Backpacks! « El Salvador STINT

After we got back from Costa Rica, Layo (the director of Campus Crusade in ES) told us about an opportunity to pass out school supplies to kids in rural villages. Campus Crusade has a poverty ministry called GAIN that connects believers in the college and professional ministries with opportunities to serve the poor. As our ministry grows, our team is so excited to take students out with us to serve the community. It’s part of the vision of our ministry: that the transformed lives of students would lead them to serve others and change their country. Also, we were pretty sure that this trip would involve playing with cute children, and that was enough to sell at least half the team.

Remote villages, it turns out, are kind of hard to get to. I was surprised that we were only visiting three schools, when we had several hundred backpacks to pass out. It all made sense once we started driving. Our fifteen passenger manual van just barely made it up towering mountains, through narrow roads littered with rocks, and around hairpin blind turns bordered by cliffs. At one point, half of us had to get out and pack into the other vehicles so that the van could make it up a hill. At another point, Jeff had to walk ahead of the van down a road and coach Brandon over sudden two foot drop offs in the pavement.

At each school we watched the kids line up, shyly watching us with curiosity. The Salvadorians who were with us performed skits and gave instructions. The backpacks we passed out each contained a school supply pack, and a note from the family who provided the backpack. I peeked at some of the notes and photos that families from the US had sent off to these kids in El Salvador. The notes were so kind, and it was a little sad to know they would almost certainly never be read. They were all in English. Still, I felt to lucky to watch these kids proudly try on their new backpacks.

At the final school, I somehow ended up in front of a classroom of fourth graders entirely alone. I had wandered into the room, and the teacher immediately handed over her class. “Uhhh…um…buenas días!” I stumbled. “¡Buenas días!” they replied brightly and obediently. I looked to the teacher standing off at the side of the room and she only nodded for me to continue. I asked what they were studying. Math. I asked what their favorite subjects were. I asked their favorite colors. I asked if anyone had family in the United States. That one got me a bit of mileage from one talkative boy with an uncle who lives in a state he couldn’t remember. The teacher eventually came to my rescue, explaining to the class that I didn’t know very much Spanish, just like they didn’t know very much English. I know a bit more when I’m not put in front of twenty 8-year-olds with no idea what I’m supposed to be saying, but I gratefully conceded the point and took the opportunity to wander about the classroom talking with students one-on-one.

The whole day made me excited for the point in our ministry when we can bring students into this kind of service. We’re not there quite yet, but it’s a least exciting to see a clear path to another part of our vision in the work that we’re doing on campus.

Also, Salvadorian kids are darn cute.