Saints and Martyrs

The street I live on, while technically (to the Post Office) 4th Avenue South, is also Avenida Padre Rafael Palacios. Rafael Palacios was the priest in Suchitoto when he was assassinated in 1979; his body is buried in the Sanctuary of Santa Lucia. This mural remembers Palacios and Romero. The worn lettering underneath the mural translates, more or less: "They wanted to kill you, but you are more present in the people than before."

On the way to the mill

These two women, on the way to the mill with their corn to grind, kindly let me take their photo this morning. I met them on the way back as I walked home, now ready to make the day's tortillas. May they walk with me on prayer as I continue my retreat today!

Lemonade

Thunder in the night.
The lemon tree rains lemons.
I drink lemonade.

A moment from this morning's walk

I'm walking toward the church, in the distant background. A typical Suchitoto street.

On retreat

This 4th of July, Independence Day, I begin a week of retreat at home. I'm taking the computer and other electronic toys to the Centro Arte para la Paz, unplugging the TV, and settling in for a time of quiet and contemplation. I'm planning on practicing my dependence on God and my interdependence with all creation. I hope to witness creation in the patio, like this glorious butterfly who landed on our ficus one morning after a heavy rain, and stayed there a long time to dry out and get photographed. I hope to witness the presence of the Holy Spirit.

If I blog this week, it will probably be with photographs as a witness of the holiness of creation. I will be mindful of you, my friends, my family, my CSJP community in the prayers of this week. ¡Que Dios nos bendiga con paz y justicia! May God bless us with peace and justice.

Goooooooooooooooool!

A couple of days ago La Prensa Grafica noted that very possibly there could be four South American teams in the World Cup Semifinals (we're talking about futbol, aka soccer): Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay all made it into the quarterfinals, and it seemed like a dazzling prospect.

Alas, no. Argentina and Brazil, heavy favorites here, lost - Argentina in an astonishing 0 - 4 loss to Germany. Paraguay played well against Spain, but also lost. Only Uruguay - who barely won in overtime in an astonishing game with Ghana - will uphold the honor of Latin America in the next round.

Maybe it's because of this, or maybe it's in spite of this, but the hopeful futbol players of my neighborhood are out in force tonight, kicking the ball up and down the street, shouting "Goooooooooooooooooooool" from time to time with great fervor. And when it comes to registering a goal, the Latino announcers would clearly be first in line for a World Cup. I imagine them spending months doing deep breathing exercises to prepare for the glorious moment when they can draw that "Gooooooooooooooooool" out for moment upon moment upon moment.

Water filter does its job

In early May, we brought a Sawyer Water Filter to the San Juan Opico village of Los Granadillas, where it's been well used. The woman who has housed the filter reports that when she backwashed it to clean it, a lot of mud came out of the filter, and everyone said: we used to drink that! Worse than the mud, of course, were the invisible creatures, bacteria, amoeba, parasites, that are also being filtered out.

This week we got the results of a microbial analysis of the water, comparing the filtered water to the tap water residents used to drink. It was just what we hoped to see: the tap water had 110 coliform bacteria per 100 mililiters, the filter had none. And the community is enjoying their clean water, finding the system easy to use.

We've now ordered another 30 filters, and are going to be fund-raising to purchase more for Salvador communities - be forewarned!