El Salvador continues to make me smile.
Wednesday, June 15: Last night I kept waking up all night. I suppose Tuesday’s 2 hour nap did not help make me sleepy when I needed to be. Whenever I wake up in the middle of the night my itchy bug bites command a lot of attention but I am trying hard to ignore them. I read all day. I spent the morning reading the first hundred pages or so of The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner. This was disturbing information but necessary to understanding the horror of the war etc. After lunch I read The Book of Ruth. I read all afternoon and finished the book right around bedtime (have I mentioned that bedtime is about 10pm). I read most of that book today. Reading so much of the story led my emotions all over the place. It was a hopeful story in many places and made me excited for a life and family as an adult, but the end was so disturbing of that hopefulness that I just felt very uncomfortable. But it’s ok to be uncomfortable, in fact, it’s often very necessary. The day was not extremely busy or full of experiences but it was a great day. I like sitting under the orange tree until the wind picks up and the rain starts falling, then gathering all my books that are strewn about the table and hurrying inside. The rain never stays long and I can go back out to my favorite spot.
Thursday, June 16: This was a long and exciting day! Paul was up all night being sick. Fortunately, I have avoided that so far, but I still have seven weeks! Casa Pastoral is buzzing this morning as members of the Pastoral Team are making preparations for the meeting of representatives from the cantons that happens every 2 months. I decided it would be a great opportunity to sit in and listen to some Spanish and at the same time gain some understanding of the work the Pastoral Team is doing. Also, it keeps me from reading all day long. The newspaper reported that Dengue--a disease carried by mosquitoes, is on the rise in El Salvador. The meeting was supposed to begin at 8 but it didn’t actually begin until a little after 9. I sat in the front room of Casa Pastoral listening to the young man play the guitar and some people singing along with him. Singing is a huge part of the worship and daily life here, I hope I can learn some of the songs. While I was waiting, a sweet elderly lady came to me and told me ‘good morning’, and ‘its nice to see you/meet you’ and gave me the best smile and hug imaginable. It was really touching. While people were still arriving a truck pulled up in front of the house, perhaps with meeting-goers aboard, and its motor was loud and seemed to add to the chaos of the morning. The Pastoral Team passed out sweet bread and delicious coffee to the people who came for the meeting. Everyone who passed me on the way to the meeting greeted me and smiled. I really can’t get enough of the people here. The meeting had begun when I decided it was safe to go in. I was nervous but I scurried in and found a chair by the door. There was a man talking when I came in and I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about. I know that he talked about water, television, commercials, Coca Cola, and the United States. Then finally, he got to talking about Dengue. He had a chart that showed where it came from, how it spreads, symptoms, the two different forms, and how to prevent it. I felt much more prepared for this increase in Dengue. When he was done there was a prayer and a song and a scripture reading and even a little sermon. Then a young woman stood and mentioned something about family violence. And then a man stood up to talk about “Fe y compromisos social”—faith/beliefs and social compromises/ agreements. He spoke more clearly and seemingly much slower than most other people I listen to, so it was relatively easy to understand him. He urged people to have a sense of community and to read, listen, think, observe and analyze the world around them. I think it was a good talk. After his rousing and amusing talk, there was another song before Milagro led a discussion about the projects in each canton. Sometimes she just told what was going on and sometimes the representatives of the canton added a little. I had a hard time understanding this portion of the meeting; partially because my morning coffee had worn out and I was sleepy and partially because this was about 2 hours into the meeting and my chair was rather uncomfortable. I sat next to the young man with the guitar. I noticed