Chuntrun (Pronounced: choon-troon)

I've been very quiet of late on my blog. There has been much going on, but not much in the way of shareable information or headline grabbing material.

I've been working on lessons for the young men's classes and also for my young man's class (Nate has had one session so far and it will be integrated into his weekly curriculum).

When I was back home in the States, I was a Bible reader. That has seriously increased with my time here. I brought a stack of books with me, mostly on leadership and being a godly man. I have read parts of most of them, but I keep going back to the Bible most of all. Now more than ever it offers me peace, comfort, challenge, and assurance. It is a constant in a sea of variables - or a mountain of variables as the case may be here.

So, I almost had a heart attack Saturday. Do I have your attention now? I've mentioned in other posts that I have had some marked physical changes in my appearance and health since we've arrived here. Saturday put all that to the test. We walked to Chuntrun (sp?). Chuntrun is a community on a different mountain than ours. It is a 2 hour walk from San Ignacio - if you are a native and walk it frequently. There is no electricity there save for the government installed single solar panel on the K-6 school house. There are NO roads in or out of the community. You must walk across the river on a swinging foot bridge (less than 7 feet wide by a LOT more long). {By the way, I just Googled Chuntrun to make sure I spelled it right - I did - and Erin's blog is the 5th link in the Google search "Chuntrun, El Salvador" and Ralph's is the 10th link!!!}

Jesus asked us to accompany him on his trip to have a Bible class and hand out parasite treatment and vitamins to the children of Chuntrun. So we did. He drove his small pickup with Lori in the front with him and Erin, Nate, Josue, Carlos, Natividad, Chandy, and me in the back. I literally had bruises on my backside after that ride. The road was so rough it felt like what I've seen of those Jeep rock climbers, seriously slow and meticulously picking the best path. OK, so not that quite extreme, but close.

After we had driven as far as Jesus was comfortable with, he parked the truck on the side of the road and we walked.

You really need to click on some of the pictures and view the original size to find what I am pointing out.

Look at the small building about half-way up. That is the school to which we were headed.

This is the bridge you could barely see in the previous picture. Nate thought this was grand fun.

You may or may not notice, I am only stepping on the cross beams. I am still a big ol' boy.

Erin also enjoyed the bridge quite a bit. Remarkably this was accomplished in one take.

This is the path leading up to Chuntrun on the other side of the river.

You can see Josue shouldering the supplies. This is the same path from the previous picture.

There is a red dot in this picture just up and right of center. Can you see it?

This is the red dot from the previous pic with the camera zoomed in.

This is from behind the school house after we arrived. You can't see the beginning, but that is where we were when we started walking.

Jesus had an excellent lesson for the children (and moms). When it was the children's turn to make the lesson, most of them did not know what glue was or how to use it.

This it the one room of the school house. K-6, and that is all the school most of these kids will ever get. The community farms. That's just what they do.

This is a picture of pack animals going up the trail we had come down. This is at maximum zoom.

These are the same pack animals on the same trail. This is at medium zoom.

This is the last picture of the same pack animals on the same trail. This is at no zoom. Can you see them?

This is much steeper in person. The "road" is a washed-out concrete of sorts. This is part of the walking leg of the journey back to the truck.

This is me returning to the truck. At this point I was quoting my younger brother when he faced walking up the grand canyon. My heart was pounding so loudly I could hardly hear.

Please go to Erin's Blog for more about this trip. She says it so well. This was an incredible experience. Humbling, exhausting,exciting, invigorating.

Tomorrow promises to be another good day.