Adjusting

What have I been doing now that I'm home?
- throwing my toilet paper into the toilet - not the garbage
- driving my car
- singing along to English music
- missing Spanish music
- eating everything in the fridge! Had a sandwich for breakfast, because I can!
- talking a lot (English is so much easier than Spanish)

That's the fun stuff. Otherwise I've been making lots of appointments and have been shocked twice now by the cost of 1) a haircut, and 2) toiletries at Walmart. sigh. I'm going to have to start working at this rate.

OH! And I have not put any bug spray on since I have been home!

I'm Home

My flight out of El Salvador would be leaving at 7:45 am. I woke up at 4, we (2 Sister's, Gina, and I) left the school at 5. Arrived at the airport at 5:50. Airport doesn't open until 6. Became flustered at my missing guitar, but relieved when Don Francesco (the driver) brought it to me after forgetting to unload it with my other luggage. Said my goodbye's to Gina, Sor Guillen and Sor Olinda who gave me a souvenir plate with the national bird painted on it and some coconut candies which they both know I love!

As I passed through security, the Immigration station told me I had to pay a fine for being illegal. The officer was trying to break it to my easy so I just told her that I knew about the fine and explained why I didn't have a Visa. She only charged me $60 instead of $114.29 saying that since I had volunteered without pay she wouldn't make me pay the whole amount. :) Needless to say, I like her.

A series of 3 flights, customs, checking and rechecking my baggage, and running around airports followed, until 10 hours later I found my mom and gave her a bear hug!

I woke up this morning in my own bed. It felt normal and decidedly weird as well. I ate breakfast with my pajamas on - a luxury I had forgotten about. I also did what I have been avoiding for the past 6 months - I weighed myself. 15 lbs heavier! Well, that gives me something to work on now that I'm home. :)

Deep thoughts to follow.

La Ultima Vez

My last blog from El Salvador. I leave in the morning!!

It hasn´t hit me that I´m leaving for good. I´m sure it will come pretty soon. Maybe when I´m on the plane.

Gonna miss the community of volunteers here. I have had a great time getting to know Gina and Jodi and traveling around with Gina has been great. We spent the night camping on a mountain we hiked with a couple other volunteers in Santa Ana last weekend. How I miss campfires and campfire stories!

Today the Sister´s took Gina and I to view ruins (Joya de Cerén) in Sonsonante. Which would have been great, if they were open. Mondays are their day off. Instead, not wanting to give up so early in the game, we hopped on Ruta de los Naranjos and basically toured the western half of the country. (El Occidente) Luckily, I packed and organized everything in my room this morning, because we didn´t get back until 9pm tonight. Those crazy ladies, once you get them outside the school, they don´t want to go back! :) I´m gonna miss them.

I´m leaving El Salvador much lighter than when I came - luggage wise. Most of my clothing and toiletries will be remaining in the country. I´m leaving them for the local Vides group to give on Saturday when they go out to help those most affected by Hurricane Ida.

Speaking of which, to date I have received $232.00 in donations!!!
Thank you to everyone who has donated! The Sister´s really appreciate the money and I told them I would be sure to send more later, so your help is still needed!

See you soon!

Hurricane Ida

Wow. I´ve never been in a hurricane before, or seen a landslide, or cement walls knocked down by a river - but now I have. I spent this weekend at the beach - El Tunco - with Gina, and Saturday night Hurrican Ida passed over Honduras and a Tropical Depression on the Pacific side sat right over El Salvador.

This resulted in a lot of rain. The usually tepid and stinky river converted into rapids and shot into the ocean with cannonball force. Trees, rocks, and cemented walls fell under the constant and intense beating of the river. El Tunco faired pretty well in the end with only a few shaky patios due to the river sweeping away their foundations.

Across the country, some areas were effected worse than others. Bridges were knocked down, towns flooded, landslides across roads, in Illopongo a piece of the mountain slid across a town killing many people. The death count is around 200 right now and there are still hundreds of people missing. I can´t imagine what it´s like in Honduras.

Relief and government agencies are out in force right now rebuilding and giving aid to those left without homes and/or loved ones. The Sisters are going to head out to help when the initial rush of aid has calmed down. According to Sor Olinda, once all the initial aid peeters out, the people still need help to re-establish their lives, but the help has all gone home. So that is when they will go.

Now, more than ever, your donations will have a huge impact on not only helping others but saving lives as well. Please take a moment to donate $5, $10, $15, or more. Heck, that´s just one visit to the movie theatre, and here it could buy food for a family for a week. 100% of all donations go directly to the Sister´s.

Thank you again!!

Ladrones

3rd time this year. Ladrones. (robbers) They have stolen 3 computers from the school this year. One belonged to me. The other two came from the computer lab of the school. Those two were desktop computers - a bit more difficult to move. The Sister´s were discussing this at breakfast this morning, trying to narrow down who could have stolen them. The computers, while about $300 in the States, cost about $500 here. Everything electronic is more expensive here. And the people have so much less. Ridiculous.

It all boils down to keys: who had access, who could have copied them, who do the dogs know and so wouldn´t attack if they came in the night, etc. The Sister´s are talking about putting a surveillance camera in the computer lab. Good idea, though it will be pricey.

I asked why they don´t call the police. Corrupt police. They did call the police last year when a computer was stolen, and it resulted in nothing. Apparently they are corrupt and inefficient.

It´s frustrating to think that anyone would steal from Religious Sister´s or a school for poor children. However, the workers at the school, and the community around the school, have much less than the Sister´s, and suddenly the stealing isn´t so difficult to imagine. Still frustrating.

Just another reason why your donations are so important and needed. Don´t worry that your money will ever be spent frivolously here. Too many urgent needs to be met first.

A big Thank You to everyone who has already donated!

Low Key

So, the Hot Springs were not, in fact, hot springs. They were pools. It was a water park. It had 4 pools, one had a big loopy slide, one was a kiddie pool that never got deeper than my knees, one a normal lap pool - minus the lanes for swimming - and then there was the pool built so the natural running river fed into and then out of it. That was a fun pool because the river flowed down a natural waterfall that we could climb and then sit under the falling water. Nothing heated though. Very casual water. It was interesting to note that the shallow sections of the pools were packed with people, while the deep sections rarely had people in them. Very few people know how to swim in El Salvador. According to the girls, no money or time to spend on swimming classes.

Today was Day of the Dead. Like Mexico, it is celebrated here; but unlike Mexico, it is not celebrated to the same extent. Everyone goes to the cemeteries en masse, with purchased flowers to decorate the graves of loved ones. No sugared candy skulls, or coffins, or parades, or fancy pants stuff like that.

Hot Springs

Yeah! Tomorrow I´m going with the local VIDES group to some natural forming hot springs, this should be great! So why am I so tense?

I´ve been thinking about this quite a bit, and I´ve come to the realization that I don´t like this particular Sister who heads up VIDES and will be going as well. I always feel edgy around her, like she is looking for something from me, but I don´t know what and I can´t give it to her. Makes me feel incredibly weird and uncomfortable. So I avoid her. This works really well because she is never at the house - she spends most of her days at home taking care of her father and visits the school on occasion.

This week, however, she has been at the school, and I have been avoiding her, except when necessary to communicate. I´m not sure what about her fills me with such unrest, I have a lot of ideas, but I´ll leave it at that. I´ll be happy when she heads back home.

Goodbye Jodi

Jodi is going home. Today. At noon. So in about 40 minutes if the plane takes off on time. I know it´s different here from what we´re used to and I´m not the nicest person to be around, but I didn´t think she´d actually leave!

Actually, it´s not that at all. I am a great person and I can´t imagine anyone not wanting to be where I am. :) Something came up at home, she had to go, I´ll let her explain if she wants on her blog. However, we are one volunteer short now and even though she has only been here 1 month, her absence is felt. It is for me anyway. I like her. Chances are good I´ll be gone before she returns and I didn´t even say goodbye. So, goodbye Jodi. Take care. You and your family are in my prayers.

On the plus side, exams are done for me! Now I just need to grade them. icky!

New Pictures

I´ve finally added some new photos! Check them out the slideshow on the sidebar.

