The Green Hornet Bites the Dust

On another occasion I will tell you all about the grand celebration we had at school today...but, for now, I'm going to write about the adventure of getting back home from school.  We walked the 25 minute walk down hill and back up again to catch the Green Hornet, as usual...but a little way into the trip we had to stop for engine repairs.

It seems the fuel filter was completely clogged...not surprising considering the massive amount of dust we drive through each day!  They would get it going for a little bit and then it would break down again.

We spent a lot of time at the side of the road.  Sometimes we would walk up a big hill to give the truck a break.

People would stop to help and sometimes there were 4 or 5 guys consulting on the engine at a time. We spent a little time at someone's casa where we were able to buy a little bag of frozen coconut milk for a nickle. You bite off a corner of the plastic bag and work the frozen food out of the bag with your teeth.

Eventually the old truck with the painted-on fake license plates...La Tortuga...came to our rescue.  After towing the Green Hornet up some hills and trying another time to get it going, we left Joaquin at the side of the road...

and La Tortuga delivered us to town.  The whole trip took about four hours and we barely made it back for our 4:15 class.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring???

Beach!

This weekend our friend Steve, who is teaching English in San Salvador for three months for CIS, came to visit us.  He rented a car and drove to Berlin on Friday and we enjoyed a delicious dinner together at Alegria on Friday night.

He spent the night at Casa Mia and in the morning we left for the beach.  We decided to visit El Cuco just over the boundary from the department of Usulutan into the department of San Miguel....about an hour and a half drive down the volcano to the ocean. We looked for a place to stay and found a good place on the second try.  This busy hotel had direct access to the beach, two functioning swimming pools, and a restaurant.  The mirrored headboard and lights that changed color from blue to green to pink to red and to orange in our room, as well as the baby scorpion in Kimberly's room just added a little local color.  The hammocks right outside the door were definitely a plus!

The beach is shared by tourists and fisherman who pull their boat up onto the sand amid the sunbathers.

The beach is also shared by acres of fish drying in the sun on racks of sticks.

We spent about 24 hours eating, playing in the surf, drinking, eating again, sleeping, walking on the beach, and playing in the surf some more. 

Then it was time to drive back up the volcano to the cooler air of Berlin and our last week of teaching.  Thanks to Steve for our mini-vacation to the beach.

Take a Ride in the Green Hornet

How would you like to take a ride in the Green Hornet?  Warren managed to get some video of part of the ride back to Berlin one day this week.  It was the only time that Kimberly has ridden in the cab...because the teacher that usually rides there was gone that day.  That left a little more room at the rail in the front for Warren, Mario, and me.  Usually all four of us are trying to crowd into the only standing positions in the front of the truck bed.  Everyone else has to sit on the wheel well or the edge of the sides...very uncomfortable positions.  Most people let us "gringos" get the prime standing positions but Mario will fight for a prime place of this own...he is a very big guy and I'm sure the riding is much harder on him than on most.

First you have to climb on board.  Sometimes the truck doesn't stop for long and you have to hang on as best you can.  (Not for us, though.  They always give us plenty of time to climb into the truck!)

  Then you just enjoy the ride.  (The bandanas are for filtering out the constant dust.)

Commuting to and from school is an adventure all it's own!

Water

Water is a precious commodity around here.  In the caserio de Munoces where we teach the water may run for a couple hours every 5 to 8 days...and then only to people who are in the lower part of the community...the pump can't get water up the hill to the upper half.  There are no such things as bathrooms...think outhouse...or showers or bathtubs.  Water, if they get any, is collected in a cement basin called a pila.  Most people in Munoces walk a mile down the mountain to a stream to bathe or wash their clothes. 
Things are better in the city of Berlin where we are living.  At the pastoral house we get water for a couple of hours every other morning so we can take an actual shower every other day...and they even have an electrical gadget on the shower head that allows for hot water!!  At least that was true for our first week here.  But....we have received no water since last Wednesday and the rumor is that this may go on for some time.  At first we thought it was caused by some road construction taking place in front of the house...and then we heard that it was caused by a huge water line break and that the whole city is without running water. 

