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.
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.
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