Traveling from the Airport

Getting through customs at San Salvador was relatively easy although a little time consuming. Soon, we found ourselves waiting in the glorious warm sunshine of the sidewalk for our bus. Interestingly, we were in the midst of several people of compassion from the US and Canada bringing their efforts to the needy of El Salvador just like us. A small island of English in our new Spanish world.

Within minutes, our bus arrived along with our Enlace representatives. Our bus was very nice and air-conditioned, not too bad being a sacrificing missionary after all! It was not too long before we got our first good taste of our new land. We were just a few miles into our 2 hour journey to Ciudad Barrios when there was a loud flap, flap, flap from what once was our tire and was now becoming rubber rubble. The driver, who spoke Spanish just slowed down to a steady slow flap, flap, flap, but didn’t stop… This continued for a good while and I thought about the mathematics of travelling at 5 miles per hour vs. 50 miles per hour and computed our arrival to be a closer to 20 hours at the current speed. So much for the easy missionary experience!

Our driver pulled to the wrong side of the road in front of a metal lean-to type building. Lo and behold it was the El Salvadoran equivalent of Sullivan Tire! Two barefoot Salvadorans armed with a six foot tire iron and a two pound sledgehammer removed the remnants of our old tire and mounted a ‘new’ one with amazing skill and care. We were humming along the highway in no time. We arrived at our hotel without further incident enjoying the fellowship and scenery of beautiful El Salvador. Welcome to the Hotel Barrios.

Notes on Spanish

So, I still believe that it is good to try to communicate in Spanish while in a Spanish speaking country. I have learned however that it is good to have a reasonable command of the language for the purpose of avoiding embarrassing situations. If you are like me and don’t mind the embarrassment, then I say, go for it. My notes to self include; guapo = handsome; fuerte= strong; necessito= I need; necessite=you need. It has been brought to my attention on more than one occasion that I have blundered with these and most likely other words. Ultimately, I think we communicated although sometimes I told a joke when I had no intention to do so. So, go for it, es no problem. (It’s no problem- I think?)

Bill Bickmore