One Way United

Been a while, eh? If we haven’t really been updating it’s because we haven’t done anything all that interesting. Amanda left to fly back to America on Sunday and since then we have not left Antigua and have lived a rousing life of reading, going to movies, becoming Sudoku masters, and eating at Monoloco. In truth it’s been relaxing to the point of being kinda boring. We did go to visit a volcano for an afternoon so that was fun. Be sure and check out the pictures page as lots of new ones up.

Today is an exciting day though, as in just a few short hours the mission team from Seattle (including Jordan’s parents) will be arriving! And then we’ll be starting our mission trip to small village of Cajixay. I have been looking forward to this as I have heard so many wonderful stories of past trips from numerous people. They always seem to be fun and enlightening and I’m thankful I get to take part in the experience this time.

There have been updates to the people page and the photo gallery so take a gander at those. As always we really miss all of you, especially tomorrow. Our good friends Jared and Claudette are taking their vows and joining in holy matrimony. I’m so happy you two have found each other and dearly wish I could be there to share in your special day. Know that we are thinking of you and praying for God’s blessings to fall on your continued life together. CONGRATULATIONS!

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Well, we are now in Antigua, Guatemala; just resting for a day after the last few nights of little sleep (Jordan will cover that in his next post on TIKAL).  But my job is to tell you about the wonderful, beautiful, rustic, friendly country of El Salvador, even though we were only there for 2 nights.

It took a lot of pushing on my part to go to El Salvador as were very crunched for time on our way to Guatemala.  I had always wanted to go because when I worked at Delfinos, all of the cooks were from El Salvador; it was really what sparked my interest in Latin America.  Unfortunately, however, El Salvador is slightly out of the way when heading towards Guatemala; and out of all the Central American countries, it is the least touristy and the least visited.  But my pushing won out and we hopped on an 11 hour bus in Managua that went straight to the capital, San Salvador.

San Salvador was a delight.  The cab drivers didn’t try to rip us off (like in Nicaragua), a random man stopped and hugged us as we were trekking to our hotel (ok, he might have been drunk, not really sure), people didn’t hassle us for taxi rides, hotels, and tours, and people were always more than ready to help out with directions or information.  I believe the friendliness of the people owes itself in part to the fact that El Salvador has not yet been jaded by tourism; therefore, people are always ready to help and show a genuine interest in you.  Anyway, our hotel, Hotel Florida, was lovely and a great place to rest after so much travelling.  That night, we set out for the mall where we enjoyed Pizza Hut and TCBY (we are such Westerners, I know!)

The following morning we set out for the small Colonial Town of Suchitoto.  This town is where all of my old Delfinos coworkers were from so I had heard all these stories about how great it was.  Suchitoto did not disapoint!  Granted, there was not much in the way of tourist activities there, but I think that was part of the charm.  When we checked into the hotel, the lady who owned it had her husband give us a ride to the lake (we didn’t even have to ask).  As though that wasn’t enough kindness, she gave us a huge plastic bag with her family’s swim suits and towels for us to use (we had left most of our luggage in San Salvador).  Later that night, this little boy tried to teach us how to spin a-top-on-a-string thing, and was cracking us up as he made fun of Jordan’s many unsuccesful tries.  He would go around showing people (all that night and the next morning) how Jordan threw the top.  It was HILARIOUS!  Between interacting with him, eating in laid back restaurants, hanging out at the lake, and browsing in all of the Artesian shops, the best we can describe Suchitoto is TRANQUILO (we have agreed that there is no sufficient English equivalent to this word).  Jordan also said that the town might win the “Friendliest Award” out of all the towns he’s been to on his entire trip!

So all and all, we were only able to spend 2 days in El Salvador.  But it was enough to win me over to the county; I hope to go back some day and maybe do some volunteer/mission work of some kind.  While El Salvador might not be a top tourist draw, its richest resource is definetly the people! Love it, love it!

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Back in Quito, I sit at this high tech internet cafe trying to think of words to describe this experience.  It seems like there is so much to say but no words come to mind.  In a nutshell, I loved my time in that tiny village.  At the end, I felt like I was a part of the community and it was hard leaving.  But, it was time to move on.  Our main goal was to teach the guides English and we did not accomplish what we set out to do, but somehow it didn’t matter.  The guides were in the middle of the busy tourist season and they did not want to spend their free time learning English.  So we only had one teaching session with them lasting an hour and no more.

Our main activity turned out to be teaching English at the small school in the village.  We taught two classes for a half hour each day.  In one class there were younger children between 4 - 8 years of age.  In the other class there were children aged from around 9 - 12 years.  None of these kids have ever had exposure to English before so we had to start completely from scratch.  By the end we had taught the bigger kids common words and phrases, the alphabet, numbers to one hundred, subject pronouns, the present tense of the verb to be and 4 other common verbs.  There was no way we were going to attempt to teach the younger kids verbs (keeping their attention for any amount of time over a minute was a real challenge).  We taught them the alphabet, numbers to 20, colors, a few animals, and a few body parts.  While this might not seem like much, believe me, this was plenty of material for them.  When a lot of the younger kids began being able to count from 11 to 20 without help from us, I felt like superman. 

When I was in high school, I thought there was no way I would ever be a teacher.  I feared public speaking and maybe did not want to think about that kind of responsibility.  However, after teaching these children in Agua Blanca in Spanish, I discovered I could actually picture myself as a teacher.  I’m not saying I want to become a teacher, I am only saying I can picture it now.  It is so fun when children actually get what you are teaching them.  In the bigger kid class, we had several competitions to review material that we taught.  When kids came up with the right answer it was very rewarding.  While it was very hard to keep the attention of the littler kids, I enjoyed teaching them as well.  I liked the challenge in finding ways to keep their attention and when they come up with a right answer, their faces really light up.

Besides teaching the children, we spent a lot of time in the fields helping out with agriculture.  The main crop are bananas.  It was a great way to start out the morning.  We would rise to the roosters at around 7:00 but refuse to get out of bed for another hour (for me anyway).  We would eat breakfast that a family prepared for us and then walk to the banana fields with a machete or a knife in hand.  The activity we did most often was cutting dead branches off trees but it was more fun than it sounds.  There is just something fulfilling and peaceful about working outdoors.  One time we were clearing out an area with Camilo (we stayed at his house) and I got to hack up a good sized tree (ok it wasn’t that big) with a machete.  It was so fun!  We generally worked until 10:00 when classes began at the school.  After we were done teaching for the day we sometimes went back out to the fields and worked for another hour and a half. 

The rest of the time was spent either swimming at this peaceful thermal lagun (when big groups of tourists weren’t coming through), chatting it up with tourists, reading, playing with kids, and just being a part of the community.  By the end, I knew many people’s names (especially the kids) and when people saw us, they would light up and try to make conversation.  During our second week there people didn’t look at us like another tourist.  We began to be a part of the community.  That being said, I’m going to miss the people of that village, especially the kids.  Now, it’s back to the regular life of a traveler, which isn’t so bad.  Amanda (my sister for the uninformed) will join us in a couple days here in Quito and then we will most likely be moving north again.  We have to make it to Guatemala in 5 weeks after she arrives (yikes!)  In Guatemala, Adam and I will join our church’s mission trip to the small village of Cajixay on the 18th of August, while Amanda will have to fly back.  Soon, there will be a page up about the upcoming church trip to Guatemala.  For now, love to all, and for all those lost in the busyness of the real world…hang in there!  : )

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