Disbelief!

I can't believe my time here is so quickly coming to a close!!! It's a happy and a sad feeling-- I'm excited to go home and see my family and my friends, but I'm not very excited to leave my family and friends here, let alone go back to school...I already liked the country after coming two years ago for a week, but after almost two months here?? I love the people, the food, the language, the culture-- time has flown by so incredibly fast. I really can't believe it.

Pictures from my most recent escapades

Another random post full of pictures from the last two weeks (and earlier)...

The following two pictures are from the day I went with the group of missionaries from Lancaster, PA to Apopa to hold a medical clinic (July 5th, I think)-- this is "El Comedor," a kind of cafeteria that the Baptist pastor (of the church where we held the medical clinic) feeds lunch to local children almost every day. Gracia told me this is probably the best meal that the kids will have during the day and maybe even the only one. The kids' ages varied, ranging from toddlers to adolescents. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures at the clinic, so these few from El Comedor are all I have from that day.

Coloring and learning about Noah's ark: Paola y Valeria

 Skirt Sunday with Paty! (July 10th)

The next few pictures are from an afternoon excursion to Santa Ana (July 11th) with Gracia and Co. We visited the National Theatre (over 100 years old, the oldest in El Salvador I believe), the Cathedral of Santa Ana, and attempted to eat at La Torta Loca, but it wasn't open on Mondays. More or less translated to "the crazy sandwich," this restaurant is known for its huuuge sandwiches with "everything" in them. I'm sad I didn't get to try one.

Teatro Nacional de Santa Ana-- there was a group rehearsing on stage, so it was a little weird walking around. Picture taken from the 3rd floor balcony.

A ballroom of sorts, I think. View from the floor facing inwards towards the theatre.

View of same room from above and facing front of the church.

 View from 3rd floor of Teatro Nacional of surrounding city and mountains-- beautiful.

 Another rooftop view of Santa Ana

Inside the Catedral de Santa Ana

 Front facade of the cathedral-- I couldn't get the entire front in one picture, so this is the top half.

Bottom half

This past Sunday, I went to the beach with Paty, Dome, Brenda, Carol (their sister-in-law), Raquelita (Carol's daughter/Paty's granddaughter/Dome and Brenda's niece) and Charlie, a family friend (Dome and Brenda grew up with him and call him their cousin). We went to a beach called "El Tunco" (another word for "pig") and enjoyed a lunch of seafood and an afternoon spent next to the water. The sand was black (I'm still finding granules in my ears)-- I suppose it's from the volcanic activity in El Salvador-- and there were surfers! First time to legitimately see some in real life-- it looked like fun! But perhaps, a little difficult. :)

 Eating oysters for the first time-- delicious!

Roca Sunzal-- a restaurant/hotel for surfers, tourists, and the like. This is the restaurant right on the shore!

 The hotel behind the restaurant 

 El Tunco-- the rock for which the beach is named-- apparently, a long time ago, it used to be shaped like a pig. This picture doesn't really do it justice-- it's a lot bigger than it looks. People can climb to the top of it and jump off into the rocks below (the part to the right), or sit on the little cliff for a scenic view to the far left.

 La playa

This past Wednesday, the kids came to school dressed up as "princesas y guerreros" (princesses and warriors). It was the first time I'd ever seen the kids out of their normal tan uniforms which was a little bit weird. The majority of the girls came dressed in their Sunday best and the boys more or less wore t-shirts from their favorite super heroes or movie characters-- Cars, Iron Man, and Spiderman were all represented. Jorge (not pictured in these few photos) came sporting a Messi Barcelona jersey, a player/team which for many people here is equivalent to superhero status. 

 Fiorella

 Belén ("Bethlehem" in Spanish)

 David

Yesterday, I visited the recently finished Mormon Tabernacle in San Salvador-- a very interesting and enlightening visit concerning the beliefs and practices of the Mormon church. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but let me just say that it was definitely built with luxury in mind. The "templo" closes to the public after the 23rd and after that, only "really good" Mormons get to go in (or so I hear). Note the characteristic dark skies of a Salvadoran afternoon thunderstorm.

Templo de Mormon

And that's a wrap for pictures! I hope to post again soon-- it's weird to think that my time here is winding down fast-- I come back to the states on the 3rd of August! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

La dentista

Yesterday I paid a visit to a dentist to have my teeth cleaned-- it's been more than a year since I last had a cleaning, and its waaaayyy cheaper to get in done in El Salvador than in the States (a measly $30 compared to prices around $100) So. It made sense to do it in El Salvador! Plus, the dentist is a friend of the family here and I've met him a couple of different times at church functions. His name is Cesar, but everyone calls him "el pelón" which means "bald." Anyway, it was a very productive appointment (funny at times as well-- I don't know a whole lot of vocabulary that has to do with dentist visits, but I learned some new words) and my teeth are all clean!