Nearing the End

Have you ever done this? You´re in a situation where items or comforts you are used to are denied you. You know that for the time being, there is nothing you can do about this, so you tell yourself to forget those things and simply focus on what you have. I´ve been doing that for the last 9 months and it really hit me today in the supermarket.

Gina, Jodi, and I went to the supermarket to pick up party items for the End of the Year/Birthday Party (for those whose birthdays are not during the school year) for the Interna´s. As we walked through the food aisles to pick up a few snacks for ourselves I suddenly realized how tired I am of crackers, nuts, and peanut butter(easy foods to keep stored in your room) and everything else looked sooooo appetizing!

I walked by Eggos in the freezer section and longed for Eggos; I walked by broccoli and longed for a veggie platter with veggie dip; I walked by All Bran Flakes and longed to take it home with me. I long to prepare meals again, because meals are so much more satisfying when prepared yourself. (even macaroni and cheese!)

So, my self denial is really starting to fall apart. I hope I can keep myself busy enough these last weeks to hide this fact from myself.

Soyapongo Thriller Dance

Right now, Immediately, go to Gina´s blog and watch the video she and Jodi put together of the teacher´s dancing to MJ´s Thriller! Too funny. She compiled the best dance moments, which is too bad because the other moments were hilarious! Not that the good moments are all that good! Ha ha! So much fun. Watch it, watch it!

Liturgical Dance

I don´t think I ever mentioned this, but we have liturgical dancers at the school. Isn´t that awesome! I remembered today because we had mass this morning and between the first reading and the Gospel, 6 girls danced up the aisle for a short song. They wore petal shaped skirts of different pastel colors with a matching ribbon in their hair. With graceful arcs and steps they flowed to the front of the congregation where they completed their dance. This isn´t the first time they´ve danced, just the first time I thought to mention it.

Haven´t we all wanted to be liturgical dancers at some point in our life?

WIND!

It is officially the windy season here in El Salvador. I can even tell you that it started at 9:57pm Sunday, the 18th of October. That is when a really strong blast of wind ripped through my bedroom. This would not be so unusual if a fairly large and loud thunderstorm then followed, but the amount of rain and noise was not proportional to the strength of the wind.

Since then, the wind has not stopped. Slamming doors abound on the campus and I remember that it was windy when I first came here as well. So I guess the wind will last for about 3-4 months.

Oh, and it´s ¨cold¨ now too! Last night I wore my pajama pants, put socks on, and wished for a second blanket. It got down to 73 degrees! Just goes to show what constant heat will do to a person. Yeah, pretty sure I´m going to turn into a Popsicle when I get home!

And last but not least - I purchased my plane ticket home yesterday! It felt very nice. It is for the 17th of November. I plan to travel to the coast of Honduras the week prior to leaving and learn how to scuba dive off the coral reef there. :) And I´m taking the new volunteers with me! We´ll have a grand time.

A New Lake

Sor Margarita Guillen´s room flooded last night! What it flooded from she didn´t say. She has a second story room, right above the general work room with the computer. When I went in this morning to drop off my bag before dinner I noticed a large puddle coming from the bathroom (it used to be a bedroom, but they converted it to a work room) and water dripping from the ceiling in there. I then went to breakfast.

The Sister´s were discussing it and I didn´t really listen until I realized Sor Guillen saying it wasn´t a broken pipe, her bedroom is flooded and the water is leaking through. Ohhhhh! I went into the work room after breakfast to grab my toothbrush and now there is another leak right in front of the door! The bell just rang for Buenos Dias in the gym, but I´m going to use a few minutes to move all my stuff over to my room - just in case the ceiling falls in.

Baleadas

Have I mentioned Baleadas before? If so, they deserve a second mention. They are the typical food of Honduras, but we get to enjoy them here in El Salvador as well. Yea!

Gina, Jodi, and I just helped Elizabeth prepare a dinner of baleadas. I spread the dough for the big tortillas (not made like regular tortillas) and after I tried to flip a few on the hot comal, relinquished that job to Jodi because I´m a woose and complained of burned fingers. No worries, I´m an excellent spreader of dough, so I did that. The beans were already prepared. Tortilla, beans, and cream. Umm... So simple, but sooooo good!

I´ve added this to my recipe collection. I´ve been collecting recipes here! I now have, um... 3. Okay, so I haven´t really been diligent in collecting recipes or learning how to cook the staples here, but I do have Pupusa´s, the sauce to put on Pupusa´s, Tortilla´s, and now Baleada´s. I figure that´s all I need. I´m hoping to be able to find and buy the cheese we have here. Everything else is fried.

Clouds

Sorry for the break in posting. To make up a bit, check out the blog of Gina Chavez (I have a link in the right sidebar). She is one of the new volunteers here (Jodi is the other) and she has a video camera, so has posted some videos of the school to her blog. And she shows the ¨pila,¨ the place where we wash our clothes! Very exciting stuff. ;p

I have always had a fascination with clouds. Especially big cumulus clouds. El Salvador has the best clouds. All around the mountains (which I can see from my room) the clouds pile up in immense, soft, towering pillars that dwarf the mountains below them. My theory is this: the clouds were cruising along single file through the sky. Because of the lack of restrictions in their travel, none of them paid much attention to the clouds around them or where they were going. A kind of road hypnosis of the sky. Suddenly, one of them crashes into this invisible wall of air created by the sudden height differentiation of the mountains, the rest don´t notice before it is too late and they all crash into the cloud in front of them, the clouds billowing up higher and higher at each crash!

And then there are the storm clouds. As if storms alone weren´t cool enough, these storms know how to make an entrance! First, the purple, gray clouds appear and grow in the distance. As they plod across the sky the front runners are lit from behind by lighting flaring deep inside the tumultuous core. Working up a frenzy in their approach, branching lightning jumps outside the thick clouds, reaching to escape, only to be drawn back again by the covetous cumulus.
After that the rain starts in a torrent and I have to close the windows, so I can´t see anything. Which isn´t a big deal since the clouds are indistinct after that point anyway.

Yeah, I like clouds.

Thriller

All of the teachers from the school, including the 2 new volunteers and myself have just attempted to re-enact Michael Jackson´s Thriller for el Día de los Niños. The potential for this to be something good was there: we had practiced the dance (somewhat modified) each day this past week and our zombie makeup looked great!

It started with ¨MJ¨ dancing with his girlfriend, just like in the video. They come to the graveyard, the music changes, and the zombies stationed around the gymnasiasm begin to rise from the ground. Children scream as the bedraggled, white faced, vacant eyed, zombies stagger to the stage. The dance begins. Screams change to crys of delight. The one leg drag shuffle forward, the head jerk, and suddenly the spastic movements turn into smooth dancing zombies.

Those girls were screaming their heads off! And crowding in really close on our dance space. Because of this, our dance brought us right up to the girls sitting in the front, and no one could step out in front to lead the dance. I kind of lead the first part of the dance since I was front and center of our two rows, but once we changed sides, I danced on the end of the line and no one knew what to do next. So our dance fell apart. We all came together again for a few dance moves and people randomly chose moves, and when the music finally ended we staggered off into our changing room.

Good or bad, it didn´t matter to the students, they loved it! Really, in what school in the States would this ever happen? It is soooo much fun!

A Few Things

1) I will never get tired of watching the storms roll in each day. As the clouds gather and build in the distance, lighting jumps around inside, lighting them from the inside. I watch while the storm approaches, the daylight fades, and the lightning becomes brighter as it branches outside the clouds in a fascinating display that holds me to the slanted windows until the sudden deluge of rain forces me to close the windows.

2)Gina, one of the new volunteers, is a musician and plays the guitar and sings for the girls. I love listening to her and playing/singing with her! She is very talented and you can check out her music at
http://www.myspace.com/ginachavez
She´s definitely worth a listen!

3)I killed a giant cockroach in my shower last night. I didn´t even know it was there until after my shower - imagine my surprise. It was a triumphant moment because usually Solidea would kill my cockroaches (though, to be honest, that only happened one time). Proof that the Lord only gives us challenges which we can handle. ;)

4)I believe the storm with Cecibel and Solidea´s Facebook photos is finally blowing itself out. Solidea accepted Cecibel as her friend on Facebook once she got back to Italy. Cecibel immediately perused her photos and found many photos of El Salvador. Not so unusual. What upset her were the photos of the ¨Poor People¨ and she felt this robbed the people of their dignity and made fun of El Salvador. I would like to point out that these photos did not depict people in a bad light, but merely doing tasks which they do on a daily basis.

