The Floracion Story: A Timeline
2021
June 5 President Bukele announces at Miami Bitcoin conference that Bitcoin will
become legal tender in El Salvador; William and Philip Galebach report this remarkable
development from the Miami conference to their family members and friends.
Sept 7 Bitcoin Law becomes effective so that Bitcoin is legal tender in El Salvador
alongside the US Dollar.
October Steve and Diane contact her Salvadoran relatives (her US cousins Bob
and Don Strome married Salvadoran sisters Elena and Julia in 1990); Don and Julia
agree to join and guide the Galebachs’ first ever trip to El Salvador, to be arranged for
January or February 2022.
2022
Jan 17 Steve Galebach sends a FedEx letter to ES Ambassador Milena Mayorga
in DC, explaining that his tech clientele are heavily into Bitcoin and are interested in
exploring opportunities to develop crypto-related technology in El Salvador.
Jan 24 Ambassador Mayorga’s staff member Carlos Guirola calls Steve and
schedules a staff level call for the following week.
Jan 27 ES embassy staff explain in a call with Steve and Diane that ES is now a
land of economic freedom seeking to build a vibrant tech economy; Carlos offers to set
up a follow-up call with Ambassador Mayorga.
February Two successive scheduled calls with Ambassador Mayorga are canceled
at last minute; Diane’s cousin Don Strome, who had lived 5 years in El Salvador as
American Airlines’ country manager, advises that such cancellations of business calls
are routine in El Salvador so don’t be discouraged.
​
Feb 14 Steve and Diane fly to Hungary in an effort, albeit unsuccessful, to help
their oldest son and his family get out of Ukraine before war breaks out.
Feb 19 Steve and Diane, in a weekend side trip to Salzburg Austria, have a
chance encounter with Bernadette Lang, the most impressive personality in Austria’s
Sunday morning church broadcasts, which the Galebachs had tuned into regularly when
Boston’s churches were closed during Covid time.
Feb 20 Diane and Steve spend 3 hours with Bernadette in a Salzburg restaurant
and, upon mentioning El Salvador, learn that Berna has been praying for El Salvador
regularly for the previous 8 years, after learning about its high murder rate and the effect
on young people there.
Feb 23 Diane and Steve fly home to Boston from Budapest Hungary, while their
son and his family remain in their home outside Kyiv Ukraine.
Feb 24 Bernadette joins us online in praying for a safe exit for our son Tim and his
family as they drive out of Ukraine on the first day of the war.
Feb 26 Diane suggests an idea for tech companies moving to El Salvador to
donate a portion of their profits for the benefit of the Salvadoran people. Steve
develops her idea into a one-pager for Ambassador Mayorga. Bernadette reviews it
and highlights the sentence about providing clean water, clean food, and clean air.
Mar 1 Zoom call with Ambassador Mayorga. Don Strome is invited but connects
late and is not admitted. Bernadette is invited to listen in; toward the end of the call she
shares a prophetic word, “the harvest is ready”; Ambassador Mayorga responds
enthusiastically, inviting the Galebachs and Berna to El Salvador for a meeting with her
and Ibrajim Bukele, the Presidente’s brother who handles tech and economic
development matters.
Mar 19 Steve and Diane meet Berna in Mexico City and fly together to ES.
Mar 20 Steve, Diane and Berna go to Atami Resort on El Salvador’s Pacific coast.
As night falls at the clifftop Atami restaurant, they get a WhatsApp message from Don
Strome’s Salvadoran sister-in-law Marisa, who invites them to visit that evening at her
vacation home in the Atami Resort compound.
Mar 21 Meeting with Jessica Bukele, Javier Galdamez and staffers of ES foreign
ministry about Steve’s tech clients and prospects for them if they set up operations in El
Salvador.
Mar 21 Lunch with Esau Rosa, his fiancee, Ana and their friend Francisco.
Mar 22 Diane and Berna meet Diego Villeda, co-founder of Bitcoin Life, on a bus
trip to Berlin in eastern ES to tour the geothermal electric plant and Bitcoin mining
trailer, in a tour led by Jessica Bukele.
Mar 23 Meeting with Ibrajim Bukele in Casa Presidencial, followed by meeting
with Minister Kattan, Amb Mayorga, CZ, Brock Pierce, and others to discuss how to
develop a crypto economy in El Salvador.
Mar 23 Lunch at Punto Corazon in the heart of Colonia Iberia, the most
dangerous neighborhood of the capital, ruled by MS-13 and B-18, at the invitation of
missionaries who have operated there unscathed for many years; they offer us a lunch
of shepherd’s pie, Diane’s favorite dish from childhood.
Mar 24 Diane and Steve have lunch with Diego Villeda, his brother Mauricio,
co-founders of Bitcoin Life El Salvador, and their colleague Juan Carlo.
