dia dos

the second and third days we were there were with out a doubt my favorite days. i mean i loved going to the city and then being with amy, but being in Precidio was by far the most rewarding part of the tirp. first i'll let you look at the pictures and then i'll tell you all about the day.

this little girl was so cute! she wore her pj's because she wanted to go home with us on the airplane. how adorable is that? it absolutely breaks your heart.




























emilytyne and bekah pushing kids on the swings









































kendall tying ribbons in the girl's hair


















lewis, jace and mr tamming putting together a little play house for the kids...the directions were in english, so we helped them out.



















cheyanne coloring with a little boy







































































i loved this little girl! her name is jenny (sp? pronounced yenny). she was absolutely content to simply sit with me on the tire swing. she was very quite and wouldn't talk to you, but if you asked her yes or no questions she would respond by nodding or shaking her head.













kristi playing with the kids on the tire swing. they loved all standing on the side and on her while she swung and twirled around.




































bekah chasing a chicken...so fun















hannah being adorable with the children!

we woke up on friday morning ready to set up stations for when the kids arrived. we worked at them with the different stations for crafts, coloring and games for about an hour or two then many of them went out to play on the soccer field (pictured right) with a giant parachute. i heard they loved it (i stayed with the ones who didn't want to go and colored with them). after we got to play with them for a while on the playground, which was a bunch of fun. after they left to go home for the day (around 12 noon) we all sat down to have some pupusas, which are basically two thick tortillas with beans or meat and cheese (SO GOOD!). we were each only given one and were all still hungry, but not wanting to be rude, we gladly accepted the food, ate it and then proceeded to go back to our cots, where us girls all began exchanging food and pigging out. right after we had satisfied our hunger one of the teachers comes in to tell us that lunch was ready. we all looked at each other and though "wait, didn't we just have lunch?". whops! miscommunication. the pupusas were apparently just a snack. at the time we all were a little grumpy at the fact that we then had to force ourselves to eat all that we could, but at the same time were totally laughing about it. later that afternoon the kids came back and we began painting murals all over the school (i'll post those pics later). we drew most of the things for them and then let them paint some of them. in the end we had some grapes on the kitchen wall that turned out black, some red and green cookies and a bright red (not pink) watermelon. the black grapes and the controversial red watermelon were courtesy of hannah and me! :)

probably another favorite part of the trip for me, was visiting the homes of the local children that attended the school. it was so nice to be able to see where they lived and meet their families. something that truly blew me away while visiting the various houses, was the fact that out of the seven houses we went to, only one house had both a mother and a father. there are just no men to be seen. i kept asking myself why? why is it so acceptable in thier culture for the man of the house to simply take off when they please. it is also very common to have children at a very young age (14, 15 16, 17...). one of the girls that worked at the school is 17 and she has a baby who will be 1 in the next few months. she is my age, yet we are at such different stages of our lives! it blows me away! to understand it better we asked some of the ladies why so many households were like this and the best way that they could explain it to us was in the way that, since most of them don't have the funds to get married, they simply have a "companero"; that translates to something like "companion" in english. the way i understand it is that they are simply friends; they live together, have children together, but they are just "friends" and the man can come and go as he pleases. but, that brings up something else. another family we met, the mother has, i believe, five or six children and the father, a couple months ago just decided to leave. he still lives in the community and wants to see his children, but his kids do not wish to see him. that got me thinking about another factor into this whole cycle that has been going on for years. with each generation and each family this happens to, why don't the kids see the hurt and pain it causes on both them and their mother as they grow up without a father, and make choices that are different from their parents? i guess they have just fallen so far into this pattern and habit that it is just difficult to break. i also don't understand why it is so acceptable to leave a woman when she is pregnant, but when you are father to five or six children, it is a different story. i mean, yes it is more of a burden to the woman the more children she has to care for, but is that really how they measure right from wrong? based on how many children you are or you aren't responsible for? i don't believe it is. and i also don't believe that i, being so immersed in the American culture, will ever be able to fully comprehend their ways and style of life. and i'm not sure that i should. culture is what makes us different, but being humans is what makes us the same. i don't know how i can explain it in words...it is more of just a feeling i have and perhaps i am the only one. it isn't that i don't want to understand their way of life, it's just that i'm not sure that i have the right to. i would hate to fully understand, yet still be so set in my way of life, almost having the attitude that i'm right and they are wrong. well, obviously i'm not doing any better by typing more, so to sum this subject up i will have to say that no matter how different two people or two cultures are doesn't mean that you can't make friendships. i honestly found it easier in the few short days i was there to create relationships with the people in El Salvador than i find it to make friends with a person i sit next to in class everyday. and i don't even speak the same language as these people. now what is that saying about our culture? i don't mean to sound preachy, but i'm just saying...

anyways, the rest of the day consisted of dinner, the adventures of showering and a very insightful group meeting. dinner was pretty good...tamales. and showering at night, in El Salvador, while the wind is blowing, with buckets of water from a concrete basin and with 4 girls is bound to be interesting. hannah and emilytyne couldn't bring themselves to pour the icy water on themselves, so i had the delightful duty of torching them...or at least that is what i felt like was doing as each time i poured a bucket on their head to rinse the shampoo out they screamed. my method was to just pour it on head as fast as possible and not think too much about it. you really had to be there, but it was quite a fun adventure looking back on it.
in our group meeting we discussed all that we had seen that day and basically what i was rambling about earlier.

i'm sorry this post is so long. i guess i just feel like i wish everyone could experience something like this and this was just my feeble attempt to bring you all some understanding. it truly is an amazing place!
i think i've gone on long enough now. thanks for reading!