8/25

Wow… this post has been a long time coming. Or at least it feels that way, Ive only been here for just over a week, but it feels like I have been here for a lifetime. I have to write this at home and then go somewhere with Internet to send it. So far my relationship with internet has been a little funny, being in this place where we are so present and so much is happening and then getting on the internet and trying to explain it slash take in all that comes from the internet is slightly overwhelming. With time I will figure out how to balance being here but also keeping in regular and meaningful contact with home, but in all honesty for now it feels like a bit of a disconnect.

Im not even sure where to start, thinking back to the first night we got here seems like ages ago. In my email my dad said I need to find a better adjective than amazing… so I’ll try, but I cant make any promises.

The people here are beautiful in so many ways. For the past week we have had orientation… the first two days were just logistics, rules, safety precautions, settling in, etc. Then we started touring the different praxis sites. There are ten sites around the community, in and outside of the city that we will be spending our Mondays and Wednesdays. Seeing them all has been absolutely amazing, heart warming and heart breaking all at the same time, and has already taught us so much about this country and its people.

We have seen so much pain, struggle and poverty but even more hope, dedication, joy and love. Today, we had our first day of classes and we talked about senses. Touch has been such a special one. We are a group of gringos and for this week we have been traveling as all 26 (plus 5 coordinators) but family after family invited us into their homes to welcome us to El Salvador. Men, women, kids… hugged and kissed us on the cheeks with no reserve. There is this common bond between people here, maybe it comes from the struggle they have experienced, surely its somewhat because of the trust that has been created with the Casa program. They do not doubt our intentions, the kids jump on us and giggle with us and the people tell us all about their lives. They are so honest, vulnerable and real. Characteristics, words, ideas that I feel are so important, and so often lost from life at home. Things that will be very meaningful to this trip, and things that I hope I can learn to be more a part of me. 

We have seen community centers working to give children a full day of school, books to read, something similar to preschool. Companies working to give women a way to make money, sell their crafts and keep them from the scary and deathly maquilladores (factories), a clinic that gives check ups for $3-$10 so that the huge population that does not have the money to go to the doctor is able to receive health care, a center that is trying to give people a way to walk with God every day without some of the scary, critical, exclusive institutional practices of the church. People who walk 30 mins up a hill every day to just be in solidarity with communities in the most real form of poverty. Living in what we in the U.S. would call shacks, without electricity and running water and on $4 a day that they make carrying 200 pounds up and down a hill in the fincas (coffee farms). We have seen so much. Again.. so much pain, but so many people working to make the pain a little easier to deal with and so many smiling, hopeful faces that are just happy to be alive, and have visitors in their home.

All of this has been with a group of absolutely out of this world people. Everyone is here for the right reasons, learning, growing, being challenged, loving. Our hearts all touch. We laugh so much but when we need to cry, we can do that too. The conversations are meaningful and beautiful… yet equally silly and mindless. We have deep reflections and play crazy silly games, run together in the mornings, sit around and tell stories and eat our meals together. We are a family of familiar understanding in a place where so much scary and unfamiliar will rock our world.

It feels so very right and I know so many beautiful things are on their way for me. Most the time I can understand people in Spanish but sometimes have trouble responding, and of course sometimes I miss things but with time that will come. The food is absolutely amazing and I am living in the “big” house.. Casa Romero with 11 other students and a wonderful Community Coordinator.. Quentin who is from SCU. I have a room to myself which is slowly becoming more and more like home. The showers are freeeezing but a nice wake up after a morning run and all of it is fantastic.

I haven’t visited my site yet but am one day closer. Mine is the last one we will visit on Saturday and I am so very excited. I think in a way our Praxis sites kind of become our identity and our home. Im ready to have a home amongst Salvadorans. To show my excitement and love and gratitude to a group of people who are welcoming me into their life to teach me to be all of the things that they are that I hope to be. To help me to understand their lives, myself and how on Earth together we can make a difference. Classes started today and I think they are going to be extremely interesting and challenging for our hearts and minds, exactly what this whole journey is about.

I will try to be back more frequently and be less summarizy..again, Im still figuring out this whole contact with home thing. Come to El Salvador! It will steal your heart!