No comics
today. Sorry. But I will continue a little more about the
trip to El Salvador.
As we were coming in
for a landing it was already obvious that we were not in Akron, Ohio
anymore. Palm trees dotted the landscape
and roofs tended to be made out of corrugated metal instead of shingles or tar
flat roofs. The heat greeted us
immediately as we walked off of the plane.
The airport, like most of the buildings we saw, had major areas open to
the elements. Who needs to be
hermetically sealed in a building when it never snows I suppose.
Customs was not as
horrible as we were told it was going to be.
As we snaked through the line we saw a fair amount of surfers with their
boards in large bags. Another group was
on a mission trip and as we passed each other zigzagging through the ropes we
would fill each other in on the plans of our trip.
I understood almost
nothing that my customs agent said. I
took six years of Spanish but remember almost none of it and certainly even
less so when it is spoken quickly. The
only two lines I really got were, “You must pay $10” which is standard for
everybody and “You’re done. Go.”
There was a button
everyone had to push also. It was
connected to a stop light and took on the feeling of a game. If, when you hit the button, it turned green,
you were free to enter the country. If
it turned red, a buzzer would sound and you had to go over to a table and have
your luggage gone though. (I got green!)
Jason, the young man
who put the trip together for us, was waiting on the other side of the glass
doors from customs. That was a
particular relief in a foreign country.
He took us to the curb where we awaited our transportation. It was odd seeing how many people, old and
young alike, stood in the back of pickup trucks to be driven around, not something
one would want to get caught doing in the United States. Surfers spent considerable time tying their
luggage and boards to the tops of much more expensive modes of
transportation. We were afforded a truck
and a microbus to head into San Salvador.
It had air conditioning of sorts but it wasn’t enough for 12 people and
the hot, hot sun so we road with the windows down the wind being a relief.
TO BE CONTINUED
1 comment:
Please continue as long as you can i.e. until the well runs dry
your reflections and insights on
your experience in El Salvador.
Comics can wait.
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