El Salvador, Thursday November 17th

This picture is of a dictionary with bullets shredding through the pages. Its mind boggling that the military found it important to destroy something as simple as a dictionary, just because it belonged to the opposite party.

A memorial for those massacred at UCA.

These drawings were done by a student of UCA. He used drawing as therapy to help him deal with the horrors of the war. He created around 50 of these drawings. When finished, he chose to donate them to the university.

A wall where only a few of the names of people lost in the massacre are written

One of the patient rooms at the clinic

The restaurant where we ate all our meals and had our discussion with Don Pablo

A drawing that was in Don Pablo's house

The risk map that was in the clinic

The day started with breakfast and an episode of Friends in English with Spanish subtitles, strangely enough. It was really weird to be watching TV in a rural community in El Salvador. We didn’t plan on watching it… it was just on when we walked into the restaurant. After breakfast we packed up the bus with our backpacks.

At 9 we walked to the community office were we heard from some of the community leaders about how the area was affected by the war, how they began rebuilding it, and how the community is currently doing. Later, we headed to the community clinic where we met with one of the nurses there.

We learned a lot about Cinquera at the clinic. There was a wall in a large conference-room like place that posted information about the community, risks, statistics, etc. Here is some of the information:

1,703 habitants

424 families

463 houses

422 people with a home

41 homeless individuals (dependent upon other people to have a place to sleep, eat, etc)

28.5% are illiterate

89% have toilets or outhouses

63% have potable water in the house

6.2% are unemployed

There were 4 homicides in 2010

The most common sicknesses or diseases are:

Respiratory diseases, diabetes, diarrhea and infections

The clinic was so well put together, and the nurse did not seem to be “hurting” for resources. We asked about vaccines, their availability, and how people accepted them in the community. She calmly responded that the government provides all vaccines and that she cannot remember the last time a parent did not want to have their child vaccinated.

There was also a map that showed the location of all the houses in the community. Each house was labeled with a risk level. Those houses with pregnant women, young children, elderly, or people with sickness were labeled red for “high risk.” Other houses were labeled different colors for other risks. There was also another map that showed where cases of Dengue had been discovered, or other infectious diseases.

The clinic focuses on prevention, and all services are free. The money they receive from the government is enough. They do not have problems with malnutrition (a successful program significantly decreased cases). They have family planning education and contraception, which are openly accepted within the community. Most births occur in the larger hospital, about an hour away, and the clinic provides transportation if necessary. Only one midwife lives in the area. In addition, very few believe in traditional medicine.

The clinic was incredibly clean and spacious (cleaner than the Red Cross, where I spent my time during the volunteer work). I was really impressed with how well it was kept up, and the services it provided. I can’t help but wonder why this clinic functioned so well, while the third level Hospital Rosales (that we visited earlier in the trip) was lacking so much. Also, how does this clinic survive on government money, when clinics and hospitals in Guatemala struggle to provide basic care to patients daily? I haven’t had the chance to do further research on this topic, but I am really curious about the distinctive difference.

After our clinic visit, we hopped back into the bus and drove back to San Salvador. The return trip took a lot longer because for some reason, there was a ton of traffic. We arrived at University of Central America, San Salvador, a private university. We ate lunch at the university food court, which was a lot like any university food court in the United States, except it was outside, which was really nice. I ate some lasagna and overboiled veggies and a questionable fruit salad (the food really wasn’t that bad).

After lunch, we visited the University bookstore, which was about 1/6 the size of the GW bookstore, mostly because it didn’t have any of the overpriced items with a University logo placed on it (essentially the entire second floor of the GW bookstore). It was cool looking at textbooks in Spanish.

We then headed to a chapel that honors the 6 priests that were killed in November of 1989. As they were preparing to sleep, the military shot and killed all 6, and then fled. After, two women who happened to watch the event were also killed because the military was afraid they would give away what happened. As a result, 8 innocent individuals died that night.

I really should have written notes to remember more details, but I didn’t have my notebook at the time. We saw the location were they were killed, as well as items that are currently in a small museum at the university. This website talks about the history and those involved, although sadly it is all in Spanish: http://www.uca.edu.sv/martires/new/indice.htm.

After visiting these places, we spoke with a women named Pauline Martin. She came to El Salvador for the first time during college, at the end of the civil war. She loved the spirit she saw in the El Salvadoran people, and this experience inspired her to return to El Salvador. She now works as a literature professor at the university.

