This past week, Evan, Helen, Annie, Pat, Donna, and I went to El Salvador to donate and ambulance and newborn baby kits to people in different areas of El Salvador. Above, Evan is eating his first pupusas (his favorite is ayote which is a combination of squash and cheese).
After lunch, we drove for about two hours and went to a small village out on the coast. This is one of the huts that the people live in.
This is a house that was built for $3000 and the people are grateful to be living in a house like this.
Pat found a young girl who had a newborn, and she was very grateful to get one of the newborn kits.
Evan, Helen and Annie shared a coconut break together.
We went back the small city of El Carmen where we were serenaded by a mariachi band and the mayor of the town had a delicious dinner for us.
The following day we went to a rural area outside of El Carmen and showed the local people the new ambulance.
All of the people there wanted to entertain us.
Because Evan is fluent in Spanish, he was interviewed by Univision, the largest Spanish language television station in the U.S. They came with us to follow the story of ambulances being given to villages in El Salvador.
Annie found a young boy that wanted to practice his English.
We drove down to the village of El Tamarindo on the coast. One the way we passed some cattle just walking down the road.
In this picture, I was turning the keys to the ambulance over to the mayor.
Everyone in our party was presented with a lovely certificate by the governor of the state of La Union.
Next, the dancers came to entertain us.
This little girl and her brother were very cute.
In the poorer neighborhoods, pigs are just roaming among the living areas.
After we went through the formalities of donating the ambulance, we got to relax at the beach park where they fed us a very good fish dinner.
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped in Conchagua, a village that sits on the side of the extinct volcano.
The governor of La Union took us to a place where a man practices his leather craft abilities. He desperately needs new tools to teach the students in his leather work class.
this is the brand new port (it isn't even finished yet) at the city of La Union. It will be the second largest port in El Salvador, once it is finished in a few years.
When we went back to San Salvador, we drove up the sides of the extinct volcano and were able to look down in the crater.
When we arrived back at the home that we were staying in in San Salvador, there were people there making pupusas for us.
The big surprise for Evan was that a girl that had served in his mission in Argentina, Stephanie, was in a ward in that area. She and her family stayed for the evening and it was fun to get to know them.
The next day, we went to a hospital that had a lot of newborns and we were able to give away the newborn kits that Pat's ward had made up in Utah.
This is where the new mothers take classes to see how to take care of their babies.
The home we were staying in was very close to the San Salvador temple.
