you’d feel bad loosing. And you end up giving away clothes to the natives since they have nothing. Kevin Bass wants me to take a Creative Graphics hat for the locals. Advertising his business even in El Salvador.
And I was able to raise all of the money required for this trip.