She had MANY complaints about various photos and what it all boiled down to is that she now hates Solidea.

I talked it over with a few other people (and I showed others the photos as well to see if they were offended, I know Solidea wouldn´t purposely try to paint a bad light of El Salvador - but they weren´t offended. In fact, they didn´t think much of it at all.) and the school psychologist said it could be that because Cecibel misses Solidea so much, she is looking for a reason to dislike her, so it doesn´t hurt so much now that she´s gone.

I went through the photos with Cecibel. We went over the comments(in Italian) and what they meant so she´s not upset about those anymore, and while she is still upset about the photos, she doesn´t hate me anymore. Yes, she said I was like Solidea and so disliked me as well for a couple days.

We had quite the argument yesterday, but I wouldn´t change my position that the photos in no way are meant to offend, and she walked off in a huff. But later that night she gave me an exhausted and apologetic hug, so she likes me again.

I know this is hard for her, so I´m trying to be understanding, but at the same time standing firm in the truth, because she needs to see that just because she wants to hate Solidea, doesn´t mean that she can contort the truth. She needs to accept her pain and learn how to cope with it.
Not sure I´m the best person to help her with this, but it would seem I am the one here to do it. Keep us in your prayers!

Happy Birthday??

Let me see if I can do this awkward moment justice in the retelling. Yesterday was the birthday of Sor Margarita Roman. No one remembered except for Jodi, one of the new volunteers, who pointed it out at breakfast (there is a paper with everyone´s birthdays posted on the wall). ¨OH!¨ came the response once Sor Roman had left the room.

For lunch, the Sister´s put out the placemat, set flowers and a balloon in Sor Roman´s spot at the table. Sor Roman came in, got her food (as the Sister´s got out the guitar to sing happy birthday), came back into the dining room and purposely set her food down at another seat, claimed her silverware and glass from the seat with the placemat and flowers, and brought them to the other seat.

Filled with a deep sense of purpose that will not be thwarted by lack of eye contact or general acknowlegement, the Sisters sang their happy birthday songs to, well, each other. Sor Roman prepared her food with seasonings to her taste and began to eat as though she were the only one in the room. Although, even people who eat alone will look around them with a bit of a far away look in their eye as they ponder one thought or another. Sor only concentrated on her food, and when the music ended she said a somewhat appreciative thank you to her soup, and that was the end of that.

El Día Típico

Today there will be many students, parents, and friends, not to mention teachers, at the school as we celebrate El Día Típico. On this day, family and students come to prepare and sell typical foods of El Salvador. This should be very exciting as there are still many foods I have not tried.

It will also be good for other reasons: 1)The students will be here and I love talking to them outside of class and 2) their are 3 volunteers now so we can split each item so we don´t get full on one and try bunches!

I´ve really enjoyed showing them around and helping them get settled. It´s been a lot of work that left me really tired and a bit disoriented last week (I kept wearing the wrong uniform for each day and would plan classes for the wrong day), but there is so much to show them and I only have a month before I head home. At least we´ve made it outside one day this week, so they know where the post office, one supermarket, and the closest mall are. They also now know where to take the interna´s to watch a movie, play basketball, and how and when to approach Sor Marg. Roman to get permission to do these things with the interna´s. :) Every task has it´s challenges.

I hope to be able to show them around San Salvador a bit more so they can get familiar with the busses and how to get to the most necessary places. Now that I have more energy again, I´m really looking forward to this. I´m also hoping to be able to have one or two classes plan a haunted house! Wouldn´t that be perfect?

Short on Time

There is only a month left of school! Wow. When did that happen?

With the new volunteers here I am showing them all around school, how to wash clothes, when meals are, coordinating time with the internas, showing them how to do Buenas Noches with the girls, explaining meal times, and taking them outside the school as well to the post office and supermarkets. I´m still teaching all my classes and there is always a volunteer with me now to learn how the classrooms and school system works since they may be teaching next year. This has been nice because now I have help grading again! :)

The girls, Jodi and Gina, are really nice and fun to be around, but I still miss Solidea.

We also talked about Visa´s today. The girls are debating applying for a residency visa. They know it would be a lot of paperwork and they are going to travel with their parents to Costa Rica around Christmas - which is right at the end of their 3 month visa. So they would be renewed for another 3 months starting in January. Then they would only have to leave one more time before they head home in July, or they could remain in the country illegally until July. I told them it would be cheaper to remain illegally, but then they can´t travel outside the country.

So we´ll see what they decide.

Baile Folklorico

Today, we danced.

With big skirts that you swish around and they look like waves rolling on the ocean.

So much fun!

The teachers, and the new volunteers, practiced a dance with the big skirts and performed it this morning for Buenas Dias. The students, of course, loved it and cheered and took pictures. Are students like that in the United States? Because I love the encouragement here. I never have any problem singing or dancing in front of the students of this school because I know the students will love it, even if I perform terribly.

One of the teachers has a video of the dance, so hopefully I´ll be able to post that soon. I haven´t seen it, but am really excited too!

Goodbye Solidea

It´s finally happening: Solidea is leaving. Tomorrow.

I do believe it has taken all this time for the reality to sink in for me. I woke up in a bad mood and couldn´t figure out why since I had such a great time playing guitar and singing with Gina last night, but I soon realized I was sad because Solidea is leaving tomorrow.

I have spent the last nine months doing everything with her. We lived together, worked together, and took vacations together. We were united in that we were foreigners trying to adapt to a new way of life and commiserating over the differences. When one of us had a problem, the other helped fix it, we were each others confidant, and even when we made friends at the beach, we were always loyal to each other first. I´m losing my best friend here, and it hurts.

Sometimes I wonder if we would have become friends if we had met under different circumstances where we weren´t sharing the same experience. We are rather different one from the other, and perhaps our situation has made us more accepting of differences, but either way, we have had a ball together. I hope and pray for the best for her as she returns to Italy.

Busy Birthday

Birthdays are a busy business here.

In the morning at the breakfast table there was a small gift and flowers for me and all the Sisters sang 3 different versions of Happy Birthday.

There was a school wide mass that morning (very nice way to start my birthday!) and afterwards the whole school sang 3 different versions of Happy Birthday for me - while I stood up in front - and then they sang the chicken dance, while I danced. This is not the same as our chicken dance, but it does involve shaking of the butt. :)

Shortly after that all the teachers and workers of the school had a quick meeting with Sor Silvia (inspector from Rome - awesome lady) where everyone once again sang Happy Birthday to me.

I fielded a few birthday phone calls and in the process missed half of one class. When I got to the class they all sang Happy Birthday to me - 3 different versions.

We had cake for lunch! Sydney came to visit and say Happy Birthday, then the Interna´s scolded me because they thought my birthday was on the 27th and were going to serenade me in the morning - which apparently is a tradition for birthdays. I told them to do it today, but they wanted it to be a surprise, so they may or may not do that later.

I even had a heart to heart with my insufferable interna Cecibel - we both felt better after that. :)

What a good day!

New People

Sor Silvia is coming to the school today to inspect, or something. She´s pretty important to the Sisters.
Solidea is coming to the school tonight and taking off tomorrow for El Tunco for the rest of the week.
I´m heading over to El Tunco Friday morning to spend the weekend with Solidea.
The new volunteers fly in this Saturday.
Molly will be meeting the new volunteers (who happen to be her friends) at the airport and spending the night in Soyapongo with them.
Then I´ll come back on Sunday and the week will start over with a few new people in tow.

I´m excited for new people!

Geckos

Yesterday, a gecko fell from the ceiling!

While talking to a few internas after dinner last night I saw something fall from the ceiling out of the corner of my eye. Then we all heard the splat as it hit the floor. One of the girls went to look and a gecko scampered away, back up the wall. While it made a splat sound, apparently nothing was damaged and it made it´s escape. Not too often that a gecko falls!

