New and Old Adventures of El Salvador

The past two weeks have flown by in a blurry tornado out of which many things were thrown my way. Being in San Salvador for the first five days allowed me to relive the memories created on my first trip here January 2012. We went to many of the same places I’ve visited during that trip like the Universitario Centro Americano (UCA), the home of Oscar Romero, the workshop of Fernando Llort, and Pops – my favorite Ice Cream shop. On the fifth day we made our way to Suchitoto, a place that I had also previously visited but only for a couple of days. When I was here before, I never realized just how small Suchi really is. A few of us went for a walk one night after dinner, attempting to explore the town a bit and we wound up back at our house within 20 minutes! With a small town, there is usually a charm of some sort to go along with it and Suchitoto definitely has a charm. When passing someone, it is rare to not hear “Buenos, que te vayas bien” or something to that extent. Compared to San Salvador, Suchi is a lot more relaxing and easier to adjust to. However, it is not without faults. There are many people that love the rain, and many more that do not mind it. I am not any of these people. Rain makes me want to stay in all day and sleep, and since we have come in the rainy season, I feel this way a lot! On the other hand, our house is more rural than I am used to, so the spiders and other insects keep me from staying inside all day!

On the days that I have gotten up early with no workshops to give, I have had visitors such as my step-grandmother whom is in another town not too far away called Cojutepeque. She came to take me out to lunch along with a cousin whom I had never met. After lunch, we came back to Suchi and I introduced them to Sister Peggy and then showed them where we live. It is one of the only times I remember spending quality time with her so it was nice. I also went grocery shopping with Peggy in San Salvador which was an adventure all on its own. We left around 7AM and didn’t return until 4 or 5PM. We did much more than grocery shop of course, during that time, so it was fun getting to see her in action running from place to place.

Last week I only had two classes; English and English Conversation. They both went fairly well considering I did not have much planned. Today I had another English class and that also went pretty well. I got an idea of how much the students know and what more they want to learn. I am excited to put together my first actual lesson plan for them next week and teach them some things that they actually want to learn. I think that will be the best way for them to learn. Classes in general are still a challenge for me because I feel like my Spanish is still pretty limited, I sometimes have to rely on their help so I can accurately translate. That is something that I hope to work on during this time!