Monday,  January 18, Val and I traveled to Centro Arte para la Paz (Center of Art for Peace), where we will conduct an AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) facilitator training at the end of the week. The Centro is PLA’s (Peacebuilding en las Américas) primary partner in Suchitoto. Their activities include art, music and photography projects for youth and adults, neighborhood celebrations, parent education, and a variety of workshop on cooperation and peace.

The Centro is housed in the former Santa Imelda convent.  For over 60 years this was the site of a girls’ high school, until civil war forced the school to close and the site to be abandoned. Classrooms and dorms have been restoration over the past three years, creating a lovely site for meetings, including the Suchitoto Quaker worship group.

Our primary contact at the Centro is Sister Peggy O’Neil. She is a whirlwind of activity, meeting with a visitor, directing a volunteer and responding to an urgent e-mail, all within a matter of minutes. Yet she has a gift for giving full attention to each person she is with at the moment.

A former theology professor, Sister Peggy came to Suchitoto in 1988 to help support war refugee resettlement. Her early ministry and “vision of a faith that does justice” is described in a paper called "The Sisters Came and Took Away Our Fear." The story provides moving descriptions of El Salvador in the 80’s.

FPT is honored to collaborate with Sister Peggy in our joint ministry of healing and peace-building. Look for our next posting when we will be reporting on the training for facilitators.   

And to close – our humor for today – overheard during one of Val and Margaret’s bedtime conversations: “When I don’t have my earplugs in I’m a slightly better listener.”