The team has been hauling in water from a nearby community that has it's own water system so our pilas have adequate water.  They brought in an additional barrel of dirtier water for us to use for flushing so we won't go through the water in our pila so quickly.  So we can stay clean...but no more hot showers.  Bucket showers are okay...the first bucket of cold water over the head is the hardest...it gets easier from there.

The big pila outside where we wash our dishes and our clothes was completely empty last night but they have been hauling water today so the pila is now half full and most of the big buckets are full as well. 

Of course, we can't drink any of that water...I don't even use it for my toothbrush or my contact lens.  So we go through lots of bottled water in the house. 

The pastoral team is taking good care of us under difficult circumstances.  All that water they are hauling is HEAVY!  At least they don't have to haul it on their heads or on their shoulders for miles like the people of the caserios.  We don't realize how lucky we are to live where we can take water for granted.

Lazy Sunday

On Sundays we like to attend the Catholic church on the square.  The language and the traditions are different from our own but it seems to connect our life here to our life at home...we are all worshipping at the same time...just in different places and in different ways.

Today there were a large group of children in the front who seemed to have completed some kind of religious instruction.  The priest came down in front and presented his homily by asking the children questions and getting their answers.  There was also a baptism and people brought gifts to the alter in honor of the children. 

It is the beginning of Lent and the liturgical colors are purple.  Even in a poor area like this there are statues and alters at the entrance to the church.

After church it seems that all the people of the area are on the square and in the market.  We enjoy just sitting a bit and watching the people.

There are beautiful views off the side of the volcano into the valley below.  Last year the city built an overlook for tourists to enjoy the view....so we did!

I had to hold on to my hat because the weather has turned windy and cool this weekend.  Tomorrow starts another week and there will be much to do...but today we're having a lazy Sunday.

English in the afternoon

Each afternoon we teach an English class for anyone who wants to come so we never know who might show up and what level of English skills they might have.  The rumor before we started this year was that a lot of people were planning to come...some that are studying English in the university.  Well...we've had from 10 to 15 each day...a few university students but mostly 8-14 year-olds with little or no English study.  Katherine offered to work with any university students but that sort of fizzled so we seem to have settled into a mostly beginner class of kids and few to no adults most days.  About half of the class are returning from last year.

It's a little frustrating because the group seems to vary from day to day so it's difficult to maintain any continuity but they are fun to work with and they seem to be learning a little.  Most days we enter the class feeling tired and leave feeling energized by the group. 

Reunion

Yesterday we took a day off from school so that we could be present at the bi-monthly meeting of representatives of all the caserios around Berlin with the Casa Pastoral.  They started arriving about 8:00 and were served coffee and pan dulces.  Around 9:00 they all gathered in the chapel and the singing began, followed by a worship service. 

Following worship, the new Mission co-worker, Katherine, was introduced and got a round of applause after she spoke.  Her spanish is so good that I'm sure they understood every word.

They also introduced us and Warren spoke for himself in Spanish but I chickened out and had Katherine translate for me.  We brought greetings from all the friends of the Pastoral team in Iowa and were warmly welcomed.  The missionary in El Salvador from the Joining Hands mission of the national Presbyterian Church had also come to the meeting and spoke in her fluent Spanish.  She had brought along a woman...a Presbyterian from Chicago who is teaching English for 3 months at CIS in San Salvador...and a man who spoke for about an hour about the use and development of natural fertilizers and insecticides, as well as about using native seeds.  The representatives of the caserios seemed very interested in the possibilities and he answered many questions. 

Unfortunately, we learned that during the 2 or 3 years that it takes to enrich the land with natural fertilizers nothing can be grown in that land.  The farmers in Munoces do not have enough land to let a portion of it lay unproductive for 2 or 3 years....and often they don't own but rent the land they farm so there is no reason to work at enriching the soil.  They don't have the luxury of trying the natural fertilizers because they would starve without planting all the land they have use of.  At least, we think they may use native seeds which can be replanted each year rather than buying seeds each year.    After a break for cake and fruit juice, we sang more and then exchanged "secret Valentine" gifts with each other. 

(The man in blue at the center of this photo is our friend, Roberto, from Munoces.) 









We had been warned to bring a gift and, sure enough, we had a secret Valentine, too!  Our gift was two of Jane Repp's hats so we have a Valentine gift to bring back for Jane from our new friend in Santa Cruz.

