algunos días de descanso

Hello!  I got sick on Friday, and the Salvadoran bug was not a fun experience.  I haven’t been too homesick, but I will say that being sick made me appreciate the nice bed, bedroom, bathroom, and warm shower I have at home.  Although the last 11 days have been incredible, especially after these last 2 days I’m excited to slow down and get into the swing of a normal schedule.  It definitely was nice to have some alone time while everyone was gone, but I’m feeling a lot better today and am ready to get going again!

Today I got to sleep in, went to Mass in the park close to my house, and went to the market in the park that’s there every Sunday morning.  It reminded me of going to the farmer’s market with my mom in the summer!  I bought a bunch of fresh vegetables to make a yummy salsa that I spent part of the afternoon making, and I’m definitely enjoying all the cooking we are doing! 

Tomorrow I’ll go to Tepecoyo for the first time.  I’m definitely excited, but also nervous, realizing I have no idea what I’m getting into.  From what I’ve been told, Mondays we will spend on house visits and Wednesday’s I’ll be teaching English.  I can’t wait, but I know it’s going to be a lot of work.  It’s crazy that after all of the preparation it took to get here and all the time I’ve spent here so far that we’re finally really starting!  

Un fuerte abrazo a todos! 

Sunday afternoon I came back to Casa Silvia to find some of my housemates cooking!  We spent all afternoon preparing dinner for our casa, which was so much fun.  Eventually some of the becario students trickled in and we all had a great time enjoying each other’s company and sharing a meal.  Despite somewhat of a language barrier, Norelby, Neydi, Orbelina, and all of the Salvadoran students are so much fun, and its been great to practice my Spanish with them. 

Monday we did praxis site visits again.  We went to FUDESO, a health clinic, and Mariona, a semi-urban community.  I was impressed with the variety of services that the clinic provides, and it seems very well run.  The people at Mariona talked for a very long time about the history of the community and their roles within it, and that segwayed into their personal stories of the war and famous martyrs they had met.  It has yet failed to amaze me that at every site the people have such intense stories and experiences. 

On Tuesday I got the chance to visit Divina Providencia, which was Romero’s home.  We sat inside of the church in which he was shot and looked through his house, which they turned into a small sort of museum.  It’s just amazing to me that I was there, sitting in the pews of his parish and walking the paths he did. 

Wednesday we visited Nuevo Amanecer, an early childhood education center in San Ramon, and el Pueblo de Dios en Camino, a Christian based community focused in San Ramon and Las Nubes.  Visiting Pueblo was tough.  As a Christian based community, one of their main focal points is living the gospel daily.  Like in so many other places in El Salvador, accompaniment is a huge part of what they do, and we got the chance to take our coaster bus up the volcano into the community of Las Nubes, where most people have no running water.  After getting off the bus and making a pretty difficult trek further up, we got to Adrian’s house, an elderly man who makes charcoal for a living.  We also visited Victoria and her children, and she was one of the most caring people I have met so far, just hugging and holding onto everyone all of the time.  Most of the people in Las Nubes make their living planting and cutting coffee, and the students there will get a chance to participate in that with them, as well as bringing large water jugs up to Adrian on their walk up the volcano. 

Thursday was the first day of class!  Leaders of the Romero program, which is the Salvadoran scholarship program that the Salvadoran students we live with participate in, came to my praxis class and gave us an overview of the program.  That in conjunction with conversations I’ve had with some of the becarios as well as just walking through the UCA has opened my eyes a little more to how the Salvadorans must feel being outnumbered and living with a group of Americans who know mostly only broken Spanish.  Home is a sacred place and this type of a living situation is really new for everyone here, so our house is really going to work hard at only speaking Spanish when the becarios are in the house.  Something else I’ve noticed is that there seems to be very little diversity here in Antiguo Cuscatlán, at least compared to Saint Louis.  We get a lot of stares and I’m pretty sure the man that checks people’s IDs at the front of campus lets us in because by looking at us he assumes we are in this program.  I don’t know, it’s just been really interesting to see.   I also had a literature class in the afternoon, which I really enjoyed.  The professor was really funny and he walked us all over to the librería so we could buy our books…and I got two of them for $6.50 total.  Loving it. 

Friday I had Liberation Theology with Sister Peggy who has lived here for 25 years and is just one of the most interesting people I’ve met so far.  Later today I have History of the War and we are visiting San Antonio Abbad, another praxis site. 

I get really frustrated blogging sometimes because there’s just so much that has happened and so much I want to say.  I like writing down the events of each day so people know what I’ve been up to, but really these posts do a horrible job of capturing the experience in my opinion, which is fine I guess but something I’m going to work on.  Reflection has been a really important part of the program, something I’m grateful for and something I know I’ll rely on as the semester unfolds.  As of now, I guess I’m just excited to get going with my praxis site and readings for class, which are going to be super chivo (Salvadoran word for awesome) and see where things go from here!  

primera semana

Hola!!

I arrived in San Salvador on Wednesday afternoon without any problems!  I’m living in such a cute little house called Casa Silvia in a neighborhood of Antiguo Cuscatlan, almost an hour out of San Salvador, with 5 other Americans and three Salvadoran students.  I have a roommate, Shannon, who is so nice and I am really excited we get to know her better.  We have a garden outside with a hammock, and when I open my door I see a cobblestone street and a beautiful volcano.  It’s been so weird to walk the streets and think that I am not just on vacation, but actually living here for the next four months.  Wednesday we spent the rest of the day hanging out in Casa Romero where some other students from my program live, getting to know the other Americans and Salvadorans.  I got a chance to see where Kevin and Trena live, the program directors, with their four little girls.  They’ve been in El Salvador for thirteen years now and their youngest two daughters are actually Salvadoran because they were born here.  The place where they live is SO BEAUTIFUL and it literally looks like they live in the middle of a jungle, no joke.  Talking with them has been so incredible, and I think it’s amazing that they are raising their girls here in such a unique environment. 

