What a roller coaster!

This past week has been absolutely crazy. So many highs and lows. 
I saw some things I really did not want to see and hope to never see again. 
I am feeling all of the stress from the many struggles Angelica is currently dealing with at La Javia. 
I met with a delegation that did not leave me feeling very happy. 
I then expressed my unhappiness in the subtlest of ways at group reflection with the delegation leaving me feeling very strong. 
I laughed as we secretly tried to plan Ella's birthday at La Javia.
I cried as we reflected on the love that Angelica and Ana have for us. 
I'm excited and nervous for the upcoming campo week. 
I'm stressed because I feel like I have so much to do. 
I'm so happy with the way I spend my time even if it's not always the most efficient or effective.
I'm feeling a little disconnected from the people at home but at the same time I'm almost ok with that because I'm completely happy here.


The week isn't over yet and I know with pupusas, soccer, and community night tonight the roller coaster is just going to keep on going. But that's life here; we feel a lot of things and we don't always know why but I think that's all just part of the solidaridad y realidad de El Salvador

Paz y amor de Casa Romero!

English Classes, Ghost Stories, and Bumpy Car Rides

So I've come to realize that providing updates during the week is really hard because we have so much going on and it's really hard to sit down and right something meaningful. I've also realized that it's really hard to sit down and right something meaningful when you're in someone's garage and there are people playing video games and really questionable noises coming from the backyard. However, I'm going to do my best so try to stick with me. 

Our weeks here seem to go really fast but at the same time seem to last forever. It's hard to remember what happened yesterday, let alone on Monday. 

As usual we had praxis on Monday and Wednesday. On Monday we went with Ana on some home visits to meet some more of Angelica's very large extended family. I think we're really starting to understand Angelica's family as well as the community they live in. Family dynamics are really interesting; not many people are married, kids are having kids, and many kids are being raised by grandparents. However, the families that do exist are great, there is so much obvious love between everyone. What continues to shock me is how welcoming these people are to complete strangers like me.   I am always offered a seat or a small snack and I'm greeted and sent off with the biggest hug ever and a kiss on the cheek. For my praxis class we are going to be a social analysis project on our community and I'm really looking forward to diving deeper into to la realidad of the families living in La Javia.

Praxis on Wednesday is always a lot different than praxis on Monday. On Wednesdays we teach English class to a group of kids, usually about 8 or 9, but this week we had about 16. We decided to split up the older kids and the younger kids to make things easier with Ella and I taking the younger group. We've been trying to teach the kids body parts and greetings but it's been a little difficult so we decided to start completely new with the alphabet. We played some games and sang some songs and the kids absolutely loved it. The shyest of kids were participating with giant smiles on their faces. It was so rewarding to look around the "classroom" and feel like we had accomplished something. So much of our time here is spent doing what we are supposed to do; going from task to task and not always taking the time to react or really think about that which we are doing. But after praxis this week I felt accomplished, I felt like I had a purpose, and I felt like a contributing member of the community.

Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I have class. Classes here are a struggle. Sometimes I think they are so much easier than classes back at SLU but sometimes I think they are the hardest classes I've ever taken. We have a TON of reading and its hard to keep up when I feel like we don't ever have any free time. Sometimes the reading is interesting and sometimes I feel like we just read about the war over and over and over again. The war was and still is such a critical point of life here in El Salvador but at the same time El Salvador is changing. People are different and problems are different and sometimes I feel like there is so much I can be learning but I'm not. One of the classes I struggle with the most is Liberation Theology. Theology hasn't always been my favorite subject but I figured taking Liberation Theology IN El Salvador WITH a sister that has been living in the campo here for quite some time would be a great experience. However, this isn't always how I feel in the class. This week though we broke up into groups and were in charge of explaining something we read. 1/2 of Romero (my house) was in charge of an article on Gustavo Gutierrez (huge figure in Liberation Theology). After some last minute planning (because Romero likes to procrastinate a lot), we walked into Sister Peggy's class not really sure what we were going to say. When we were done though I felt like we had done an awesome job. I feel like we are so often encouraged to reflect upon our experience but we aren't always encouraged to talk. After class I felt a new form of hope for the way classes are going to go here.

So as I've already mentioned classes and praxis occupy a significant portion of my time here but there is still some time for a little fun.

On Thursdays we play soccer with some of the Salvadoran students and always end up playing with some locals. I hadn't been in 2 weeks but this week was so much fun! We ended up playing on a smaller field because some little kids wanted to play with us. Little did we know that these little kids are probably professional soccer players in the making. This one kid was 9 years old and he had me running around looking like a fool trying to get the ball away from him. After 1.5 hours of playing, a few minor injuries, and lots of mud we said goodbye to our new friends and headed home for a quick shower before Pupusas! Every Thursday we head over to a Pupuseria down the road for dinner with the becarrios. It's so nice to just sit and relax, attempt to converse in Spanish, and of course eat delicious food. On Thursday nights we also have community nights in each of our houses. Community nights are hard to explain; you can't really understand unless you're here but they are great. They challenge us and bring us closer together. I'm reading this book called Norwegian Wood and there's a quote I really like that goes, "What happens when people open their hearts? - They get better" That's kind of what community night is all about and as much as I dread them sometimes, I love them. 

