Civil War Stories
Last night our family and Hilda's parents gathered at Joel and Hilda's house. They had invited us in honor of Father's Day. In the vigorous conversation that followed our snack, we heard many stories about David and Susanna's years in El Salvador while that country was involved in conflict between guerrilla fighters and government forces. Guerrilla forces were very active in the Aguilares/Guazapa area where they lived, and they periodically visited the orphanage to plunder it. Fortunately government forces never found them there or the people who lived there might well have found themselves in a situation like many nationals did--forced to aid one side or the other and then being viewed by the opposing side as collaborators with "the enemy."
One of my favorite stories was about where they hid their money. David ran a bank of sorts out of his cash drawer. In it he kept money from the mission board, money for the children of the orphanage where they were serving, and personal money. The cash drawer was a slim drawer over a knee hole in the desk wing that had probably been used for a typewriter at one time. There was no handle on the drawer. It was opened by pulling on the front of the drawer by reaching underneath it. It was at the top right hand of the desk. The drawer was not locked.
At the front of the drawer David kept a small amount of paper money. At the very back of the drawer he had the rest of the money. When the house was ransacked, the robbers repeatedly found the money in the front of the drawer while the money at the back of the drawer remained undiscovered and safe. One time a robber asked David where the money is. David said, "In the top right hand drawer of the desk." All the money was untouched that time. The robber had apparently mistaken the drawer front for a fascia board, and looked for the money instead in the top right hand drawer of the other part of the desk. Another time a robber demanded that David show him where the money was. He opened the drawer far enough to reveal the money in the front of the drawer. The robber reached in and grabbed it and moved on.
Another time Saul was in the house when the guerrillas arrived. In a trip to the U.S., he had brought back a tool chest, filled with tools he had purchased. The robbers found it and one of them set it by the front door by which they were leaving. He stepped outside for a minute and Saul suggested to another bystander that he put the tool chest in the pila ( a large cement tank used for washing clothes by hand). The other person dropped it into the pila and it promptly sank to the bottom. In the process, the displaced water splashed all over the floor around it.
"Where is it?" the puzzled robber asked when he returned for the tool chest and found its spot empty..
"I didn't do anything with it," Saul said. "Maybe one of the others picked it up. You're getting behind [the other robbers]. Maybe you need to catch up with them if you want to find out who has it." The robber took him up on the suggestion and hurried away.
***********************
Another time one of the raiders included a young man whose mother was a Christian. The boy himself had lived at the orphanage for a time.
David's family was just ready for family devotions when "Fernando" arrived to ransack the office in their living quarters. David politely explained that they were just ready for devotions and would proceed as planned if that was okay. So Fernando did his dirty work against the background of Bible reading, singing, and prayer--rituals he was very familiar with from having participated in them in his childhood.
***********************
Once, after guests had arrived from the states, the robbers arrived and everyone was herded at gunpoint into a bedroom They stayed there while the house was being searched. The visiting man had the foresight to drop his wallet into the dirty clothes hamper. David had several American twenty dollar bills in his wallet.
When the robbers returned to the bedroom they asked the visitor for his money. "I don't have it," he said. They were unconvinced. "Frisk me," he finally said.
Then they turned to David and asked him for his money. David opened his wallet to reveal the twenties. "That's no good," the robber said. He didn't recognize the money or its value. (It's very different now, and American dollars can readily be used as currency.)
***********************
The very last time the guerrillas visited, they had a long conversation with David alone, outside the entrance door. They were there to extract a commitment from him to provide them with ongoing support in the form of such things as money, medicines, food, and clothing. David explained that he is working for others, and the goods he has access to are for a specific purpose--to aid the orphans--and he is not authorized to make an agreement to do something else with these things. The explanation did not set well with his listeners, and David finally agreed to inquire and have an answer for them at a specific time in the future.
The residents stayed the night yet in the orphanage and then packed up and left the next day without telling anyone where they were going--for the protection of the friends left behind. David, however, left a note for the guerrillas. Nationals who lived on the property witnessed the reaction when the guerrillas returned later and found the note, with the people gone. They were not pleased.
For about six weeks, everyone from the orphanage hid away in other villages and towns. Then the orphanage was disbanded and David and Susanna returned to the US with their young family--now increased by two older children. John and Wilbur had been allowed to enter the United States as their adopted sons--by decree of a congressional action initiated by Dan Glickman, who was a Kansas congressman at the time. If the boys had been left behind in El Salvador, they would very soon have been old enough to be eligible for military service. At that age, permission to leave there and enter here was not easily acquired. God bless Dan Glickman.
************************
Other tales from the civil war days were grisly and frightening. Once David had gone to the roof of the house to do something with the valves on the water storage tank on the roof when a bullet whizzed by. He dropped down and went inside where he instructed everyone else to get down on the floor. It was a brief conflict between guerrillas and government forces who had encountered each other close by.
Another time he and another mission worker were asked to transport an injured fighter to get medical aid. They did so, aware that being found with him in the vehicle was very risky. The man's brain was visible.
David was asked to help retrieve a woman's body after she had been shot while she had on her person money she had gotten that day from selling their family's cattle. She was known to be a guerrilla sympathizer. On that occasion, David went to the pains late in the day to get authorization from a judge to move the body. The judge didn't want to risk his life by inspecting the evidence personally, so he granted verbal permission. When the body was brought to the house of her parents, the mother checked for the two bullet holes that were the trademark of her attackers, and checked her underwear for the money she was carrying there. The money was gone.
Bodies of people who had been killed the night before were often left on the road between the orphanage and the capital. David tried hard to avoid being on the road for any reason early in the day before the bodies had been gathered up. One day, however, in the middle of the day he saw traffic ahead of him dodging objects on the road and came upon four bodies that had been dumped there. In all, at least 30,000 people were killed during El Salvador's civil war.
