Kids say the darndest things...

This morning the girls asked me why I was not so fat because I eat so much food...I tried to explain the concept of metabolism to them in my broken Spanish and they just gave each other these looks of bemused non-comprehension. I thought it was funny too so I thought I'd share some other amusing anecdotes with you all:

When I first got here and was talking about where I was from with the girls, they wanted to know who else I knew from the United States.
"Do you know Molly (another volunteer)?"
"Yes."
"Do you know Sydney?"
"Yes, I met her at formation camp."
"Do you know Shakira?"
"No."
"Do you know Justin?"
"Justin...Beber?"
"Si!"
"NO."

Another time I walked with the girls to school and while Sister was talking to one of their teachers about some issue or another, the English teacher introduced himself to me (I wonder why he thought I could speak English...could it be my accent?) and we started talking. I told him I was from Washington State and he said, "Oh yes, Seattle." I was like "Yeah!" Finally someone knows where I'm from! Even the sisters thought I was from DC. A couple of days later the girls told me that he had mentioned me in class and told the students that I had very good English. I was of course surprised to hear it, but glad to know that I can at least speak one language. 

A couple of days ago I was playing futbol with a bunch of girls on the patio and the bunch slowly whittled down to two and then one (versus me). I was getting my butt whooped, it would have been totally embarrassing if it wasn't so extremely casual and I wasn't in a position of authority and kind of wanting them to win (only a little). It was all I could do to block her kicks, no chance of making it to the other goal...I was down like 5 to 25. But this girl, she kept saying "Okay, it's 8-9. Now it's 9-9." She always kept reinventing the score so that I was right behind her. She's smart, she can count, she was just being nice to me :)

I think that's it for the moment, Oh, also, the girls told me today that they think I'm "muy enojanda" which I am pretty sure signified a combination of angry and pouty or irritated, judging by their gestures. I think it's because I got upset when the girls didn't want to go to adoration and told me they had homework (they didn't, they never do, it's like the government doesn't believe in it and they had more then enough time anyway to do it if they did) and pulled a girl's chair out from the table yelling "VAMOS" with my most stern face. When they don't listen, when they talk about me behind my back, when they lie about their chores, I am patient with them but firm and cheerfully insistent. With such disdain for Christ, my heart just broke.  You can dis me but my patience disappears quite quickly when it's Jesus. Ay, I cried in adoration. I felt so bad. None of those girls came, sister talked to them about her disappointment in them and they stayed and "studied." I pray for these girls every day that they will learn to love Jesus. Because He is the only one that they can depend on, and that's just a fact.

Full disclosure: I did loose my temper one other time when a girl, after weeks of not listening when I asked her to water a different bed in the garden (they persistently over-water...maybe because they don't want to do anything else?) I grabbed the hose out of her hand and said "Escucha!" (with a very stern face). I apologized immediately and said I was a little sick and didn't have much patience (true). She walked out of the garden. This is not the end of this saga (ah adolescence) but tomorrow we will meet as a garden group and go over tasks and assignments for each day so that it is a bit clearer for everyone hopefully. I still have to figure out how to explain that we can't plant all one thing at one time or we have to harvest it all at one time and that means they have to eat a ton of lettuce which they dislike greatly. Ay, yi yi.

Peace, blessings, sleep...more to come about the exciting festivities this week with the remains of Don Bosco in El Salvador!!!

First visitor!

Sydney!!!
(shout out to the Libreria Catolica folks! Check out the sign in the background!)

Outside the Cathedral, very Mary Poppins (feed the birds)
ps they call me that here, "Mary Poppins"

Sydney, the volunteer who left here last September, has come to visit and arrived yesterday afternoon. She spent 2 years here in ES working with the youth in Santa Anna and Chalchuapa. Today we hopped a ride into Santa Anna with Sor. Pati, the Animator (like a superior for the community), who had a meeting there. We visited the school she worked at and she showed me pictures of the girls from the school who are entering with the Salesians here (Sydney is also an aspirant) and all of the nuns commented on her fantastic new outfit or "uniform."

Inside the Cathedral...it's actually all concrete but it's painted very beautifully

They had a life-size photograph of the Shroud of Turin in the Cathedral (Turin is also the home of our founder, Don
Bosco)

Another church...

