Evaluation

We are down to one last day of teaching tomorrow and a slide show and certificate presentation planned for Friday. We are in the midst of our own evaluation of what we thought went well and what we would change
were we to ever do this again. And today we had the opportunity over a "thank you" lunch to hear more from the teachers about the pros and cons of our teaching. Kathy joined us to facilitate the communication and we enjoyed good conversation and good food at our favorite little cafe on the square upon our return to Berlin.
The tacos with nice fresh salsa were delicious. Unlike our tacos, they were mostly roast beef wrapped in flour tortillas. Now time will tell whether or not the fresh salsa was a mistake. We've made it 5 hours now so that is a good sign. When uncooked veggies are washed in less than "pure" water it can be a problem and we usually avoid this on the street, but it was just too good to pass up! Perhaps you really don't want to know about the "outcome"!

Yanira and Ricardo were mostly kind in their comments but we all agreed that we wish we had started with grade level groups instead of the large group approach. This week we have done grade level groups for two days and we enjoyed the smaller groups. Ricardo and Yanira would have enjoyed having a grade level out of their classrooms for a time each day so they could better work with the remaining students. Yanira is trying to teach K - 2 in one room and Ricardo is teaching 3-6 in the other room...a little like a one room (or in this case, two room) school house. It has been a steep learning curve for both the students and for us!

You've got questions? I've got answers!

This post will try to answer some of the questions I've received.

Is it too noisy to sleep? Actually, it quiets down some at night. We close our door and run a fan (white noise) and we don't hear much. A cat fight right outside our window or a sink crashing to the floor will wake us up but not much more. What keeps Warren awake at night is all the creativity going on in his brain...plans for our teaching...the slide show he's creating for the last day of school...a song about La Tortuga...etc.

How's your knee and your head, Linda? As some of you know I was having difficulty with my left knee before I left and took a series of 3 shots to try to improve the pain. So far I'm getting along just fine...a little soreness now and then but nothing I can't live with. The sore on my head that was discovered right before I left is still there...probably not as inflamed as before but not going away. I have an appointment just days after I return to look into this situation. Meanwhile, I put antibiotic cream on it to try to keep it from getting infected in this dirty environment. Unfortunately, the cream just makes the dirt stick more!

How's the teaching going? Well, we're in our final three days of teaching and we think it's going pretty well. We're learning a lot and getting better at what we're doing and the kids are picking up a lot, too. We're not spending hours every day trying to prepare for the next day any more but still have a plan going into each session. The last two days we have met with individual grade groups and have enjoyed the smaller groups. We are working very well together and I don't know how we could have done it without each other. The last day (Friday) we will have a slide show of photos we've taken of the kids and will hand out certificates. The class here at the Casa Pastoral will end on Thursday. We reached a high of 18 students last week but this week is a smaller group. We've abandoned Pimsleur because it was just too challenging for younger students. Our afternoon class has mostly teens and just a few adults. I'm sure it will be with mixed emotions that we terminate classes at the end of the week.

What are you eating? We eat most meals at the Casa Pastoral where someone on the team cooks. We eat a lot of tortillas and beans, pupusas, and fresh cheese and eggs. In the morning someone makes us sandwiches for our breakfast and a snack during the morning...bean sandwiches, or bean and banana, or cheese are most common. Last night Kathy made spahgetti and last week she made pizza so sometimes there's a break from tortillas. We're enjoying the food and I'm afraid we're probably not loosing weight.

Did the sink work the next time the water was turned on? Yes! We now have a functioning sink and there was not a second flood. Tomorrow the water will be running and we can enjoy a shower!

Correction: Kathy thinks we must have misunderstood the teacher pay. Rather than $125/month it is probably closer to $400/month. Any takers yet??

