Countdown to departure.

Ten days and counting until we leave for six weeks in El Salvador. It has been a long road to this point with proposals to committees in two countries, financial discussions in our household, medical consultations about a bum knee, and years of language study paving our path. But now our decision to go is made, the flights reserved, the money set aside and we are busily fulfilling the lists of what must be done before we leave. Bills must be paid, taxes prepared, lessons planned, medicine procured, gifts purchased, an appliance repaired, and the list goes on. At this point we plan to teach English in Munoces for three weeks while staying at the Pastoral House in Berlin. We will ride to and fro each day in the back of a pickup with teachers who work in the rural schools around Berlin. We don't know yet how many classes we will teach or the age level of the students so it is somewhat difficult to prepare. We hope to be able to work with adults as well as the students in the community. Early in March we will travel to the capitol city of San Salvador to serve as international election observers for the elections on March 11. We will be led in this endeavor by CIS, an NGO based in San Salvador. We have served as election observers for them before and know that the program will prepare us well for our duties on election day. We don't know yet where in El Salvador we will be observing the election. After election day we will meet four others from First Presbyterian Church in Newton, Iowa to return to Berlin and Munoces. First Presbyterian and Munoces are partnered through the Presbytery of Des Moines and the Pastoral Comuntaria de Berlin and we try to make sure a delegation visits the community once a year. We will return home with the delegation March 23. This is an overview of our adventure but I'm sure that the path will have more twists and turns as we progress. We plan to savor the joys and challenges as we go.