him looking at my notebook a lot. I had written a lot of notes in English and a few Spanish words. He seemed pretty interested… in the notebook… I snuck out of the meeting when they started passing things out to all the meeting-goers. It was time for lunch. After lunch I read a little more in the El Mozote book but it was similar information to my last “homework” book and I was still a little sleepy. Then the Peace Corps volunteer in Berlin stopped by to use the internet. Her name is Rebecca. She is from Texas and has been here 10 months already. She works with the alcaldia doing community/municipality building stuff. She offered to take me on a tour of town and introduce me to the Provida people, she says they are great. After she left I started to read a new fun book, The Life of Pi. It reminds me of Jenny, she read it spring term. I like it a lot so far, it has made me laugh out loud several times, within the first 30 pages or so. Before dinner we went out to some of the cantons in the mountains. One of the members of the Pastoral Team, Miguel, and his wife live there and they have a 2 month old baby boy. Miguel wanted Bob to take their picture. So we all rode up. Paul, Miguel and I took the back of the pickup. It was so fun. We drove up the mountain roads, so bumpy! We picked up a few people headed up while on our way. Paul said one young man was practicing his English, the extent of which seemed to be profanities. We also picked up a mother with her 3 kids. One young girl, probably 4 or 5 stood by me and watched me closely. It is a little strange being a novelty. She was cute, she smiled a lot. Up in the smaller mountain roads we had to duck thorny branches that came whizzing by. Our first stop was to see a little girl who had come to the clinic set up by a recent medical delegation who had a broken leg. Bob offered to pay their medical bill and he was going to check up on her and settle the bill. The total cost of the visit to the doctor to fix the leg was 12 dollars. She was 6 years old and so shy and sweet. Bob wanted to take a picture of the whole family, the adolescent sister ran away to change. Then another young lady came out nursing a very tiny baby. We loaded back into the truck and up to Miguel’s. His baby was little and cute. Edgar is the name of the baby. Bob took some good pictures of their family and their new electrified home, especially the lights. On the way back down the mountain all four of us could fit in the cab. It was not as fun. It just hurt my behind and the view was not as spectacular. I also like the feeling of using my strength to keep my balance in the back of the truck while at the same time dodging branches, swatting bugs and pulling spider threads off my face and neck. But mostly the view is breathtaking and spectacular. After dinner I did the dishes (I am always in charge of dinner dishes) and then I did some laundry. I was nearing the end of my underwear supply so I did those and a shirt. Then I taught Paul how to do his laundry. He had gone through all of his Tshirts already and had forgotten that they probably would not be dry by morning or perhaps even by the next afternoon when we departed for San Salvador.
Friday, June 17: At breakfast we discussed our weekend excursion plans. This is the last weekend Lynn has available to do any excursions before delegations come and she leaves. We are taking the bus to San Salvador at 1 this afternoon and staying 2 nights at Daniela’s. Tomorrow morning we are driving about an hour west to the next province where there are some lovely villages and sights to see. There are two locations that come highly recommended and that is where we are headed. More on that excursion in my next update. I finished the main section of The Massacre at El Mozote this morning. It is very disturbing. I will skim the notes and documents provided in the back and am planning on reading all the names of deceased that are printed in the back of the book. Most delegations have been to El Mozote, but I have not. I look forward—kind of—to going with a delegation this summer, especially now that I know the history really well. It’s a sunny morning so perhaps my clothes on the line will be mostly dry before we leave this afternoon and I can hang them in our room. Well that is all for now, I have to take the chance to update when I can, as you can see it takes some time as I can’t seem to update any more succinctly. That’s Ashley for you.
May you all have a wonderful weekend.
