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