The women's prison in El Salvador needs the following items:
plastic toys for children 4 yrs and under
plastic plates, cups, glasses, and bowls for the women and children to eat with
cloth diapers
ladies clothing
clothing for children 4 yrs and under

If you can donate any of these items please let me know - Ralph

Students at La Palma Christian School do a costume dance presentation at the promotion ceremony in December.

These two girls, Roxana and Noemi, are proudly displaying the promotion certificates they received from 7th grade to 8th grade at the La Palma Christian School. These girls and two other students like them, live several miles from town and can only attend school past the 6th grade if they are allowed to live near the school during the week. Last year they lived on campus with the Lalli family, which has since returned to the States. Now they must live with a different host family and need money for food, uniforms, and school fees. This amounts to $65 per month per student. They will walk to La Palma each Monday morning, attend school and church activities during the week, and walk home each Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Both have dreams of professions—one wants to be a teacher and the other a psychologist.
Support for these students is important to their continued education and spiritual growth. Please consider helping them.
You may send checks, for full or partial support, to Church of Christ, 732 S. Landrum, Mt Vernon, MO 65712 and mark it for La Palma students.
Questions or comments may be directed to: Ralph McClurg, 417-849-0245, rmcclurg@mo-net.com

John Cannon, of Katy, TX, addresses the school promotion crowd. He is fluent in Spanish and was comfortable speaking to the parents.

The guy at the top of the ladder (me)is not convinced that the ladder will hold two people or that Lori is really helping!

A year ago the Lalli family was in La Palma and enjoyed Christmas at the part downtown. It is a big celebration.

Merry Christmas from the Ocotepeque state prison!

Can you tell which one of the children is not a local? The one who understands very little of what the teacher is saying?

Some of the students were matched in height--others not so much!
Some seemed to enjoy the event - others not.

The students were to march in paired one boy per one girl. It appeared that the girls 'drug' the reluctant boys!

La Palma Christian School students line up for the traditional procession!

The promotion ceremony at the La Palma Christian School was well attended. The parents are very proud of the accomplishments of their children, and the teachers are very proud of their results as they see the students learn.

Those who have been there and have seen both the wealthy areas and the poor areas can relate to this. We visited La Gran Via on the last trip and it is an amazing contrast to the poor areas where people feel blessed to have enough money for tortillas at night.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20111217/LIVING/712179963/1042/LIVING02

In my generation, we were amazed to see what a Polaroid camera could do--- produce a photo in a minute or so. These children are amazed to see their picture appear in a few seconds.

"Lori's girls" proudly display their promotion certificates to grade 8.
In trying to calculate a budget for Ana and Trini to 'board' more students, we asked how much they spend on food each month. Reality hit hard when Ana said they sometimes don't eat because they don't have money to buy food! Think about that!

Lori chose these two girls last year to live with her and attend 7th grade. This was something they could not do otherwise because they live so far from town. They did very well in school and are returning. Lori chose two more to attend with them. They will live with Ana and Trini in the house that Lori and Monte occupied last year.

Old men with cowboy hats are good subjects for photograpy.

Many of the children who live with their mothers in the prison did not want me to hold them. Many of them are not used to seeing men except those in the guard towers. This one was different. He loved looking at me and being held--did not want to be put down!

Kids love to have their pictures taken, and most of them are good subjects for a photographer.

The masses of women! When there are no scheduled activities, the women at the prison just mill around in whatever open areas there are available, using whatever they have available for shade.

Lori, Dea, and I arrived home late last night. The remainder of the group will be leaving the San Salvador airport in about an hour for their trip home.

This trip is about over! The first wave is almost home and the others leave tomorrow.

This little girl is one of those who accompanied her mother to prison. This single commode is shared by 66 mothers and 66 children!

This 16' x 64' room houses 225 women. There are not enough beds, so many sleep on the floor or share a single bed.

An amazing day today. Left Ocotepeque at 7 am and had coffee at La Palma. Got to the ladies' prison at Ilopango at noon and toured a couple of hours. The conditions there are deplorable--worse than I thought it would be. The crowded conditions are almost unbelievable! They really need sheets, blankets, mattresses, and some clothing. I keep remembering Mt 25:36 and Isaiah 1:17. With travel and communications as they are, there really are no borders when it comes to helping the downtrodden and correcting social injustice.

Then we met with Tony Saca, the former President of El Salvador for abut an hour and discussed lots of things including the past help we have provided to the people and whether or not he will run for President next time. He did say that any nation whose government does not follow God will fail!

The group in La Palma attended a vela last night for a young man who died not too long after he attended the youth activity at the San Ignacio church Monday night. It was very stressful for them and the family.

Lori, Dea, and I travel home tomorrow. The remainder of the team will travel home Saturday.

We also went back to the prison with some medicines for the guy who really needed them. Another prisoner asked for medical help. He has all of the symptoms of a kidney infection. Dea recommended that he be tested by the local clinic. They did not want to do it but relented after some negotiation by our wonderful Peace Corp volunteer, Catie!