Pauline talked to us about the difficulties that she faced when she first returned to the United States from her program in college. She shared with us the ways she dealt with certain situations, and addressed many of the questions that have been building up in our minds as we come to the end of this incredible 6 month experience. The conversation was one of the only ones we had in English the entire trip, but I was glad. It made it easier to express our own concerns and understand her recommendations.

After our conference, the skies opened up. We ran across the campus to our bus (since it is dry season in Xela, we are no longer used to the rain we endured in the first months of the program). We stopped by a supermarket to pick up snacks for the trip back, and then had dinner at a steak/fish restaurant.

After dinner we returned to Happy House. I somehow stuffed all my incredibly stinky, wet, sandy, sweaty clothing from the past week and a half into the bag and backpack I had, and went to bed early. At 4am the next day, we were on our way back to Xela.

We got into Guatemala city around 11am. The next bus to Xela wouldn’t fit all of us, so we had to split into two groups. I was in the group who stuck around, so we walked around the bus station and happened upon a super high class mall. There were all kinds of people in fancy clothes, Christmas decorations, expensive stores, etc. and there we were bumming around in clothing that was probably being worn for the 3^rd time in the past 10 days…. pretty humorous.

We got into Xela around 7:30. I went home, had dinner, and slept incredibly well that night, happy to be back in Xela, and excited about all I had learned and done while in El Salvador. Definitely experiences I will remember forever.

El Salvador, Wednesday November 16th

The picture didn't really turn out, but this is us trying to swim in the freezing cold river after our tour of the forest, and before our walk back to the hostel.

Guns found in the city after the massacre line this fence, and serve to always remind people what happened there.

These were found after people returned to Cinquera after the massacre. The are left as a reminder of what happened in the city.

This was painted on a wall in the community

The only remaining part of a building (this is the church bell tower) in Cinquera after the massacre.

The view from the outlook at the top of the mountain.

A burial honoring all those who died while in the bosque (forest).

The rocks we had to walk over in the dark

The bridge we had to cross in the pitch black, in the bosque (forest).

The inside of the church in Suchitoto

The church in Suchitoto

Jefe, Sarah, Rachel and I began the day with a run, which went much more smoothly than the first try. At 8am, we were picked up from Happy House with our backpacks repacked (and the rest of our stuff left in a vacant room) and on our way to Cinquera, another community in El Salvador.

The ride wasn’t too long, and we made a little pit stop to visit a community named Suchitoto. During the war, this area was a hard hit battle zone, by both the army and the Guerrillas. We only stopped for about 10 minutes to visit the church and use the bathroom, and buy Jefe a cake for his birthday. Sadly, I did not have a camera, so I couldn’t take pictures.

We arrived to Cinquera around 10:30. Cinquera is a community that suffered an extreme massacre during the war. The entire community was burnt to the ground, and every building that now exists is new. The community is actually very organized and rebuilding itself poco a poco (bit by bit).

We had the honor of speaking with Don Pablo, one of the only survivors of the massacre. We spoke with him for a good 3 hours over lunch and then coffee and cookies. He told us his entire life story, most of which was very hard to imagine.

He told us about the coffee farms that were the only work available. He said 2,000-2,500 people would be able to work per day. When that number was reached, they wouldn’t accept other people, and they were left without another option. Everyone lived in poverty.

He described the pure hunger they suffered during long work days, often only being fed one tortilla with a few beans on top, once a day. People were so desperate for food, if one bean fell on the floor, people would fight to be able to eat it.

He described the process of how the Finca owners would count the amount of coffee beans, and how they robbed the workers in doing so. Basically, they would use a long stick and measure to the bottom of a bucket (instead of weighing the amount of beans). The depth determined the amount of money they would receive, but the Finca owners always moved their fingers before giving the money. If anyone complained, they were beaten up.

He said it is impossible to describe how difficult and dirty life was. Because of a lack of water, they were only able to bath once every 15 days, despite the dust and sweat that covered them daily. At the finca, everyone slept in one large room, squished together on the floor. He also told us about all the illness, especially stomach issues due to unclean water, and how it could get really smelly during the night due to many GI infections.

He also spoke about military drafts that occurred before the war even began. Every 6 months, the military would arrive in the community and take 40-50 young (starting at 14 years of age) to be trained. They would walk them out of the community like cattle, with their hands held behind their heads, as mothers wailed for their children to not be taken away from them.