An Interesting Day

Rural electrification has come to this area with new power poles and electrical lines dotting the countryside. Many of the lines hang very low and we've been told of two people recently killed and several injured when someone riding in the back of a truck reached up to push the line out of the way. This morning on the way to school we saw a large bus caught on a low-hanging line. The bus driver was reaching out his window trying to move the electrical line up and over the bus! Very scary!!
Then we discovered that Ricardo wasn't coming to school today and we were to teach in his place! We were set up in the unused classroom and we called the students in grade by grade. Ricardo has 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades in his classroom. We worked with each grade about 40 minutes and they just played outside when not with us. It actually worked out very well and we enjoyed the smaller groups. This is our final week of teaching and each student is preparing a little biography in English to present at the end of the week. After we finished with the day's teaching it became "shoe day" at Munoces school. First Yanira distributed free shoes that had been sent from an NGO in the US. They didn't fit very well but the students seemed eager to receive them. The shoes that were too small for any students in the school were distributed for little brothers and sisters at home.
Is this your size??

Just as the canvas shoes had been distributed, a couple arrived with two large duffle bags of official school shoes that are provided by the government. They were not there to distribute the shoes but to try them on to get the correct size. The students waited patiently for their turn to try on the shoes and the sizes were duely noted. I'm not sure when the new shoes will arrive.

Then, for one more change in the day, La Tortuga went a different way home so that Yanira could pick up a couple of bunches of ganaos she had ordered. Gregorio put them in the truck as we went through Munoces.

As usual we enjoyed the company of others on the way home. This little cutie caught Warren's eye!....maybe BOTH little cuties!

La Tortuga

Each morning we head out for Munoces in an ancient (1978, I think)Toyota pick-up Warren has named "La Tortuga". We leave from a corner of the square about 6:45 AM and are dropped off a little less than an hour later for the 20/25 minute walk to Munoces school. Joaquin, the owner and driver, is a teacher at another community on down the road. Yanira and another woman who teaches with Joaquin ride in the cab and Ricardo, Warren, and I climb up into the back.

It's not a pretty picture! We put our backpacks in plastic bags to protect them a little from all the dust and I tie a bandana over my head in an attempt to stay just a little clean....in doesn't work.

We are always joined by other folks along the way. Our record so far is 15 plus 3 large sacks of beans or something. We prefer to ride standing up but most of the passengers just perch on the side. How they keep from falling out as we bump along is a miracle. There's a 90 year old man that joins us sometimes and a dog that trots along after the truck for miles when his owner is riding. Joaquin put in a plank seat so we could sit but it's too hard on my bottom to sit. Most pick-ups that haul people around here have railings all around to hang on to but not Tortuga! You just get in and hang on to whatever you can! Saturday we rode in the back of the Casa Pastoral's pick-up and discovered how much shock absorbers can help. We suspect La Tortuga has no shock absorbers at all! I know she has no gauges because I rode in the cab one day and there's nothing but holes where the speedometer, gas guage, etc. should be....plenty of holes in the floor, too. The ladies that ride in the cab have to cover up for dust just like us in the back...it comes in through the floor!

Lots of things can stir up the dust along the road...other trucks, most much larger than ours, and herds of cattle moved along by cowboys are the most common source of dust squalls.

Sometime on every trip we have to stop to give Tortuga water and we carry several large jugs to quench her thirst. Ricardo often glugs down some of Tortuga's water when we meet her at the end of a long, dusty walk back to the truck at the end of the day. One time we had to stop to tighten the lug nuts!

La Tortuga may be the oldest truck in this area of nothing but old trucks but she's been reliable and we've grown most fond of her.

Dedication

Today we had the pleasure of attending a dedication mass at the new large church in El Tablon. The caserio of Munoces is within the canton of El Tablon and there were many people at the dedication from Munoces. Long-time members of First Presbyterian in Newton will remember El Tablon as the first canton that we had a connection with through Bob Cook in the 1990's. Do you remember the treddle sewing machines we sent?? I saw a few of those today in the sewing center where we had lunch. Anyway, these days El Tablon is in a partnership with Heartland Presbyterian. Largely through a gift from some organization in Germany they have been able to build a new large, beautiful church.