Mar 26 During a barbecue with 10 of Diane’s Salvadoran relatives at their Atami
vacation house, Don Strome send a WhatsApp message saying that 62 people have
been murdered that day by gangs, the highest number since the end of the El Salvador
civil war in 1992.
Mar 27 Steve sees online that an extraordinary session of the El Salvador
legislature has, overnight, authorized the arrest and pre-trial detention of all gang
members.
April-May Phil Galebach spends five weeks in Salzburg Austria getting to know
Bernadette Lang and her friends.
​
April-May Steve Galebach interviews Salvadoran lawyers recommended by Javier
Galdamez and engages Reynaldo Vasquez as Salvadoran counsel for setting up ES
companies for Steve’s tech clients.
May Phil Galebach travels to El Salvador with William Ball and Trent Gillham,
two of Steve’s clients; Jessica Bukele and Javier Galdamez meet with them at Atami
Resort to discuss tech and business development opportunities.
May Diane and Steve, in a visit to Salzburg, recruit Bernadette Lang to be
co-founder of a new non-profit foundation in El Salvador. Phil Galebach agrees to serve
as executive director.
June William Ball, Esau Rosa, and Mauricio Villeda agree to be directors of the
new foundation.
Summer Phil Galebach finds Cielo House available for rent. The name of Floracion
Foundation is agreed upon by the directors. Diego Villeda joins Floracion as a Director.
Summer Reynaldo Vasquez suggests drafting a DAO (decentralized autonomous
organizations) law for ES patterned on the Wyoming DAO law of 2021.
July Steve and Diane review the DAO law proposal with Berna and Phil, and
they agree to sponsor the idea as a Floracion proposal for tech development in ES.
July Jessica Bukele and Javier Galdamez review Steve and Reynaldo’s outline
proposal for a DAO law for ES and forward it to others in the ES government.
August Reynaldo and Steve do a two-hour call with the Casa Presidencial legal
team to explain the DAO law in detail.
Sep 14 Reynaldo and Steve meet with Ibrajim Bukele and get his agreement to
recommend the DAO law for ES to his brother the President
Sep 23 Steve tells hundreds of Urbiters at their “Assembly” convention in Miami
Beach that the ES government is considering possibly enacting a DAO law; one-third of
the audience raises their hands when asked if they are likely to be involvedin a DAO
project in the upcoming year and would consider ES as a home jurisdiction if ES enacts
a DAO law similar to Wyoming’s.
Oct 1 Phil Galebach begins lease of Cielo House
Oct 2 Mauricio and Diego Villeda hold a launch event for their new Bitcoin Life
activities, at Cielo House. First big party of many to come at Cielo House. Phil
encourages Steve and Diane to commit major time to El Salvador.
Oct Floracion executive director, Esau Rosa, suggests that Floracion start a
Food for Families project to help women and children who are on the verge of starvation
in several communities where their breadwinners have been incarcerated for gang
activity. First food delivery provides a month of food for families in five communities.
November Second Food for Families delivery
Nov 22 President Bukele transmits to the ES legislature a proposed Digital Assets
Law that goes well beyond Floracion’s proposed DAO law by setting up a Digital Assets
Commission to review and authorize digital assets projects, as well as provisions to
cover Bitcoin-related development in El Salvador.
2023
January El Salvador legislature enacts the Digital Assets Law.
Jan 13 Floracion directors meet at Monroy accountants’ office to sign the
application papers to the ES government for approval as a non-profit organization.
Jan 14 “Transform Conference” with tech talks by Ted Blackman, Jake Hamilton
and Phil Galebach, as well as musical praise time led by Berna, two friends of hers from
Germany-Austria, and a Salvadoran band.
March Steve meets Patrick McGlynn, who becomes one of the three directors of
the new Digital Assets Commission.
​
May 8 Dinner party at Cielo House to plan the “Concert of Nations” for July 4, first
meeting of Diane and Steve with Gabby Torres
June 6 Diane and Steve fly to Salzburg to meet with the musicians and production
team for the July 4 Concert of Nations - including Veronika and Sebastian Lohmer, Mike
Breneis, and Berna.
Spring-Summer Tech talks at ES universities presented by Jake Hamilton, Esau
Rosa, Mauricio and Diego Villeda, Gabby Torres, and Phil Galebach.
July 4 Concert of Nations at El Encanto Country Club in ES, with Salvadoran
band live, and livestreams from Salzburg Kapitelplatz and Kansas City’s Ethiopian
Gospel Chorus of America.
July 28 Gabriela Torres joins Floracion Foundation as a Director.
August Floracion Directors continue giving tech talks to computer science,
business, and communications students at Salvadoran Universities including Gabriela’s
alma mater Don Bosco University.