Independence Day

Yesterday was the Independence Day for El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras. 188 years of independence from Spanish rule. To celebrate, there is a huge parade of all the public schools and many of their students through the streets of the cities. By ¨Huge¨ I mean, ¨really long¨.

We went to the door of the school when we heard the drums and stood outside on the street as the students walked by. Usually the schools were separated by banners announcing the name of the next school. Many schools had drums and a few had trumpets and trombones, there were girls in traditional dresses and some with cute little outfits and batons. Surprisingly, all they did was swing their baton or skirt back and forth as they marched/walked. Every so often the ¨band¨ would break out a short song, the skirts and batons would swing faster for a bit, and then everyone would continue as before.

As we stood watching, I thought we were waiting for our school to walk by, but it turns out that only public schools have to march, private don´t. So our school was not marching. So I don´t know why we stood watching for an hour and 1/2. Not going to lie, I was bored.

Turns out they don´t do much to celebrate their independence other than this. You can read about more here, http://www.naturelandings.com/articles.php?article=11

Changes

As you can see, I´ve made some changes to my blog page. Actually, I picked out a whole new template. I hope you like the change.

I´ve also added a Donation button in the right side bar. Hopefully this gets used a lot. :) (hint hint!)
The donations go to a paypal account I set up, and from there are transferred to the Sister´s School account, so if you have Paypal you can donate with that, or you can donate by credit card.

To give you an idea of what your money can do here:
$30,000 = Pay off construction bill
$250 = 1 year of high school
$200 = 1 year of junior high
$150 = 1 year of Kindergarten through 6th grade
$30 = New CD player for a classroom
$25 = One Fan for a classroom
$12 = New book for one class
$10 = Backpack
$10 = 10 notebooks for a student for her 10 classes
$5 = Pens, pencils, erasers, compass, protractor, white out, and carrying case
$3-5 = Spanish/English Dictionary
$0.50= School lunch
$0.20= Bus ride to school
$0.05= Sucker (they love suckers!)

As you can see, any amount you can donate will be very helpful!

Thank you again!

PS - let me know if you have any questions

Bus Stop

Fun story for the day:
I walked to the supermarket and picked up some items for myself and for the school. I had 3 bags when I left so decided to take a bus back to the school since 3 bags is somewhat cumbersome when walking down crowded sidewalks - and it´s just asking someone to rob you.

I got on a bus outside the supermarket and it was relatively empty. As we progressed painfully slowly down the street about 50 more people jumped on the bus so that the seats and the aisle were packed with people. I was sitting in the front seat.

Generally, when exiting a bus, you leave through the back door (most busses have 2 doors) as the front door has the little roundabout where you pay and then walk through - like at amusement parks or concerts. Since so many people were on the bus and I sat as far away from the back door as possible, my chances of shoving through all the people with 3 bags of groceries before my stop were impossible. However, nothing stood between me and the front door except a few bars and a roundabout thingy.

I yelled to the driver my stopping point just before reaching the school, told him I would be exiting through the front, hopped the bars, pulled my bags after me, and jumped off the bus. Easiest possible exit. Yea me. :)

Recap

Ok - Saturday, very boring until late afternoon when I took some Interna´s to the dance competition at the Don Bosco School. It´s a group dance competition between schools, so our school had a dance troupe there as well. The experience was fun and very educational . . . about sex. How do these girls not know what sex is? Clearly, if they don´t know, they have never been to a dance competition. Between the wild gyrations of the body, humping of the floor, and over exaggerated body rolls (all of which were in almost every dance routine)the message ¨Have Sex¨ comes though pretty clearly.

Sunday - Went to mass here at the school then hopped on a bus to Santa Ana to meet up with Sydney and Molly for a lunch date. I made it successfully to Santa Ana, asked someone how to get to our meeting place, and went there. How good am I? Considering last time I completely missed the city and ended up almost crossing the border into Guatemala several miles away , I think my traveling skills have improved considerably!

Lunch was great! I miss talking to those two. Jason, the new volunteer couldn´t come because he went out with the Father´s from his school for the day. We ate a Torta Loca - the word HUGE describes it best. Picture my head. Now picture a sandwich bigger around than my head. So happy we decided to split it between the 3 of us because there was enough for 4. Made it back to the school by 4 with plenty of sunlight left in the day and still full from lunch. :)

Busy Busy

With only myself now running all the classes, I find that I don´t have much free time anymore. I don´t really mind this all that much since I am able to stay on top of all my work, however, it has left me longing to get away and go see a movie - though nothing good is playing down here right now. Oh, and I saw part of the movie Mall Cop with Kevin James and didn´t like it. And I like Kevin James, but it´s that awkward moment humor all through the movie and I hate watching that kind of humor!

There is a new volunteer from the States in Santa Ana (close to where Sydney and Molly are volunteering) and there is a Vides meeting this Sunday in Santa Ana, so I should get to meet the new volunteer. Molly will also be there, but Sydney will be on retreat at another house/school in San Salvador.

Everybody pray for Sydney! She is heading home at the end of September and will be looking into the Franciscan order to become a novitiate! She is very nervous about this, but feels God is calling her there as the next step on her journey. Very exciting.

Well, the girls go home today after classes, maybe I can sneak into the audiovisual room and watch a movie. Actually, maybe I can even sneak some of the girls in with me. AND I bought popcorn yesterday! It´s all coming together now.

Buenas Dias

This last week of Buenas Dias has been dedicated to a different Central America country each morning. First was Guatemala, then Honduras, Nicaragua, and today we learned about Costa Rica. The students present the information, usually 3 classes work together to gather and present the info in various ways such as dances, skits, music and, of course, verbally relaying the information. They are interesting, but because this takes at least an hour each morning,(and my feet get sore from standing) I´ve started taking a bit more time to myself in the mornings after breakfast.

See, everybody in the house and school goes to Buenas Dias (except the workers) so the house is very quiet. This morning, Chispa (the puppy) fell asleep under my chair at breakfast, so after breakfast after everyone had left the dining room, I picked her up and pet her while she slept in my lap. Very relaxing. I love that dog.

I did, eventually, go to the Buenas Dias. And FYI - it seems the ¨typical¨ food of Costa Rica is pretty much everything! I think the student recited foods for at least 2 minutes. Amber (another teacher) and I had a good laugh about that.

Mata Mosquitos

In the work room of the house (where the computer is) there is a little mosquito killing machine that looks like a small tennis or badminton racket. There is a little button you push on the side that heats up or electrifies (probably electrified since it gives off a high pitched ring when activated) the metal wires that run across the wide racket part. Wave that baby in the general direction of the flying menaces and once you´ve hit one a little spark lights up where the mosquito met its death! I love this thing! I´ve killed 4 in the last 5 minutes. Ah revenge!

No Internet

So, ever since the wicked huge thunderstorm Wednesday night we have no internet at the school. For this reason my posts will be a bit sparse until it is fixed. Don´t know how often I will come to this internet cafe now that I´m teaching all the classes, and it´s hotter than blazes inside here.

Solidea is officially traveling in Honduras and I am enjoying a weekend with nothing planned. Truth be told, it´s really nice, to just relax. I already have plans for next weekend - going to hang with the cook at her house for the weekend. Should be fun!

Puppy!

We have a puppy! How exciting is that? Last night one of the little girls, Estela, who often is helping with chores after classes, came around with her friends and a little puppy. Everyone enjoyed holding and playing with the puppy - I have several pictures to prove it - and then she brought it back to her mother who was at a meeting in another area of the school.

This morning when I entered the house after breakfast, I saw the same little puppy running around. Turns out the mother of Estela had brought it last night as a gift to Sor Margarita Roman! He is now named Chispa and is incredibly adorable! I have photos, and as soon as I have a chord to connect my camera to the computer, I will upload them.

I love puppy's!

Big Night

It´s the big night tonight. The girls and I are going to perform our dances for Solidea! But first we´re going to eat pupusas. I really think we might want to reconsider the order of things!