One little interesting observation about my visit-- the dentist office was at his house! He has his own little space that includes a waiting area and the actual room with all the equipment; and it's just him there. There's no dental assistants, no secretary, no other dentist sharing the building. Dome told me that it's quite common here, but there dentists who have their practices located in office buildings as well as are bigger "clinics" with several dentists in the same building, but they're usually more expensive.

Tonight was Walter's (Brenda and Dome's brother, Paty's son) birthday so I just got back from his birthday dinner at Sushi Itto-- I was very upset when my bill came bc it turns out that I was charged $6 for my drink, only $.50 less than my actual sushi! Apparently, my drink was a "double"-- I have no recollection of the waitress asking me anything of the kind, and if she did I didn't understand her. Que barbaridad.

Before the birthday dinner, I spend the majority of my day doing a lot of laundry and just chilling. It's been raining pretty hard outside for the past couple of hours. It'll make a nice background noise for going to sleep.

Sunburns

So, I spent part of yesterday and today at the beach...and I'm very very red, even though I put on sunscreen. I guess I was just too white...the burn was inevitable I suppose.

 When I was last in El Salvador around two and a half years ago, I went to a beach that was littered with volcanic like rocks; I had a terrible day of running into and stepping on prickly sharp rocks that were covered by the murky water, I lost a James Avery ring to the ocean's tide, and I got beat up a little bit by the waves. But this time, my experience was much more enjoyable! The beach resort I went to is called "El Decameron," and though the beach was rocky (again!), the resort and pool area were very nice.Thank you to Gracia for the invite!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

So, I haven't uploaded any pictures in a little while. So, that's what I figured I'd do with this post.

These first few pictures are looooonnnnng overdue. They're from June 25th, the day I went to Izalco with Gracia and her family.

 Foosball game with Gracia...and I'm very proud to say that the gringa beat the latina.  This is the winner's score. (That would be me.)

Poor little salvadoreña.

 Iglesia de Izalco.

I orginally wasn't going to take a picture because I didn't want to look like a tourist, and I said so to Gracia. She just looked at me and said, "Natalie. You already look like a tourist without your camera out. You might as well. Go across the street and take the picture." So I did.

View down the main street with my back to the front of the church

The next day, I went to the opening service of the CEFAD branch in Sonsonate. None of the pictures really turned out very good, but I'm uploading some anyway. Just for you.

The service

The skit. And yes, that's me in the white and blue.

In the kid's service after the "parting of the Red Sea" in the kid's skit.

All the helpers with the kids at the end-- Silly faces!

This is from the following weekend (July 2nd, I believe.) Instead of handing grades out to kids at school once the 6 or 9 weeks period ends, at my school, they had a little performance and then a kind of awards ceremony, and then the teacher hands all the parents their children's grades. The K-5 classes demonstrated their knowledge of English and sang a vowel song and Jesus Loves Me. These are my kids. :)

And now for a few school pictures. The kids love it when I pull out the camera.

Some of my little girls: Karina, Arianna, Daniela, and Valeria

This is Camila-- she always seems to be glued to my side or remind me that her first name is "Nathalie"

Ana Fiorella, Daniela, Jorge, Carlos, Belen, and Arianna...of course, Jorgito is making a face.

Marlon and Enrique. Typical. 

I know I didn't say a lot in this post, but it honestly has taken a long time to write it bc of all the pictures. (It takes forever to upload pics on this blog!) I do have more pictures/stories that I could write about, but I'm going to forgo that until tomorrow (or perhaps Thursday). It's a little late for me. Goodnight!

Family love

In about ten minutes, it's going to be tomorrow for me, and that means it's July 10th-- a very ordinary day for most people, but for my family, it is anything but ordinary. Why? Because it's my mom's birthday! Happy early birthday momma!! Miss you! Hope I get to talk to you tomorrow!

I really appreciate my family so much. They have been so supportive while I've been here these past 5 weeks, always checking up on me to see how I'm doing or when I get to come home already (*cough cough...Nate!) and just sending me their love, encouragement and prayers. I am so incredibly grateful for every single family member, (including Hudson!) and I miss everyone so much!! I love all of you and look forward to seeing you soon. Happy birthday mom!!