We are well and busy. Yesterday we continued planning the medical clinic plans including changing the dates to March 10-17 for the convenience of some workers. We also added an optional 3-4 days for tourism to go to the Copan ruins, do a zip-line, tour the Esquipula basilica, tour a hot-springs spa, and do some serious shopping. These areas are famous and it will allow visiting them while already in the area.

Last night we attended worship/Bible study in La Antigua with over 40 present. This is a recent church plant and it was encouraging to be with them.

Ocotepeque was without power last night, so we had no internet. But phone service was back on!

The lost luggage for the teams in La Palma arrived Monday night so they were able to conduct the planned classes and change clothing.

This morning we are all attending the promotion ceremony at the La Palma Christian School.

Some bad news about the missing luggage. Continental is still trying to find it. Only a couple bags have been located. The teaching materials for the children's classes was included along with some personal clothing and items.

Today we met with the local Peace Corp volunteer to plan a medical brigade in March. She has a health specialty and is excited to be able to be involved. She will get translators for us as well as local doctors and nurses and other people to help. She is trying to locate a source for medicines in the country also.
One of the missionaries from Mississippi is an architect who designs jails and prisons. We obtained permission to tour the local state prison and had him come up from La Palma for the tour. The conditions are largely deplorable! We were asked to provide some medical help and will go back in the morning for some followup work.
We attended a baptism at the river. This lady has two little boys but wants to be a good Christian, and we rejoice with her.
I do not have a report on the luggage or the VBS classes in El Salvador as of tonight. We are healthy, although Freddy had a bad cold last night.

Sunday morning the group split, with some going to San Ignacio and some going to La Palma for worship. The photo shows the group at La Palma.
In the evening 11 of us traveled to Ocotepeque, Honduras for evening worship there. This congregation is really growing and is a very friendly bunch. Everyone gets many hugs before leaving the building.
Dea, Lori, and I stayed in Ocotepeque to work for a few days. The others returned to La Palma to prepare for VBS and evangelism classes.

Saturday another wave of missionaries was coming in. Leonard and I went on the bus to get them, and to get the medicines held by customs. The First Lady had explained to us on Friday that they have rules requiring prior notification and approval before medicines are brought into their country (not a really unreasonable request). Since there had been no such request it was rather embarrassing, but she agreed to help us, and late Friday afternoon the request was approved. We were told about medicines coming in from other countries which were not only not effective--they were harmful. Thus the health department tries to limit incoming meds to those they can trace to a reputable supplier and those with proper expiration dates.
We got the meds long before the arriving missionaries came out of the airport. Most of their checked baggage did not arrive (and still has not). We were quite late arriving in La Palma that night. The photo shows dinner time at the hotel.

Lori had collected lots of socks, one of the items requested by the nursing home, and she and Dea presented them to one of the administrators. The other photo shows one of the open sleeping bays in the home. Some areas provide a bit of privacy, but this one does not.

I will try to summarize our trip to date.
Dea, Lori, and I left Thursday afternoon and flew through Houston to San Salvador. We had checked some baggage and the Customs officials confiscated part of it because of the medicines in it (there was no paperwork submitted for it).
We spent the night with Carmen Cruz at her home and met with the First Lady of the country the next morning. Her name is Vanda, and she is the leader of the Social Services in the country. We were with her for over an hour. She presented certificates of appreciation for the load of equipment and supplies that we sent to a state-operated nursing home back in January. She seemed to be genuinely grateful for the help it provided to the elderly.
She then presented an opportunity to help her and her country. There is a womens' prison not too far from the capital that has a problem. Women incarcerated there take any small children (under 4 years) with them. The children are not provided for, and they badly need beds, bedding, and some clothing. She asked us to visit the prison and we set up an appointment to do that on Thursday.
The photo shows Dea, Lori, Vanda, and Blanca (secretary).
After that visit we toured the nursing home that received the equipment and supplies. It was not as bad as we had anticipated, partly because of some recent construction. We then visited a physical rehabilitation facility and headed for La Palma. The second wave of missionaries arrived at the La Palma hotel after we did. They too were delayed in customs by a lack of paperwork for medicines.
There was a large group already at the hotel and some of the group had go up the hill to the new rooms just completed rather than stay in the lower, older rooms.

Bueno! I found the problem with my laptop and can begin doing better posting. The firewall apparently detected the foreign language and would not let Internet Explorer of Firefox access the websites that I normally use.

I must go now but will do a longer posting tonight.

Ralph

Sorry for the no-posting since Thursday. My laptop quit and my iPhone had not been setup yet for blogging. We are all well and healthy at this time. Today we had great visits at la Palma church and tonight at Ocotepeque (over 100 in attendance)!
We have lots to do and will stay busy.

We probably will not have internet access until Friday night.

Three groups, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, are traveliing to El Salvador and Honduras to work with the churches there. We do ask that you pray for our safety and success.