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
No comments:
Post a Comment