Friday: Painting, lava and the Ocean

Well, we woke up at 7:00 this morning and started our last day with the usual cereal and making our PB&J sandwiches for lunch.  Then after reading a poem called "Apology to my Brothers and Sisters in Developing Countries by Joyce Rupp" we got into the van for the drive to Las Delicias. 

Today we were doing a lot of touch up painting around the day care center.  We also got to go watch how the corn was ground into cornmeal with a machine right near where we were working.  It's definitely a lot different than just driving to the local super market like we do back in the states.  The women have to soak the corn in order to take the outer shell out, then they'll take that corn down to the grinder where it is ground into a mushy substance.  Then they make the mushy cornmeal into tortillas.  Unfortunately so many of us were exhausted we couldn't stay for the whole day.  Lynette let us take a break and help make tortillas with the women again, we were still not much better today than we were yesterday. 

Because we were all so exhausted, we cleaned up early and we got to drive around and see some of the country side.  We stopped and saw a lava field from a volcanoe that exploded over 100 years ago.  It was really neat for all of us to see, the volcanic rock extended for miles into the distance.  Miguel, our driver went out and got us all some volcanic rock to take home with us. :)

Next, we stopped to see a site where there was a horrible mud slide during 2001.  According to Miguel, about 350 people were affected.  Sadly, only an 8 month old baby, a 5 year old girl and 2 cats were found afterwards.

Finally we drove down to the ocean.  I was really excited about this because I had been asking all week if we were going to go to the ocean, I've never seen the ocean before.  It was really pretty looking out over the water.  Many of us walked around the beach taking in the sun, looking for shells and taking pictures.  We saw some fishers out in the water with their nets.  Lynette and Miguel took us up to the pier where there was a fish market.  It was really neat to see how it all worked, despite the nasty smell.  We saw the fishermen skinning, salting and selling the many different varieties of fish.  We also saw them letting the boats down into the water for more men to go out fishing.

Tonight for dinner we had a traditional Salvadoran meal of Papusas.  Papusas are basically a tortilla stuffed with beans and cheese.  They're really tasty!  We also had the rice and salad that accompanied every other meal this week. 

To finish out our amazing week, there was an awesome band called Sierra Madre that came and performed for us.  They were really fun and loved Romero.  A lot of their songs were about Romero but they also had songs about poor children, friendship, and Salvadoran Pride.  They had us dance for the last song which was quite interesting.  Steph and Kelly really got into it. :)

Well thats about it for the week!  We're headed out bright and early tomorrow morning at 4:00, our flight leaves at 7:30.  We definitely don't want to miss this one!  Good Night!
~Molly Long

Tortilla Thursday

Thursday - RISE AND SHINE! It's 7:00am and it's time to get ready for the day. Today we moved on to a different work site that is only approximately 40 minutes away instead of over an hour. On our way to Las Delicias, we witnessed a tractor trailer parallel park, yes that's right a tractor trailer parallel parked right in front of us.. Now that's what I call talent!

At Las Delicias, our project for the day was to paint the exterior of a day care. Unfortunately, there weren't any children there for us to play with, but we really enjoyed Team El Salvador bonding, especially trying to teach Kelly and Keem (Kim) how to paint using a roller.

Part of the painting crew

Project FIAT has a feeding program at Las Delicias where food is provided to all the elderly and the children on their way to school. Each day parents of the children help make the food and serve it. Today we had the opportunity to make tortillas for the children and adults to eat. We were quite the entertainment for the Salvadorans because well, we were terrible at making them and they laughed at us the entire time. It was such a great experience to serve the children their food. They were speaking to us in Spanish so they also used hand motions to show us what to do. It really made us appreciate what blessings we have in our own lives.

After we finished painting the exterior of the day care, we cleaned up and headed to a different work site that Project FIAT has been working on. As soon as we stepped out of the car, a Salvadoran child, Oscar came running up to us, gave out free hugs, and immediately jumped into Kayla's arms. She then gave him a piggy back ride for a while while he held on tight and kept calling her,  "caballo" which means horse.

Steph and Kelly also had the experience of an adorable Salvadoran child jumping over their heads, several times, but no worries, he cleared their heads every time!

When we returned back to the house after our long day of painting and playing with children, we were entertained by a group of folklore dancers from a nearby university. It was clear that the dancers loved what they were doing. It was an enjoyable way to learn more about the culture. The last song, they pulled all the ladies onto the dance floor and tried to teach us how to dance, let's just say we should all stick to painting, well except for Keem with the roller.

We cannot believe we only have one day left in El Salvador. We are learning a lot about El Salvador and the culture, but we are also learning a lot about ourselves and how fortunate we are all for everything we have. We cannot wait to share this experience with all of you when we get back to the US.

--Kayla