Because Casa Pastoral has been involved in the community for many years and has helped pave the way to this day, we were all invited to the mass of dedication. The mass was led by all 3 priests from Berlin, as well as the bishop of this area. The community, led by the priests, gathered a couple "blocks" away and processed into the church singing.

The church was decorated with lots of flowers, balloons, and signs. The mass was very formal and reminded me of watching Christmas Eve mass at St. Peters in Rome on TV.

Our best guess is that there were about 200 people in attendence and they could really raise the rafters when singing songs they all knew.

Bob Cook happened to be in Berlin and attended with us. He saw lots of old friends from the last 20 years of connection in El Tablon, including the bishop who had helped him years ago to remain in El Salvador, doing his work with the poor.

Following the mass we were served lunch in an area for special guests where we could sit down. All the people were served the same generous meal but they had to take theirs home or eat standing up. It was quite an exciting day for the community and we were honored to be a part of it.

Politics!

You might think that we are getting a vacation from politics while we're down here but you'd be wrong. The election of mayors and legislators will be held on March 11 and the campaigning is in full swing. These are some pictures of a major parade and rally a while back. Trucks roam the streets and countryside day and night blasting campaign info to all. The telephone poles are all painted with campaign colors and messages.

It's a little like one long, constant homecoming parade with the truck loads of people chanting and blowing horns. Even the animals get in the act.

There are probably four viable political parties active in this area. We, of course, are not political and stay completely neutral but in the privacy of the garage Warren tried on some political garb he was given. Posing with him are two members of the pastoral team...Blanca and Jesus.

After the parade there was a huge rally near the park with massive loud speakers and lots of music and speeches. We hear that the free street dance lasted until 4 AM!

Life in the Market

The market is a fascinating place to spend some time. There are colorful fruits and veggies, clothes and shoes of all types and sizes, an array of plastic items, school supplies, wiggling crabs and dried fish....anything and everything you can imagine.
The smells of delicious foods mingle with the fish odors and the garbage and sewage smells.

Loud music is blaring on every corner and this time of year there are trucks loaded with speakers blasting political campaign messages roaming the streets. In the meat market there are more dogs than people, hoping for a morsel to drop to the floor. Everyone seems to be an entrepreneur in El Salvador. The vendors are two and three deep along the streets and sidewalks.

You might find a strolling minstral who will play you an impassioned song for a handful of change.

It might all look very festive and fun.....but you don't want to look too carefully. You might see poverty and despair that will break your heart.

This and That

A Sad Event

We received word this week of the death of a dear friend of Kimberly Schnell's whom she had gotten to know during several years of coming to Berlin...on delegations, teaching English, and helping in a physical therapy clinic. The latter is where Kimberly met Ana and, sadly, it was the location of a rosary being said for Ana on Sunday night. Ana was twenty-five and crippled by arthritis which left her in a wheel chair. She contracted pneumonia and died last week. We learned of the rosary from a colleague in a tienda in the market and were able to attend on Sunday night. We brought sympathies on behalf of Kimberly to the family and they allowed us to take a picture of the alter that had been set up for the rosary. Our sympathies to Ana's family and her special friend from Iowa, Kimberly Schnell.

The Bathroom

Because the water only runs for a few hours every other day, every bathroom is equipped with a pila...a large vat for the storage of water. This water is used for washing and flushing the toilet. The sewage system cannot handle toilet paper so all toilet paper goes into a small wastebasket next to the toilet. Last weekend the sink fell off the wall twice..once with Warren and once with me. We were able to catch it and put it back on the wall. But....while I was (thankfully) in the shower the sink fell again and this time crashed to the floor and shattered! As of Monday there is a lovely new sink in it's place. Unfortunately, when the water isn't running there is no way to test the new connections to make sure they are not leaking so.......at 2:30 this morning we noticed that we "splashed" when we walked into the bathroom. We got the whole household up to turn off the water out in the street to stop the flood. We hope it is now repaired....we'll find out the next time the water is running!

