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!