Peace,
Ashley
Thursday, June 16: This was a long and exciting day! Paul was up all night being sick. Fortunately, I have avoided that so far, but I still have seven weeks! Casa Pastoral is buzzing this morning as members of the Pastoral Team are making preparations for the meeting of representatives from the cantons that happens every 2 months. I decided it would be a great opportunity to sit in and listen to some Spanish and at the same time gain some understanding of the work the Pastoral Team is doing. Also, it keeps me from reading all day long. The newspaper reported that Dengue--a disease carried by mosquitoes, is on the rise in El Salvador. The meeting was supposed to begin at 8 but it didn’t actually begin until a little after 9. I sat in the front room of Casa Pastoral listening to the young man play the guitar and some people singing along with him. Singing is a huge part of the worship and daily life here, I hope I can learn some of the songs. While I was waiting, a sweet elderly lady came to me and told me ‘good morning’, and ‘its nice to see you/meet you’ and gave me the best smile and hug imaginable. It was really touching. While people were still arriving a truck pulled up in front of the house, perhaps with meeting-goers aboard, and its motor was loud and seemed to add to the chaos of the morning. The Pastoral Team passed out sweet bread and delicious coffee to the people who came for the meeting. Everyone who passed me on the way to the meeting greeted me and smiled. I really can’t get enough of the people here. The meeting had begun when I decided it was safe to go in. I was nervous but I scurried in and found a chair by the door. There was a man talking when I came in and I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about. I know that he talked about water, television, commercials, Coca Cola, and the United States. Then finally, he got to talking about Dengue. He had a chart that showed where it came from, how it spreads, symptoms, the two different forms, and how to prevent it. I felt much more prepared for this increase in Dengue. When he was done there was a prayer and a song and a scripture reading and even a little sermon. Then a young woman stood and mentioned something about family violence. And then a man stood up to talk about “Fe y compromisos social”—faith/beliefs and social compromises/ agreements. He spoke more clearly and seemingly much slower than most other people I listen to, so it was relatively easy to understand him. He urged people to have a sense of community and to read, listen, think, observe and analyze the world around them. I think it was a good talk. After his rousing and amusing talk, there was another song before Milagro led a discussion about the projects in each canton. Sometimes she just told what was going on and sometimes the representatives of the canton added a little. I had a hard time understanding this portion of the meeting; partially because my morning coffee had worn out and I was sleepy and partially because this was about 2 hours into the meeting and my chair was rather uncomfortable. I sat next to the young man with the guitar. I noticed him looking at my notebook a lot. I had written a lot of notes in English and a few Spanish words. He seemed pretty interested… in the notebook… I snuck out of the meeting when they started passing things out to all the meeting-goers. It was time for lunch. After lunch I read a little more in the El Mozote book but it was similar information to my last “homework” book and I was still a little sleepy. Then the Peace Corps volunteer in Berlin stopped by to use the internet. Her name is Rebecca. She is from Texas and has been here 10 months already. She works with the alcaldia doing community/municipality building stuff. She offered to take me on a tour of town and introduce me to the Provida people, she says they are great. After she left I started to read a new fun book, The Life of Pi. It reminds me of Jenny, she read it spring term. I like it a lot so far, it has made me laugh out loud several times, within the first 30 pages or so. Before dinner we went out to some of the cantons in the mountains. One of the members of the Pastoral Team, Miguel, and his wife live there and they have a 2 month old baby boy. Miguel wanted Bob to take their picture. So we all rode up. Paul, Miguel and I took the back of the pickup. It was so fun. We drove up the mountain roads, so bumpy! We picked up a few people headed up while on our way. Paul said one young man was practicing his English, the extent of which seemed to be profanities. We also picked up a mother with her 3 kids. One young girl, probably 4 or 5 stood by me and watched me closely. It is a little strange being a novelty. She was cute, she smiled a lot. Up in the smaller mountain roads we had to duck thorny branches that came whizzing by. Our first stop was to see a little girl who had come to the clinic set up by a recent medical delegation who had a broken leg. Bob offered to pay their medical bill and he was going to check up on her and settle the bill. The total cost of the visit to the doctor to fix the leg was 12 dollars. She was 6 years old and so shy and sweet. Bob wanted to take a picture of the whole family, the adolescent sister ran away to change. Then another young lady came out nursing a very tiny baby. We loaded back into the truck and up to Miguel’s. His baby was little and cute. Edgar is the name of the baby. Bob took some good pictures of their family and their new electrified home, especially the lights. On the way back down the mountain all four of us could fit in the cab. It was not as fun. It just hurt my behind and the view was not as spectacular. I also like the feeling of using my strength to keep my balance in the back of the truck while at the same time dodging branches, swatting bugs and pulling spider threads off my face and neck. But mostly the view is breathtaking and spectacular. After dinner I did the dishes (I am always in charge of dinner dishes) and then I did some laundry. I was nearing the end of my underwear supply so I did those and a shirt. Then I taught Paul how to do his laundry. He had gone through all of his Tshirts already and had forgotten that they probably would not be dry by morning or perhaps even by the next afternoon when we departed for San Salvador.