Learning the Computer!

Yesterday we found out that the school day would be shortened for a meeting at the school about 10:30. The school has been given a solar electrical system, 5 computers, a refrigerator, and a copier by the European Union and some Salvadoran NGO's (non-governmental organizations). A representative of the organizations was there to instruct a few of the older children as well as representatives of the community. It was the first time most had used a computer! They placed an adult at each computer with two students and they went through an exercise of opening and writing a document and then saving it. It brought back memories of teacher inservices in the 80's when we were introduced to computers! What fun to see the adults and students working hard together.

Luis Ernesto Cruz gets a computer lesson with the help of Marlene and Gerson.

The instructor checks in on each table.

Teaching

Our first class of the morning is with the little folks...1st through 3rd grade. We nearly "dance"as we teach to keep them engaged. We learned our first lesson when we tried to make name plates for their desks the first day and discovered that most cannot print their name without help from the teacher. They do a good job of listening and repeating but making connections between the spanish and the english is much harder. They are lively, enthusiastic and great fun to work with.

The second class in Munoces is with the upper elementary...4th through 6th grades. There is a great difference between the abilities in this classroom. Some are soaking up English as fast as we can present it and others take a lot longer. We try to find a balance and are constantly revising our plans as we go along. We tried a dictionary exercise and discovered that some in this room hardly read. At least they discovered that Spanish is in the front of their dictionary and English in the back so the time wasn't completely wasted. The range in age from about 10 to 16. It's not unusual for students to still be in elementary school in their mid-teens...for whatever reason. They work hard, show us respect, and always do their very best.

After the 4 hour school day we make the 20-25 minute walk back to the old truck for the hour ride back to Berlin. Some days the truck is waiting for us and other days we wait for the truck. I don my lovely bandana to try to keep some of the dirt out of my hair and to keep the sore on my head clean.

After an hour or two of rest we teach our final class of the day at the Casa Pastoral in Berlin. This class was open to any and all comers. We began the week with 2 students, went to 3 the second day, then to 7, and we ended the week with two days of 12 students....not the same 12 each day, though. This is the one class with which we are using Pimsleur ESL. We suppliment with about a half hour of conversational skills and review of terms used in the Pimsleur lessons. Our students range in age from about 10 to about 35. They have been really fun to work with and several have not missed a day!

We are always ready for an early bed so we can get up and do it all again the next day!

Food For Thought

Yesterday we were teaching the students the stem..."I like" and they were to contribute 3 things that they like to do. The list was varied and several things were mentioned often....soccer, sleeping, going to school, eating....but the most frequently mentioned favorite thing to do was....wait for it.....bathing! Being clean is a rare and special treat. There is little water and the dust is inches thick on the ground and yet they appear clean and in clean clothes. The clean appearence is probably the result of what we might call a "spit bath" but a real bath or shower is a treat. I can identify! When we get home after a total of 3 hours of travel time either walking or in the back of the pick-up on hot, dusty roads, I would love to have a shower. Unfortunately, the water only runs every other day and only in the morning. Those showers every other morning are a real treat for us and that's much more than the people of Muncoes get. Something to think about when you take your next shower or bath.

A few pictures

Here we are with the students from the little school in Munoces. They represent kindergarten through 6th grade.
The primary teacher, Yanera, and the upper elementary teacher, Ricardo, are posed with the students outside the school. The small building in the back is a basic kitchen area and you can see the outhouses farther back.

First thing in the morning the students get busy sweeping and mopping the classrooms and outside areas, including the play areas. They throw water on the concrete to keep the dust down.

There are beautiful views on the way to and from school each day. This is a nearby volcano...we don't know the name. We ride about 1 hour in the back of an ancient Toyota pick-up that Warren has named "La Tortuga", the turtle in spanish. Then, most days we walk 20 minutes from the main road to the school. The walk is 97% steeply down and steeply up.

