A week away

I spent last week in El Salvador visiting friends. It was my first time back in two years and it was a great experience. What really surprised me was how some young people I know grew in two years. I’ve known both of these 19 year olds for many years – one is my godson. When I last saw them they were adolescents. Now, having grown more than 6 inches in two years and having matured, they’re young men!

The situation in El Salvador is difficult, though not as bad as here in Honduras. But one friend in Suchitoto talked about how the price increases can affect people. A person who lives in Suchitoto and works in a factory near San Salvador may make about $5.75 a day – yes, a day. But when you subtract the cost of transportation and meals, that person really makes less than $1.00 a day! How can one live on that?

How can they survive? One friend suggested that survival is related to what families receive from family members in the US. Without that, El Salvador would be a real basket case. But that is not really a solution. Another friend told me of the situation of a small town she works with. In the last few months ten persons have returned from the US, not because they were deported, but because they hadn’t found work for six months.

Meanwhile in Honduras, there have been strikes and demonstrations in protest of the increase in prices of basic food stuffs. There have also been a fair number of protests, some organized by the church, against the increasing violence.

Last week prisoners were transferred from a jail in San Pedro Sula to one in Tegucigalpa, the capital. When they arrived 18 were killed, most gang members! This is not the first and some people are concerned that there is not enough being done to insure the safety of prisoners. But the overcrowding is phenomenal. An article in today’s paper says that the local jail was built fro about 50 male prisoners – but there are 533 men and 14 women there now. However, it appears that the local prison is more secure than some others. I’ll see when I go this afternoon with Sor Inez to help with the literacy project there.

Also, there are several lawyers – public prosecutors – on a hunger strike because of their concerns about corruption in the attorney general’s office and the supreme court.

One of the beauties of Honduras is the Celaque National Forest, on the slopes of Celaque, the highest mountain in Honduras and the source of about eleven rivers. There has been a forest fire there for the last week that has destroyed many acres of forest and it is still raging.

So much pain and suffering - but, as Padre Fausto said in his homily Sunday, for Christians the final word is LIFE.