sipmichelle (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sipmichelle) wrote,@ 2004-06-21 22:37:00 |
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Hi everybody!!!
This will be a long one so if you don't have time to read it then scroll to the bottom for some highlights!
How good it is to have a chance to enter civilization for a day and use a computer! The last week of my life has definitely been intriguing, difficult, wonderful, challenging, crazy, different, extremely fun, and any other adjective you can think of.
Last sunday we left for El Condadillo, which is about 2 hours from San Salvador. To access the village we had to drive down a long and bumpy dirt road with lots of hills and through a dry creek bed. The truck had to stop there cause the road got so bad and we carried my bag and 8 3-gallon containters of purified water up a small hill and then down a somewhat steep path to the doorway of Lastenia's bamboo and tin house. (i'm proud to report that i've been living there a week and i haven't yet fallen down one time!) all of the houses here are very humble (though they generally have cement floors unlike mine), the streets are covered in trash and animal feces, andthe sounds of the jungle surround us. El condadillo reallyu is a village of poverty in the physical sense.
Anyway, all I really remember from this first expereince is that everyone was talking, I was in a bit of shock from all the smells and noises (Lastenia has about 8 chicken, a couple roosters, 9 pigs, a turkey and who knows what else). I remember one of the other volunteers who was there saying "wow this is just like something out of a peace corps brochure!" So anyway, the big group of people (3 other volunteers on the way to their sites, and the program coordinators) said farewell and I was left standing in a pool of sweat in what I declare to be the hottest and smelliest place in the world.
Ok, so earlier I used the adjectives wonderful, fun, and intriguing. These were not the words running through my head on Sunday or Monday. It was so hot that I was miserable, in total culture shock, and I couldn't think of anything but the fact that if I was in the US I could be sitting in an air conditioned room drinking water with ice in it if I wanted. Or that I could go to sleep at night and not worry about BIG bugs crawling into my bed, that a bathroom would be at my disposal in the middle of the night rather than a litrine at the top of steep incline which could house any number of spiders, bats, scorpions, and other interesting creations of nature. So yes, I cried, I was homesick, and I believe I thought of every single excuse I could think to tell CRISPAZ so that I could come home. But I swore to myself that I wouldn't give up on this expereince without making it through at least a week, and I'm sure glad I made that choice.
So, what changed? Well, all I'm going to say is that the words "offer it up" kept running through my head. For those of you who know how much I hate that whole concept, :-)
I feel like I was amazingly open to the grace of God to only hold onto my self-centeredness for just 2 days. I kept telling myself "stop complaining! these people have lived in these conditions their whole lives, you can do it for a week, or 8, come on!"
The only break I had from this hard mental drain was the incessant visits from community members - they all wanted to come and see the gringa who would be living with them for the rest of the summer. it's so cool how warm and friendly the people are - ive grown to love them so much in the last week!
oh and Lastenia, the woman with whom I live, is also amazing. Her son died just 40 days ago and she{s so happy to have company that she tells everyone she meets that she has a gringa for a daughter. she worries incessantly about me, about how much i eat, where im going, etc - she was afriad last night that when I came to San Salvador today to meet with the CRISPAZ staff that they were going to take me away because I had sunburn and it was somehow her fault :-) She's about 65 years old and I guess you could literally say dirt poor. Her house is very humble, she cooks with a wood fire, sleeps on a hammock and takes care of her animals all day (which, by the way, have free domain in inside the casita)
So tuesday began my first day of work. Noe, my coordinator in the canton (the countryside), had me come with him to Berlin to a charla (discussion) about the environment and the issue of the privitization of water in El Salvador. It was such a nice break from the two days of self-pity I'd endured! And, as I mentioned, people continued to visit Lastenia's casita during the evening and on Tuesday 3 guys about my age came to visit and now, only 5 days later, I have a couple of really good friends. Thank God for that, I think its just waht I needed to feel more at home -but more about that later.