The theater in Santa Anna where we will see the Don Bosco play soon when the remains of Don Bosco visit!
We are learning a song and everything ;)


It was wonderful to get out and see a bit more of the country and get a better sense of the real world of El Salvador. It was also indescribably lovely to say whatever I felt like and know the words to say! Sydney was running into people she knew everywhere, which gives me hope that I'll get to know more of the greater community outside of our little compound here at Casa Hogar. Apparently there are a lot of local VIDES volunteers in ES that I might get to meet while Sydney's here, and hopefully continue an acquaintance with! Sydney also introduced me to the immigration officer here, who is really nice and speaks English (!) and it seems like it might not be so difficult to get my religious work visa after all, especially if I can get the US Census Bureau to release my fingerprints and background check...

We also checked out the Cathedral and spent some time with Jesus, had Zapote (a very sweet tropical fruit that looks a bit like a potato but is orange on the inside) smoothies, and took a few turns around the Mayor's courtyard.

The courtyard at the Mayor's office. Yes, that statue is exactly what you think it is...Sydney and I had lots of bathroom adventures today as they don't generally stock toilet paper here...and everywhere was out of soap...just thought you might like to know ;)

Hmm...hard to tell the difference between topiary and dance costumes sometimes...  Her boyfriend's outfit coordinated too.  Bright green laces.  Just sayin'.  Some people-watching sessions are very rewarding.

some abstract musings...

I have been so blessed in my life...
beauty is important. So is love. 


The girls I work with here are poor, and most of them are here because of bad home lives for one reason or another, few have father's around. Many are placed here by the government. 


This place is beautiful, I drink it in every morning, but so is my own home in the northwest. Perhaps it is so beautiful to me because of the love that animates it. 


When the girls are here they are so happy, laughing and smiling all day. They are teenagers, so they have their moments but for the most part friendship, camaraderie, fun and love dominate the atmosphere. 


This week all of the girls went home because they were fumigating the compound. Many came back yesterday (more will come today) and ay! what sad faces! So much worry, so much despair.


I wonder what will happen when they graduate from high school and have to leave this place. I talked to the head sister and am going to try to set up a fair trade business for them for the handicrafts they make.Hopefully this will enable them to have both skills and resources to take with them when they have to leave. The more I get into it the more daunting it seems but with the grace of God all things are possible. If you know anything about the process of starting a fair trade business or know any good contacts I'd love to hear your thoughts!


I have been very privileged in my life to live in such a place of comfort as the US. To have so much convenience (a convenience which is sourced from sweatshops in Asia and factories in Mexico and handed-down to the rest of the south),  but most importantly, I have been privileged with love. I have been privileged to have people in my life who care about me and for me and take the time to tell me so. 


I can't tell the girls here I will always be there for them, that would be a lie. I can't tell them the sisters will always be here for them either, that would also be a lie. But Christ will always be there for them. Only Christ. Which is as much as any of us can truthfully say.  This place is called "Casa Hogar" or House Home literally translated. Christ is our home. He is the home in this house. 

Today they fumigated the compound. It was a new experience for me so I took pictures ;) Unfortunately my computer hates me right now and they won't post. I have been using a sock as my camera cover and I was definitely breathing through the sock, the chemicals smelled so bad. I tried to cover everything in my room to minimize the amount poison that could enter my body through clothes and surfaces, but I was slow fastening my metal wardrobe and only just made it out down the stairs to outside as the fumigator was at the door. Very exciting (but not in the happy way). Apparently the do this 3 times a year here.

They sent all the girls (save one) home yesterday for the fumigation and they will return Monday, so I have some time to assess things now. The animator (like the superior for this community) is gone until Saturday at a conference in Guatemala and I want to go over some VIDES stuff with her when she gets back as Sydney (the lovely gal who was here last year) will be here to visit and can help me translate "compost." As I said before, my main job is to hang out with the girls and supervise their chores and quite frankly, I need more work. Being with them constantly obviously takes up most/all of the day but not my mind, and my body wants more labor.  Today I spent a good 4-5 hours in the garden and it was wonderful. The garden really need it too, not that you care about all of the details but we've got some serious soil issues goin' on. So hopefully I can do some more stuff with that outside of "workshop time" and also come up with some other things I can teach the girls or be involved in. We'll see what comes.  