Confession

I had a great confession last night. The priest talked to me about how he spent 7 years as a missionary on the East Coast of the States and that it was very difficult for him. He said the first year he felt sad all the time and missed his home very much, by the second year he felt better, more acclimated, and by year three, he felt at home. I laughed and said ¨So I just need to stay here 2 more years and I´ll feel better.¨

Truth is, I really enjoy my time with the students and with the Interna´s. It´s the time I´m alone that my thoughts turn to home. I think of my family and friends and how I have none here. I dwell on the lack of independence I have in moving around the community outside the school and that there is no place to ¨get away from it all¨ since I live at the school. I have also let my prayer life disappear.

Last night the priest gave me new life. He told me to start praying again and I wouldn´t be sad. Not sure if it will be that easy, but I´m going to offer up my times of depression for specific intentions and will start again my daily prayers. I will think of what I can do for the Interna´s and focus more on my classes - especially since I´m teaching all alone now, starting today.

Solidea leaving doesn´t have to be a bad thing. I will miss her terribly since she is the one person here I can confide in, but without her I have to rely more on my Jesus. This should be a good time of reestablishing my relationship with Him.

Listening

Sometimes the Sisters don´t listen to me. This is very frustrating and I think is the reason my shower still isn´t fixed after 3 weeks. (some sort of wiring problem between the light and the shower - I can´t use both at the same time or the lights in my room turn off along with the lights in the kitchen, the dining room, and the work room of the house. Yea, weird. So I´ve been showering by candle light.) Here is my most recent example of them not listening to me.

I am asking a clarification question on what has already been said.
Me: So the teachers want to change the schedule of classes for next year?
Sister: No, this year is over.
Me: Right, so they want to change the schedule for next year.
Sister: Yes.

sigh.

Working Door

I never did say what happened with the door to my room, but it`s all fixed now. Swings open and closed without effort and the doorknob locks and unlocks just like it`s supposed to. :) Good times.

Empanada

The other day I went about my merry way with the Interna´s doing their chores when one of the Interna´s - Eva - approached me while eating an Empanada. She offered me a bite and I took one. Quite tasty. Basically, it was cream inside a corn mixture wrapped in a banana leaf. Must have been cooked in a stove, it was good.

When I told Eva I liked it, she offered to bring me some from her home. I said that would be fabulous, so a few days later her mom brought Soli and I 3 Empanadas each. These, however, were a bit different. They were filled with cream on the inside of a corn mixture, but then they were fried in oil (I think deep fried is more accurate) and rolled in sugar. Oh my aching arteries (and waistline)! I ate one. That was enough. At least they are small. All I could think of was a deep fried Twinkie and how the oil squishes out of the empanada just like it would on a twinkie. Yeah. Dripping with oil.

So, I read a little about empanadas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empanada#El_Salvador
Not surprisingly, the term in El Salvador can be used to mean appetizer or dessert, and they have changed what used to be similiar to a pasty from the UP (nice, healthy, meaty meal) into a sweet heart attack machine.

I learned early on in my stay here that a quesadilla here is very sweet as well. Nothing like the cheese filled tortillas I´m used to in the States. But then, they do love their sweets here.

Goodbye Play

The students put on a play in honor of Solidea leaving. They did this Thursday morning and the play, while overly long and poorly put together, also had nothing to do with Solidea leaving and was incredibly creepy. They actually acted out a play on CD. You can listen to some tracks at http://store.mercadocristiano.com/obmubpaclpe.html . I recommend track #3, imagine listening to these voices echoing off gymnasiasm walls - very disturbing. A nice thought, but really disturbing. While watching the play, I leaned over to Solidea and said, ¨I think they want you to leave.¨;)

Dancing

Solidea is leaving very soon - next Wednesday! I am so very sad! On the plus side, the Interna´s wanted to put together a couple dances for her so I´m helping choregraph one and I get to dance as well. We´ve been dancing for the last hour or so and those girls are a hoot! We should dance everynight! (which we have been for the last week)

Since the second song is a mix of songs, there are 2 Michael Jackson songs, so I did the choreography for those since what the girls initially put together was terrible. As an example of one of the moves they used for the Thriller song, think of Tim Allen´s movie Galaxy Quest and how the aliens walked - that was a good chunk of their choreography. No worries, I have changed all that. The best part is teaching the moves to the girls. I borrowed a lot of the moves directly from the MJ videos and didn´t realize the girls have never done any moves like that before. Very funny to watch them try! Teaching them was a challenge, so I simplified most of the moves, but even walking to the beat has proven to be a challenge!

I can´t wait until Tuesday when we perform these for Solidea. Solidea will have her camera so there will be video (I told her to ¨be prepared¨ for Tuesday night, but it´s still a ¨secret.¨ Yeah, she already knows).

Licuado

Fabulous! I like very much. Basically smoothies, but simpler. Take a fruit, add water or milk, a little bit of vanilla flavoring, put it all in a blender and blend! They like to add sugar here too, but I usually have it without, because it´s not necessary, but they sure do like their sugar here! Licuados, I love them. My favorites are bananas and milk. It´s so simple! This will come home with me. Now if we only had coconut vendors at home, fresh coconut milk from coconuts recently knocked off the tree is right there with Licuados!

When the Washing Machine stops working. . .

. . . your clothes smell really bad.

Soli and I put our clothes in the washing machine yesterday. Then we turned it on. When it finished, our clothes smelled terrible! Really, really, bad. It seems it didn´t actually clean our clothes, but took the worst smelling, added a smell enhancer, then spread it around to all the other clothes in the machine. Ugh!

So we left the clothes in the machine, added more soap, and turned the machine back on. The second time they smelled clean, which is definitely preferable. I think I´ll wash my clothes more frequently by hand so we can avoid the use of the slowly deteriorating washing machine.

No Door

I really wish I could get to my camera to take a picture of this. I was in my room writing a letter when Manuel came to put on the new doorknob. In order to do so he had to beat on the door a bit to get the last pieces of the old doorknob off. I continued to write my letter so didn´t notice that the beating actually caused the top part of the door to break off its rusted hinges. When Sor Olinda came in and started making funny comments that I should feel more secure if we just got rid of the door all together, I took a look. At this point, it´s so ridiculous it is funny. We had a good laugh about it and I said I could just hang a sheet up in place of a door.

Right now they are working with a torch type thingy (can´t remember what it´s called) to reconnect the door to its rusted hinge. Okay, works for me, just don´t take anything from my room please!

Prediction

Well, it rained yesterday. Told you I know these things.

Weather

If I had to guess, I would say it´s going to rain today. I only say that because it rains everyday. And I just know things like that. I like the rain.

Controversy

There has been quite a bit of drama over my stolen computer. The one Interna who was at the school (whom I shall call Lily) when my computer was stolen received the brunt of the accusations. I had talked to Lily to ask her point blank if she had broken into my room and taken my computer. She told me no. I believed her. I believed her because I never suspected her in the first place. I´ve known her for 7 months and she is not the type of person to steal. At any rate, I informed her that the principle would be talking to her as well and explained why the Sister´s believed she could have taken it. She acknowledged what I said and we continued with our day.

The next day is the day my license went missing and then mysteriously reappeared - something Lily could not have done. And yes, I do believe the license and the computer are connected. I didn´t get a chance to tell the principle about this before she talked to Lily. I heard from the other interna´s how upset Lily was by the conversation and I learned from Lily how the principle accused her of taking the computer - which wasn´t done very nicely.

Unsure if they were going to take steps to punish her for a crime she didn´t commit and for which there was no hard evidence to convict her, I finally got a hold of the principle two days later (she is hard to get a hold of!). I explained what happened with the license and everything seems to have been dropped now. Lily feels better and for that, so do I.

As to what happened to my computer, who knows. I only hope the people who have it erased everything to resell it so that none of my sensitive information gets used. Really don´t want identity theft!

Open Doors

The battle became legendary in its proportions. First, the keys for the door were useless in our efforts to open my bedroom. Next, we tried putting flat objects in the space between the doorknob and the wall to no avail. Several Sister´s tried shoving every key in the house (of which there are 10 million, give or take) into the doorknob, but the door refused to reveal it´s contents. With my head hung low, I headed to my next class only to discover that one of the Sister´s had set up presentations with the students during my class time, so I had no students to teach. In desperation, I called to Solidea and together we approached - the ¨Door.¨

Mighty and imposing it appeared. A hapless key caught in it´s maw, sat in the lock with it´s keychain dangling listlessly, a victim to the demonic door. Without reserve Solidea quickly tried several implements to unlock the door to no avail. Not wasting any time, she moved on to the next prospect - time to take out our frustrations on the door!