September Luncheon meeting where Steve and Diane first meet Nancy Rivard,
founder of Airline Ambassadors non-profit, and Helga Flores, executive director of the
Siman Foundation of ES; the luncheon was sponsored by Patrick McGlynn, co-founding
commissioner of the Digital Assets Commission of El Salvador.
​
December Bernice Galebach visits ES with her daughter Anastasia; they tour
a house that Diane envisions as a “Welcome House” for children and families coming to
El Salvador.
2024
Feb 3 Floracion’s Unity in Action conference at El Encanto, with Berna and
Susanna from Salzburg, Airline Ambassadors, Siman Foundation, and dozens of
university students who volunteer with these charities.
​
February Berna meets a surfing instructor, Caesar, on beach at Atami, who gives
her a walking tour of the nearby Palmercito Village and points out Andy, a little who has
both parents in jail for gang activity and is cared for on a rotating basis by village
residents.
February Floracion’s Directors decide to focus on the “littlest” - when a family orients
itself toward helping the littlest member, everyone does well.
Feb 24 Berna recruits Art Helps to come to El Salvador, when its co-founder
Yasemin Lupo attends a conference chaired by Berna in Salzburg.
May 20 Art Helps team of 7 visits ES for 11 days sponsored by Floracion.
May 22 Diane and Steve meet Nicole and Jorge Dardano at the kickoff dinner
party for Art Helps and Floracion at Chantelle and Jack Kruse’s home at El Encanto.
May 24 Art Helps team led by Stefan Kunz paints a HOPE wall at El Zonte.
May 25 Art activity with children at Palmercito Beach led by Art Helps team.
May 26 Meeting of Floracion and Art Helps with Dave and Nancy Rivard at their
beach house at Barra de Santiago.
May 28 Art Helps and Floracion are featured guests and presenters at a
celebration event at the public Benecke school in Palmercito village.
August Adele Galebach Dittus visits ES with her two boys and leads art projects
for children at Palmercito beach and Jorge and Nicole Dardano’s Finca Santa Lucia
outside Comasagua.
September Dinner meeting of the Directors of Floracion with Dave and Nancy Rivard.
October Diane and Steve visit Stuttgart with Jorge and Nicole and discuss together
with Yasemin and Tom the idea of starting a creative hub at Finca Santa Lucia.
​
October Diane, Steve and Berna have dinner with Stefan and Caronline Kunz in
Zug Switzerland and together do a Zoom call with Jorge and Nicole to plan further
activities for and with children in El Salvador.
October Diane and Steve have lunch with Veronika Lohmer in Augsburg Germany
November First of three soccer tournaments for children organized by Esau Rosa
and Floracion for La Libertad, next Comasagua, and then Belo Horizonte.
December At the third soccer tournament, elders of Belo Horizonte tell Esau this is
the first time that children from both sides of the town have interacted, because the two
sides were previously ruled by two different gangs.
December Floracion sponsors a Santa Claus visit to the home for abandoned elderly
in Zaragoza, which Floracion Directors have supported with repeated visits.
2025
January Berna and Diane join two teams sponsored by Floracion to do
house-by-house surveys for distribution of household water filters. Both experience
their best day ever in ES because of the joy in meeting with Salvadorans in their homes
despite abject poverty.
Jan-Feb Diane starts supplying water, food, and baby supplies to a new mama and
her family in one of the surveyed households. Over the following months Floracion
experiments in making a hopeless situation survivable for this large family.
Apr 22 Diane presents her vision for a “Welcome Unschool” at her birthday party
with two dozen guests at a lovely dinner put on by Lisselot Traconis and her Gente
Ayudando Gente non-profit organization.
May Nine young people from a discipleship program based in Salzburg come
to ES for 10 days. Epic relationship formed between ES and Salzburg Home Church
led by Patrick Knittelfelder and Berna.
​
May Jorge and Nicole and their two adult children meet Berna on Pentecost
Sunday at Home Church events in Salzburg.
September Jorge and Nicole agree that their Finca Santa Lucia can be the site of the
first Welcome Unschool Food Forest.
Oct 11 Esau and Ana Rosa assess three communities in Comasagua for water
filter distribution and confirm Finca Santa Lucia to be within walking distance of many
children in the Comasagua area.
October Daniella Acuna begins designing the first Welcome Unschool Food Forest,
to be developed at Jorge and Nicole’s Finca Santa Lucia.
Nov 18 Ana Rosa joins Floracion Foundation as a Director.
Dec 3 Esau and Ana Rosa conduct an art workshop for children in Comasagua,
where Floracion has started and English school and has started distributing household
water filters.
Dec 3 Floracion Directors Mauricio and Diego Villeda support the annual
Christmas celebration for residents of the home for abandoned elderly in Zaragoza,
which occurs at States Diner in the capital.
Dec 31 Esau and Ana Rosa spend New Year’s Eve with children in the La
Libertad orphanage.