Around the World in 88 Years -E Book - Arthur Burt

14 Far & AwayEl SalvadorWhen I was in El Salvador, I couldn’t wash my face because theguerrillas had bombed the water pipes. All that was available forbathing was a tin of water, which also contained cockroachesand mosquitoes that had committed suicide, their bodies floatingon the surface of the soapy water.I put my flannel in, squeezed it out, and rubbed my face, hopingnot to be making it less clean than before I washed. It was eitherthat or remain sticky with sweat in the 95 degree weather.In El Salvador, I ministered in the hospital, the military academyand some of the churches. I also visited a pathetic little orphanage,a missionary school where they had dozens and dozens ofchildren they picked up in the hills. Their parents were gunneddown. These little orphans looked like little old men and womenall under the age of 12. They wouldn’t smile at the puppet I had.They wouldn’t even take a sweet when I offered them from thebag of sweets. They were too afraid of taking anything from aman because they had witnessed men murdering their fathersand mothers on the hillsides. Cringed, fearful, terrified… fromthe horrors of war. No daddy. No mommy. So sad.In the village, I saw a little girl with one leg and a wooden prop.I saw 14-year-old boys who had been sent out into a war conductedonly at nighttime, boys who had been booby-trappedand had both legs blown off them — children who had beenblasted, burned and blinded. The lads were casualties of a warthat had no end to it.209