The meeting ended with lunch for all.  The ladies of the team had completed a huge day of work but still had dishes and clean-up to do....and we still had our afternoon class to teach.

Things Happen....

In El Salvador things "happen".  Not everything always goes as planned.  Today we discovered that the truck we've been riding in each day...now known as the "Green Hornet"...was not "La Tortuga" painted green but an entirely different truck!  I thought it rode a little smoother than last year and it hasn't had to have a drink to get up the mountain yet but I thought maybe it had been overhauled while we were gone.  Of course, now that I know, it doesn't look a bit like Tortuga......all little old trucks must look the same to me!  Anyway, this morning when we arrived on the square we found Tortuga, not the Green Hornet, waiting for us because the Hornet is not working...something about a wheel or the suspension. 

So we climbed in Tortuga and started out of town but we got to the edge of town, by the cemetery, and came to a halt.  It seems that Tortuga has no license plates and there was a police check point around the corner so...school had to be canceled for the day. 

Warren, Kimberly and I walked around the cemetery for a while.....

 and then walked back up the hill into town.  We will miss school in Munoces again tomorrow because our presence has been requested at the monthly meeting of representatives of all the caserios here at the Pastoral House. We hope to have a full day of classes on Friday but last Friday classes were cut short for some unknown reason so.....  So far this week we have only had one full day of school! 

Education continues...

Yes...education continues....both for the students and for us!  We continue our daily trips to Munoces....with some interruptions!(see a later post)...and are working with three classes....kindergarten, 1-3 grades, and 4-6 grades.  We have only met with the kindergarten twice...the first time we had 4 students and the second time we had 13.  I think we will just keep thinking of things that will keep them busy and learning...and if they learn some English that will be a bonus.  With only 14 of them and 3 of us we might have a chance.  They are adorable and a delight.

 Grades 4-6 are pretty attentive and are soaking up most everything we throw at them.  We are trying to branch out beyond the conversational phrases we taught them last year with some new verbs and nouns.  Almost all the students were in our class last year and remember an amazing amount on conversation.  We are also introducing the alphabet, dictionary skills and written words this year after trying to stay strictly verbal last year.

The 1st through 3rd grades are proving to be the biggest challenge because of their wide range of maturity and foundational skills.  We are dividing them into grade groups with Kimberly teaching the 1st graders, Linda the 2nd graders, and Warren teaching the 3rd graders.  That is working out pretty well except it's difficult to find a place to teach where another group isn't causing a disruption.  Kimberly ended up teaching in the sun on Monday and nearly fried!  We have little white-boards to carry outside with us under the trees and we're making it work.  Once again, they are adorable but keeping them focused when we have them for an hour and a half is difficult.  The 1-3 and the 4-6 classes alternate with each getting a longer class every other day.  The 4-6 graders can handle it pretty well but that's a long time for 6 year olds!!



Futbol!

Much of this weekend has been spent planning and preparing for our teaching in the coming week.  Yesterday (Saturday) morning we spent a couple hours meeting and again for a couple of hours this afternoon.  Kimberly walked the two blocks from Casa Mia and joined us at the Casa Pastoral for these long discussions of students, teaching philosophy, techniques, and materials.  Sounds pretty boring...and it is...but necessary to feel prepared to work together to accomplish something in the week to come.  Last year we found that the first week was the hardest and that it all seemed to fall more into place as the weeks went on so we shouldn't have to spend this much time in the future.  As for the afternoon class that begins tomorrow, we have heard rumors that many people plan to come...some with university level English skills and others at a beginning level.  The principal at the high school has offered classrooms there if we have too many to work with here.  Of course, we will have to wait and see who comes tomorrow but, should we have too many and too many levels, we plan to divide into beginners and more advanced.  Kimberly doesn't plan to join us for these classes but Katherine has offered to help, particularly with the university students if they come.

But the weekend hasn't been all work and no play.  Yesterday we were invited to walk to the caserio of Alejandria to watch a soccer tournament.  Several of the players on the "Chelsea" team from Alejandria are relatives of the members of the Pastoral Team.  It was about 45 minutes of steeply downhill walking to Alejandria...through the coffee fincas and fording a stream.  My legs and knees felt like I'd been walking down stairs for the whole 45 minutes.  The members of the Pastoral team make this walk once or twice a day! When we arrived we were given some of the few plastic chairs on which to sit and the dogs and the chickens joined us for the games.  One of the chickens attacked my knee thinking that a mole must be a piece of feed!

