Friday

Our last day here, and we packed a lot into today!

Here are some highlights:

We met with some artisans from around the country who are trying to market and sell their wares, especially utilizing the expertise of CRISPAZ.

We met with some amazing youth and volunteers from El Centro neighborhood, who talked about the plight of youth in inner city San Salvador these days.  The group also included a young woman named Maddy from Minnesota (center in navy with the backwards baseball cap) who is in the middle of a two-year stint volunteering here.

Lunch was at Nelly's (a traditional Salvadoran lunch)!

We then went to the Truth Memorial in Cuscatlan Park, where the lives of those killed, and those who disappeared during the war are commemorated.  Similar to the Vietnam War Memorial, there are marble slabs (4'x8') 180+ feet long filled with the names of victims of the violence here.

Then we met with a microfinance people at a bank, had our closing reflection time (including communion) and dinner out at a Mexican restaurant.

I think we were all much less frazzled today, partly because we didn't have quite the inundation with the violent aspects of the history here.  Now we are all packing like crazy!