Primeras Dos Semanas

These first two weeks have been intense. Since we arrived to the country we have not stay in one place, we moved three times in two weeks and that is a little bit stressful, but thankfully now we moved to the house where we will stay for the next six weeks. Being able to clean my room and the bathroom makes me feel like is my own house. So far, I am enjoying being here, the people are really nice and friendly. Another thing that I like here is the food, even though for now we have only be eating out, the food to me s more like a home cooked meal. The food reminds me of the meals my mom cooks when I go visit her. When it comes to the weather, I do not like it because is too hot. I do not like to sweat, so I shower two or three times a day, but now I’m getting used to it. Our first weekend we went to El Lago Suchitlán with one of the delegations and we stopped in the Guazapa mountains to hear the testimonies of Mercedes and Rogelio, two survivors of the Copapayo Massacre on November 4 and 5, 1983. My first week of classes was easy because it was mostly to get to know the students and what they know and will like to know in the class. No planning was necessary, but for this coming week I need to have a plan for each of my classes. At the beginning I thought that the same plan was going to use the same plan for all of my classes, but after meeting the students I found out that I need to make some changes for each class in order to meet everyone’s needs. For example, one of my computer classes has three teachers who have never taken computer classes and others who have a little bit of knowledge of how to use the computer. For my future classes, I am aware for the teachers I have to focus more in teaching them the basic, but also the skills that they would use on their jobs. I like all of my classes. Now, I’m doing yoga, I never thought I was going to do it but I want to try new things here. On Saturday, we went to El Necio, a bar near downtown (la plaza). This bar has a really interesting history — it was created during the civil war and now once a month they have a concert here local artists have the opportunity to read their poems or expose any of their art. The music played there talks about the history and all the people who suffered and died during the war. Also, the decoration of the place consists of pictures of idols, poems, and flags that tourists have donated. Natalya and I went back to the bar to learn more and they told us that right now the bar just started a new project where they use the bar’s profit to help students financially. They give a few college students a grant to finish their educate. On Sunday, we went to La casa del Escultor — a really nice restaurant. The cook is Argentinian and his wife is from Mexico. The restaurant was expensive, well at least for the people here in El Salvador. I feel like I am so cheap now, when we go to the nice restaurants and a meal costs five dollars I think is too expensive, when in the States a meal ranges from eight dollars and up; but here we can get lunch and a drink for three dollars. I’m scared that once I go back to Minnesota I will not want to eat because is too expensive. Overall, everything is going well.