If you got bored with the game you could always play a game of checkers that someone had cleverly painted on a flat rock with bottle caps to serve as the checkers.

The games were fast-moving and very dusty!

We all had a good laugh when one of the soccer balls got stuck high up in a tree.  Can you find the ball?

Lots of big sticks were thrown high into the tree with no success...but then a solution was found.

If you look carefully you will see a young man high in the tree.  He scampered up with no difficulty and shook the limb until the ball fell down.  No one there had ever seen that happen before!

It was getting late when the games were over so we walked up the hill on the road, arriving at the edge of Berlin just as it was getting dark, so we decided to take a little "moto taxi " the rest of the way up the hill.  Five of us climbed in with the driver and the little engine managed to take us up some very steep hills to the pastoral house.  I've seen those little taxis....basically a motor scooter with a cab around it with two wheels in back...for a few years now around Berlin but this was my first ride and a very welcome one!  A sweet end to a lovely day.

First day of school

Today was our first day of school for 2013 in Munoces.  The students didn't know we were coming and were surprised...and I think happy...to see us. 

They seemed quite eager to talk to us in English and they seemed to remember some of the most basic phrases pretty well.

We began the day with parvulario (kindergarten).  There were supposed to be 14 students but only 4 students were there this morning.  We had not worked with kindergarten last year and we found it very difficult to make the connection with some of the shy ones.  Teaching English when they are just beginning to learn letters and numbers in Spanish may be a problem but they are adorable and we'll enjoy just spending time with them.  At one point 3 of the 4 students got up and ran out of the classroom.  I guess one of them had to go to the bathroom so they all just left!  I've heard that teachers don't grow old....they just loose their class!...now I know!

After a short recess we plunged into the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classroom.  This year the students stay in the same room and the teachers rotate.  There are 26 students in these 3 grades and they are housed in a crowded classroom.  The abilities and maturity vary greatly from a 13 year old boy in 3rd grade to 5 year old 1st graders.  We reviewed some things from last year and tried to assess what they remembered and what they had forgotten. I'm afraid there's much more forgotten than remembered!  All three of us took turns reviewing and teaching different things and then we broke into 3 groups to practice.  We mixed the grades so that some of the older students could demonstrate and help with the younger students.  The small groups met with "mixed" success...too much chaos and noise in the room, a child eating paper ended up with red all around his mouth, paper was being thrown in one group...but amid the distractions some good practice occurred with older students helping younger.  Our teaching is certainly a work in progress.  This year the teachers are busy teaching their own classes so we are on our own and sometimes our limited Spanish makes communication and discipline difficult. 

Then, much to our surprise, the day ended early.  We're not sure if that is true every Friday or if there was a special reason but we were ready to call it a day.  It had already been a long day...beginning at 5 AM, the hour and a half commute to school, and the challenges of teaching in a foreign language had all taken their toll.  After another hour and a half commute back to Berlin we had the opportunity to Skype this afternoon with Doug Smith's 6th grade class in Newton and answer their questions as well as listen to them practice their Spanish with us.  Unfortunately, it looks like it may not be possible to Skype between the school in Munoces and Doug's class in Newton.  The teachers in Munoces report that they do have Internet but it is very slow and unreliable and will probably not support a Skype connection. 

Next Monday we will do it again with a full day in Munoces after which we will begin our afternoon class at the Casa Pastoral.  If how tired we are tonight is any indication, it could be a loooong three weeks!

P.S.  The reason we have no pictures of Kimberly today is that she was busy taking the pictures you see and I have used them with her permission.  Warren and I will try to take some pictures in the future so that you can see Kimberly at work, as well.

Visitation Day

Today we had the luxury of time to walk around the community and visit some of the friends we have met in previous years.  We began by attempting to see the Munoces teachers early in the morning before they boarded the truck for the commute to Munoces.  We found that the truck leaves 15 minutes before it did last year so we just missed them but one of the El Tablon teachers called them and they came back!  We felt badly that they returned just to talk to us but it gave us a chance to arrange a meeting after school this afternoon.  We went back to the Casa Pastoral for breakfast and later wandered around the market and visited with people we have come to know in Berlin.  We also promoted our afternoon English class that begins on Monday. 