Ricardo is a big guy and the walk is very difficult for him. Both Yanera and Ricardo are very good teachers and they have helped us a lot. In my hand you can see the green plastic bag I put my backpack in to protect it from the dust and a little of the colorful bandana I put over my head to protect my hair. Animals and other trucks stir up lots of dust so you often have to cover your mouth and nose to be able to breathe. Travel time each day for Warren and I is about 1 1/2 hours each way from the time we leave the Casa Pastoral until we get to the school and same for the return. Travel time for the teachers is even longer because neither lives in Berlin and has to travel to Berlin to catch the truck at 6:45. All this for about $125 per month! Any volunteers??

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is happy for us for several reasons. We left a gift of candy at the house for all the team and returned to find gifts of candy for us as well. We also gave gifts of red licorice to our students in Munoces this morning to help teach the color red and the phrase "Thank You". We are thinking of all our friends and family today and wishing you all a very happy day.

We now have a couple of days of teaching under our belts and we have both successes and failures to report. First the basics....Each day we go out to the little village of Munoces with the teachers in the back of an ancient pick-up truck. It is a long, bumpy hour of travel with a 20 minute walk from the road to the school at the end. By the time we get to school we are covered with dust, only to be greeted by students in blindingly white shirts and navy pants or skirts. How they appear so clean when they live in dust and have little water is beyond our ability to understand. We have been invited to teach in both the classrooms at the little school in Munoces. Both the teachers and all the students have been very welcoming. We have gone into both days with lesson plans and have found that we need to adjust on the fly. This isn't surprising, of course, but it is more difficult to adjust with our limited Spanish. And "team teaching" requires that we work together flawlessly....when one "hits a wall" (so to speak) the other jumps in to try a different way. We think we were expecting too much of the younger students and are adjusting our lessons accordingly. The older class is really soaking it all up with great enthusiasm and we're having a good time. They keep us busy just trying to keep up with them. Pronunciation is one of the biggest problems. Just as rolling R's at the beginning of words is a problem for us, t's and y's and m's and n's are difficult to say for a spanish speaker. Their teacher is excited about the opportunity, too, and is enjoying learning correct pronunciation to words he knows but can't really say correctly. We had hoped to offer classes to those "middle school" students who don't go to school until the afternoon in El Tablon or to interested adults in the community but so far that hasn't developed. We don't know if it's a lack of interest or a failure of communication. Anyway, it has been a challege and a reward. If it's possible to hold both at the same time, we are both dreading and looking forward to a whole 3 weeks of this!

Remember that we walked around Berlin several times this weekend and encouraged people to come to our English class here at Casa Pastoral in the afternoons? Well, we had our first class yesterday and 2 people showed up! They were 2 bright, enthusiastic 15 year olds and we had great fun working with them. Today they returned and brought a friend so we now have 3 bright 15 year olds to work with in the afternoon....great fun.

So now as we get ready for an early night (5 AM comes mighty early!) we are sending our love and good wishes your way. Happy Valentine's Day.

Savoring the Culture

With the free time prior to beginning our teaching we've been enjoying soaking up life around Berlin. Each day we've wandered the market, enjoyed a sit in the park, and last night we saw a big political parade and festival in the square. The parade organized near the Casa Pastoral so we could watch from the front of the house. There were horses, many trucks filled with people, loud-speakers spewing music and speeches, balloon covered cars, candidates glad-handing, and lots of those horns that caused so much controversy at the world soccor tournament recently. It was loud!! Afterwards the square was filled with people, flags, chanting, singing, and speeches. There was a stage set up with more huge speakers than I've seen in one place before. The word is that the dance lasted until 4 in the morning but, of course, we were back at the Casa before dark.