The military had complete control over the area. They would molest and beat people for no apparent reason. He explained that originally, people would say hello to the military patrol, and they would get beat up for doing so. News got around, and they decided to just politely walk by and ignore the military officials. They got beat up, and sometimes killed, for that too. He described life as basically having no human rights.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, the democracy party started developing. The military saw this happening and immediately began calling this party communist and told the community to not vote for them. After the elections and the votes were counted, they found one vote for the Democratic party. The military found this person and killed him. (he later found out that the election was rigged by the military, and probably a whole lot more people voted for the Democratic party)

In 1969, a representative from the Military came to the community and gathered together all the young men (Don Pablo was part of this group). He started lecturing them on the danger of communism. He told them that Fidel Castro was part monkey and part human, that he ate kids raw and alive.

These ideas never really clicked in the heads of those in the community, and the community became stronger, with more solidarity, confidence and fraternity. The military saw this and continued to call Cinquera communist and Marxists. Eventually the Military had enough, and they planned the massive massacre that burned the community down to the ground and killed hundreds of people.

Don Pablo escaped by running away. Throughout the war, he watched 5 of his 8 children die. With sadness in his voice, he calmly told us the stories of their death. He described a little bit of the process of bringing the community back up to its current position.

He said, as a survivor, his most important job is to educate people about what happened. He has told his story to hundreds of groups (which would explain how he was able to stay calm, but still show so much emotion). It really was amazing listening to him.

After our meeting/conference, we changed into sports clothing and headed to the community’s forest. During the war, the forest served as a heavy fighting and hiding zone. Now, the forest is a national park and protected in order to maintain the artifacts left from the war and all the plants and wildlife that live there. In addition, many students come to the area to study the history of the war, as well as plant and animal species.

Our guide was an individual, originally from a few communities over, who had fought and survived the war. During the civil war he lived, hid and fought in the forest. As a result, he knew it like the back of his hand. We took a path through the forest, and he stopped us at random spots to explain how one area served as a kitchen, or another as a hospital.

Unfortunately, because my camera was nonfunctional, I was unable to take pictures of the forest. It was really beautiful, and I could imagine how scary it must have been hiding out in that forest, hearing gunshots in the distance and hoping that someone with the intention to kill you didn’t happen upon you.

Our guide explained to us about the kitchen system, which I thought was very interesting. First, camps could not be concentrated because it would be too easy to find them, so the kitchen was located far from the camp, where people slept. The cooking system sat almost next to the ground, and a roof was build over it. All of the smoke and steam from cooking was sent into an underground system of tunnels, which allowed the heat to escape slowly from the land, distributed in a large radius around the area. As a result, all the smoke didn’t rise in one area, giving away their location. In addition, the rising fog would make it difficult to see people, and offered additional protection.

We were short on time before the sun set, but our guide decided to take us up to a lookout at the top of the mountain. It was absolutely beautiful! We spent a little too much time up there though, and while going down it got dark quickly. By the time we arrived at a natural waterfall and pool, it was completely dark. The original plan was to swim in the lake, and we still wanted to do so. Despite the freezing cold water, we all got in for about 5 minutes and splashed around.

Thank goodness for modern technology and the fact that Aeja and our guide had cell phones. Otherwise, I’m not sure we would have made it back to the hostel in one piece. It was extremely difficult to navigate the rocky, uneven path in the pitch black dark. We also had to cross a river, using cement blocks casually placed in the water… twice. This was the most difficult. We also crossed a rather shaky bridge that had a few missing planks. It took us about an hour to walk the same distance that took us about 10 minutes earlier that day. As scary as it was, it helped me understand even deeper the fear that must have filled the lives of the men and women who lived and fought in that forest.

We spent the night in Cinquera. After getting safely back to the restaurant/hostel area, we were assigned our rooms. We had a typical Guatemalan dinner of eggs and beans and tortillas, served to us in the large restaurant area. As soon as we got to dinner, the skies opened up… the first rain I had seen in a long time! We finished dinner, had cake for Jefe’s birthday, and all hung out for a while before going to bed.

As a really random side note, I also learned that night just how much water a toilet takes to flush. The toilets at the hostel did not refill themselves, so you had to carry water from a large bucket to the toilet and fill up the back of the toilet before you could flush. After about 5 trips with my bucket, I could finally flush. I knew toilets required a lot of water, but when you have to lug buckets of water, you understand a little better… :-)

El Salvador, Tuesday, November 15th

We spent all day Tuesday at the beach. I had a breakfast of fresh fruit, a lunch of veggie pasta and white fish, and a dinner of paella.

