EM Brigade

 Wow, the day finally arrived and everyone got to the airport early for our 8:30am flight.  Almost everyone. 

We made it through check in and the TSA-barely.  A mostly uneventful flight to Houston.  It was nice to see the 4M team in their monogrammed blue shirts.  We had a little bit of a break in Houston – everyone went for lunch getting either pizza, Chinese food, or a burrito.  We all drank the water from the tap for the last time.

There was a mostly empty flight from Houston to El Salvador.  I asked the stewardess, and she said it was usually mission trips only that went to El Salvador from the States.  They announced overhead that it was Erin’s birthday – she said it was her 27^th.  Happy Birthday Erin. 

The El Salvador airport was anything but efficient.  We waiting in a slow moving line so we could each pay $10 US to get into the country.  A few small blips with the immigration folks but we all made it in.  Then we waited for the Med Wish bags to be OK’ed.  I got to sign for them all.  That just meant I had to fill out the customs form again and wait while they took my passport. 


We got into two medium sized buses and a pick up truck.  Driving through the countryside on a one hour trip we saw a horse standing in the back of a pickup truck.  We saw large cattle with horns walking next to the road (alone) and lots of people selling coconuts, watermelon like foods, and other fruits.  

We were all lead to believe that we would have very basic accommodations with the Nuns.  I was thinking dirt floor, curtains only – no door but we were all wrong.  I was happily surprised to find a rather modern large group of buildings with outdoor corridors.  Very nice rooms, kind of like a three star hotel without the pool, which is run by Father Adonai.  Since it is a convent, one of the doctors was asked to say grace before the meal.  They picked the wrong guy!  Dr. Tucker said the Hamotzi in Hebrew.

We had a great dinner of chicken, pasta, broccoli and carrots, salad, bread rolls (hot dogs buns actually) beer, wine, and water.  I had the best beer that I have had in a long time.  It was so hot, and I was so thirsty.  It was like one of those commercials when the guy on the desert island gets a cold beer.  The wine wasn’t bad either.  

After indulging ourselves (stuffing ourselves would be a good description too,) we got together in a big circle of chairs.  Everyone went around an introduced themselves – said what they do and why they are here.  Most of us said that Erin made us come.  It was fun and we started to get to know one another. 

We then unpacked all of the bags and partitioned and sorted them for our first day.  We reviewed our plans for tomorrow and everyone got their job description – or at least their job title. 

Can’t wait for tomorrow – it should be fun.