Whoa.

Gang country. We hit it today. 

But prior to that we woke up to a simple breakfast followed by a 2 hour church service at our hosts' local iglesia. 

The girls worked in the various nurseries while I went to the service. Probably not a shocker that everything was in Spanish.  But here is the deal: the secret to speaking a new language is listening to good pastors in their native tongue. A good pastor generally speaks in present or past tenses, stays in context, uses common words, articulates, repeats, and often uses hand gestures. Duder today was a student's best friend. I think I picked up about 50% of what he said - much better than the 5% of the local boys who live with us. We studied Romans 8 and the pastor was, I think, talking about how our life is changed from the inside out thru Christ. 

After church we got changed and met Barbara, a woman who runs the Faro Project. She is awesome. 56 years old, a widow, American, and drivng around a beat up 80s something toyota tercel with dull paint and a driver's side door that her passenger needs to open for her. She is a riot - fearless, trusting, and has a major heart for the Salvadorian people. 

The Faro Project has youth centers around San Salvador. We went to one today. And to get there we had to drive right thru a gang hotspot. Barbara was full of information and peace. She let me know that the gangs are almost exclusively after other gangs. They are are almost exclusively fighting over territory and revenge (and not drugs - yet).  They mostly don't care about Gringos because they would not be a threat. And they have a unique relationship with the church - they respect it and even allow former gang members to "get out" of the gang and "find Christ" - as long as that person always goes to church (if not, they will kill him).

On the way to and from the youth center, Barbara waves at the suspected gang members and they wave back. They know her, she says. They know she is not a threat. 

The youth center was a nice, newer cement structure where a man named Eric takes kids in for music and computer lessons. Most of the kids are between 10 and 17. On this day we shared Little Cesar's Pizza with them and presented them with a brand new electric guitar for their worship band. Then I gave them all a lesson in finger picking. I taught them the Travis Pick and the Reverse Travis. They loved it and got it. Then we had a recital. We all played songs together and sang worship songs in Spanish and English.  The Northrup girls had been practicing a select handful of Salvadorian songs and played some of their own. It was special. 

We got back around 4:00 and went immediately, by car, up a local mountain and hiked to the top. It is Holy Week here (Semana Santa) and it was hoppin. Lots of vendors and local toirists. Salvadorians are known around Central America as very hard workers. So when they get a break, they take it. 

Then we went down the mountain a bit for pupusas. 

After a quick pit stop to get a photo view of San Salvador at night, we headed in. Long day. A bit scary. But God is good and we were in good hands. Tomorrow the soccer and Futsal begin in earnest.