We remedied our emotional Thursday community night with some Friday night ghost stories this week. As you all probably know, I'm really scared of ghosts, and scary movies, and haunted houses, etc. But I LOVE being scared. It's such a thrill. It was so much to experience that here. To sum it up we heard some scary stories, were tricked by our CC Quentin into thinking some scary monsters (we later discovered it was the other CCs) were breaking into our house, and all 13 of us ended up in one bed holding each other screaming. Overall it was a great time.

We finished up this weekend with a trip to Tomás' house. Tomás is one of the Salvadoran scholarship students that lives in our house with us. I didn't realize how important it was for us to visit his house and his family until we were on the journey and a series of unfortunate events occurred. First we all had to pile into some tightly packed vans and drive 3.5 hours through bumpy roads in the Salvadoran country side. We thought the car ride was bad but we were soon met by a new obstacle. The one road we needed to take was being re-tarred and wasn't going to be open to cars for 2 hours. No one really knew what we were going to do. At first I was really content to just sleep in the car to past the time since we had gotten up at 530 to begin our journey but the next thing I knew we were getting out of the car and started walking with all of our stuff down the twisting road in the 90 degree heat, Tomás leading the way. I soon realized that this was the one day we had to visit his house and his family, the most important thing to him was getting there and the least we could do was walk with him on this journey. After an 1.5 of walking the vans pulled up along side of us to bring us the rest of the way. Our time at Tomás' house was limited, we were supposed to go down to the river but by the time we got there, there wasn't much time. What we did though was sit in a giant circle eating delicious rice, beans, tortillas and avocado and listen to Tomás and his family sing and play guitar. Tomás is an awesome musician and he is always singing (especially at 6am. Who needs an alarm clock when you have Tomás?) His whole family is just as talented and I loved hearing them sing Salvadoran folk songs about the war, and the poor, and the hope they still have. After saying goodbye we headed our journey home... a journey that took about 2.5 hours longer than it was supposed to do to some broken vans and a lot of rain. We all got home very hungry, very tired, very stressed, and a little angry. It was weird feeling this way because I think a lot of times here we're just always supposed to be happy and love each other, but that's not real life. We all headed to bed early and woke up to a new day today though feeling a lot better. Looking back at yesterday I'm really starting to appreciate the people here and the time we spend together as well as apart. It was great seeing where Tomás comes from and it game me time to question where I come from and what I'm doing with my life. 

Sorry for the really long post but when I get to thinking I realize I've got a lot on my mind. I really don't think there is any other study abroad program that allows us to question so much. I thought I'd find a lot of answers here but so far I think all I've really got is more questions. I think time will definitely tell what I make of this whole experience but for now I'm just going to keep eating the tasty food and keep trying to learn Salvdoran slang.

!Qué le vaya bien!

-Lindsey 

!Fotos!

So I started a photobucket to put all of my pictures online so you all can see them.
They are really out of order but they're still fun to look at. 
Here is the link 
Photos from El Salvador!
Enjoy!

Piojo, autobuses, y cascadas…

For those of you who don’t know Spanish that’s “lice, busses, and waterfalls”. These three words pretty much summed up my weekend.

Remember in Second grade when one kid got lice and they sent a note home to the whole class telling everyone to be on the lookout, and then everyone freaked out because of that one kid. Well I was that kid this Friday, only everyone here was actually really nice about it and didn’t run away or try to quarantine me. As traumatic as my lice experience was at least it gives me something to write about in my blog. I’m not 100% sure as to where I picked up the little guys but I’m guessing it has something to do with sleeping in coffee fincas and playing with little kids all day long. As most of you probably know, I’m not big on doctors or medicine and I tend to take on the mentality that I’ll get better eventually all on my own. Sadly that didn’t work this time. After a few days of being miserable I finally headed to la farmacía to pick up some magical shampoo, and who would have guessed that an hour later I was already doing a lot better.

After a super awesome Friday night of removing lice from my head (side note: this tragedy provided for excellent community bonding time) I headed to bed anticipating my big adventure in the morning. This past weekend was our first free weekend and one of the few free weekends we will have this semester. Our community decided to break up and head out to different locations around El Salvador to spend some time away from the casas.

