Sunday, October 25, 2015

October 23, 2015

A different way.  We got up this morning getting ready to go to the funeral of Bro.  Rogerio, father of Bro. Jose Manuel who is one of our members here in Juayua.  We planned to leave about 9 because we thought the funeral would be at 10 in Ahuachapan.  We got a call about 8:40 that the procession had already left the family home and would be at the cemetery at 9:30.  We got everyone picked up and headed out as soon as possible but got behind some slow traffic on the curvy road between Ataco and Ahuachapan so we were not there till about ten.  We parked outside the central Ahuachapan cemetery and had to walk to the very back to get to the funeral service.  The cemetery was very large and very pretty though also very different from cemeteries here.  When we finally reached the place where the funeral was they were pretty much wrapping up the speaking part.  After that the casket was placed in a multi part burial edifice that was not like anything I had seen before.  Hopefully the pictures do justice.  When the body was in place in its space bricks and mortar were put in to close it in and then the name of the man and when he died was written in the wet concrete that was spread over the bricks and mortar.  All this process took about an hour and we waited until it was done.   Then several of us got into the back of Bro. Noe’s pickup and rode back to the front of the cemetery.  Sister Rosalidia, brother Jose Manuel’s wife and their two kids had ridden with us from Juayua but they stayed with Bro. Jose so we did not have anyone in our car. Sister Regina did talk to us for a few minutes regarding her surgery.  Soon she will have another doctor's appointment to finalize the date, but she is planning to have the surgery sometime in November.  School will get out soon and she will have Arnoldo, Lizbeth and Kenya all at home during the school break to help her. Then, we decided it would be a good time to run by the Ahuachapan Selectos since it is larger than the one in Juayua and has more selection.  We also went into Curacao which is a large furniture chain here in El Salvador because we wanted to look at their stoves.  The one Caleb and Della passed on to us is small but was fine. But now the door doesn’t close and the oven burner doesn’t work anymore.  We decided a larger and better equipped one would be a good investment considering all the cooking Charlotte does.  When we got home we spent the afternoon getting ready for Omar, Emily and Gisela to come for dinner.  Sometimes Charlotte seems to outdo even herself with each meal being more amazing than the last.  I went to run a couple of errands and pick them up about 5.  We had a great visit and after dinner we had about an hour Bible study.  Omar diligently took notes of all the verses.  We had thought Charlotte was going to be in Santa Tecla doing a ladies seminar for Saturday but we called Ricardo on the way home from the funeral and found out that it had been changed to next Saturday.  That meant that Charlotte would be here for the Saturday night marriage class we began last week so we stayed up till about midnight getting ready for the class since we have a lot going on Saturday.  Funny thing, Fridays are supposed to be our rest days now.  Maybe next week.


Entry to Ahuachapan


Lasst Moments with Family


Burial Sites


Slide in the Casket and Seal


Man Selling Ice Cream at Funeral


Sealing the Tomb



First Bricks, then Morter on the Outside


Man would sling concrete at bricks and then smooth it.


Writing of the name on wet concrete.


Can't see this too well, but it reads 11/09/15 on the date.
At first glance, reaction is that date hasn't passed yet and it is sealed. 
At second thought for us, that is 9/11/15. 
That is an important date for many.



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