The hotel we stayed at was so beautiful and comfortable (nothing like Tulate) and the beach was beautiful. It was the perfect, relaxing day. It gave us time to reflect on what we had done so far, think about what we still had in store for us, and just be ourselves and relax.

Some people rented surfboards (and proceeded to hurt themselves with major bruises and a few bloody scrapes). Others rented boogie boards, and others just spent the day hanging out on the hammocks scattered around the hotel. I didn’t surf, but I did a little bit of everything else.

The beach was rocky, with black sand, but was beautiful and totally different from Guatemalan beaches and Florida beaches. Trash didn’t cover the sand, and there were no wild dogs or pigs, which seemed a little weird, strangely enough.

We voted to stay past sunset, and we all enjoyed the beautiful view. We got back to Happy House around 8:30, repacked our bags for our next adventure, and went to sleep with the sound of pouring rain.

The only sad thing that did happen was that my camera slightly died. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think the waterproof function kind of stopped working. We took a ton of great pictures in the water, and then when I got out of the water, the screen started freaking out and it wouldn’t take pictures. I turned it off and took out the battery and photo chip, and let it dry. Because of this, I wasn’t able to take any more photos of El Salvador. But the happy news is that I turned the camera on today (a week and a half later) and it seems to be working again!

some serious boogie boarding action

Playing in the waves with Sarah and Korrin

Relaxing in the sun with Marissa, Rachel and Sarah

When the tide went out, a cave appeared that we could walk into. We saw little lobsters and crabs (and this is when my camera failed me... so I don't have any pictures of them)

The view of our hotel from the beach. I planned on taking better pictures, but I didn't get a chance to do so before the camera died.

Looking down on the beach from the hotel.

El Salvador, Monday November 14th

Continuing on with our adventure, our day started at 7am with breakfast at Happy House, and by 7:30 we were on our way to the government buildings of El Salvador.

We first got a tour of the government complex, seeing rooms where important meetings take place and visiting each level of the building, where different issues are discussed. We also visited the main meeting room where representatives from other countries come to meet with El Salvador.

Our first meeting was with a deputy from Arena, the right-wing party of El Salvador. This office was very much like an American government office might look. We sat at a conference table and he addressed our questions, one by one. We asked about education, healthcare, economy, international relations, etc. When we asked about his position on US/ El Salvador relations, he took a typical politician approach and never really answered our question. But he did tell us, “Carter was the worst president ever, and Reagan was the best.”

In this photo, the people who have an X across their face are those who separated from Arena to form Gana, a new political party.

After this meeting, we headed to the FMLN office, the Left-wing party that is currently in office. 2199

We had a similar meeting with a deputy from FMLN. We asked the same questions about education, health, economy, etc. His response to our US/El Salvador relationship question addressed the question a little more directly. He said, “in order to become stable, El Salvador needs to be able to support itself and stop depending on immigration, remittances, etc. from the US.”

It was very interesting to compare/contrast the answers from both parties. Obviously the problems that El Salvador is dealing with are huge, and simple answers do not exist. I won’t bored you with all the details about our discussions, but to be honest, I found myself agreeing more with what the FMLN deputy said than with the Arena deputy.

After our meetings, we headed back to SOYA for lunch. I was so happy to be out of the air conditioning and it the sun… it was freezing in the government building.

After lunch, we visited the US Embassy to talk to a representative from USAID. The US Embassy is located in the richest part of San Salvador, and as we drove from SOYA to the embassy, we noticed the drastic change. On the right side of the road, large shopping centers, car dealers and fancy restaurants filled the land. On the left side sat a poverty stricken community without electricity and running water, where the majority of the people live on less that 1$ a day. Seeing the difference was shocking. It threw in my face the extreme differences in economic levels that exist within Latin America. I’ll never forget that image.

Getting into the US Embassy was a process. We weren’t allowed to bring cameras or bags, just our passports and notebooks. At the front door, they lined us up in alphabetical order. One by one, we entered the building, they checked our passport, and we walked through a metal detector. Then, we were escorted to another building where again, we lined up in alphabetical order and passed through an additional metal detector. There, we turned in our passports and were given a visitor pass to clip on our shirts. We were escorted everywhere, even to the bathroom.

Our meeting was to be with a USAID representative. The person who walked into the conference room does work with USAID, but was only 3 weeks into the job. Because of this, she wasn’t really able to answer a lot of our questions.

Instead, we asked her about her life, what brought her to El Salvador etc. She explained the time she had spent in Jamaica, Guatemala, Haiti, and a few other countries. But her explanations showed me how someone can spend half of their life in foreign countries and never really understand or become a part of or understand the culture.