...not keeping up with mi trabajo

To all my faithful readers (Mom, Dad, Nate and Amelia)-- I'm terribly sorry that I haven't posted here in a week. Life just gets busy, and I admit that sometimes I just don't want to write. But then I remember all of my loving family/friends at home and remember my purpose for writing in the first place.

So, the week's been a little different than normal. Really Tuesday was different. I didn't go to CEFAS that day and instead went with a group of American missionaries to Apopa. How do I know these people? Well, I didn't. Gracia translates with a NGO that accepts American teams sometimes though, and she invited me to go with her. It was a very interesting and fun experience, especially not being on the missions team but rather an outsider who could still speak the team's language. I'm so used to how ORU does missions. I really enjoyed being able to communicate with both the team and Salvadoreans. The team hailed from Lancaster, PA, and I think some of the conservative lifestyle of the Amish infiltrated this teams' lifestyle in the states (and therefore their actions here). But, we worked in a medical clinic pretty much all day in Apopa, an area that is not only poor, but quite dangerous due to gang violence, and I worked mostly with deworming kids. All this involves really is getting the kids to open their mouths and take this nasty looking white medicine (it brought back bad memories from childhood sicknesses)-- they never failed to either spit it out or at least make a "this is disgusting" face, but we gave them a sucker afterwards. All better. Just like the doctor's office.

Tomorrow is Gracia's birthday, so I'm going out to eat with her and her friends tonight. It should be fun-- loud and lots of Spanish!

My Spanish speaking debut...kinda

So, last night I spoke in the youth group service (I'm posting this past midnight, so technically Friday night)-- I gave the offering message and told a little bit of the story of how/why I ended up coming to El Salvador to try and encourage the youth to trust in God and do so by giving. I spoke for the first part in Spanish; I was really nervous actually, but they cheered me on when I made a mistake at the beginning and then after that the words flowed pretty well. And then I got to a point where I needed to talk in English because not only was the concept a little more complicated, but it also would've honestly taken 30 minutes for me to say I wanted with the limited vocabulary that I have...so, I just had a friend, Marimar (her full name is Maria del Mar...sooo beautiful) translate the last part for me. She speaks English very well, of course.

As for today, I actually felt a little bit sick this afternoon. Headache, a little queasiness, and just an overall feeling of blahness. So, I skipped out on the plans I had with Gracia (sorry!!) and came home and rested. And now I'm getting ready to go to bed!

Blogs can be frustrating sometimes...

Last night, I tried for almost an hour to make this blog work so I could upload pictures....but alas. That mission failed. Hopefully, this attempt will go through...though I don't have the patience this time around to deal with photos.

It's Thursday and I haven't posted in here since Monday, so you would think I would have a lot of catching up to do...but honestly, this week has been rather normal (other than the unexpected death trip to the gym; those bicycle seats make sitting down rather painful the next day...). I've been going to school everyday, taking a little siesta/rest in the afternoon, busy in the evenings. You know, just living life.

Tonight, I went out with Gracia and the entourage of people that always seem to come along by default-- of course, the group seems to change everytime, so I'm always meeting new people. We managed at one point to squeeze 11 people in a 5 person car-- and no worries, this is a fairly common sight/practice in El Salvador.

Anyway, Gracia & Co. and I we went to a sort of mini-opera in what I think was an art museum. I, of course, enjoyed the performance. I feel like I'm getting to do some interesting cultural stuff here. The ballet, opera concert, the gym (trust me, it was a cultural experience) and papusas with just about everything. After the concert, we of course went and got papusas and chatted for a while.

Today is one of those days when I feel like my Spanish is getting better-- I could understand a lot of the conversation at the table (as long as Gracia wasn't talking. She goes a mile a minute in both English and Spanish) and I also met an American missionary who's dating one of Gracia's friends. He's really fluent and the little small talk I made with him encouraged me in my quest to learn more.

So. That's all for now folks. I'm going to go and think about what I have to say tomorrow night in the youth service-- I'm giving the offering message. I don't know exactly what I was thinking when I agreed to do this...wish me luck.

Izalco and Sonsonate

First, I'd like to say, thank God for the weekend. I enjoy sleeping. And secondly, that on Mondays, it is SO hard to get out of bed.

So, for this weekend-- I've been here for a little over 3 weeks now, and it has been wonderful. Difficult at times? Yes. Have people laughed at my expense? Of course. But am I learning a lot and thoroughly enjoying this beautiful country and the people I've met? Absolutely. But anyway. The weekend.

