Doing some thinking

So as I previously wrote, internet here is not easy to come by but I’m going to do my best and try to get on at least once a week.

Introductory note: I thought it would be hard to write in this blog because I really just don’t like writing and never have that much too say but I’ve realized now that it’s going to be hard to write in this blog because I have too much to say, I have so many thoughts and feelings and emotions but it is so hard to convey to someone who is not here with me.

The first 2 days of this experience were so filled that I did not have much time to write about my experiences so I apologize. To sum it up lots of delicious food, lots of sitting in circles, lots of orienting, and a lot of great people.

Today is my third full day here in El Salvador and we finally have some tiempo libre so I’m taking it to do a little writing. Today we went to visit my praxis site at La Javia as well as Zacamil. These people live high up in the mountains, in tin houses, surrounded with mud, walking side by side with stray dogs, chickens, and cows. Being a city girl it was hard to grasp everything going on around me. After getting stuck ankle deep in a mud I began to understand why these people are able to live such beautiful lives in a place many people would consider to be not the most beautiful. The community members that I will be working with at La Javia seem wonderful. Angelica will without a doubt be my mother figure here in El Salvador. Jose Luis, Ana, and everyone else seem like they will be great mentors especially because they have started a youth group, food project, and educational classes in their small community; something I strive to achieve one day. The children are absolutely great as well. I really enjoy the wide variety of ages present in the program and I can’t wait to play with the little ones and teach them English and work with the older ones in the computer classes.

This country is absolutely beautiful. The people here have so little and have such a difficult past but they give like they have more than anyone else in the world and they love like they have never been hurt before. The willingness of the Salvadorans to open their homes to complete strangers has blown me away. In the US we tell people come on in, welcome to my home, etc etc. But here they open their doors and say welcome home, we are all one family and we all belong here together. I may have more physically to give to these people but the amount of love and compassion these people have to give to me far exceeds that which I feel I am able to give.

I know that I have just barely touched the surface of this journey. I know that the more time I spend here getting to know the Salvadorans as well as the other casa students the more I will really be able to understand la realidad. Life is such a complicated thing, to be alive each day is one thing but to really live is completely different. My life back home has been a constant routine 20 years in the making but here I hope to really learn what it means to live each day like it was your last, to embrace life, to appreciate each moment and to realize that I can’t know everything. Things happen, things change, planning out my life is going to get me nowhere. I must live day by day, y crecer poco a poco.