I made a couple of the girls hate me already. I made one girl stop reading her teen magazine to do her homework and she was so angry, her face was just filled with loathing. I know she went back to reading it when I left the room but I didn't go back in because I didn't want her to know that I knew what she was doing and wasn't going to do something terrible about it. She avoided my me for a good day and a half, but she did her chores right away and did them well. Maybe she felt guilty for the way she talked to me. I prayed for her as I glanced at her back in the lunch line, that she wouldn't hate me forever and would be filled with the love of Christ and the desire to do His will and not be quite so contrary. I thanked her for her chores whenever I saw her doing them. Yesterday before she left, she brought me a notebook with all the prayers they say during the day here written out in Spanish for me. I thanked her very much and went to rip out the pages and she said "No, it's for you, I have another."  

This is just one of the many gifts I have received here from the girls, all before really even knowing me. They are so very generous-hearted and full of God's grace. I love them all dearly. 

God is so good, always and in every circumstance. Spending time with Him here has been my greatest joy. It has been quite difficult at times to keep going during the day, especially when I can't explain why I need someone to do something or why certain things are important for the girls. And of course I miss all of you lovely people very much. Sometimes I still stop myself during the day and think "Holy crap, I'm in El Salvador. How did that happen?"  I hope and pray that I can be of use here and not let myself get in the way of Christ, for He is the person that these girls need to encounter every day. He is the one who is going to continue to be present in their lives every day, long after I've departed. He is the reason for everything, but especially, for love. 

And it rained...

The last couple of nights it has rained quite a bit here. It pours and dumps and feels like the heavens are emptying their washbasins on our heads. The lightning is so bright it seems as though someone has turned a light on upstairs. The other night it rained so much the water was up to the level of the corridors and had completely flooded the patio. I ran into the garden to stop the water that was coming through the puncture points in the covering from destroying the beds. I rigged up some buckets and got very wet in the process! The upside is we can use the rainwater I collected for the plants in the next few days.

The girls in this picture are two of the girls that stay here in the dormitory. The one on the right just had a birthday and so we all sang a song for her at lunch.  Across the patio from them is the bakery workshop, one of the many workshops for the girls here. There is also a sewing room, jewelry-making, leather-crafting (mostly adorable key chains), and of course the garden. The bakery also makes the snacks for the girls, which means we have cake pretty much every day!

first thoughts from El Salvador

Well, I've been here a week now. There is so much to say...

                                                                                     The view from my window...I need to hike some volcanoes!

The country is beautiful. From the moment we landed I knew I was going to enjoy this place. I didn't have any trouble getting through the airport, I wrote on the customs form that my final destination was Belize and said I'd only be here for 90 days and they didn't have any problems with it. I got a new stamp in my passport, not as exciting as Indonesia's but still pretty good :)

The sisters met me at the airport and we squashed into the cab of their working truck and went to a Pupeseria for breakfast. That would be a place that serves Pupusas. Pupusas are the national dish of El Salvador and are basically a tortilla filled (like a pita not a taco) with beans/cheese and herbs (the tortillas here are much smaller and thicker than anything in the US and are made with rice flour I think). They are quite good but the cheese and the herbs have a different flavor that anything I've had before. Also, I had some french fries here at the house that rival what we had in France. Basically the cuisine is big into sugar and salt.

The house is called Hogar de Maria Auxiladora or Home of Mary Help of Christians. From the outside it is not much but it is like a paradise when you step inside. There are 25 girls who live here, and they have their own kitchen, dormitory, showers and wash area, while the sisters have their own portion and there is also a school for the little kids (with a playground and everything) on the other side. I sleep above the chapel, which is the size of many a rural church in the states. They have trees and gardens all around and everything is connected with covered walkways, essentially their hallways are outside. Here are some pictures:

L: This is the halway to the girls dormitory, the kitchen, study and library are through doors on the right

R: This is roughly the middle of the complex, a large concrete area with hopscotch and basketball

This is my responsibility: the garden. They grow mostly radishes and lettuce right now but they have other seeds so I am hoping to expand our horizons soon. You notice that it is like a greenhouse but only the top is covered. Welcome to the tropics. They need protection from the monsoon rains more than insulation.

The girls say a rosary every day and are very well behaved for the most part. This is the chapel where we say the rosary about once a week...it is always open for personal prayer though, a true joy. Maria Auxiliadora is there in the blue light above the tabernacle. This version of the Virgen appeared to Don Bosco in a vision and is daily intoned by Salesians.

