Donde esta Don Bosco? Aqui, Aqui, Oompa!

Oh dear friends,
What a week it has been! Leading up to last weekend I started to feel a bit under the weather again, and ended up in bed for most of Sunday. Saturday we took the girls to Don Bosco the Musical in Santa Anna which was quite the experience. Probably the hottest night of my life. In the sense that the theater was from the late 1800's (guessing) and had no air conditioning. And was packed. And we were on the top floor. And there was acrobatic dancing every 5-8 minutes. The storyline was basically the ministry of Saint Don Bosco (in case you haven't picked up on it yet, he is the founder of the Salesian order and therefore our patron). His work began in Turin, Italy with street youth who were getting into all sorts of mischief as they left their rural families in search of work in the industrializing city. Like many places during the industrial revolution, the working conditions were quite bad, exploitation was high, and crime quickly became a fashionable way to get food and pass the time. The kids caught in that life, separated from the structure and love of their families, easily became entangled in nefarious activities. Don Bosco, a young priest, wanted to keep them out of trouble by occupying their time with games, proper work and prayer, and started an oratory (home/place of gathering for boys) to that effect. His method was reason, religion and loving kindness, and his motto was "Take away everything else, but give me souls." The musical covered his struggles to reach the youth, difficulties getting the oratory recognized/legitimized and his missionary work in, you guessed it, Central America. The costumes included clowns with large smiles stretching across their torsos, scarf-acrobats, demons and people dressed as roses dancing around Mary (among many other things). It was on the whole a really cool play, even though we lost power for about 10 minutes in the middle of it (which oddly elicited more applause than any of the dance numbers)...and they had fireworks shoot off the stage at the end (!). We belted out Don Bosco songs all the way home in the bus ;)

Sunday was the feast of Saint James, one of the patrons of Chalchuapa, so they had fireworks going off as early as 5:20 in the morning...and the celebrations continued. Around 5 o'clock (pm) I got out of bed and Sydney and I went out with the few girls who wanted to brave the sudden rainstorm to see the procession of Santiago. We brought 2 umbrellas for 6 people. It was not enough. We all got completely drenched, but it was so fun! There were about 20 men carrying a large platform with 2 statues of Saint James, one being the "apostle" style and the other seated on a horse in a white suit, Saint James the "Moor-killer" apparently (oh dear). There was a little kid standing on the float holding an umbrella over one of the statues: it was very cute. I decided I completely love processions; what a beautiful way to witness the faith in public! It looked so difficult to carry that heavy platform (you should have seen them try to turn!) but they carried it all over town, and there were about thirty other men ready to take their place when they got tired. The priest and altar boys led the procession with the crucifix in front and the townspeople followed. How beautiful to express our devotion to God by traipsing about in public in the pouring rain celebrating the people who made our faith possible by their evangelization (stories of  Moor-killing aside) and holy lives!

A few days later Sydney had to return to San Salvador but the girls put on a "good-bye" dance for her that turned into three or four dances (they really like to dance here, I think they actually won a couple of competitions...). It was very sweet.

The next day was the day of Don Bosco!!! We dressed up in our fancy El Salvador/Don Bosco/Nos Visita t-shirts and headed out in a microbus for Santa Anna. I got smart this time and packed my own toilet paper and soap in my bag and of course ended up not needing them. We lined up on the side of the highway with other Salesian school groups and hundreds of youth in (adorable) uniforms, all waving flags for Don Bosco! They didn't actually close the highway mind you until much later.  We watched the truck with his remains drive by and they unloaded it right in front of us. Parts of Don Bosco's body are incorruptible, which means they have not decomposed in the hundred+ years since his death.  These parts are contained in a box inside the statue of his body that is conveyed in the glass case. You can watch a youtube video of them taking out his heart on another occasion here.

One of the local VIDES volunteers was driving the music van and held the mic out the window for our girls to sing the official El Salvador Don Bosco visit 2010 song which you can watch a music video of here. After the remains of Don Bosco were unloaded from the truck, everybody crowded around to process through the city to a Salesian school where we would have mass. We quickly slipped past the Don Bosco and (as far as I know, unintentionally) became part of the parade. The girls waved their flags and alternated the Don Bosco song with Don Bosco cheers all the way to the school. The energy level was so high, there were so many people!  Why don't we do this kind of stuff in the states? Mass was a bit warm but it was awesome to see so many people, just in one part of this little country, whose lives had been changed by Don Bosco. I thought of all the struggles he faced with each child, trying to help them make the right decisions for themselves with little character foundation to build on, and how it must have been so hard every night to know that not all of them could be reached. Some would choose violence, desperation and damage to their souls over the love and trust in God that he tried to show them. And I thought of our girls here, and every teenager I have ever worked with, and how very hard it is! They experience so much pain in their hearts and they don't understand why or have hope that it will end just by their getting older.  Seeing so many people, and so many youth together to celebrate his life was so moving, God did give him souls after all. Many, many souls.

There are really too many pictures to post so I am going to start a facebook album, but here's a parting shot of Don Bosco's statue for you:

Aside from all that, I am doing quite well here. I love the girls, though they are challenging at times, and I never know what's going to happen next since the sisters don't tell me anything until right before it happens, but it feels right. I know this is where God wants me to be now. So here I am.