We talked a lot about violence and the programs that USAID has to take care of violence, especially in El Salvador, a country ranked as one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The programs involved education and cleaning up parks… good ideas, and functional in many ways. She talked about violence in Jamaica, and how she could feel it there, but she can’t feel the violence in El Salvador. I think it has to do with her living situations…. In Jamaica, she lived and worked within the community, was escorted around and had a guard at her door at all times. In El Salvador, she doesn’t need that because she lives near the US Embassy in the richest, most protected part of the country, which provides a “safety wall” from the existing violence.

I asked her what she felt the root of the problem was, and how USAID was working to address that. She said the root is the economic disparity that exists, but didn’t really have an answer for the second part of the question. I agreed with her first response, and as much as I would like to find an answer to the second part, I understand it isn’t easy. In fact, that is one of the biggest questions I’ve thought about, after seeing all that I have during this experience.

After our meeting, we headed to the beach. It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed our time eating good food, dancing to music, hanging out by the pool, and listening to the ocean.

Hanging out at the beach with Marissa, Harim and Rachel

El Salvador, Saturday and Sunday, November 12th and 13th

My Estanzuelas experience was something that I will always remember!

CIS has a scholarship program that works with students from Estanzuelas. Education in El Salvador is only free until the 9^th grade, and students/families must pay for secondary school and university. The scholarship program helps students with these costs, but does not cover them completely. Not enough money exists to help everyone they wish to help, so the process is rather rigorous for receiving the scholarship. A student must have good grades and show commitment to education. In addition, only one child from each family can receive the scholarship.

When we got to the community Friday evening, we met some of the scholarship students and went around in a circle introducing ourselves. We (the Somos Hermanos group) paired up and then picked numbers out of a hat. The university students did the same, and then we matched the numbers to see who would be staying with whom.

I was partnered with Kati, and we stayed with Oscar Alfredo Aviles Alfaro. Oscar is 23 years old. He is on scholarship for a university program where he is studying English. His goal is to become an English teacher in El Salvador. He currently goes to school Monday through Thursday, works at a school teaching English on Fridays (he has to get 500 hours of practical experience before he can graduate), and on Saturdays spends time at Church. On Sunday, he spends time with his family, helping around the house and enjoying their company.

Oscar’s dad is 59. As a result of working long hours in the fields with little water, he now suffers from kidney failure. He travels around 2 hours every 8 days to get to a clinic so he can receive dialysis. Unfortunately, his condition is worsening and he doesn’t have much more time to live. Although it was difficult to understand him, Oscar’s dad loved to talk. He told us stories about anything and everything. His facial expressions when he talked told their own story, even when I couldn’t understand his words. He told us about his experience in the war, his family, his work, El Salvador, etc.

Oscar’s mom is 61. She has birthed 9 children in her lifetime. Oscar is the youngest. She was fairly quiet, but extremely nice, giving us hugs every time we entered and left the house. She prepared our meals for us and made sure we were always comfortable.

Two of Oscar’s cousins live with Oscar’s family. Their names were Flor and Jessica. They didn’t talk much either, but I do know that Flor really loves soccer and plays on a team. Both were in the 6^th level of school, although were much older (14 and 16) than what I would consider to be 6^th grade.

We were warned that the families would give us their very best, that they would feed us a lot and sacrifice their own comforts for our comfort. This was true. Our dinner that night was a huge plate full of 1/3 beans, 1/3 a HUGE hunk of cheese, and 1/3 crema (which is basically a sweet sour cream/mayo mix). We were also served tortillas. Then, Kati and I made the mistake of mentioning pupusas and how much we like them, so we were also served pupusas. Out of respect, we had to eat it all. I have to admit, eating all of that crema was really difficult. It was also a little weird because Kati and I ate with Oscar, but we never saw the other family members eat.

That night, Kati and I each got our own bed while Flor and Jessica shared one, and Oscar and his mom and dad slept on hammocks. Kati and I tried to convince them we didn’t need that much space, that we could share a bed, but they refused.

The next morning, Oscar took Kati and I on a walk. As we walked, Oscar told us about the trees and plants that we were seeing. It was a beautiful morning and interesting to learn about the plants and places Oscar knew so much about.

