Reunion

Yesterday we took a day off from school so that we could be present at the bi-monthly meeting of representatives of all the caserios around Berlin with the Casa Pastoral.  They started arriving about 8:00 and were served coffee and pan dulces.  Around 9:00 they all gathered in the chapel and the singing began, followed by a worship service. 

Following worship, the new Mission co-worker, Katherine, was introduced and got a round of applause after she spoke.  Her spanish is so good that I'm sure they understood every word.

They also introduced us and Warren spoke for himself in Spanish but I chickened out and had Katherine translate for me.  We brought greetings from all the friends of the Pastoral team in Iowa and were warmly welcomed.  The missionary in El Salvador from the Joining Hands mission of the national Presbyterian Church had also come to the meeting and spoke in her fluent Spanish.  She had brought along a woman...a Presbyterian from Chicago who is teaching English for 3 months at CIS in San Salvador...and a man who spoke for about an hour about the use and development of natural fertilizers and insecticides, as well as about using native seeds.  The representatives of the caserios seemed very interested in the possibilities and he answered many questions. 

Unfortunately, we learned that during the 2 or 3 years that it takes to enrich the land with natural fertilizers nothing can be grown in that land.  The farmers in Munoces do not have enough land to let a portion of it lay unproductive for 2 or 3 years....and often they don't own but rent the land they farm so there is no reason to work at enriching the soil.  They don't have the luxury of trying the natural fertilizers because they would starve without planting all the land they have use of.  At least, we think they may use native seeds which can be replanted each year rather than buying seeds each year.    After a break for cake and fruit juice, we sang more and then exchanged "secret Valentine" gifts with each other. 

(The man in blue at the center of this photo is our friend, Roberto, from Munoces.) 









We had been warned to bring a gift and, sure enough, we had a secret Valentine, too!  Our gift was two of Jane Repp's hats so we have a Valentine gift to bring back for Jane from our new friend in Santa Cruz.

The meeting ended with lunch for all.  The ladies of the team had completed a huge day of work but still had dishes and clean-up to do....and we still had our afternoon class to teach.