Saturday morning at 7, myself and 5 other people packed our sandwiches, grabbed our backpacks and tevas/ chacos and headed out to be tourists for the weekend. Our day began with 1 of 3 rides on the local public buses. Let me tell you, the buses here are an adventure in and of themselves. Picture this: old school bus, decked out with Christmas lights and signs of the coming of Jesus Christ, a man selling pills that will “cure” everything, lots and lots of Salvadorans packed into little seats, and 6 gringos. A few hours and a couple of bus changes later we arrived in Jayua, our destination for the weekend. After a short walk we arrived at our hostel that turned out to be the most amazing place ever.  It was this quaint, quiet little gem in the middle of a beautiful city. Hammocks, gardens, hand painted walls, and some cute Spanish/ Salvadoran hippie owners…o and HOT WATER (haven’t had that since we arrived a month ago). We dropped off our bags in the room and quickly got ready to begin our tour of the 7 Waterfalls in the area. Maria, one of the workers at the hostel and also the most adorable woman ever, made a phone call, packed us a delicious lunch, and sent us on our way to meet our guide Douglas.

Douglas is this little Salvadoran man that likes to walk as fast as humanly possible. I knew it was going to be a rough day when I was already tired after just walking through town to get to the foot to the giant mountain we were about to climb. As we began climbing it only got more intense. The “path” we took was definitely not a path, it was a 2 foot wide, muddy, trail partially paved by Douglas and his machete that winded through the cliffs of the coffee fincas. The hike was definitely a struggle; we all spent a lot of time on our butts, covered in mud and covered in water but it was definitely worth it! The view was so beautiful and there is something so peaceful about trekking through a river and looking up and realizing you’re at the bottom of a waterfall. After seeing the 7 waterfalls, we had lunch in the middle of the forest and headed up one more giant hill to an 8^th waterfall, probably the best waterfall of the whole trip. Underneath the waterfall was a small, pitch-black tunnel, just tall enough to fit a person, but filled with water up to your shoulders. So of course we were going to go in it. All of our fears (the dark, small spaces and rushing, cold water) came out in this tunnel but all 6 of us were able to face these fears and head into the tunnel, guided by Douglas of course.  A minute later we emerged and I felt like I had just accomplished one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

After some more hiking we finally ended up back at our hostel and after a HOT shower we headed out to a local café for dinner and some music. The people at the café were the same people that owned or hung around our hostel so of course it was so much fun. I wish I could convey the atmosphere of this place, everyone was so relaxed and so happy with their dreads and Spanish accents. There was a ton of interesting art work hanging on the wall and the owner of our hostel was playing guitar and singing the whole time. We were Americans for the evening and dined on some delicious nachos, burgers, and brownie sundaes while talking with some locals, a woman from Wisconsin doing some work in El Salvador, and some other travelers our age from Austria and Australia.

After a much-needed night’s sleep we awoke the next day to a delicious homemade breakfast of plato típico (Eggs, beans, plantains, avocado, fruit, and coffee) which we enjoyed on the beautiful patio. After breakfast we walked through the town for a bit before saying goodbye to our beautiful home for the weekend and beginning the reverse journey on the infinite Salvadoran buses.

Las Cascadas!

Right outside our hostel door

                                                                                                                 

Hola a todos y todas!!

So I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog but life has just been so busy here and we already seem to have enough time in the day to think about everything we’ve been doing.

Last weekend we were supposed to go to the beach but with the hurricanes that have been going on we were unable to go do to giant waves taking over the beach. However, we did get to go to this little oasis in the middle of the mountains that turned out to be absolutely wonderful. The oasis had a river in it that at first seemed pretty calm but within a minute of stepping into the water I had already fell over due to the force of the current. Rather than getting out though we decided it would be a good idea to just sit in the water and let it take us. It was so much fun (and only slightly painful) and the water was really warm. The oasis also had a soccer field and a pool where I spent the remained of my day. What made the day really awesome though was the fact that the becarrios came along with us. It was really great to hang out with them in such a relaxing environment and theres nothing like bonding over a game of Marco Polo.

The not so calm river

The pool area

This past week seemed like ages ago. On Monday I returned to my praxis site at La Javia where Ella, Katie and I walked around the village with Angelica and Ana getting to know more of the community members. The walk was a little rough (steep hills, lots of mud, lots of rain) but it was a great way to spend the afternoon really getting to know the people we will be spending the semester with in their homes. I feel like people really open up when they feel comfortable in their own environments. Every time we hear a new story it shocks me. Life here is so different than the life I am used to and I am honored to be able to hear such strong stories of hope, struggle, loss, and courage. Wednesday at praxis was an equally rewarding day for myself and I hope the children we worked with. Wednesday was our first English class. After a great morning class with younger kids we were surprised to learn we’d also be teaching a group of older kids in the afternoon. We soon realized that singing head, shoulders, knees, and feet and playing with Mr. Potatohead was not going to work with this group. After a little bit of a rough start though I think we did well and when we met up with some kids from both groups this weekend they still remembered the words and phrases we taught them. Not only are the kids in our class great students, they are great people. Many of these kids are being raised by grandparents because their parents could not handle them, they go without meals, and they don’t always have running water or electricity. But they love learning, they love shining their shoes every day and putting on their uniform, and going to school. The 12 year olds take care of the 5 year olds as if they were their own and they can find joy in the simplest things.

