Today began at 6 with a ride into El Tunco so the guys who didn't bring their boards could rent boards from a local shop. Salvador took us on a brief tour of the destruction downtown and some of the projects we would tackle later in the day.
We paddled out at the main point, Sunzal, a right breaking wave that comes off a point. The paddle out is about a half mile, and Pastor Jessie of Sovereign Grace Church and I took off on the first wave together. The water is brown from all the runoff, and getting through the shorebreak was tricky because of all the logs, trees, sheet metal, garbage, sewage, etc. that has washed down from the town and its destroyed housing. We had a great session in the 4'-6' surf, and talked with several other surfers about why we are here.
Blanca (the family housekeeper) served breakfast for everyone when we returned to Salvador's compound, and then we geared up for our day's work. The two main projects were shoveling the mud out of flooded houses, helping them clean their salvageable furniture, distributing care packages of food and clothing, and also building a wall beside the church to help channel future street flooding away from the building and into the river. We mixed mortar with shovels and water pulled from the river, since the water system is still down. The heat and humidity are oppressive and exacerbated by the stench of the sewage, because toilets aren't flushing in town. Lots of bottled water was consumed.
We had a late lunch in a 2nd story palapa where we ate a sampler of four tacos, fish, shrimp, chicken, and beef. They were muy delicioso! Salvador had to go into San Salvador for a 3pm business meeting, so we hiked back up the hill to Cerromar, the neighborhood where his compound is built. The gated
community has armed guards 24/7 so we feel safe here. Besides being the National Director of Christian Surfers El Salvador, Salvador is media consultant and sometimes air personality for Univision, the Spanish language TV channel. He’s won two Emmys for his coverage of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
During a debriefing in the pool, we talked about the shared sense of frustration about not being able to do more to help. El Tunco is poor during good times, but is struggling especially hard now after the flooding took away so much. But we are here, doing what we can, and probably stimulating the local economy a little with our sustenance needs.
Tonight we will dine in the compound and have our second devotional by Jed Smith - Philippians 2:1-11. We're all given wrist bands each morning with the applicable reference on them, and a teaser, like today's "nothing = something". Can't wait!
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