Tires and kids and clinics, Oh my!

Everything in L.A. went wonderfully! It was a true week of encouragement spent with friends, and I came home with all of the documents I needed. Praise God! Shortly after my return to El Salvador, the first team from the U.S. arrived. They were from Vineyard Christian Church in Pataskala, Ohio.  I spent the week with them in San Jacinto, a small community near Santa Ana with a population of 3,773. They participated in one of the community’s current initiatives to build a retaining wall along one of the area’s main roads to prevent the road from being destroyed by mudslides. This is not an easy task. It is back breaking work which involves digging ditches, hauling dirt, mixing in dry concrete, stuffing old tires with more dirt than seems physically possible, compacting the dirt by repeatedly pounding it with a large stick, and then rinse and repeat. Drenched in sweat, muscles sore and a bit shaky, I thanked God for the opportunity to participate in the building of this wall, the completion of which will probably take another 3 months--that is, 3 more months of volunteers from the area, dedicating their days to labor-intensive work on behalf of bettering their community.

Running out of words

Spanish school is over and in my brain is a thorough mess of grammar, new vocabulary, and four different ways to conjugate verbs into the ever illusive subjunctive tense. The Spanish in my head is like a pile of pick up sticks. Gently, strategically, I am able to pluck ideas from the intertwined mess of colors without making a mistake, but more often than not I just dive right in and disturb the whole pile, resulting in sentences that feel less like speaking and more like riding in a car with a teenager learning to drive a stick. However, my time at PajaroFlor in Suchitoto was extremely helpful. I would recommend this school to anyone seeking a full immersion experience in a quiet town with a beautiful view. The director of the school and the teachers were kind, enthusiastic, and always willing to help. I am already finding it easier to understand others and to communicate my ideas (even if they are a bit choppy). After all, a pile of pick up sticks is better than an empty table.