Spring - Winter

Signs of Spring: • The ice fishing shacks have been removed from the frozen lakes and rivers this weekend. • We hear the owls calling to each other during the night. We understand this is their mating ritual. It can’t be the temperature driving this behavior, must be the longer day light. • Our local conservancy is preparing for the annual wild flower plant sale held in early May. This is a major community event in its 28th year. All these traditional indicators point us to spring, new life and preparation for the planting season. It’s been a cold winter - we have a lot of ice, but the snow isn’t deep. We will need those April showers to provide moisture for the seeds to grow. We are on final count down for our return to El Salvador tomorrow. March is the hottest month in El Salvador and points them to winter. Winter is when the April planting begins to take advantage of the start of the rainy season. It’s been dry since October, so the showers are needed to provide moisture for their crops. Last year the rains started early. It was an ominous sign as a drought followed, killing the tender plants in three regions of the country causing the price of beans and corn to escalate throughout the country. Many emails have gone back and forth in planning for our trip. We begin in La Paz to visit the new 8th grade class that started this year. We also hope to see the progress on the new roof and improvements to the rest rooms. When we visit our sister parish community, we will follow up on reports by a February medical mission regarding children with health issues. We want to better understand treatment opportunities or obstacles the families may be facing so we can bring this information back to our church family. Many of the emails pertain to the Community Development projects that are under way. The women’s chicken projects are operating and 10 students are attending 2 year technical programs. The beneficiaries of the project want to meet with us to share some thoughts they have for the future. We anticipate that they are incorporating the effects of last year’s drought into the implementation of the agriculture projects. We will listen to their hope and vision to be an encouragement and blessing to them and their communities in the volcanic range. David y Nancy