Wednesday I went a neighboring canton (about a 2 mile hike through the woods) to pasaquina, where I'll be teaching english two days a week. wherever I go the people greet me warmly and I really love how they have no concept of time, they just like to sit in the hammocks and talk for hours and it doesn't really matter if they have somewhere to be, the person with whom they're talking is always most important. Every wednesday I´'ll be going to a small city nearby called Estanzuelas to do some work there and attend what I would describe as a small faith group meeting. I think it{s going to be a welcomed break as the woman I spend the night with there has running water so I can take a somewhat normal shower, although I have grown to love the bucket shower method used in the canton.
On thursday I returned to El condadillo (by bus: I never knew that so many people could fit on one bus at once or that busses could do so well on terrain I would never think to drive on). That night the same guys that had come to visit on Tuesday came again and we hung out for a few hours.
One of them, Omar, is a permanent resident of the US and just visiting for the summer and he speaks pretty good english so we've had a really good time talking in english and we've become close friends. he's been a good support for me because he knows how it is to be a foriegn country, not understand the culture, and be confused about the language. They´ve been teaching me card games of El Salvador and ive had a great time beating them! it's fun to play with omar because we try to arrange it so that we can be partners and then we speak in english to talk about the game so that we can win. ok, maybe it is cheating, but it's fun :-).
anyway, on thursday they invited me to come withj them to la presa (the dam) to swim and fish and go canoing on Friday. Because I didn{t have anything else to do, I went. I also think it{s neat how they invited everybody to come -lastenia, their parents, etc andnot just their friends. anyway, we had a blast, I swam all day long, got a bad sunburn, and had a blast. after we decided to go watch a girls softball game in the middle of a big field near el condadillo. i had a good time getting to know everyone!
i found out that omar's sister was getting married on saturday and since I met his dad at the lake and his mom a couple days earlier, they were begging me to come. i was suppossed to teach english in pasaquina but the busses don{t run on saturdays and the road walk there is 2 miles and not safe for me to walk alone so we had some complications. noe told me that someone would come to get me in the morning betweem 5 and 7 so i waited and when no one came Lastenia decided that i was going to the wedding with her. the chartered school bus that was going to the wedding (a couple hours away) was leaving at 7 so we ran down the big road and caught it just in time. everyone was so happy i could come and it{s so neat how everyone thinks of me as a memeber of the community.
the wedding was intriguing. the ceremony was the same, rather simple, but the people had a lot of joy. i really liked how it was the marriage that was most important, not the clothes, flowers, details,etc. it was very beautiful.
anyway, as you can tell, ive been busy. ive been blessed to have a wonderful salvadoran madre, a lot of new friends, and lots of exciting things to do. i spent the whole afternoon yesterday playing with the kids (softball, futbol, you name it), in the trash-covered streets. they are so starved for attentino. when i went home they all wanted to walk me and i had like 6 or 7 kids each trying to hold my hands- i feel very loved, i just hope i can make them feel loved too. we played cards again last night and i can't believe that a week ago i didn't want to give this place a chance. i almost hate to leave fora couple days to come to san salvador! i can't wait to go back admist the mosquitoes, hot sun, smells etc to be with the people ive grown to love in just a week.
anyway, sorry to write so much but i{m just very excited to share my expereinces with you all! ill probably send another email in a few weeks so dont{ worry about me crowding your inbox! and scroll on for the highlights!
HIGHLIGHTS
----------------------
°On Friday when I went to swim at the dam with my new found friends a couple of thye guys were looking at the pictures I brought of my family and became totally enamored with my sisters. They keep saying "they are so beautiful well have to go to the US just to meet them!" later that day they started calling me cuñada, the equivalent of sister-in-law, and it{s stuck. so i now have two cuñados, or brother-in-laws here in El Salvador who have an infatuation with my sisters. (don{t worry chelsea, kayla, it{s all in good fun)
°My third night at the house I was sleeping in peace, well protected under my mosquito net on my cot when I was suddenly awakened. I felt something rubbin on the underside of my bed and i was like "what in the world is that?" then i heard the snorting and realized there was a pig crawling under my bed. its funny to think how normal that is to me now and how it didn{t bother me - can you imagine that happening to you?
°I now have a nickname, the spanish equivalent of card shark. i think it's pretty interesting - they are amazed at how fast ive learned the games adn theyre kind of mad that ive beat them so many times :-)
And thats it for now! sorry for the length. know that i miss you all and i love you! i appreciate the prayers and support and i hope your summer is as great as i know mine will be!
in the peace and love of Christ,
michelle
This will be a long one so if you don't have time to read it then scroll to the bottom for some highlights!
