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April 17, 2000
Dear friends,
It has been a great privilege to witness the celebrations honoring
Archbishop Romero and other martyrs. A list of Salvadoran martyred
religious clergy and laypersons, which the bishops of El Salvador
are preparing for the Vatican this Jubilee year, now numbers over
one hundred pages long. Thousands of people from around the world
made the effort to be present. There were no acts of violence,
only the words, the songs, the dreams of a new day. So fine. So
may it come to pass.
We have had delegations and other visitors here steadily now
for two months. It has been a happily busy time. There is so much
work to do. This Holy Week we try to find some time to rest, to
recharge and connect with you.
Day after tomorrow the swimming pool at the hacienda in Colima
will be inaugurated, as hundreds of Colima residents gather in
and around it, following an ancient tradition of bathing during
Holy Week. This time the water they bathe in will be clean, unlike
the nearby rivers and lakes. Thanks to several of you, the public
bathrooms will be ready for use tomorrow. Funds raised will be
re-invested in the restoration of the hacienda as we further prepare
it to receive church retreat groups, conference groups, delegations
from other countries, and tourists.
We now have a hammermill donated by the Presbyterian Hunger Program
that is shredding the sugar cane bagasse so that we can use 100
percent of it to make fuel logs. Thanks to funds from the World
Lutheran Federation, a new workshop for the fuel log machine is
half finished. Tomorrow we will transport more than five tons
of bagasse for our first all-day test runs. Interest in this fuel
is growing quickly. We are all excited.
The milling of organic sugar cane is still at an impasse. We
wonder if any friend of the earth is interested in helping the
organic sugar cane growers purchase and manage the sugar mill
to assure the success of eliminating chemicals from the soil,
stopping the burning of the fields, and stopping the incredible
downward cycle of death and decay we are witnessing around us.
We’d like to share with you two recent experiences in the
lives of women, experiences in which God’s hand is moving
among us, moving us, in Colima. First we’d like to tell you
about the group of nine Presbyterian women from all over the United
States who came to Colima last month to explore firsthand the
status of women and children in Central America today by talking
directly with them.
We had paired up each of the U.S. women with a woman from Colima
for one special day, and in just the one day, we bonded more powerfully
than any of us could have imagined. In one of the activities the
women had an opportunity to share personal experiences regarding
single parenthood, domestic violence, poverty, unemployment, and
other struggles they face daily. We then attached two 30-foot
strips of paper to the wall in the big veranda, one strip above
the other. Our plan was to create a mural by inviting the participants
to paint themselves, standing in Colima. As the whole town of
Colima took shape under our paintbrushes—the churches, the
trees, the houses, the hills and reservoir, the fishermen and
the sugar mill—we rejoiced and celebrated together the beauty
and life of this place, all of us as real people, God’s children,
in Colima, in solidarity with each other, women and children of
Colima and our U.S. visitors.
We asked all the participants to paint the same thing twice,
once on each strip, so that one mural could be taken to the United
States (Louisville!), and the other one could be enjoyed at Colima,
in San Salvador, and other spots as well.
Later in the day we swam and ate dinner together and had devotions
and singing in Spanish and English. Tears flowed as women shared
words of love and caring for each other and expressions of faith
in God’s plan for redemption and healing.
The tour by the Presbyterian women had covered Costa Rica and
Guatemala as well as El Salvador, where the group was hosted by
Presbyterian mission personnel and local partners in mission,
like Alfalit and the Reformed Church of El Salvador. They plan
to share their findings about the status of women and children
in Central America with the church at large, as part of the PC(USA)’s
celebration of the Year of the Child—to be focused on issues
and needs of children around the world. We pray this will have
impact on future decisions by the General Assembly about the ministry
and mission of the Church.
In other happenings, nine women who live in Colima’s worst
housing, "El Mesón," are now raising funds to
install three latrines! In El Mesón there is no electricity,
running water, or bathroom facilities; one family lives in each
single room. People use the nearby sugarcane fields as a restroom.
Conditions are so crowded that small children are constantly trespassing
on the neighbor’s property, causing unending conflicts between
families. When people in Colima mention El Mesón, they
think of dirty people endlessly feuding among themselves.
But the nine women have given their building a new name, "Viviendas
Solidarias San Juan Colima"—Solidarity Housing St. John
of Colima! They want to change the image of their dwelling and
of themselves, and they are seeking to overcome bitter resentment
in order to create a better future for their children, starting
with three humble latrines to be shared among the nine families.
We are providing tools for communication and a setting where reconciliation
can take place for these women and their families. We ask your
prayers for God’s blessing on their efforts to move forward.
On Good Friday these women will make small "pasteles"—deep-fried
vegetable pies—to sell outside the church after Mass. Their
goal is to raise the 70 colones they still need—about $8.00.
We will be there cheering them on.
God’s hand is moving among us, moving us, in Colima.
Love,
Julie and Bob Dunsmore
The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 235
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