5 minutes later the door stood open and broken. Victory!

We ended up using a chair to knock off the doorknob. Once we figured out how the inside components worked, we had the door open and then gleefully tore off the handle on the inside as well. So, while my room is hardly secure at this point, we had a lot of fun destroying the doorknob and laughing at our ridiculous ideas to open the door. Don´t worry, if needed I will pay for the doorknob, I´m just happy to be able to enter my room again.

Locked Doors

I´m having trust problems. The problem is I don´t trust anyone anymore. My computer has been stolen, problem number 1. Then yesterday, while preparing to go to the supermarket with Solidea I couldn´t find my license. I always take my license when I go to have some form of ID should it be necessary for whatever reason. I always leave my ID in the same box where I leave my passport and extra cash, which I keep hidden. It wasn´t there. I decided to look for it after we got back from the supermarket.

When we got back, I opened the box to put back the extra cash and there, sitting on top of everything, was my ID. It was not there when I left. Someone had it and returned it while I was out. This made me very angry. First the other room isn´t secure and the Sister´s suspect the Interna´s of taking my computer. Now I´m in the house with the Sister´s and someone takes my ID. At least that rules out the Interna´s. But who can I trust?

So I got the keys to my room and always lock the door now. I stipulated that I didn´t want anyone to enter my room without my knowledge and I also found the second set of keys and hid them. This morning I couldn´t get my door to lock. Now, I can´t unlock it to get in. Sigh. I´m off to class.

Guatemala

If I ever had any doubts about jumping a plane to another country with nothing more than the plane ticket I wouldn´t worry now. After traveling to Antigua and Lake Atitlan in Guatemala we found so many hostels, ATM´s, and helpful English speaking tourists (and helpful Spanish speaking locals) that you wouldn´t have to worry about a place to stay, food to eat, money to spend, or items to buy. I would say that Antigua and Lake Atitlan are good places to start for an adventuring pilgrim because they are very touristy. This way you can get acclimated to your surroundings, ask around for the places to visit, do a little research yourself, and then work your way into less touristy places - like Soyapongo! Ha!

In Guatemala there really isn´t one common language. A lot of the people know or speak some Spanish, but most of the locals (not really in Antigua, more at Lake Atitlan) speak a Mayan dialect of some kind. When I went to Mass on Sunday in San Pedro - one of the cities around Lake Atitlan - they read the Gospel in Spanish and then in the Maya dialect of that area. Felt much longer in the dialect, but then it was 6AM, everything felt longer at that hour.

Memories of the trip to Guatemala:

1. Kayaking from San Pedro to San Martin and then cliff jumping. We spent about 3 hours on the cliffs as more and more people showed up. A regular cliff jumping party! No, I did not jump from the high cliff (10 meters) only the little one (about 3 meters). It was enough for me!
2. I started the trip sick, then got better as Soli got sick, then got better as Sydney got sick, then got better, and I got sick again in the end. sigh.
3. Venders in Panajachel shoving their items for sale in front of us and then demanding that we buy something because, ¨You have money, buy something!¨ Um, you scare me, please leave me alone.
4. Meeting Seth at the beginning of our journey and then running into him at various points in both Antigua and Lake Atitlan.
5. Dancing!
6. The maze of streets in San Pedro where you can find restaurants and pubs and hangout places of all kinds.
7. Meeting people from all over the world! And from Michigan!
8. Riding a bus over cobblestone streets. The cobblestone looks cute, but that is so uncomfortable!
9. Being offered cocaine in San Pedro. San Pedro is known for it´s drugs. In fact, all of Guatemala is known for it´s drugs.
10. Dinner our last night in Guatemala. We found a little upstairs restaurant and because we were the only guests, we bonded with the waiter and his friend, so we ordered whatever we felt like eating and they made it for us. :) On the menu or not.
11. Talking with the venders. Some of them are really funny and fun to barter with. I bought the most from those ones. :)
12. Realized I know Spanish way better than 90% of the people traveling and that the locals REALLY appreciate it when you can talk with them in Spanish.
13. We didn´t really see a lot of the local Guatemalan people until we went to Mass Sunday morning. Sydney and I were the only foreigners and the church was packed. That felt really strange and cool at the same time. Definitely in the minority that day!
14. Hostels for $5 a night!
15. At least 10 degrees colder everyday than in El Salvador. How I miss using a blanket at night and not sweating every day! (which I think of now as I sweat while sitting at the computer)
16. Swimming in Lake Atitlan. How good did that feel? Forgot how refreshing a lake can be - the ocean just isn´t the same. And the ocean is really warm here!
17. Meeting other volunteers from around Guatemala.
18. Bike trip between Panajachel and Santa Catarina - the neighboring city. All uphill one way with bikes that didn´t like to change gears. But the way back was a blast!
19. Lots of pictures, no computer to download them to. I don´t have the cables to connect my camera to a computer because my computer had the video card slot that my camera uses. And I don´t think my computer is going to show up again. I´ll get Solidea´s photos and post those eventually.
20. I should be able to think of one more memory to make this a nice round 20. Oh! No mirrors in San Pedro! Our hostel didn´t have one, the bathrooms at the restaurants didn´t have them, the clubs didn´t have them - how do people survive in that city! I mean really. ;p

My Computer

I just arrived back from Guatamala yesterday and there was a surprise waiting for me in my room, or rather, it was not in my room. My computer is missing. Everything else on my desk is there, though wet due to the rain and smart me leaving my windows open. However, my computer is not.

Initially I thought one of the Sister´s opened the door and removed the computer when the rain started to keep it from getting wet (really bad rain storm they tell me!), but if one of the Sister´s had removed it they would have closed the windows, which were still open. And some of the students papers are smeared illegible by the rain.

I can´t ask all the Sister´s because most of them are away on retreat until Sunday. sigh. Really hope one of the Sister´s has it.

Another surprise is that another Sister is moving into the house. This means that there is some relocation going to happen because there are not enough bedrooms for everyone. The two girls who work and live here share a bedroom and are going to move to another building. Solidea and I are going to leave our room here at the school and take the room the girls had thus leaving our room open for the Sister. One of us will still be in the other room with the Interna´s. Because the Sister´s are going to clean the rooms this week and we are leaving tomorrow for El Tunco, we are switching rooms tomorrow, I will leave all my items in the hallway of the house, and when I get back on Sunday, move everything in to the new room.

I´ll be sure to talk about my travels in the next blog post.

Nature Wars

Karina: 1
Ants: 0

Interna´s: 2
Bats: 0

That is the official score from last night.
After saying our evening rosary, the Interna´s and I head down to the kitchen for their dinner. Upon entering I hear something crunchy underfoot. Bad sign, this means there is food on the floor which means there will be ants. Conveniently, the lights were not working so I couldn´t see what was crunchy, but immediately assumed the worst and began a wild stomping dance across the floor suspecting I had ants crawling on me. I get the willies just thinking about it.

Finally, the lights came on and the thick path of black ants was revealed. Big ants. Lots of them. They came for the pasta which was stacked in plastic bags in 3 crates on the floor. Because the pasta was hard it poked right through all the plastic bags and fell to the floor in a manner oh so tantalizing to ants. Ants that came in swarms. I grabbed a broom, enlisted another girl, and the two of us swept the growing pile of ants out of the kitchen. With quick thinking we pushed the crates of pasta outside. Grabbing buckets of water I doused the milling ants and watched them wash away into the darkness of the night. It was a great victory! I stood proudly with my bucket for a second until I heard screaming and saw Interna´s come running down the stairs shouting a word I didn´t know.

Upon investigating I discovered the word meant ¨bat,¨and two of the girls were diligently waving brooms around in an attempt to beat a flying bat out of the study room. And they succeeded! Actually, I think all the screaming confused the bats sonar so he ran right into a broom and fell to the floor. (man those girls can scream!) To ensure their safety, the girls beat the hell out of the bat, and then I threw it away.