Mostly my job here is to teach gardening for an hour every day and hang out with the girls for the rest of the time. Sometimes I help with recreation for the school kids in the mornings but otherwise I am to practice "Salesian Assistance" meaning the style of loving God's children taught by St. Don Bosco: Reason, Religion and loving kindness. I am all for it. In the future I imagine I will have more jobs (they just got a big donation of knitting and crochet supplies that I am itching to dive into with the girls) but this is good now. I am practicing my patience and trying to love in the moment.

My Spanish is faring better than I thought, divine intervention I'm sure. Speaking of divine intervention, I totally said a prayer for Spain literally seconds before they scored the winning goal today. The prayer was something along the lines of "Lord, if one person's disappointment is equal to another's, please let Spain win. I know they haven't been the most faithful to you, but the Netherlands is even more secular. Thy will be done, whatever will most glorify you...but it would be really cool if Spain won." I know my prayer isn't the reason they won, but it was awesome to incorporate God into that experience. He is the reason we keep getting up day after day, weather we are thinking of Him or not. Nothing escapes His notice. The girls and I were very excited about the game and they noticed that their favorite song played during the cup ceremony. For your enjoyment ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0

They're other favorites right now are Justin Beber's "Baby, Baby, Baby" and Lady Ga Ga "Alejandro" but I won't subject you to those videos ;) Oh they also love everything High School Musical and Camp Rock. I have been translating the English lyrics to Spanish phonetics for them to work on their English pronunciation and I had a really hard time not laughing at some parts of those songs...

That's it for now, thanks for trudging through this long post, more to follow...

Still Alive

...not that I was worried or anything, it just seems like a better title than, "hey, here's day 3."

So getting through customs turned out to be a breeze. I wrote that my destination country was Belize on the form and told them that I would be here for 90 days. God took care of the rest. I knew He would, He's so great. I said my rosary a few times throughout the flights and just felt totally confident in Him. That is the beautiful thing about all of this: I am living day to day and just enjoying the time with Him.

A note about LAX. Avoid it.

After the Sisters picked me up from the airport we ran a few errands in San Salvador, picked up a girl who had been in the hospital in Chalchuapa for a few days and went back to Casa Hogar, my new home here in El Salvador. The sister's pickup was a bit persnickety so I told them about my custom of naming and encouraging vehicles in the US. I think their pickup is Frank now.

On the way back to Casa Hogar, we got pupusas. We pulled onto this side road where there were 6 or 7 pupuserias lined up along the side with waving and smiling hostesses at their little stoves in front of each. I thought of you Blanca when I ate my pupusas :) Pupusas are tortillas filled (hot pocket style) with beans, cheese and herbs of some kind, but the tortillas here are very thick, closer to a pita than what we have in the US. Also, the beans here are like a paste. I asked and it is just the culinary style. Oh another note about food: here, in the land of coffee, the sisters drink...nescafe. :D I brought my coffee grinder on a whim so there is hope that at some point I could get a hold of some beans...

The house is gorgeous. And Huge. I get my own room in the tower (very exciting!) and share a bathroom with one other girl. Here are some pictures...

I made it!

I'm in El Salvador. It's Gorgeous.
I think I'm gonna like this place :)
For now I'm gonna sleep.

hugs,
Mary

Hey everyone! I am sitting in SeaTac right now preparing for my departure. Mostly emotionally and spiritually but also a little practical stuff: I am looking up flights out of ES in case I have to buy one for them to let me in...this could be expensive if I have to do it every 90 days! If anyone wants to meet up with me somewhere outside of Honduras, ES, Guatemala or Nicaragua I am open to all suggestions! It will be around my birthday so that could be fun ;). I am hoping that I can convince them I will not be staying past that date without a ticket in hand but stay tuned for how that saga progresses...

On a more typical note for this blog, let's talk about faith. Everything has been moving so fast from about Easter onward that I have been taking every day as it comes and not thinking too far ahead. I tend to really enjoy this for the most part because I am a really impatient person (I gonna work on it) and like to always feel that I am moving forward towards something.  The downside is that I only just realized a couple of days ago that I was actually leaving the country. Indefinitely.

God is so good and I know this is His will, so I feel very glad about all of this and trust that it is going to go exactly as He pleases. Praise His holy name!

ps I am also a bit nervous and I miss everyone like crazy already. Don't worry though, I'll keep you posted :)