Friday, June 17: At breakfast we discussed our weekend excursion plans. This is the last weekend Lynn has available to do any excursions before delegations come and she leaves. We are taking the bus to San Salvador at 1 this afternoon and staying 2 nights at Daniela’s. Tomorrow morning we are driving about an hour west to the next province where there are some lovely villages and sights to see. There are two locations that come highly recommended and that is where we are headed. More on that excursion in my next update. I finished the main section of The Massacre at El Mozote this morning. It is very disturbing. I will skim the notes and documents provided in the back and am planning on reading all the names of deceased that are printed in the back of the book. Most delegations have been to El Mozote, but I have not. I look forward—kind of—to going with a delegation this summer, especially now that I know the history really well. It’s a sunny morning so perhaps my clothes on the line will be mostly dry before we leave this afternoon and I can hang them in our room. Well that is all for now, I have to take the chance to update when I can, as you can see it takes some time as I can’t seem to update any more succinctly. That’s Ashley for you.
May you all have a wonderful weekend.
Peace,
Ashley
posted by Ashley at 10:23 AM
6 Comments:
I'm just proud that she managed to mention her butt 3 times in one post. Wait, did she or am I fantisizing... Anyhoo, keep giving the crowd what they want, Stubs! Wahoo!
Seriously though, I am happy she's returned to a country that's obviously held a place in her heart since she first visited a few years ago. I admire your admiration of the land and her peoples. Way to be, Ashley. Way to be.
I'm curious. Exactly how old is a "sweet elderly lady"? My mind's eye conjured up someone in her 80s or 90s -- a Mother Theresa clone. But then I started thinking about how young you are, and what constituted "elderly" to me when I was your age. And THEN I started thinking about how old I am, and .... Forgive my paranoia.
Glad this trip is going good, Ashley, and I'm looking forward to reading your grape-picking-in-New Zealand blog sometime soon!
ahem:
I have "done dishes" plenty of times at home.
With all this writing, I forget what I have already written, forgive my repetition.
I miss Megan. Thanks dude.
I have been doing so much reading here that writing is sound more and more like a good idea. However, I maintain that I can do anything anywhere and write about it and please at least my blog public.
I thought about estimating the age of the "sweet elderly lady" but its hard here because the life expectancy is low (59 men, 61 women or close to there) but there is a woman in Casa Pastoral, Milagro's mother Rosa, who is 81. She reminds me of my great grandparents, Corwin and Clara. In the states I would guess she was in her 70s, and its possible that she is, but she could be as young as in her 50s. I hope that helps!
hi ashley!
Im glad to hear that THE BOOK OF RUTH had an impact on you too. i remember some parts making my eyebrows squish toghether and some parts where my jaw was dropped for several minutes. good book eh?
Lucy continues to be a little weird. She entertains herself with some new toys and she is napping a lot. She pays frequent visits to your room, i think she's in denial. oh well, happens every time.
Im still deciding whether el salvador is the place for me. Im sure that my faith in myself and in god will have to grow stronger before i can go through that kind of an experience. You sound like you are enjoying it very much, im im sure i will too, when the time is right. Much love, God Bless, caitlin
Greetings. You mentioned that you saw Spenglish in English with Spanish subtitles . . . I don't know what the movie is about, but I poster for it here in Mannheim and I though "That would be weird . . . a movie about a combination between Spanish and English . . . in German." How are you doing with the language down there? Are you finding it easy? Difficult? Are there dialects that are impossible to understand? I miss you! We should have a schindigg when we all get home.
The movie was an experience. I'm sure it would be a little more interesting in German.... but I highly suggest you try it! I liked the movie.
As for my experience with the language... it isn't going as well as I would like. I am pretty timid about speaking up. There are almost always 2 people here to translate for me... Lynn and Bob. However, there is a delegation here now (I'll post all about that one of these days) and having people here who know less than I do helps me be a little less nervous. So I have spoken in Spanish several times in the past few days. Understanding is always about 50/50. But I am sure it will improve. I don't know Spanish well enough to pick out dialects but there are definitely people who are easier to understand than others. That is about all I can offer on that subject. Today we are going to the coffee finca to see where the Don Justo coffee is grown and roasted (or toasted or whatever it is). This is the coffee that is a project between Des Moines and El Salvador... working closely with the Pastoral Team. I am learning tons this week. I can't wait to have an hour to write my blog update and post again! Love, Ashley
p.s. yes a shindig is definitely in order.
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