PVC 1991 Delegation – Part Six: Sunday Evening

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

Sunday, 13 October 1991 – Evening in the Guest House

As I write this, there is a frisbee game going on in the living room of the guest house. Sally is playing with Felicita's two younger children, with Gregg and Wanda looking on.

We have had a bit of a chance to meet the other delegation. They are Presbyterians from Alberta, Canada, near Calgary. There are eight of them, I think, with a female pastor as leader. It appears to be a senior citizens group, with one younger woman among them.

Nancy has arranged a craft fair for us at the guest house. The Canadian delegation did their shopping while we were at Exodus 29 October, and now it is our turn. There are representatives from several different craft organizations, including 22nd of April. We gather first in the living room to hear introductions, including a request from Project Salvador to carry crafts back with us when we return to the states, and an opportunity to subscribe to an English language edition of Letters to the Churches, the periodical from which the stories in the Springs book were drawn. I agree to the first and take advantage of the second. Then we scatter to the tables to look over the wares of the gathered artisans. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to shop at our leisure, and for the artisan groups who depend on international delegations for the bulk of their sales to have our undivided attention.

PVC 1991 Delegation – Part Three: Evening Conversation in the Guest House

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

Saturday, 12 October 1991 - 7:00 PM

We are gathered in the living room for our first meeting, and as he did last year, Father T. has come from one of the local parishes to talk with us about the current situation in the country. He has brought with him M., who works with Christian base communities in another parish. They request that we list some of our questions, and then they will try to address these issues in particular during their talk. The delegation asks for the churches' view on the negotiations [Peace talks were then on-going, resulting in the signing of a Peace Accord early in 1992]; changes which have taken place since last year; is military reform possible? and a discussion of the recent persecution of educators. Just as Father T. is about to begin, a woman enters the room and is introduced as Th., who works with expectant mothers and newborn infants, and also with M. on Bible study.

"Let me say this first. In this country, through the efforts of the negotiations, even though not all of the agreements have been signed yet, to this point there are things which have not been fulfilled, but the agreements have opened spaces at every level - for the popular organizations, political parties, churches. In the years before the accords, there was a continuous struggle for economic justice, for the right to organize ourselves, for human rights, land reform, against the impunity of the armed forces. We had all of these issues as struggles, but with the accords, there is something concrete for the people to grab onto. Before there was no legal structure (to back us up), even though our struggles were legitimate and just. From the point of view of the government, anything which came out of the popular organizations was seen as illegitimate. So the accords are legitimizing forces, opening spaces in which we can work.

PVC 1991 Delegation – Part Two: The Flight In

 

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

Saturday, 12 October 1991

9:23 AM - We are airborne at last. We started boarding the plane at just about the time we were supposed to have taken off.

I left work yesterday just a few minutes before five, was at Mary's house about twenty after six, and we had the car loaded and were on the road by 6:30 PM. There was a light rain, but nothing like what it had been earlier in the day. When we stopped about 8:20 PM at the single rest stop on I95 between Baltimore and Washington, we met Linda, Betsy, Linda's husband Russ, and her sister Donna coming in as we were leaving. A bit later two accidents within a mile of each other just at the I95-495 split at the Washington beltway held us up for a while, but not terribly long. The far worse traffic jam was going onto I95, not our direction. We reached the Hampton Inn at 9:30.

George followed us into the lobby. Linda and her crew had just gotten there. Everyone else had arrived earlier. After some confusion, rooms were sorted out: 237 - Mary, Jake, Marian; 239 - Linda, Betsy, Lucy, Kathy; 243 - Gregg, George, Sally, Wanda. There was no meeting for reflection or devotions; Lucy and Kathy were already in bed. We got settled and lights out in our room by 10:30, but had very fitful sleep.

When the wake-up call came at 5:00 AM, I was already wide awake. The buffet breakfast in the lobby was just being set out when we entered. Vans had been arranged for 6:30 and 7:00, but at 6:30 they called the Holiday Inn van to help and loaded everybody but George, Gregg, and me. We followed at 7:00, arriving at the airport about 7:20 to discover Linda at the ticket counter and all the rest being treated as a group. So much for acting like separate couples at the airport. George lost track of one bag in the confusion. We will hope that it was checked through and will be waiting for us in El Salvador. (It was.)