An insight from El Salvador - Terry

This post was scheduled by me prior to my trip as I will have no internet access during this week (how will I survive?) As the leader of this year's trip, I have been immersed in information about our village, Agros, and El Salvador. On my first trip to the village, I noticed the quality of the houses. There is another Agros village nearby and that village has houses that were built by Habitat for Humanity. I wondered why our village hadn't gotten new houses and was hopeful that they would someday have that opportunity. Recently I heard that our village leaders chose to build their houses themselves out of bamboo and adobe for the following reasons:

1. Payback on Habitat homes begins immediately and they wanted to pay off their land first.
2. Wooden houses are hotter than mud and bamboo.
3. Wooden houses don't stop bullets. In an adobe house, the bullets gets lodged in the walls.

This is a huge lesson regarding our inability to totally comprehend what is needed and helpful when we come in as outsiders for a short "mission" trip. We who have never had to worry about war within our own boundaries have no idea what that would be like. I am humbled by my own naivity and open to learning more.