After dinner, we repeated the process when another bat flew into the room. I think we should do this every night, keeps the girls on their toes, and they´re learning how to work together. :)

School´s Closing

And so it goes....

The Education Ministry is going to close the schools in all of El Salvador for another week to try and slow the spread of the Swine Flu. The country has raised its alert level to Red and all the fiestas for the month of August have been cancelled, so there will be no large gatherings of people. I have to admit, a lot of the students in the school are getting sick. Though, it hasn´t been the Swine Flu, apparently it´s just the flu. Either way, half of the Junior class is missing from school this week, that´s 16 students.

We still don´t know if the closing will take place one week before the August vacations or one week after, but those are the two options, that way there are two full weeks where no one is attending schools. Vacations are the first week of August which means one week before and I´ll be starting my vacation next Monday, or the week after and I´ll be starting vacations in another week. This time, the missing days will simply be made up with another week of classes at the end of the school year. I prefer this method much more!

Making Up Time

Since the school was closed for 2 weeks, we are making up time by having Saturday classes. Today is Tuesday as last Saturday was Monday and the next Saturday is Wednesday (I hope you can see the pattern here). Solidea and I ran around town last Sunday visiting various touristy destinations and since this Sunday we are staying in the school for the Vides Promesa (something I did while in Texas) we are making our escape after classes today to go see the new Harry Potter film where we will meet up with Sydney and have coffee too. Having coffee is our new thing. I like coffee now. Or maybe it´s just the association between coffee and freedom. Either way, my teeth are turning yellow.

This morning has been crazy for us. Our Sophmores put on a play in English for 1st - 7th grades and had me stressed out to no end since we were very poorly prepared. BUT, it went great! AND, I forgot my camera! So very sad about that!! And they all looked so cute with their little lamb and buzzard costumes. Grrr.... At least the play went well, we celebrated with suckers. :) Now, we get to give a few exams then it´s off to the movies!

Quick Conversation

This is my interpretation of a conversation Solidea had this week with a Sister we met through VIDES. After hearing her describe it, I wanted very much to write about it, and Solidea gave me the rights to exercise my creative license with her experience.

Sor: Hello Solidea!
Solidea: Hi Sor! (name unknown)
Sor: It´s so good to see you!
Solidea: You too. How are you?
Sor: Oh, I´m good. And you? It´s good to see you.
Solidea: Yes, I´m good. (awkward silence)
Sor: Well, it´s good to see you.
Solidea: Yeah. What are you doing here?
Sor: Yes, we are looking for ... (not sure). It´s good to see you.
Solidea: (pretty sure we´ve exhausted the use of that phrase) Okay, well, I´m going now.
Sor: Yes, yes, it´s been good to see you.
Solidea: (no, it hasn´t been good seeing you) Goodbye.

The End.

If you´re wondering about the depth of your relationship with someone, just talk to them and see if you can get past the conciliatory phrases!

Remesas

Definition: Remittances
Remittances (remesas in Spanish) are the money immigrants send to their home country.

REMITTERS: A STATISTICAL SNAPSHOT

Remitters come disproportionately from the working poor, and many are in the United States illegally. They remit on average 12.6 times a year, typically $150/200/250 each time. These remittances constitute approximately 10% of their household income. A quarter of remitters send money home first, even before paying their own bills.

47% of all Hispanics born outside the U.S. regularly send money to their country of origin.
57% of immigrants from El Salvador send remittances
60% of U.S. remittance senders are male
63% are under the age of 40; the average age is 37
59% are married
59% have not completed high school
57% make less than $30,000 a year
64% of those who are employed are unskilled laborers
45% say they plan to move back to their home country
55% do not have credit cards
43% do not have bank accounts

---

EL SALVADOR: REMITTANCE NATION

2.5 million Salvadorans, legal and illegal, live in the U.S., more than one third the total in El Salvador itself.

El Salvador's principal export is its people, after that, coffee, sugar, rice.

El Salvador's principal import are remittances from Salvadorans in the U.S., estimated at $2.5 billion annually, 17.1% of the GDP.

Remittances to El Salvador have increased by more than 6 percent a year for more than a decade, with double-digit growth more recently.

Remittances to El Salvador represent 133 percent of all exports, 655 percent of foreign direct investment, and 91 percent of the government budget.

Remittance flows to El Salvador are so large the country completely dollarized its economy in 2001.

22 percent of households in El Salvador receive remittances, more than any other Latin American country. Three quarters of that money goes to household expenditures.

El Salvador has a 13 percent sales tax and no property tax. Since remittances are primarily used for consumption, they amount to the poorest people in the country subsidizing the government.

SOURCES: Inter-America Development Bank, Pew Hispanic Center, The Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador, USAID, World Bank, Inter American Dialogue, Foreign Affairs en Español

From : http://marketplace.publicradio.org/features/onehome/chinameca_remittances.shtml

Swine Flu Vacations!

Thanks to the swine flu our school was closed for 2 weeks and Solidea and I took advantage of this time by spending 5 blissful days at the beach. Here are some stories from that time.

1) We stayed at the same house as usual with the family of Pedo - they have 3 rooms set aside for travelers. Two of the nights we were there we returned to the house to find the door locked and everyone inside asleep. Two nights we passed the night on the beach with our friends from El Tunco, a.k.a. The Tunc.

2) Soli and I nicknamed El Tunco, The Tunc.

3) I stood up on my surfboard for, like, 3 seconds! Then I learned that standing up on a surfboard is not such a big deal as I thought. Turns out Soli and I are just really bad! But I blame it on the fact that we never actually surf 2 consecutive days in a row. More like once every 2 weeks.

4) We had dinner with friends and they went fishing to catch our dinner. Here is what they caught.

(That´s Leo) Yep, just the one. Luckily, they had purchased other fish ¨just in case¨they didn´t catch anything.

5) The guys cooked for us. Had a pretty good time doing it too.

(Charlie Brown is on the left, the Jose, then Sergio) You should have seen the rice, they put an entire bag in one little pot. We watched it grow, but it never did fall out of the pot, and it tasted good in the end.

Here we are waiting for our dinner. We provided all the ingredients for the guys, except the fish, so we got to sit and enjoy the wine. The girl in the center is Prisca, she was our new friend from Germany. So sad that she can´t stay for, ohhhh, another 6 months. We got along great.

6) We met Ruben. I don´t have any pictures, but he is a hoot. He´s a hippie who cut off his dreadlocks for his mom on his last birthday and can tell you all about the affects marijuana has had on his memory, but he still remembers our names. :)

7) We were eating dinner at high tide, had just received our food, and a wave came crashing up over the side of the wall of the restuarant (roughly 3 foot tall wall) and doused us with sandy water.

8) Random art in our room. It says ¨Without the hammer, there is no food.¨ I find it inspiring, if somewhat cryptic and well, disturbing.

Birds!

Oh, where have I been that I haven´t posted in 9 days! Oh, wait, I was at the beach. :) Happy days.
Well, I have a story for you. 2 weeks ago the Sister´s found a baby bird sitting on the ground in the school. Not just any baby bird, but the national bird. Poor guy couldn´t fly yet, so they picked him up, brought him to the house, and gave him a home in a box with newspaper, bread, and birdseed. Then, as chance would have it, the same day they discovered another baby bird, also the national bird! I think they´re siblings. So this other one also got a box, newspaper, bread and birdseed.

The little guys hunkered down and stared at us whenever we came by to observe. Quite cute. Off to the beach Solidea and I head. When we return, one little bird was dead. We mourned the loss and gave the carcass to the cats, then 2 days later, the second died as well.

Reminded me of when I found a baby bird on the ground with my friend Mike. We tried to take care of it, but failed. It died. Birds just aren´t easy to raise. I´m sure there´s some deep moral we can find in the story, but I´m going to leave that open to interpretation - I have to get to class!

Page 394

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the quote from Harry Potter after yesterdays post, so here is a link to Severes Snape saying "Page 394"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlIKLLkvulY

Immigration - Part 394

I went to Immigration today, they had my coffee waiting for me just the way I like it. Okay, I don't go THAT often, but I think I can get a job there once I have my Visa because I'll know intimately how immigration works by then.