How good it is to have a chance to enter civilization for a day and use a computer! The last week of my life has definitely been intriguing, difficult, wonderful, challenging, crazy, different, extremely fun, and any other adjective you can think of.
Last sunday we left for El Condadillo, which is about 2 hours from San Salvador. To access the village we had to drive down a long and bumpy dirt road with lots of hills and through a dry creek bed. The truck had to stop there cause the road got so bad and we carried my bag and 8 3-gallon containters of purified water up a small hill and then down a somewhat steep path to the doorway of Lastenia's bamboo and tin house. (i'm proud to report that i've been living there a week and i haven't yet fallen down one time!) all of the houses here are very humble (though they generally have cement floors unlike mine), the streets are covered in trash and animal feces, andthe sounds of the jungle surround us. El condadillo reallyu is a village of poverty in the physical sense.
Anyway, all I really remember from this first expereince is that everyone was talking, I was in a bit of shock from all the smells and noises (Lastenia has about 8 chicken, a couple roosters, 9 pigs, a turkey and who knows what else). I remember one of the other volunteers who was there saying "wow this is just like something out of a peace corps brochure!" So anyway, the big group of people (3 other volunteers on the way to their sites, and the program coordinators) said farewell and I was left standing in a pool of sweat in what I declare to be the hottest and smelliest place in the world.
Ok, so earlier I used the adjectives wonderful, fun, and intriguing. These were not the words running through my head on Sunday or Monday. It was so hot that I was miserable, in total culture shock, and I couldn't think of anything but the fact that if I was in the US I could be sitting in an air conditioned room drinking water with ice in it if I wanted. Or that I could go to sleep at night and not worry about BIG bugs crawling into my bed, that a bathroom would be at my disposal in the middle of the night rather than a litrine at the top of steep incline which could house any number of spiders, bats, scorpions, and other interesting creations of nature. So yes, I cried, I was homesick, and I believe I thought of every single excuse I could think to tell CRISPAZ so that I could come home. But I swore to myself that I wouldn't give up on this expereince without making it through at least a week, and I'm sure glad I made that choice.
So, what changed? Well, all I'm going to say is that the words "offer it up" kept running through my head. For those of you who know how much I hate that whole concept, :-)
I feel like I was amazingly open to the grace of God to only hold onto my self-centeredness for just 2 days. I kept telling myself "stop complaining! these people have lived in these conditions their whole lives, you can do it for a week, or 8, come on!"
The only break I had from this hard mental drain was the incessant visits from community members - they all wanted to come and see the gringa who would be living with them for the rest of the summer. it's so cool how warm and friendly the people are - ive grown to love them so much in the last week!
oh and Lastenia, the woman with whom I live, is also amazing. Her son died just 40 days ago and she{s so happy to have company that she tells everyone she meets that she has a gringa for a daughter. she worries incessantly about me, about how much i eat, where im going, etc - she was afriad last night that when I came to San Salvador today to meet with the CRISPAZ staff that they were going to take me away because I had sunburn and it was somehow her fault :-) She's about 65 years old and I guess you could literally say dirt poor. Her house is very humble, she cooks with a wood fire, sleeps on a hammock and takes care of her animals all day (which, by the way, have free domain in inside the casita)
So tuesday began my first day of work. Noe, my coordinator in the canton (the countryside), had me come with him to Berlin to a charla (discussion) about the environment and the issue of the privitization of water in El Salvador. It was such a nice break from the two days of self-pity I'd endured! And, as I mentioned, people continued to visit Lastenia's casita during the evening and on Tuesday 3 guys about my age came to visit and now, only 5 days later, I have a couple of really good friends. Thank God for that, I think its just waht I needed to feel more at home -but more about that later.
Wednesday I went a neighboring canton (about a 2 mile hike through the woods) to pasaquina, where I'll be teaching english two days a week. wherever I go the people greet me warmly and I really love how they have no concept of time, they just like to sit in the hammocks and talk for hours and it doesn't really matter if they have somewhere to be, the person with whom they're talking is always most important. Every wednesday I´'ll be going to a small city nearby called Estanzuelas to do some work there and attend what I would describe as a small faith group meeting. I think it{s going to be a welcomed break as the woman I spend the night with there has running water so I can take a somewhat normal shower, although I have grown to love the bucket shower method used in the canton.
