The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
El Salvador teaches lessons
Lorain County youth experience life in small-town Central America
Poverty clings tightly in the United States.
But when most of a country struggles with poverty such as in the developing parts of the world, the people look to faith and to each other for consolation, said the Rev. Rob Reidy, 68, a priest at La Sagrada Familia, 7719 Detroit Ave. in Cleveland.
Rather than merely talking to youth in Avon Lake and Lorain, Reidy organized an experience of the culture and people in El Salvador.
Eleven people visited June 13 through 19 the small Central American country where Reidy served for a total of 17 years in Chiltiupan, a small town.
“I told them it was kind of walking with the people down there, to see what their normal life is like and what their faith commitment is,” Reidy said. “It’s a life that is very difficult because of physical circumstances of where they live
The youth raised money to pay for the trip, and also collected donations of clothing, pencils and notebooks.
in the mountains and extremes in the weather. A lot of the people worked farms or had simple stores. There was a lot of poverty. You didn’t see a lot of farming machinery down there, at least not where we visited.”
Reidy also served for seven years at Sacred Heart Chapel at 4301 Pearl Ave. in Lorain, he said, so when the church in El Salvador was destroyed by an earthquake, he organized groups to help rebuild. The most recent trip was observational.
“When you do work projects, you don’t get to see many of the people because of the work,” Reidy said. “But we did take clothing and medical supplies down and distributed them through the schools. There was a little fair down there with games for the kids and we participated in that.”
The youth raised money to pay for the trip, and also collected donations of clothing, pencils and notebooks.
“When you fly to Central America, you’re allowed one suitcase weighing 40 pounds,” Reidy said. “We put our personal belongings in a carryon bag, so there were 11 suitcases with items for donation to the people.”
And the Ohio students traveled with diversity, he said, because among them were Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, a Salvadoran and Peruvian.
“All of the students except two were bilingual,” Reidy said. “That adds a whole dimension when you can talk to the people.”
Seventeen-year-old Omar Torres, a Lorain High School senior who plays alto saxophone in the marching band, said images of El Salvador recur in his mind.
“When we went on the home visits, seeing how they lived and how happy they were, it humbled me,” Omar said, “and the way we take things for granted. The littlest things can mean the most to the people who have nothing. We need to be more humble about the things we have.”
He’s studying to be a graphic designer, and just completed his second year of a program at LHS. The trip was nothing like what he expected, he said.
“The food was different. I wasn’t expecting it. It tasted good,” said Omar, whose favorite is torta, a sandwich with tomato, lettuce, refried beans, chicken, and avocado slices, he said. Overall, he’s thankful.
“It was an experience of a lifetime,” Omar said. “It really hits you when you first get there. But when you’re leaving it hits you more, because you want to stay longer because the people there are so happy, and it’s a genuine happy, and they always make you feel at home.
“It has humbled me,” Omar said. “It has made me think about things I complain about a lot and I should be more grateful for the things I have.”
Michael McGervey, 18, a 2017 graduate of Avon Lake High School, is the youngest of five children in his family. He hopes to become a musical artist in alternative or Hip Hop. On the El Salvador trip, he was struck by “how great the people are,” he said.
“The differences and also the similarities in the different cultures, and just the feeling of it,” McGervey said. “It felt like a really great spiritual experience and just opening my eyes to the rest of the world. It makes me more mindful of the rest of the world and other cultures.
“I learned about Oscar Romero. He was a martyr, and I got to visit the church he was shot in, and where he died, and the church he was buried in, at this one cathedral,” McGervey said. “There’s this one school we visited. We got to play soccer with kids. They were kicking around and kicking at each others’ shins and they were all laughing the whole time. And they were getting us to participate, too.”
McGervey was home for a handful of days before hitting Detroit with nine youth from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Avon Lake at a work mission with Young Neighbors in Action in Detroit. Churches from all over the United States sent youth to make a difference. McGervey’s group helped Core City Neighborhoods by cleaning a building where people buy used clothing and food, because there is no grocery store nearby, he said.
“There were abandoned buildings and houses on the streets near (Core City),” McGervey said. “But people who came walking by or riding bikes were nice. Those people were more similar to people in Cleveland and Lorain. It didn’t seem much different.”
He wants to return to El Salvador, somehow, he said.
Fifteen-year-old Antonio Baez is a sophomore at Lorain High School and a high-intensity athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball. His was the first freshman class at the new Lorain High School, and on the trip, the school in El Salvador impressed him most.
“Most of the schools didn’t have anything,” Antonio said. “There wasn’t a lot of stuff there. They needed pencils and paper. There weren’t any windows or doors. The playground when they went out to play, there was nothing there. It changed me, knowing that I should do more. They have nothing there, and here I have everything, and I’m still complaining.”
Antonio plans to follow in the footsteps of his father, who served for seven years in the United States Marines, retired, and joined the Army Reserves. Until then, a civilian mission calls him back to El Salvador.
“When I go back I want to figure out someone I can sponsor and someone I can help out,” Antonio said. “I would like people to know in order to get a feel and understand El Salvador, you have to go yourself. It’s amazing and the experiences will change your life.”
Reidy said a financially prosperous lifestyle tends to steer people away from positive core values, blurring priorities.
“I think that when you don’t have a lot of material things that keep you busy, you go to the basic things like family, faith and community,” Reidy said. “When you don’t have all the extras, those are the things you turn to. Some of the kids walk over an hour to get to school. Some of the people walk an hour to an hour and a half to get to church. It’s a real sacrifice.
“We did a couple nights of reflections while we were there,” Reidy said. “It seemed to me they were very observant and compassionate toward the people. We went down there to learn, and it was mutually beneficial. We didn’t go down to help them. We went down to walk with them.”