After having my translated documents translated again and notarized by a lawyer (so happy we know someone at the lawyer's office, I didn't have to pay!) Solidea and I returned to Immigration and sadly, got the same guy as last time. He was the only one there and we were the only one's waiting to see him. Go figure.

Right, all my documents are still old according to him. It is old after 3 months unless specifically written on the document that it is good for 1 year. Grrrr. By the way, mom, I will be calling you today - I need some more documents.

Solidea and I took the paperwork for the extension, ran over to the school where Sor Judith is (she is the head honcho for the Sister's in San Salvador), had her write the letter for our extension, ran over to our lawyer friend, got the notarization (yes, I know that's not the Legal way to do it, but so far, so good), ran back to immigration, made a dozen photocopies of everything, ran from window to window with papers flying behind us, stuffed money into hands (no, I didn't bribe people), handed over my passport, splashed a cup of water over my face from a water station, swam the fountain in the middle of the office, stopped to stretch out a cramp in my leg, hobbled up to the last window, and finally all the documents were submitted and I had paid for them along with paying for my illegal time in El Salvador.

Now, I should get the extension in my passport tomorrow, but this still means I have to get all new documents for the Visa. Yeah, the marathon I ran today was only for the extension. Hey, at least now I know exactly what I need to do, having already done everything one or five times.

Oh yeah, and the illegal time in El Salvador? 11 days = $114. Thanks to the sob story Solidea gave the lady about me being sick and having to go home because a relative was sick, the lady took pity on me and cut the price to $57. So, a positive point, that and we actually got all the immediately necessary paperwork in today, which is rather a miracle in itself. Thanks for the prayers everyone!

Good News/Bad News

The Bad news is that we have one confirmed case of the swine flu at our school. A 4th grader tested positive yesterday. I have absolutely no contact with the 4th graders, so I'm hoping the Sister's who have classes with them don't get sick. Until then, no one can touch me. :)

On the positive side, because there was a confirmed case at the school absolutely no meetings of any kind can be held. The students can not come in to pick up their homework, the teachers can not come in for our planning session, the parents can not come in for parent-teacher conferences this Saturday. So Solidea and I asked (I'm sure you can guess) to go to the beach starting Wednesday and through the weekend. Sor Marg. Guillen didn't even hesitate, she knew we would ask, and agreed right away!!!!!!!! I'm excited. Really though, there's nothing we can do here. I'm just going to call El Tunco my second home. There, I'll be staying in my second home until July 5th. I will celebrate the 4th of July there. I need to buy a flag so I can wave it on July 4th. This independence day I am going to stand up for Independence - I'm going to stand up while surfing!

Ruta de las Flores

Solidea and I took a tour yesterday through Ruta de las Flores. It is a road that runs through the mountains in Western El Salvador and is quite breathtaking. We stopped at a restaurant for breakfast that had a walking path filled with flowers,

(yeah, I did take this picture of the flower, and no, I don't know why it turned out so incredibly cool! But I'm not arguing)a small village with an impressive view,



hiked to a waterfall, and then stopped in Juayua for a festival going on at the time. This is the only picture I took at the festival - horses with diapers to keep their poo from littering the streets. :)

While I failed to take pictures at this point, we did meet a nice artisan named Erik. He told us about another festival in Santa Ana in July. Santa Ana is close to where Sydney - other American volunteer - is, so we might just head out that way.

Dancing for a Dream

I'm sorry, but I have to comment on this television show here. Bailando por un sueno, it's like Dancing with the Stars with a famous person and a professional dancer. I mention it because I love to watch Dancing with the Stars and when I discovered this show (the Sister's like to watch it, as do the students) I got really excited!

However, I am very disappointed. wow. It's just, well, really bad. I expected better from Latin America. The Latin dances are not so bad, at least, not as bad as other forms such as Hip Hop (good heavens!) and Electric!

I don't completely blame the dancers since they don't choreograph their own dances, there is a choreographer for each dance partner. Really, some terrible choreography. I wish I had a video clip to show you but I can't find any on youtube specific to El Salvador. I don't mean to say all the dances are bad, I mean, I realize the Stars are learning to dance, which is the point, but there is a difference between someone learning with faulty footwork and just really bad choreography. Really bad. Wish I had that Hip Hop dance clip. So bad.

Teacher's Meeting

Today we had a meeting of the teachers. This is the second I have attended (missed one because I was off getting tested for my amoeba:) and I found this one about as useful as the first. What does that mean? About 3 1/2 hours of useless meeting time. But, that could just be my North American perspective. Let me describe:

The meeting is automatically 4 hours long from 8am - 12pm. Right away, that's a bad sign, and that's just how the meetings are set up. You would think, since the school is shutting down for 2 weeks that we would need a meeting, and we did discuss the school shutdown for roughly 20 minutes. After that, everything had been decided, and we moved on to forming groups, reading chapters from a book, and answering questions about those chapters regarding the Salesian Family. Sound like a class? Yeah, felt like one too. Then at the end we share the answers to our questions so everyone knows what was discussed in the entire book, which, according to the questions, is the same thing in every chapter. None of which was tied into teaching. Seemed like a time filler to me.

And that was our meeting. Oh, and then we talked about problems with the girls wearing makeup. I was desperately hot at this point and didn't have any water so I left, lay down in my room for 20 minutes, drank some water, filled a water bottle, and returned to the meeting. Guess what they were talking about at this point? Girls wearing makeup. Right.

Swine Flu

Egads! The school is closing for 2 weeks to help prevent the spread of Swine Flu. Our school doesn't actually have any confirmed cases of the flu and everyone that has come down with a cold recently has been shipped off to the hospital to be tested. Nobody has had anything other than a common cold.

However, a couple of the richer schools had a few students contract the flu after they took vacations in Mexico. Darn rich kids! So, the Ministry of Education decided it would be best to shut down all the schools in San Salvador (not sure if this stretches outside the city) for 2 weeks. This would be great if Soli and I could leave the school for 2 weeks, but we can't. Not part of our contract. We'll have to talk to the Sister's and see what we can negotiate. If there's stuff to be done around the school, I'll be happy to help, but if it's just busy work, I won't be so happy.

To make up the time, school will probably run 2 weeks longer into November, but it beats having school on Saturday 10 times to make up for the missed days!

On a lighter note, one of the workers here caught a mouse in the house and of the two Sister's still in the kitchen after dinner one grabbed a plastic bag for her to put the mouse in. When she dropped the mouse in the bag the other Sister ran to the other side of the room and the one who had the bag quickly backed away squirming when the worker took the bag! It was too funny! Then good ol' Sister Doracilla came along and gave the mouse a few good whacks to kill it, since nobody else would. :) I call her the no nonsense nun, always good for a laugh, I just don't always understand.

Immigration

Today I went to the Embassy and to Immigration. At the Embassy I met Lidia, who had translated a few documents for me. She is a great lady and I really like her, she even told she could get me a job at her school for next year if I wanted! Pondering... Yeah, we'll see how this year goes first.

We entered, had the four documents notarized, I paid her and I paid for the notarizations. Then off to Immigration. I'm feeling pretty good at this point. I have all my documents, I have everything translated, I have all the notarizations that I need - I'm set.

No. No, I was wrong.

Immigration is a very humbling place.

WELL... the documents I had translated were not translated and notarized by a lawyer. I fail to see why this is important, but as I was told several times, it's the law. I even know the number, law #24 from some book related to Immigration I'm sure. I guess that's pretty official.

Oh, and the letters I ran all over town to get when I first got here? They're old.
No, they are from this year.
Yes, but January and February.
Yes, of this year.
Well, you'll need new ones.
(restrained silence)
Anything else I should know?
That's everything.
Yes, that is almost everything. How about these photocopies? Are they clear enough? Maybe I should put a date on them and after 3 months I'll make new ones.

So, I'm going to return with Solidea and talk to someone else. I don't think they're going to let up on having a lawyer notarize the translations, but I can deal with that. Having to get another letter from the Bishop and having another health test at the hospital are not on my list of things to do again.

And the letters are not old. I haven't taken a break from applying for a Visa. These are the same letters from the same process. It's just that I keep finding out about new rules each time I go. I suggested they put this rule about the lawyer on their list of items needed - seeing as how it's so important.