The carnage of war has happened in many places. Knowing people personally who were witnesses to this war is the main thing that sets it apart from others for us.
One of my favorite stories was about where they hid their money. David ran a bank of sorts out of his cash drawer. In it he kept money from the mission board, money for the children of the orphanage where they were serving, and personal money. The cash drawer was a slim drawer over a knee hole in the desk wing that had probably been used for a typewriter at one time. There was no handle on the drawer. It was opened by pulling on the front of the drawer by reaching underneath it. It was at the top right hand of the desk. The drawer was not locked.
At the front of the drawer David kept a small amount of paper money. At the very back of the drawer he had the rest of the money. When the house was ransacked, the robbers repeatedly found the money in the front of the drawer while the money at the back of the drawer remained undiscovered and safe. One time a robber asked David where the money is. David said, "In the top right hand drawer of the desk." All the money was untouched that time. The robber had apparently mistaken the drawer front for a fascia board, and looked for the money instead in the top right hand drawer of the other part of the desk. Another time a robber demanded that David show him where the money was. He opened the drawer far enough to reveal the money in the front of the drawer. The robber reached in and grabbed it and moved on.
Another time Saul was in the house when the guerrillas arrived. In a trip to the U.S., he had brought back a tool chest, filled with tools he had purchased. The robbers found it and one of them set it by the front door by which they were leaving. He stepped outside for a minute and Saul suggested to another bystander that he put the tool chest in the pila ( a large cement tank used for washing clothes by hand). The other person dropped it into the pila and it promptly sank to the bottom. In the process, the displaced water splashed all over the floor around it.
"Where is it?" the puzzled robber asked when he returned for the tool chest and found its spot empty..
"I didn't do anything with it," Saul said. "Maybe one of the others picked it up. You're getting behind [the other robbers]. Maybe you need to catch up with them if you want to find out who has it." The robber took him up on the suggestion and hurried away.
***********************
Another time one of the raiders included a young man whose mother was a Christian. The boy himself had lived at the orphanage for a time.
David's family was just ready for family devotions when "Fernando" arrived to ransack the office in their living quarters. David politely explained that they were just ready for devotions and would proceed as planned if that was okay. So Fernando did his dirty work against the background of Bible reading, singing, and prayer--rituals he was very familiar with from having participated in them in his childhood.
***********************
Once, after guests had arrived from the states, the robbers arrived and everyone was herded at gunpoint into a bedroom They stayed there while the house was being searched. The visiting man had the foresight to drop his wallet into the dirty clothes hamper. David had several American twenty dollar bills in his wallet.
When the robbers returned to the bedroom they asked the visitor for his money. "I don't have it," he said. They were unconvinced. "Frisk me," he finally said.
Then they turned to David and asked him for his money. David opened his wallet to reveal the twenties. "That's no good," the robber said. He didn't recognize the money or its value. (It's very different now, and American dollars can readily be used as currency.)
***********************
The very last time the guerrillas visited, they had a long conversation with David alone, outside the entrance door. They were there to extract a commitment from him to provide them with ongoing support in the form of such things as money, medicines, food, and clothing. David explained that he is working for others, and the goods he has access to are for a specific purpose--to aid the orphans--and he is not authorized to make an agreement to do something else with these things. The explanation did not set well with his listeners, and David finally agreed to inquire and have an answer for them at a specific time in the future.
The residents stayed the night yet in the orphanage and then packed up and left the next day without telling anyone where they were going--for the protection of the friends left behind. David, however, left a note for the guerrillas. Nationals who lived on the property witnessed the reaction when the guerrillas returned later and found the note, with the people gone. They were not pleased.
For about six weeks, everyone from the orphanage hid away in other villages and towns. Then the orphanage was disbanded and David and Susanna returned to the US with their young family--now increased by two older children. John and Wilbur had been allowed to enter the United States as their adopted sons--by decree of a congressional action initiated by Dan Glickman, who was a Kansas congressman at the time. If the boys had been left behind in El Salvador, they would very soon have been old enough to be eligible for military service. At that age, permission to leave there and enter here was not easily acquired. God bless Dan Glickman.
************************
Other tales from the civil war days were grisly and frightening. Once David had gone to the roof of the house to do something with the valves on the water storage tank on the roof when a bullet whizzed by. He dropped down and went inside where he instructed everyone else to get down on the floor. It was a brief conflict between guerrillas and government forces who had encountered each other close by.
Another time he and another mission worker were asked to transport an injured fighter to get medical aid. They did so, aware that being found with him in the vehicle was very risky. The man's brain was visible.
David was asked to help retrieve a woman's body after she had been shot while she had on her person money she had gotten that day from selling their family's cattle. She was known to be a guerrilla sympathizer. On that occasion, David went to the pains late in the day to get authorization from a judge to move the body. The judge didn't want to risk his life by inspecting the evidence personally, so he granted verbal permission. When the body was brought to the house of her parents, the mother checked for the two bullet holes that were the trademark of her attackers, and checked her underwear for the money she was carrying there. The money was gone.
Bodies of people who had been killed the night before were often left on the road between the orphanage and the capital. David tried hard to avoid being on the road for any reason early in the day before the bodies had been gathered up. One day, however, in the middle of the day he saw traffic ahead of him dodging objects on the road and came upon four bodies that had been dumped there. In all, at least 30,000 people were killed during El Salvador's civil war.
The carnage of war has happened in many places. Knowing people personally who were witnesses to this war is the main thing that sets it apart from others for us.
posted by Mrs. I at
4:32 AM
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