Saturday, I went to Izalco with Gracia and her family to visit friends and attend the one year memorial mass of the mother of the aforementioned friends. The church was gorgeous and is one of the oldest churches in El Salvador. I also tried the yucca that Izalco is known for-- at the moment, I forget the specific name for it, but its kinda mashed a little and made with some special sauce and a few vegetables. It kinda tastes a little like potatoes this way...but not really. It was delicious, of course.

The majority of Sunday was spent in Sonsonate helping with the opening service of the newest edition to the growing number of church's or "celulas" under CEFAD (the Maeda's church here in San Salvador). I was in a drama and I died. :( But, of course I got to hug Jesus and wear a crown and do a little choreographed dance for the rest of the skit.

I honestly could write more about the weekend, but I'm exhausted right now. Gracia invited me to go to the gym with her tonight...and boy, was it an experience. Aerobic class was more like dance class. And I, unfortunately, am a gringa and therefore lack the significant amount of hip action that this class required....At least I stood in the back. And then, after the dance class, it was on to a cycling class. Let's just say, that afterward, I needed help from Gracia to go down the stairs. And that I was sweating so much, that even my shorts were soaked, and it looked like I wet my pants. Yeah. It's bedtime.

Oh, and I don't have the camera right now. So I'll upload pictures from the weekend soon, tomorrow hopefully.

Ballet pronounced "Ba-let"

So, you know how in English and French, the "t" at the end of the word "ballet" is silent? Well, in Spanish, it's not. And with Dome, I went to my first "balet" ever tonight in San Salvador celebrating the twentieth anniversary of El Salvador's ballet company. There were dancers from Nicaragua, Panama, and Cuba (the Guatemalans were a no show) that performed in addition to those from El Salvador. I don't even understand how people can be so skinny, jump high, and still manage to look graceful and make the stunts they're doing seem effortless. God gives special talents to everyone, I suppose. But yeah. Super chivo (cool) night.

Ruta de las flores

So, in El Salvador (and many other Spanish speaking countries I think), they actually have a holiday to honor their teachers called "El Dia del Maestro" and there's NO school on this day. I think it's a wonderful idea that the United States should add to the list of holidays already existing for veterans, MLK, dead presidents, and labor unions. Anyway, because today was this very special day here in El Salvador, instead of going to school, the Maedas and I took a scenic road trip through two of the western "departamentos" of the country, Sonsonate and Ahuachapan on a road called "Ruta de las Flores," a beautiful route that most admirably demonstrates the beauty of the Salvadoran mountains and countryside and also winds through a few beautiful little towns.* We stopped for lunch at "El jardin de celeste" and ate a delicious (but perhaps a little expensive) meal surrounded by beautiful gardens.

 One of the many beautiful flower arrangements at El jardin de Celeste

  Yummm, lunch! 

(This big plate of food was split btw 4 people)

This area of the country is located in the mountains, and it therefore goes without saying that it was much much cooler than the weather in hot, muggy San Salvador. Probably the coolest thing about the day was getting to watch the mist kind of roll off the nearby mountain and envelop the restaurant (which was more or less outside). When Daniel (Dome and Brenda's cute 3 year old nephew) saw this happening, he exclaimed, "Esta lloviendo humo!" or "it's raining smoke!"

A beautiful little church on the garden's grounds

On a side story about Daniel: Now, someone with light skin, and light eyes, and lighter hair (my hair gets called "blonde" quite often) sticks out like a sore thumb in El Salvador, for while there are a lot of people here with lighter skin (who are given the nickname "chele"), they almost always have dark eyes and/or dark hair. And if they have blonde hair...well, it's more than likely not "real" blonde hair. Anyway, the combination of the three characteristics
automatically screams "foreigner" and draws a lot of curious looks sometimes. Now, after lunch today, we went to this other place where there supposedly was a little zoo, and while we were getting out of the car, two vans pulled in to the lot full of young people with lots of blonde hair and light skin and Daniel said, "Amigos de Natalie!!!" It was so cute.

Me and Dani, the "chele"

All in all, it was a nice, relaxing day getting to see some beautiful sights. School tomorrow though. Hmmph.

*For those of you who saw me write on facebook that I was going to the beach, we were going to the beach...but at the last minute, there was a change of plans.




A mural in Ataco

Beans and soccer

So, this past weekend, was spent doing a myriad of things, including "cleaning" beans for a soup on Saturday night and spending 3 hours watching El Salvador play Panama in the Copa de Oro soccer tournament. I felt very El Salvadoran to say the least. 