On thursday I returned to El condadillo (by bus: I never knew that so many people could fit on one bus at once or that busses could do so well on terrain I would never think to drive on). That night the same guys that had come to visit on Tuesday came again and we hung out for a few hours.
One of them, Omar, is a permanent resident of the US and just visiting for the summer and he speaks pretty good english so we've had a really good time talking in english and we've become close friends. he's been a good support for me because he knows how it is to be a foriegn country, not understand the culture, and be confused about the language. They´ve been teaching me card games of El Salvador and ive had a great time beating them! it's fun to play with omar because we try to arrange it so that we can be partners and then we speak in english to talk about the game so that we can win. ok, maybe it is cheating, but it's fun :-).
anyway, on thursday they invited me to come withj them to la presa (the dam) to swim and fish and go canoing on Friday. Because I didn{t have anything else to do, I went. I also think it{s neat how they invited everybody to come -lastenia, their parents, etc andnot just their friends. anyway, we had a blast, I swam all day long, got a bad sunburn, and had a blast. after we decided to go watch a girls softball game in the middle of a big field near el condadillo. i had a good time getting to know everyone!
i found out that omar's sister was getting married on saturday and since I met his dad at the lake and his mom a couple days earlier, they were begging me to come. i was suppossed to teach english in pasaquina but the busses don{t run on saturdays and the road walk there is 2 miles and not safe for me to walk alone so we had some complications. noe told me that someone would come to get me in the morning betweem 5 and 7 so i waited and when no one came Lastenia decided that i was going to the wedding with her. the chartered school bus that was going to the wedding (a couple hours away) was leaving at 7 so we ran down the big road and caught it just in time. everyone was so happy i could come and it{s so neat how everyone thinks of me as a memeber of the community.
the wedding was intriguing. the ceremony was the same, rather simple, but the people had a lot of joy. i really liked how it was the marriage that was most important, not the clothes, flowers, details,etc. it was very beautiful.
anyway, as you can tell, ive been busy. ive been blessed to have a wonderful salvadoran madre, a lot of new friends, and lots of exciting things to do. i spent the whole afternoon yesterday playing with the kids (softball, futbol, you name it), in the trash-covered streets. they are so starved for attentino. when i went home they all wanted to walk me and i had like 6 or 7 kids each trying to hold my hands- i feel very loved, i just hope i can make them feel loved too. we played cards again last night and i can't believe that a week ago i didn't want to give this place a chance. i almost hate to leave fora couple days to come to san salvador! i can't wait to go back admist the mosquitoes, hot sun, smells etc to be with the people ive grown to love in just a week.
anyway, sorry to write so much but i{m just very excited to share my expereinces with you all! ill probably send another email in a few weeks so dont{ worry about me crowding your inbox! and scroll on for the highlights!
HIGHLIGHTS
----------------------
°On Friday when I went to swim at the dam with my new found friends a couple of thye guys were looking at the pictures I brought of my family and became totally enamored with my sisters. They keep saying "they are so beautiful well have to go to the US just to meet them!" later that day they started calling me cuñada, the equivalent of sister-in-law, and it{s stuck. so i now have two cuñados, or brother-in-laws here in El Salvador who have an infatuation with my sisters. (don{t worry chelsea, kayla, it{s all in good fun)
°My third night at the house I was sleeping in peace, well protected under my mosquito net on my cot when I was suddenly awakened. I felt something rubbin on the underside of my bed and i was like "what in the world is that?" then i heard the snorting and realized there was a pig crawling under my bed. its funny to think how normal that is to me now and how it didn{t bother me - can you imagine that happening to you?
°I now have a nickname, the spanish equivalent of card shark. i think it's pretty interesting - they are amazed at how fast ive learned the games adn theyre kind of mad that ive beat them so many times :-)
And thats it for now! sorry for the length. know that i miss you all and i love you! i appreciate the prayers and support and i hope your summer is as great as i know mine will be!
in the peace and love of Christ,
michelle
