Yes, I vaguely remember that we were living in El Salvador during the Soccer War of 1969, which lasted not more than a week. Following an initial skirmish between Salvadoran and Honduran bombers near the airport, they turned the electricity off throughout the city at 6 p.m. in the evening and the electricity was not turned on again until the next morning. Perhaps the idea was that Honduran bombers would get lost trying to find the city. Anyway, it was good that we had a kerosene lantern and various candles on hand, although it is always good to have these things on hand in case of power outages that may last however long, maybe a few minutes, maybe hours. So in the evenings, in the darkness because there was only a lantern and some candles, we would sit outside on the patio listening to my Dad's shortwave radio. First we would hear the Salvadorans reporting that the wife of the Honduran president had fled the country with a suitcase containing all the money. Then we tuned in to a Honduran radio broadcast where they were reporting that the wife of the Salvadoran president had fled the country with a suitcase containing all the money. So it would seem that the propaganda of either side was somewhat similar mirroring each other's reports. At that time there were some conflicts on the border of which I remember nothing, only that El Salvador considered itself the winner and there was a military victory parade to celebrate the end of the war. The parade route passed down Boulevard Roosevelt, about a half a block from our back door, so we went outside to see what was the commotion. Throngs of people were crowding around to see the soldiers parading in columns and rows on the street and military vehicles and tanks and so on. My Dad took a photo of that which we probably still have somewhere. So that was what was happening at that time near our house due to geographical happenstance.
It was at about that time that we learned from the locals that the nickname for the Salvadorans is "guanaco" and the nickname for the Hondurans is "catracho." It was, as we learned, a deep-seated rivalry that dates back to time immemorial, maybe even tribal days, probably the soccer gane war was only the most recent excuse.
At that time Honduras expelled a number of Salvadorans who had been living in Honduras, so that is how we came to be acquainted with these people who were later attending the church in San Salvador. Honduras did not want them back there.
Interestingly, there was another missionary family who, their mother lived much of her childhood in Honduras, so maybe they would have a different view of that. I really never discussed that with them.