After lunch we picked up Kimberly and met the teachers on the square for a meeting to plan our teaching in the coming weeks.

 Yanira and Mario have 60 students this year in grades kindergarten through 6th grade...14 in kindergarten!  So they have had to reorganize their day to accommodate all those students.  We worked out a plan that will give us lots of time with the students...maybe too much in the case of all those kindergartners!...and will give them a better chance to work with the other classes, as well. They seemed very happy to have us come and asked if we could begin tomorrow instead of Monday so we will be waiting for the truck at 6:30 AM on the square. Now it begins......

Taking a wrong turn

We've taken a few wrong turns on our trip to El Salvador.  After a flurry of preparation and building excitement we arrived at the Des Moines airport with high expectations.  After checking in and clearing security...Warren had to nearly strip after forgetting to empty his pockets and leaving a pen in his shirt  pocket...we settled in to await our flight to Dallas.  We saw the plane arrive but it took a circuitous route to the gate because it could only turn left!  After an exhaustive examination it was determined that the repair was major and the flight was cancelled.  Of course, by then we had lost any hope of making a connection to any flight to El Salvador that day. 

In this photo we are watching the sunset....still in the Des Moines airport!!

We were rerouted through Dallas to Miami, arriving at a hotel about 1:30 AM eastern time. We enjoyed about 5 1/2 hours of sleep and were ready for an uneventful flight to San Salvador....but...after boarding the plane we noticed that there were about 5 people conferring in the cockpit well past the departure time.  We thought we might be about to take another wrong turn but the issue must have been resolved and we departed only a little late.
 
It is amazingly like coming "home" this time.  The airport is familiar, the customs procedure an little less onerous, and the driver is an old friend. 

The airport is near the ocean and we drove along the flat land looking toward the volcanoes into which we would soon ascend.  We arrived a little after 5, dropped Kimberly at Casa Mia...where she was welcomed like a celebrity!...and continued to Casa Pastoral for a warm welcome.  There is a man from Heartland Presbyterian here...Brad... and he and Katherine have been busy visiting the cantones and seeing some of the sites from the war.  We've enjoyed a good visit with them this evening. Tomorrow we hope to rise early and connect with Yaneria, Ricardo, and Joaquin as they leave for school...but now we are looking forward to a good night's sleep. 

Teaching Spanish

One of the dreams we have for this trip is to make a connection between some young people in Newton and the school children of Munoces.  To that end we have partnered with Doug Smith, a sixth grade teacher at Aurora Heights School and a veteran of several trips to El Salvador.  Doug shares the dream to connect his students with the youngsters of Munoces because he realizes the potential for growth and awareness that such a connection would create.  Of course, one of the major barriers to the connection is language so, just as we will attempt to teach a little English to the students in Munoces, we have been attempting to teach a little Spanish to the sixth graders in Doug's homeroom.  With the blessing of the administrator, we have used four days of language arts time to teach a little about the village of Munoces and some basic Spanish phrases that could be used to greet their peers in Munoces. 

Of course, four hours is not enough time to accomplish much but the students participated with enthusiasm and many of them were ready to tape a greeting in Spanish for us to take to the students in Munoces next week.  It has been fun to work with them and see how quickly they can pick up some of the phrases.  Two of the students came from households where Spanish is spoken at home and they were a great help to us.  It was much easier giving instructions in English but it seemed a little silly for me to be teaching Spanish when I speak it so poorly myself!  In El Salvador I am an expert in the language I am teaching but I stumble with the instructions that must be given in Spanish.
Warren is preparing a video program of the classroom and students at Aurora Heights that we plan to show the Munoces students and we will bring back video from Munoces to show to the students in Doug's classroom when we return.  We also dream of making a Skype connection between the two classrooms but first we need to find out if the Munoces school has gotten internet capabilities.  They had electricity and five computers for the first time when we taught there last year and we think they might have gotten an internet connection through the same NGOs (non-governmental organizations) but we're not sure. 
Now it's time to begin the lists and packing.  And among the treasures we will be taking with us are the best wishes of some eleven and twelve year-olds at Aurora Heights School.  Thanks Doug and students!