When we got back to the house, a HUGE breakfast was waiting for us. My plate was full of eggs, potatoes, a whole fried plantain, beans, and tortillas. Then, Oscar asked us if we liked French bread. We said yes, so he brought us each a huge piece of French bread. Then, his mom insisted that we needed more beans with the bread, so she put more beans on our plates. Then, he asked us if we liked El Salvador sweet bread. We said we had never tried it, so he brought each of us a huge piece of sweet bread too. It was good, but so much food! Out of respect, I did my best to eat it all, but I did end up giving some plantains to Oscar for him to finish.

To get from the center of town to Oscar’s house, we used a pickup truck. The truck was owned by Mercedes’ family, another one of the students. She lived the furthest, so picked us all up along the way, and we piled into the back of the pickup. Riding in the back of a pickup is actually really refreshing.

When we got to the town office, many other scholarship students who weren’t hosting students were there to greet us. We all piled into a covered area in the backyard of the office and participated in a gender workshop. After creating 4 different groups, each of which included a mixture of Somos Hermanos students and scholarship students, we were assigned topics.

The workshop was about gender roles in society and how they are created and how they perpetuate. The four topics we covered were family, religion, school and media. Each group was to talk about the ways these factors influence the roles that men and women take on, and the consequences that result. Then, we had to make skits that depicted each factor.

I was in the family group, and we talked about how traditions are passed down from generation to generation and how children are taught ways to act in the house, ways to treat wives, etc. Our skit involved a father that practically worshiped his sons, while ignoring his daughter. The sons were given money and freedom, and the girl was forced to stay in the house and learn how to cook, clean, etc.

During the workshop, I realized how cool it was that 14 American students who 4 months ago knew very little Spanish, were now talking about gender roles with Spanish speaking students in El Salvador. Granted, I am nowhere near fluent, but the fact that I was able to understand and communicate was so cool!

It was also cool to be talking to a group of students who were so aware of gender roles in their country. Yes, there are still gender roles in the US, but in general, women in the US have more opportunity. In most of Latin America, the culture is still very machismo. Men dominate over women. Slowly, this is changing. I was excited to work with a group of students who were so open to sharing the traditions of their society and not afraid to challenge them.

After the workshop, we had lunch in a group. That afternoon, we walked around the community visiting the houses of students who will be graduating at the end of the year. For them, we brought frames for their diplomas and a bag of rice, sugar, etc. for their families. At each house we visited, we were warmly welcomed into the home. We asked questions and they literally told us everything … hardships, what inspires them, stories about family, etc. I was surprised by how welcoming they were, and how willing they were to talk so openly about their lives.

That evening, after a day of walking around in the hot sun and sweating a lot (plus layers of sunscreen and bugspray), I decided I really should take a bath, or at least try to clean up a little. Each house does not have running water (although there are multiple locations within the community where you collect water) so in order to take a bath you use a bucket and a pila (basically a huge bucket that stores water) to take a bath. It is a little challenging, and the water was freezinggg cold (so much that every time I poured it over my body, I couldn’t help but gasp), but I managed.

Sunday morning we went on another walk. We saw the national bird of El Salvador, which flew away before I could get a picture, and met one of Oscar’s friends on his way to work in the fields. We came home to another enormous breakfast.

At 8:45 we met everyone at the school to play a soccer tournament. We split into teams, girls against boys. Some got really competitive, others pranced around the concrete field. I did my best to play, but we all know my hand/foot/eye coordination is far from stellar. The teams that weren’t playing hung out on the sidewalk, cheering, listening to music, talking. It was a really fun morning!

After lunch, we drove around to other parts of Estanzuelas to deliver more bags and frames. Again, everyone was welcome and although we were hot, sweaty and tired, the experience was great. At around 3, we headed back to San Salvador. We visited Logan in the hospital, and happily learned we could take him home with us.

Back at Happy House, we were all really excited to take real showers. But as I was showering (with wonderfully hot water), I had a weird feeling. There I was, so happy to be back with running water and air conditioning and a new set of clean clothes. But all of the amazing, hard working and inspiring people we got to know in Estanzuelas will never have this option. It was yet another experience that, out of the many I have had these past 5 months, made me realize how much I have and how grateful I will always be for what I have. And as always, motivation to use everything I do have to make a difference as a doctor.

The front of Oscar's house

The side of Oscar's house

The bathroom

The shower

This is where the year's corn harvest is stored

The main room of the house. The kitchen is to the left.

the room where Kati and I slept

Paulo, the family's favorite animal (but he really didn't like me)

Oscar's family (plus one tall, white, smiling gringo)

the view one morning on a walk

our skit

another view from one of our walks

the main road