February 9, 2016
The blizzard of January 2016 turned out much as the forecasters had predicted.
It was an odd sort of blessing to be marooned at home for several days. My own street did not have a way out until Wednesday morning, more than four days after the storm began. By the time we were liberated, I had started the taxes, tidied up the bookshelves, cooked some chili, and organized the spice rack. Some seldom-used muscles were a little sore from three shoveling sessions. I will admit to some cabin fever, but overall, it was nothing terribly high on the hardship scale.
Meanwhile, in El Salvador ...
We had 31 students and six faculty and staff in El Salvador, due to fly back to Dulles during the worst of the storm. Not happening. Trip leader Sean Hanel and others worked valiantly with the airline to get our large party home in a timely manner. That turned out to be a challenge. Some students and chaperones came home in smaller groups in the middle of the week, but the bulk of the party flew in on Sunday afternoon, eight days later than they had anticipated.
Talking with Sean, his fellow chaperones, and the students themselves I am impressed by the mettle they showed. In spite of the surprise and disappointment of not getting back to Dulles and worrying about food and family and money and schoolwork (everyone lucked out there), our students remained buoyant. They returned to their work sites and were able to be with the people of Las Delicias for a few more days.
I think the right word is resilience. It's a quality our students need if they are to be well-prepared for life beyond Good Counsel. Our school is a structured place. Just think of the logistics of feeding 1,400 people in less than two hours every day and you can see why it needs to be. In tension with all the structure we depend on, is our desire for students to learn how to deal with setbacks, to be adaptable, to be able to bounce back when confronted with the unexpected.
I am grateful to Sean and his team of chaperones for the way they consistently encouraged the students throughout the extended stay. I am proud of our students who showed themselves to be spirited, hardy, even feisty. At least two I talked with want to return to El Salvador this summer on our alumni trip. Our students learned a little more about how to appreciate the many blessings they have. With each batch of concrete, each block placed on block, each conversation using a mixture of gesture and emergent Spanish, our young men and women could see how they were both improving the quality of life for the materially poor in a violence-ravaged country and forming bonds with the local people. The good work they do is a literal building of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
Blessed be the resilient El Salvador team of 2016.