My English classroom

When I’m not at praxis I usually spend my time in class. I finally have my classes all sorted out. I managed to test out of Spanish class so I will be taking Salvadoran Literature (in Spanish), Economics of El Salvador (in Spanish), Perspectives of El Salvador’s Civil War, Liberation Theology, and a class to go along with my praxis. I definitely thought class here would be easy but it’s not. There is a lot to read and a lot to write and overall a lot of new information to grasp. However, for once in my life I feel like I am actually learning something and I love it. It is such a gift to be in these classes taught by professors with such strong connections to the history and culture of El Salvador.

I guess I lied when I said all I do is go to praxis and to class. A lot of other great things go on during the week. We spend our nights playing hide in go seek in the pitch black, pigging out on late night tortillas with a variety of toppings, going on citas with members of the house, sharing stories by candlelight, and playing guitar.

So that was my week and now onto the best part of the blog: Praxis Weekend!!!!

This Friday we all goodbye to our housemates for the first time since we arrived and headed out in our vans to our praxis sites for the weekend. Some people were split up between different houses in their communities but Katie and Ella all stayed together at Angelica’s house. We also got to hang out with Maria and Nate and some of the folks from Zacamil on Saturday. I can’t really sum up this weekend in any other words besides AMAZING! Angelica is one of the most welcoming and loving people I have ever met and I felt so at home in her little house. We didn’t arrive until late Friday night so we spent the evening eating el plato tipico (rice, beans, and tortillas) while watching some quality telanovelas. After a rough night of fighting off dogs on the way to the outhouse in the middle of the night, very loud roosters (who do not just make noise at sunrise but actually all night long), and little kids who wake up at 5am, we rolled out of bed at 7 am to begin our adventurous Saturday. We had a hearty breakfast of hot dog, eggs, tortillas, and soy milk and headed toward Zona 3 (Angelica lives in Zona 1). I felt like we were in a movie, as we walked  through the streets people seemed to immerge from their houses with soccer balls, guitars, and food and joined us in our walk. Everyone in the community seems to know Angelica, probably because they are all related in some way, and they all wanted to spend the day with us. We spent the morning playing soccer barefoot in a field surrounded by cows and pigs. After that we returned to one community members house for some elote (kind of like corn on the cob) and juice. We then headed over to Ana’s house for lunch and some guitar playing provided by Luis who works at Angelica’s with us. After spending the rest of the afternoon hanging out we headed back to Angelica’s to cook up some lasagna at Angelica’s request only to learn Salvadorans really aren’t the biggest fans. Sunday morning we got up early again to go to church in the town before heading back to Angelica’s for some lunch before heading back home to Casa Romero.

Best Praxis Site (With Angelica, Ana, and Brianna)

75 degrees = winter weather in El Salvador

Mounting the pick up!

Tepecoyo at night

I had so much fun this weekend and I really felt at home. At times it was hard to accept how generous Angelica and her family is when by US standards they have very little. I never went hungry (and was actually always stuffed), I’m 99% sure someone gave up their bed so we could have a place to sleep, I was offered a seat by an 80 something year old woman, and Carlos (Angelica’s husband) constructed curtains and rods so the sun wouldn’t wake us up in the morning. I know I can sometimes be lazy but I don’t like to be waited on especially at a place where I’m supposed to be helping out. But as Angelica put it as we were leaving, “ahora somos famila” (now we are family). The truth is Angelica and her family know a lot more about life in El Salvador than I ever will; despite being short and having brown hair I still stick out as a foreigner, and sometimes I struggle to hold my own in a conversation. We didn’t spend the weekend at our praxis sites to cook more food for the comedor or to teach more English classes. We were there to learn, we were there to see what its like to live as an El Salvadoran, to see the struggles they encounter every day but to also see the joy they have and the fun they experience. I think a lot of us struggle with the mentality that we are here to help, to make life better for the Salvadorans, but we cannot do this. We are here to listen, to learn, to love, and to fight so that their lives are not forgotten.

This weekend was so much and very eye opening. It was almost hard coming home to Romero; to a house with frosted flakes, indoor plumbing, and solid walls. Life here is different, it’s hard to explain, and it’s hard to think about coming home. But for now I don’t want to this about those things…I’m just living life, day by day, taking it all in, and loving it. 

Casa Romero!!!

I'm going to be working on a new blog soon but in the mean time I thought I'd provide you all with a picture of my lovely housemates and I

as well as a precious little boy at my praxis site named Brian :)