40 Cents worth of Internet later....

If I had the energy or time (or internet, for that matter), I would update this every day so that it didn’t get this overwhelming after a week. Really, I can’t even remember all the things I have done in a week—I can’t believe how much I have done in a week, actually. We finished orientation, which was really relieving. It was fun to have all new things happening for 2 weeks, but my brain hurts and I want a regular schedule and, most of all, some real resting time. I promise to be brief about this…I will work on not making all of these entries novels, as I know that all of you have lives and can’t care all that much what I have for lunch every day.

We visited all the last praxis sites, which included cute kids dancing for us and grabbing us to dance (which equals me in linen pants and Birkenstocks, 5’ 9’’, awkwardly swinging my arms with a child less than half my size), and a Salvadoran grandpa serenading us with his guitar and songs he wrote during the civil war here about wanting peace. Great times had by all. We also visited Puerto Del Diablo, which is just a funny little side of the road attraction with a mildly safe zipline, some pretty antique looking ferris wheels, and a really really difficult hike up a mountain with the promise of spectacular views. And it was true!!! I thought I was going to die of a heart attack half way up, but once we got there it was definatey worth it….its quite a beautiful country. (see picture for proof).

We have also started classes which seem, oddly enough, all very wonderful and interesting It’s funny because we all kind of hang out with half our teachers all the time, seeing as one of them is a priest who works for the Casa program and eats dinner with us and imparts endless amounts of wisdom into our tiny little heads, one is a US journalist who has lived here for 20 years and is married to one of our cooks, and one is actually the leader of the program. My other classes are in Spanish and taught by Salvadorans, all amazing and endlessly overjoyed when they teach us a new word in Spanish. My political science class looks especially promising, since I am pretty sure that our teacher solved all of El Salvador’s problems in about 20 minutes with a powerpoint and some maps. Really. Then during class break I went to Mister Donut, where you can get 2 for 1 donuts for the month of September!!! A very important fact. Mister Donut is eerily popular here….

I also started work at my Praxis site, where I will be 2 days of the week until December. In the mornings, I work at Centro Hogar of El Proyecto Nuevo Amanecer, which is a school for kids and has a bunch of social services as well. I got my first choice and I get to work in the 3 year old class. 20 kids, one teacher, and me. They are actually all fairly well behaved, if a little crazy at times, thanks I think to the teacher who seems like she really knows what she is doing. They don’t exacty have my name down yet so they ask me every 5 minutes or they call me Julia (the last American student to work there), but I guess that will come with time. or, I hope it will. I don’t really want to be Julia all semester. In the afternoons after lunch at the soy project we go over to Anita’s house, which acts as kind of a a community center and church. Then we go on home visits of people in the neighborhood, which for me yesterday consisted of a 45 minute STRAIGHT uphill walk up the volcano with just me and Blanca, a 30-something woman who walks home and back about twice a day. Her house is the LAST one in the community and surrounded by a coffee finca, and is in the middle of absolutely beautiful volcano-ey nature. The most amazing thing is that her 12 year old son is paralyzed, so she CARRIES him up and down the mountain and onto a bus at least once a week for his physical therapy appointments. And I had a blister from my new Tevas. So, I guess it’s all relative.

Anyways Im really sorry this is so long….I tried to stop it! From now on I will reserve myself to only share very interesting things. Since orientation is over and now I have a real schedule I will probably be less interesting. But anyways thanks for reading until the end (if you did…). Hope all is well wherever you are.

Con un fuerte abrazo (a line from the Barney song, translated into Spanish. I’m learning so much….)

:Sabine
My favorite find at my Praxis site....Pippi Longstocking in SPANISH!