Thursday we watched a documentary introducing the story El Salvador’s history, including US involvement in their brutal civil war that lasted from 1980-1992.  We went to la Universidad de Centroamerica or la UCA where we will be studying.  A brief background – El Salvador’s civil war lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the atrocities committed have had a lasting effect on the country and the people.  1980 saw the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero while he said Mass.  Romero had always refused to leave his people to their suffering and was really an icon of and for the poor.  Another notable event, in 1989 members fighting for the Salvadoran government killed six Jesuits living at the UCA, along with their housekeeper and her daughter.  This gained international attention and from my understanding is when the role of the US in backing the Salvadoran government really began to be challenged within our country.  This is so far only my basic understanding of what happened, and as I learn more I will add it.  What I do know for sure is that the war left a culture of violence and a torn people with experiences of true suffering to define their pasts.  Romero, the Jesuits, and the war are three things that many of the Salvadorans I have met still identify with and impact them greatly.  When we went to the UCA we walked through the place where the Jesuits, the housekeeper, and her daughter were killed, and it was somewhat uncomfortable for me, not only because of the horrifying events that happened there but also because I felt almost unworthy of being there because I know I can’t fully appreciate and understand what happened and its impact.  This semester I am really looking forward to delving into this more and being able to learn from others and form my own ideas and understandings.

Friday was spent going over more orientation material, including a long section about health and safety (don’t worry Mom).  Friday night we went to a huge pupuseria (pupusas are a really famous food in El Salvador…like a corn tortilla stuffed with rice, beans, queso, pork, anything) and it was really fun to get outside of our neighborhood and see some other sights.  We have a great group of people here and it’s been fun to spend time with everyone and start forming a strong community. 

Saturday we started visiting praxis sites!  My schedule for this semester will be attending class at the UCA Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and on Mondays and Wednesdays I will be going to my praxis site with my friend from SLU Alexa and another Casa student Ted, which is in a town called Tepecoyo.  This week of orientation we are visiting all of the praxis sites, and luckily mine was on the first day!  First we went to Las Delicias, a rural area that really really took a hard hit from the major floods this past fall.  We visited some of the homes and they told us the stories of the floods.  A couple of them lost literally everything they own and although they struggled to tell us their stories you could see that it was something that they wanted to share with us.  The bus ride to and throughout Tepecoyo was INCREDIBLE.  We had lunch with and met Angelica and her family at her house, who is going to be our main contact person.  She talked to us for a long time about the comedor, or kitchen that they run, and I can tell that she is an extremely special person.  We visited another family’s house and talked with the mother for a while.  She talked about how the floods were extremely difficult on them and how most of the time they struggle to even find food.  She has some children who are young adult aged, and I got to meet her 17-year-old girl who will be taking the computer and English classes we are going to help teach.  I’m so excited that I’m going to get to spend so much time with these two incredible families and can already tell I am going to learn and grow a lot.  We also took a trip to Zacamil where Angelica’s sister lives with her family.  Her son Jovani was injured a few years ago in an accident and was left paralyzed and in a wheelchair.  The hospitality of this family was unbelievable and it was such a gift to spend time talking with them.  Every other Monday we will get to go to Zacamil to spend the day with Jovani and help him with his English, or play games, or really do whatever we all feel like doing.  After talking with him, I know we are all going to have a lot of fun. 

This morning (Sunday) we went to Mass in a neighborhood called La Chacra, and Salvadoran Mass is quite the experience.  The priest was extremely inviting and welcoming to everyone in the parish and thanks to lots of practice at SLU’s Spanish Mass I was able to understand nearly his entire homily, which was a really incredible message of being called as Jesus’ disciples, and what our roles are in our own communities.  The environment was so much fun, and I’m looking forward to exploring other churches throughout the semester. 

This trip so far has been so full of thoughts, ideas, and emotions.  It has been a lot to handle, more so than I maybe had thought it would, but in times where I’m not sure about anything else I am so sure that this is where I am supposed to be right now.  Making the trip to Tepecoyo lifted me up a lot and made me so excited for the possibilities that this semester holds.  Like I said, it’s been weird to walk the streets and be here in the mindset that I’m living here and not just on vacation, and today I kept having moments where I would look around and think wow, this is poverty, this is El Salvador.  I hope to update again soon, but since I can’t get to Internet very often my posts will probably be a lot longer like this one.  And if you made it this far, I’m impressed, haha.  I am thinking about and praying for all my friends and family at home, and I ask you do the same for me!  Besos 

Hoy me voy!

Here we go!! Tomorrow I'm leaving the States for four months to study at the Casa de la Solidaridad (House of Solidarity) program in El Salvador.  This is really the opportunity of my dreams, and I'm so thankful that I get to go.  I'll fly into Chicago tonight, then to Miami early in the morning, and then land in San Salvador just after 1pm.  After that, I honestly have no idea...but that's okay because I AM SO EXCITED!  I'm not sure how often I will update this, I'll probably just figure it out when I get there but I will do my best.  Hopefully the flights, layovers, and customs will all go smoothly and I will arrive in San Salvador with my suitcase.  Here's to the start of a great adventure!