Wed., 18 Mar. - The fire apparently died overnight and we could not see any indication of it from this distance.

More water problems. We had not had water from the city for over a week and people were starting to run out, us included. Thank goodness for the well that ‘Living Water International’ drilled here a couple of years ago. I filled the tank, (gravity feed system), from the cistern on Tuesday. Half way through Wed. morning there was no more water. It appears a tap someplace has been left on but I can’t find it and I don’t want to use up all the water in the cistern filling the tank just to have it drain away. We will turn on the pump to fill containers when we need water.

Tuesday afternoon there were some booths set up at this end of the football field next door. The city was sponsoring a presentation against violence. In an effort to attract people they had some giant puppets ‘dancing’. Later there were speeches and music, rather pleasant and not too loud. They wrapped things up about 8 pm.


Giant dancing puppets at the city’s presentation

Things seem to be slowing down as we approach the end of our stay and we are looking forward now to getting home and seeing our family

Thurs., 19 Mar. - Eva has had a sore throat for the last 3 days and has been finding it difficult to teach. We were able to get some menthol throat tablets today that are helping.


These “Mototaxis” have started to appear around El Paraiso. They are operated like a motorcycle and have a motorcycle engine. They can carry 2 adult passengers and are quite cheap to hire with driver.

Fri., 20 Mar. -This morning we went to Cristo Rey to meet Dean Alejandro and Jeannie, then on to the deanery meeting in Jacaleapa. Alejandro told us that there are about 6000 people, mostly single mothers, in the Danli area who are now out of work. The church will do what they can, however most of their members are from the poorer groups who are themselves struggling


A common sight, increasing as ‘Semana Santa’ (Holy Week), approaches is the police, with military backup, checking vehicles for registration and violations, particularly impaired driving

Eva’s last class was this evening, those who could already carry on a conversation in English. We now have to clean everything up and get ready to leave.

I don’t know what happened, but this afternoon when we got back, we had water in the taps from the tank. I don’t think I’ll question it any further.