This morning the square was all cleaned up although there were still plenty of banners and flags to be seen. We attended mass at the church this morning and, although we couldn't understand much of what was being said, we did enjoy the music, including the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Blowin in the Wind...different words! After church we visited Hydei at the pupusaria and sang a song that she had taught Warren yesterday. She gathered a crowd to listen and we recieved thunderous applause! This afternoon we continue to prepare for our debut as English teachers tomorrow. Wish us well......

Berlin!

First I want to apologize for being so late in posting since our arrival. At our first location we had no time to learn how to connect to the internet in our host home. I wrote the previous post while there and have been trying to get it online since we arrived at Casa Pastoral in Berlin yesterday evening. Our computer does not want to connect to the internet here so I've borrowed Kathy's spare computer to work today. Also, the previous post got all scrambled up when I tried to transfer it from my word document so it may look a little funny in spots!

Back to our activities.... We enjoyed a bus ride into downtown San Salvador yesterday morning to leave some broken watches for Warren's favorite repairman to work on. We wandered the mercado central a bit and scoped out possible products for our next Christmas bazaar at First Pres. We ate lunch at Tienda Terre near our host home. We enjoyed some conversation with the PHD student staying at the house while we awaited our ride up to Berlin. Kathy came about 2:30 with several members of the Pastoral Team and we made the 2 1/2 hour trip up to Berlin. Bob Cook is visiting at the moment so there were 4 for dinner. We tried to connect to the internet after dinner but our computer wouldn't cooperate. It was an early night for us all. Kathy and the team had just finished the Heartland delegation so they were tired, Bob is not feeling well, and we were travel-weary. We are staying in a room near the dining and kitchen area and we have room to spread out a little. We slept well in spite of roosters crowing loudly at all hours. El Salvador is a very noisy place! In the city it is the loud busses constantly going by and in Berlin it is roosters, dog fights, noisy vehicles, and, right now, political broadcasts and parades....quite a change from the quiet of 314 W. 14th St.!

This morning we were up at 5:30 and went to visit with the teachers as they awaited the truck to Munoces. We had a pleasant reunion with Yerina, the teacher we've know from past visits and were able to meet Mauricio, whom we'd not met before. The truck looked very small and I'm wondering how we will fit on Monday! After the truck left about 6:45AM we took a little walk around town before breakfast. Later on we took a long walk around town and invited many people to come to the English classes we will teach here at the Casa Pastoral beginning on Monday. We stopped at the police station, several farmacias, city hall, and visited with many small business people. We were always welcomed warmly...now we'll see if any of them show up to class! This afternoon we've borrowed this computer from Kathy and are working at cacthing up with all you at home. Over the weekend we hope to work on our lesson plans and prepare for our first day of classes! We'll keep you posted......

PS If you are a Google Earth fan, Warren wanted me to share the coordinates for both our host home in San Salvador and for the Casa Pastoral in Berlin in case you want to see the on Google earth.

San Salvador host home: N13 43.026 W089 13.046

Casa Pastoral in Berlin: N 13 26.966 W088 31.683

Day One

Trying new foods with Anna Doris at Esther's home...our first host home.

Reunion with Go.

Dinner with Monsey, Ricardo, and Diego at Pollo Comparo.

Visiting the biligual school.