Bean cleaning doesn't really involve any real cleaning-- just going through 5 liters (a lot) of beans and picking out the ones that were no good. There are these little bugs called gorgojos that get into the beans and make holes in them, so you more or less inspect a group of them and make sure you weed out all the beans that have been visibly contaminated by gorgojos. The resulting soup on Sunday after church was incredibly delicious and enjoyed by a table crowded with family members eating very fast. El Salvadorans devour their food-- I asked for a smaller portion of soup and I still think I was the last person to finish eating...

 Sorting through the mountain of beans

Unwanted, overly wrinkly, gorgojo beans are on the left

The futbol game vs. Panama wasn't quite as successful as the sopa de frijoles. Sadly, El Salvador lost in a penalty kick shoot-out (I think that's what it's called, but I'm not a soccer buff so don't make fun) after a tied game of 1-1. At least the United States is still in the tournament...I told Dome that I was just a teency little bit happy that El Salvador lost, because if they would've won, they would've moved on to play the US! How am I supposed to choose between my home country and another that's starting to feel like home, huh?? She agreed. And told me that had El Salvador advanced, and I subsequently chosen to cheer for the wrong team, I would've had to sleep outside.

Now, I know that I need to take more pictures and upload them to my facebook and/or blog of all the little things that are different and stuff that I do during the day. I just forget to take pictures! And I don't want to look overly conspicuous. But yeah, I'll get on that.

Last thing-- I was talking to my brother Nate on Sunday and told him how I found a pretty decent sized El Salvadoran cockroach dead in the bathroom after I had seen it alive on the wall the night before (and left it there bc I was too scared/grossed out by it). And I started singing the song "La cucaracha, la cucaracha..." And his response was "What?!? Wait. That's what cockroach means in Spanish?? I didn't know that! Why did you tell me that?? Ugh. I can't ever sing that again." Needless to say, I laughed for about 5 minutes. 

Father's Day cont.

I colored this for you too. Some of the kids helped me color it. Love you!

Father's Day

Dad! Look what I made for you in class this past week for Father's Day! The kids all wrote on theirs "te amo papi" but I thought I'd do it in English just because. :) I love you so much and I wish I could be there with you and everyone else today! Xoxo.

Funny little interactions during the week

So, on Wednesday, one of the teachers from the elementary school (I think maybe 1st or 2nd grade) came and found me in my class to ask me how to pronounce "pirámide" (pyramid) and "cilindro" (cylinder) in English. After I told her, she laughed and said that she had been saying pyramid with a long "i" sound for the "y" so it sounded like "pieramid." I felt so useful. :)

And then Thursday, I was helping the teacher of my class Miss Habith (pronounced "habeed") finish up the craft for Dia del Padre (which is today); I got to use this glittery glue stuff to decorate these little blue foam guitars that the teacher's assistant had cut out, and the kids were mesmerized by the sparkle. Enrique and Illianna, two of the adorable students in the class, were trying to ask me something. And I didn't understand them at all. I asked "que?" (what?) and still, no comprehension. So, I just did what I normally do when that happens and kinda smiled, but looked confused at the same time, and said "si." Then Ilianna proceeded to whisper something in Spanish to Enrique, and the conversation proceeded like this:

Enrique: Ella dice que no puedes hablar espanol.
Me: Si, no muy bien. Pero, tu no puedes hablar ingles como yo.
Enrique: Que? Habla en ingles.
Me: Say something in English? But you won't understand me.
Enrique: Que?? Que es eso?
Me: Ingles. Dije que tu no puedes entenderme cuando yo hablo ingles.

And Enrique kind of scrunched up his face in a cute way and walked off.

And then on Friday, during another conversation with Enrique, he informed me that I talked weird. Sometimes, little kids have such a great way of saying things just right.

Pictures I tried to post...

 The view from the backdoor into the garden

My clothes hanging out to dry...

Early to bed

I'm currently in my room wearing a tank top and shorts with the ceiling fan on high and a cup of water next to my bed to quench any late night thirst (with a lid on top of course...lots of bugs). Yeah, it's about 10:30, and it's actually my bed time. It sounds weird, I'm sure, especially to all of my friends at school, and especially those who haven't forgotten my late night escapades from freshmen year. But hey--people can change, right?

