Living in El Salvador

Disclaimer: This post is in no way me complaining and saying I want to come home. I am glad I’m here and am really looking forward to the next nine weeks I’m going to be here!

Things I miss about home…

Being able to wash my clothes in a washing machine and drying them! We have to wash our clothes in a pila, which is a type of sink. This takes a really long time which we don’t seem to have a lot of here. One thing about living in a place that is hot and humid is clothes take a really really long time to dry, which means they smell bad. So… I am grateful that I live in a place I can easily wash and dry clothes.

My bed! We sleep on cots which yes , I am getting used to but still I would LOVE to sleep in a real bed where I can spread out and get a good night’s sleep.

Not having to use bug spray five times a day. Mosquitoes are everywhere! And for some reason I guess I taste really good because they just won’t leave me alone! Good thing there aren’t many nasty diseases people get here like malaria or I would be in trouble.

Having a car. Ok so this one isn’t totally true… I actually don’t like driving, maybe because I don’t have a nice car and I’m always worried I’m going to get stranded somewhere on the side of the road. I know I would love driving if I had a nice car that was fun to drive (like maybe Austin’s M5 J). Anyway, we travel in buses here and that seems to be an interesting experience. Some of the busses are pretty ghetto and I have to wonder about how safe they are. It’s pretty funny because some of them play music and have neon and black lights. At certain times of the day they tend to pack us in like cattle; if you have problems with personal space that goes out the window pretty quick. Luckily we are all smart about keeping our stuff close so none of us have gotten anything stolen. I also miss having air-conditioning.

Personal space and privacy! I haven’t shared a room since I was a freshman in college which sadly was six years ago. Come to think of it, that was the only time I’ve ever shared a room! Not that I don’t like my roommate Taylor, I do, she is great and lots of fun! It just takes some getting used to. The house I live in has no privacy; it is built so that everyone can hear you all around the house. So if you don’t want everyone in the house to know about it you better not say it… which makes talking on the phone a little difficult sometimes!

Understanding the language! That is a big one! I wish so badly that I knew Spanish! Why didn’t I take more in school or at least try harder to learn before I came here?!? One of the most frustrating things is being at a project and not being able to help or talk to the people because you can’t communicate efficiently.

Not feeling like I’m going to get lung cancer every time I breathe while in the city. San Salvador is pretty polluted and the cars and busses give off a lot of exhaust. I am pretty into the environment and not ruining it so when I see this it makes my stomach turn. I now try to be careful about when I take a breath.

Those are some of the things that I’ve thought about since I’ve been here that are different about living in El Salvador. It’s nothing I can’t handle though, I mean I wasn’t expecting to come here and have all the amenities I do at home. I mean shoot, I wasn’t expecting hot showers but most of the time I get one!

I love El Salvador so far and think that this has been and will be an amazing experience! The people here are so awesome, the locals and all everyone I live with! This is also such a beautiful country and I’m excited to see and learn more about it!

First week in El Salvador!

So I made it to El Salvador! This is such a beautiful country and the people have been so nice! Right now there are 10 of us and we are living in a pretty nice house. Our neighborhood is has guards with big guns which you get used to seeing pretty quick because you see security guards with guns everywhere. I forgot my camera cords so as soon as I can get a card reader I will add pictures :(
The first full day I went out and did eye exams with a nonprofit here called Fudem. It was a lot of fun to see all the people in the little community we went to.

Every Friday we go volunteer so that is what we did the second day I was here. Building houses is a lot of work and the heat does not help either. But it will be a good experience. After that we went and taught English at the LDS office building. We do that every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Since I do not speak Spanish I am teaching the advanced class so that will be fun!
This weekend we went to an YSA dance on Friday night which was a lot of fun. These Latin people sure can dance! Everyone really likes to try to talk to us and get to know us so we are making a lot of friends! The next morning we went to the beach! We stayed in a beach house owned by a lady in our ward so that was nice to have the whole day to relax. The waves there were so strong! Of course I was the first to run in and I was quickly swept of my feet into the water! I got sand everywhere! We still were able to do some boogie boarding despite how crazy the waves were! That night we had a fire on the beach and made smores! So perfect!
Sunday we went from the beach to church. Then we were invited to dinner (which I found out that we are pretty popular so that happens quite a bit!).

On monday we went to a couple of orphanages which was been great! The first one was Hogar Providencia which is a boy’s home. We are teaching them English and they were so great! They are so cute and such good boys!

The other home is CIPI which is a girl’s home and most of the girls have been sexually abused so that is sad :( I am actually trying to put together a workout class for them and that will be my project that I will be in charge of a couple times a week!
Today we went with Fudem and handed out flyers at schools so the kids know they can get their eyes checked. So far it has been really fun and a good experience. I will try to post pictures asap so everything will come together and you can really see what I am doing!

Last Provo Summer

Provo summers can be so much fun. Unfortunately I haven't had many of them because I have gone other places. I was lucky enough to have part of a Provo summer before I have to leave. There are so many fun things to do like hiking, camping, Lake Powell, and just having fun in the sun. Here are some of the tings I did while I was there.

Here are some of the camping/fires and tin foil dinners:






Just in case you are wondering this is our back yard and Alexis and I did dig a hole in the grass so we could make tin foil dinners. It was harder then you would expect!



I absolutely love hiking! Living in Provo has been so great because there are so many canyons and the mountains have always been in my backyard. I wish I would have taken pictures on my hikes but I didn't :( Here are is just one of the hikes I went on with Ashley.



There was a huge pipe that we decided to be daring and walk across. Ashley needed a little help getting across at first.



The Festival of Colors is a Hindu festival where everyone throws chalk at each other! Kinda wild but fun until you can't breathe.






One thing that a lot of people do during the summer is go to Lake Powell. I had never been on a friends trip there before. A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to go. I went with Hilary and Ashely and a big group I didn't know. It ended up being a lot of fun getting to know some new people.