¡Hola El Salvador!

I am HERE!!! I got in Thursday afternoon and was driven to Suchitoto by two nice men named Oscar and Israel. As we left the city and started getting into the countryside, goats and cows and started appearing on the side of the road. Cows were being walked around on leashes - for anyone who knows how much I love cows, you can only imagine how excited I got. However, Oscar and Israel were ignoring this amazing phenomena, so I assumed that it was not quite so exciting for them. I was still pretty excited, so when we ended up stopping near a cow tethered right outside my window, I lifted my camera and took a picture. I thought I was pretty stealth about it, but apparently was not - as soon as the picture was taken, I looked up to see Oscar looking at me, laughing heartily. He and Israel got a kick out of the fact I was taking a picture of a cow. Never mind that I tried to explain we do not have cows wandering the streets of San Francisco, the laughing continued as they asked, "A cow? Really??" After this occurrence they slowed down for every cow we passed (which was often), yelling, "Look!! A cow!!! Oh, another cow!!!" They had almost gotten tired of this when we passed a horse that whinnied rather loudly next to my window and, not surprisingly, startled me. After this, the cries became "Oh look!!! A horse!!! AND a cow!! You must be really excited!!"

        Yes. Yes, I was.

I was safely dropped off at the Centro Arte para la Paz, where I will be living during my time here. I was kindly greeted by Christy, another woman who will be volunteering at the center during the year. We hit it off immediately, and she showed me around the center and then the town of Suchitoto. After settling into my room, I met up with Sister Peggy. After a warm welcome, Christy and Sister Peggy invited me to come with them to the capital the next morning. At five am. Of course, I agreed.

As my alarm went off at 4:40 the next morning, I staggered out of bed and wondered why I had thought that this would be a good idea. Fortunately, I was shown why just a few minutes later, when I was picked up in front of the center by Sister Peggy. We went and picked up Christy, and then by 5:10 we were on our way to San Salvador. Together, we passed the almost two hour trip quickly, Sister Peggy and Christy telling me stories of El Salvador and the center. After eating breakfast, during which Peggy had office hours, I had the opportunity to go sit in on her class! She teaches an amazing class on Liberation Theology. I was already sitting down when many of the students from Santa Clara who are studying abroad in La Casa de la Solidaridad began to trickle in. It was amazing to be able to see so many friendly faces on my first day in the country. I was able to enjoy lunch with all the Casa folk, and then went to sit in on another class, on the history of the war in El Salvador. Both classes were absolutely amazing, I felt so blessed to have been able to have gone to them!! I was then able to eat dinner, again with the Casa kids, before going to la Casa de la Paz where I shared a room with Christy.

The next morning, we wandered about San Salvador, and got watches (so now I can actually know what time it is!), and then went to the Museum of the Martyrs and Monseñor Oscar Romero, located in UCA. It was truly sobering to look at the timeline of events during the war, to read about such a loss of life. Included in the martyrs were priests who were actually teachers at UCA. Rosebushes now mark the place of their murder. It is truly inspiring to see the extreme spirit of the Salvadoran people - so much evil has happened, and yet the people still find the strength to smile, to laugh, and to persevere.

Now, I am back in Suchitoto, preparing for a new week. I will be beginning rehearsals with mi coro soon, and therefore have been planning planning planning. GIRLS CHORUS GIRLS - if you could send me any and all of your favorite songs/rounds, I would be eternally grateful. I always feel as though I am forgetting some.  So here I am preparing for my first week in Suchitoto!! YAAYY!!!