Right now, it's POURING rain outside. I love the sound though. Most of the houses in San Salvador are built open to the outdoors-- the windows have no panes really-- only a plastic sort of shutter that you can open and close. The window in my room shares a wall with the kitchen, and the window in the kitchen doesn't have any shutters at all! And neither does the back door. Just an iron kind of grate at the top. So, I can hear just about everything outside. It's very nice, especially if it's rain. (I was going to upload a picture of the kitchen window and door, but the site is being uber slow and not letting me upload the picture. So, maybe tomorrow.)

One week in El Salvador

Well, today is Saturday, and I've been here in the beautiful country of El Salvador for a little over a week. And I'm lovin it. Granted, I still don't speak Spanish very well, but I'm going to be here for almost nine weeks, so no worries-- there's still plenty of time for improvement. I just have so much ground to cover, sometimes I feel like it's impossible. Ugh.

Further update from the last entry: Dome, informed by my lack of a camera from reading my blog, is allowing me to use a digital camera while I'm here. Good news, yes? So, that means that I'll be able to post lots of pictures, either here or on facebook of all my wild escapades...if only I actually remembered I had a camera to take pictures sometimes...

Here's a food update: I love El Salvadoran food. It's very different, and I have rice and beans with almost every meal (not really...but maybe), but the beans are so much better than the tex-mex version I don't mind one bit. The tortillas and tamales are different here too, but still delicious. I've also had watermelon juice. And not suprisingly, it tasted just like watermelons.

School update: 5 year olds are exhausting. But still, quite cute. But I accidentally said kind of a not okay word in front of a few the other day in Spanish. I was trying to call them bad little kids, right? They were being perverted. So, to make words smaller or say "little" you put words into a diminutive form. Like mesa (table) becomes mesita (little table). So, I called them ninos malditos...and their faces were priceless. I didn't know at the time that I had said a quasi-bad word (translates as damn it, but it's not really considered a swear word in Spanish, or so they tell me. Just a bad expression.) but their reactions definitely clued me in. Hopefully, this will be the only slip up...

Horchata y elote loco

Elote loco or "crazy corn" is a fun twist on a typical El Salvadoran food. Mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, "salsa negra" and cheese all piled on a very large piece of corn. It actually was quite delicious once I got used to it. Horchata is also a traditional El Salvadoran drink that I had on Sunday at this beautiful park-- it tastes kind of like milk with cinnamon and some kind of cream. I could feel the granules of cinnamon on my teeth when I drank it- que rica!

Today was my first day going to school-- I'm in a class full of kindergarteners and their vocabulary is much more advanced than mine. I feel like I need to be the student, not them. But they are so precious and full of life! I love them already. When I told one little girl, Ilianna, that I was from the United States, her eyes got HUGE and she threw her hands up in the air and said "Los Estados Unidos? De verdad??" It was so cute.

Oh, on a side note-- I apologize in advance for my lack of pictures on this blog. My digital camera was stolen at the end of the school year so all I have right now is a party camera. Any pictures that I post will more than likely already be posted on facebook, courtesy of one of the Maeda's picture phones. Like the picture above.

When it rains, it pours

When I was writing the previous entry and talking about the weather, I was reminded of this picture from the side of a salt container. I seem to remember it from childhood, but I think my mom still has the same container...maybe.

Beginnings

Well. Here I am, happily situated in my room en la casa de mi familia en San Salvador, El Salvador. I cannot believe that I am really here-- and that it's been over two years since I was last here! What a different climate (weather-wise and politically) than last time! As opposed to my previous visit, there isn't a hotly contested presidential race going on and it's the rainy season. And boy, it rains. Hard. I'm going to definitely need to invest in a sturdier umbrella...

For all of you wondering, "What on earth is Natalie Avery doing in El Salvador?" lemme tell ya-- For the past few years or so, I've been study Spanish at university; however, I find myself to be severely lacking in the area of speaking skills, which is a rather important part to second language acquisition...so what better way to actually learn Spanish than to be constantly forced to speak it? And in a different country, no less. So, considering that living in a foreign country is the best way to learn a language, that's what I'm doing. And what group am I here with? What organization? Nadie! My parents know people who know people who know people (es complicado) and these people (the Maedas) attend a church that also has a school. Dome (la hermana mediana) y Paty (la madre) work at the school and I will be joining them-- in what capacity, I'm not entirely sure yet. But still, they say it is a great place for me to practice my novice speaking skills.

I've never had a blog before (thank you to Susanna Whittaker for recommending that I start one for this summer), so please, bear with me as I attempt to navigate this new tool to tell you about little bits and pieces of my time here. I'll try and post as much as possible. Keep me in your prayers.

Gracias,

Natalie