We crawled out of bed at 3:30 AM for Della and I to take Jaci and Fred to San
Salvador for their departure to Guatemala. We managed to find the hotel the buses
were leaving from without any trouble and learned a new way through San
Salvador. We said our good byes and left at 6:45. On our way to the mall we
discovered a new Walmart location. I now know of 3 Walmarts in San
Salvador. We had planned to go to
Walmart so we decided to check this one out. The parking was bad but we got the
odds and ins we needed. Then we went to the mall to eat breakfast at Taco Bell.
After breakfast we came home and rested. During the afternoon I finished
Psalms, read half of Proverbs, started on the lesson and Spanish homework for
Monday, and caught up the budget. Hector called and told me that Jose, the
gentleman that we took to the hospital 4 days ago, had passed away at 2:30 this
afternoon. At 9:00 PM Clifton and I followed Hector down the mountain to
Carlos’ house to catch the end of the funeral. There were around 80 people
there. Jose was really cool and I wish I had known when we were out together, that
this was his last few days on this earth. I didn’t complain about helping but I
was frustrated, as usual, about the language barrier and the confusion that it
causes. Jose is now the second person that we have seen alive that has passed
while we were here. We got home from the funeral at 11:00 and went to bed.
Clifton
Last Monday I posted on Facebook saying I wished I was fluent in Spanish more so that day than I ever had been in my life. This was not because of the frustration or lack of convenience that comes with the language barrier; it was because I have not been able to have any depth in my conversations while I have been here. On that Monday last week when we were out with Maria and Jose Luis to drop off his breathing machine at the hospital in Santa Ana there was a good hour or so where it was just Jose Luis and me waiting on Caleb to find Maria. Jose Luis kept trying to say something to me and I was unable to understand him, not only because of the language barrier but also because of his age and lung problems making his speech fairly difficult. I was very worried that it was something serious that he was trying to convey, as he was complaining about having back pain only a few moments before. After a while though, I was able to make out that he wanted me to sit down in the back of the car with him. Since I still did not know what he wanted to convey to me I had the idea for him to write out what he wanted to say on a piece of paper and I would just use google to translate it. What he wrote down was the word “Amistad” which translates to friendship. This instantly made a huge impact on me, and thankfully we were able to have a very simple conversation about where I was from, how old we both were, and some other shallow things. If I could have said more I would have loved to share stories with Jose Luis, and tell him what an honor it was to get to assist him by driving with him and Maria to Santa Ana. Even though I couldn’t say near all I wanted to, I am still extremely thankful for the time I got to spend with Jose Luis that day on his last outing on this earth.
Last Monday I posted on Facebook saying I wished I was fluent in Spanish more so that day than I ever had been in my life. This was not because of the frustration or lack of convenience that comes with the language barrier; it was because I have not been able to have any depth in my conversations while I have been here. On that Monday last week when we were out with Maria and Jose Luis to drop off his breathing machine at the hospital in Santa Ana there was a good hour or so where it was just Jose Luis and me waiting on Caleb to find Maria. Jose Luis kept trying to say something to me and I was unable to understand him, not only because of the language barrier but also because of his age and lung problems making his speech fairly difficult. I was very worried that it was something serious that he was trying to convey, as he was complaining about having back pain only a few moments before. After a while though, I was able to make out that he wanted me to sit down in the back of the car with him. Since I still did not know what he wanted to convey to me I had the idea for him to write out what he wanted to say on a piece of paper and I would just use google to translate it. What he wrote down was the word “Amistad” which translates to friendship. This instantly made a huge impact on me, and thankfully we were able to have a very simple conversation about where I was from, how old we both were, and some other shallow things. If I could have said more I would have loved to share stories with Jose Luis, and tell him what an honor it was to get to assist him by driving with him and Maria to Santa Ana. Even though I couldn’t say near all I wanted to, I am still extremely thankful for the time I got to spend with Jose Luis that day on his last outing on this earth.
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| Jose Luis Passed 6/21/2014 |
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