We have had a whirlwind 36 hours in San Salvador and already my mind and body are exhausted! Our flights down went very smoothly…everything on time, not too many bumps, and security checks minimal.In San Salvador you have to push a button and you either get the green light or the red light. If you get the red light you have to go to the side and have your bags searched. I have only gotten the red light once and it was okay but I’m always a little
relieved when the green light appears. Our taxi driver was friendly and he and Warren managed to chat all the way (45 minutes) into San Salvador and found our house pretty directly so we
were meeting our host family by 9 o’clock. We visited until about 10 and then went to our room. We have a very small room with another small room attached. The second small room is
only occupied on weekends so we have the whole space to ourselves. We share a bathroom with a college woman (daughter of the hostess) and a man from Maryland who is
working on his dissertation here and also rents a room upstairs. The hostess is the director of a program which is searching for and attempting reunions with children who “disappeared”
during the war. Those children are now in their 20’s and 30’s and have sometimes been sold to families all over the world. It is tough, sad, and rewarding work. Although it is quiet in the house it was difficult to sleep because we were keyed up from the traveling. In the morning we packed our daypacks for a day of visiting. We managed to visit Carlos and Yolanda, Warren’s Salvadoran family, as well as the bilingual school and our friend Carolina at Hotel Oasis. The director of the school insisted on taking us for lunch so we had a good visit over Chinese food in a lovely backyard patio of a nearby restaurant. In the evening we were picked up by Salvadoran friends, Monsy and Ricardo, and their son Diago (1st grade and knows some English!) who once lived temporarily in Cedar Rapids. They are neighbors to Carlos and Yolanda and we have met Ricardo’s mother and brother who live in Cedar Rapids. They took us to a big Pollo Comparo (El Salvador’s favorite fried chicken place) for dinner and afterwards we stopped at Carlos and Yolanda’s for a brief visit with Go, a Japanese man who stays there. Go and Warren became friends during Warren’s visit in San Salvador last year. Everywhere we went we were greeted by friends and Warren even was greeted warmly by someone he knew that just happened to see us at Pollo Comparo. It’s a little like being with a celebrity! Warren’s favorite begger, Roxanne, was reported by the local pupusa lady to have gotten work at the church and was starting to put on weight! Damien II, the eldest son on Carolina and Damien, stopped in to Hotel Oasis while we were there. We hadn’t seen him since he was a child and now he is a college student, an artist, and completely fluent in English. It is a delight to see positive changes for this war-torn country. Everyone reports that things are improving in some ways but staying sadly the same in others. The poor continue to have little hope and the war has left many sad and angry but life goes on and some are able to slowly make things better for themselves. Now, after a good night’s sleep we are getting ready to head off for a day in the city. Kathy called yesterday afternoon and is planning to take us to Berlin today instead of tomorrow so this will be our last day in the city for several weeks. I have to end this to get ready for the day. It feels a little like we’ve been here for a long time already. It is tiring to be constantly trying to listen and understand in a foreign language. By this evening we will be settled in at Berlin and getting ready to fall into a routine of teaching each day. Adios.

Two Days and Counting!

Do you ever feel as though all the stars and constellations are lining up against you or, as a friend told me, that God is trying to tell you something? As we enter these last few days of preparation we sometime have those moments of discouragement. Although most things necessary for a successful departure are in place there have been a few wrinkles in the road to give us pause. The refrigerator, which we thought we had all fixed, has quit working temporarily twice in the last three days. So we dash madly to the downstairs freezer with the ice cream dripping, wipe out the inside, and it starts to work again. Thank goodness we haven't recycled the avocado green refrigerator in the basement as we plan to unplug the "new" one to avoid accidents while we're gone and use the trustworthy old green GE to store things. And while the painful knee that had me worried that I might not be able to make the trip continues to do well, I have now discovered that I have a sore on the top of my head that may - or may not - be skin cancer. A two week treatment with antibiotics will be the first test of the lesion with possible further treatment to follow. And to round out the three worries - things always come in threes, right? - we have found out that two of the possibly four classes we will be teaching each day will be filled with elementary children. Whereas there is great joy to be had in teaching children, the Pimsleur method we had hoped to use is probably not appropriate with that age group so we are busily creating elementary lesson plans.

Much of our preparation has gone smoothly...even miraculously. A friend in San Salvador has found a reasonably priced place for us to stay our first few days in the country and this morning in church we were commissioned and sent out with prayers. So with the good wishes of friends and prayers of support we go hopefully on our way...knowing the positive will far outweigh the challenging and we will grow and learn from all our adventures. Our next post should be from El Salvador!