Update!

July 14, 2015

Ben and I have been married for three years!!! I cannot believe it has already been three years. In those three years we have lived in two different states and in El Salvador for almost 10 weeks. It has been quite the adventure. Getting to go through life with Ben by my side has been one of the best blessings in my life!

 

Sorry it’s been awhile since we’ve updated. We have been pretty busy the past couple of weeks. Last week there were three groups here from the United States. When groups come, they normally help with construction, passing out food to families in certain communities, or hosting VBS for a community. This past week we got to help pass out food and with VBS. We still attend language school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, so we spend those afternoons helping with the group and on Tuesday/Thursday we spend the whole day working with groups. We have enjoyed this work because it is an opportunity to meet more families in Ahuachapan and hear more stories. While passing out food we normally visit with the family for about 10 minutes. We learn about who lives there, how long they have lived there, if they work, how old everyone is, and anything else they want to tell us. We have heard stories about parents abandoning their children with the grandparents, moms who are hurting because their child is either in prison or in a gang, and a family who had a tree fall on their house (luckily nobody was in the house, or they would have been dead). One of the things that has stuck with me is when we went to what they call a “squatter community.” Basically it’s a plot of privately owned land that people are living on without paying. Most of the houses are built out of cardboard and metal pieces, but when we asked the families if they had any prayer requests, almost everyone asked for prayer for the people in their community, for their safety and health. Everyone was worried for one another and cared about their neighbors. Visiting with families and passing out food is normally when we get to practice our Spanish the most. We (mainly Ben, and I help out when I can) translate for the groups from the US and speak to the families in Spanish. It is a little tricky at times because even though we have had a lot of language school, there are still many words we don’t know. Also, when we visit some communities, the people sometimes use a different vocabulary, kind of similar to slang. However, with the simple questions we ask, we can normally understand everything that is said. The people are normally very open with us and eager to talk to us. We were told when we started that there weren’t any questions off-limits and that unlike Americans, they don’t mind telling you how old they are or personal family issues they are facing.

 

This past Saturday was Emerson’s birthday, the guy that we live with. We were at a birthday party for him and halfway through the party I noticed that Ben had a few red spots on his arm. I yelled, “BEN! Your arms!” A rash is one of the signs of Chikungunya, one of the mosquito diseases here. We started to take a closer look and noticed that he had them on his arms, legs, and all over his chest/stomach/back. We quickly consulted a friend at the party who sympathetically looked at Ben and said, “I’m sorry, man,” which then resulted in everyone at the party coming to look at Ben’s spots. At the time Ben was not convinced that it was Chikungunya because he did not have any other symptoms. However, Sunday morning he woke up with a fever and by the end of the day he had slight joint pain in his wrists and ankles. On Monday, Ben went to the doctor and received a steroid injection to help with the pain and rash. Today he is already feeling much better. We are very thankful that his pain wasn’t too bad and he is already healing. We appreciate your continued prayers for our health and safety! A big prayer request would be that I don’t get Chikungunya now! Ben is the second one in our group to get it and hopefully the last. We only have one and a half weeks left here and it would be terrible to be sick for the last few days.

Special Prayer Request

We have a special prayer request, and don't have much time to post so it will be short. Please pray for extra protection over our health these last 5 weeks. Many people are getting sick either with Chikungunya (one of the diseases from the Mosquitos) or some type of bad stomach bug. Ben and I are lucky and still feel great but two of the other Duke students don't feel well and several of our leaders have the rash and joint pain associated with Chikungunya (transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito). Chikungunya is not a deadly disease and we would recover within a week if we were to get it, but it would take away from our opportunities here and obviously not be very fun. Thanks so much for your prayers for us and the rest of the people here in Ahuachapan!

Here's a fun picture to add something positive to this post! :) We are loving getting to know Caleb and our host family!! 

Pictures!

We are finally able to share some pictures! Wednesdays typically tend to be our easy afternoons so we have some time to relax and come to the mission house to use the wifi.

 

This is our house. They recently had a wall collapse and the construction was completed a few weeks before we arrived. It is a great house! Ben and I have our own bedroom and we all share a bathroom.

This is Caleb. He is our 4 year old brother for the summer. He often entertains us and teaches us what life with a 4 year old would be like. This normally consists of watching the same movies over and over, but in Spanish which is great for helping us learn! He also corrects us sometimes when we speak Spanish which is always funny.

One day we spent the morning in Ataco. It is a small town about 15 minutes away from Ahuachapan. We took this picture at the top of a mountain overlooking the city.

One night Juan, our leader, grilled hamburgers for us at the mission center. It was so fun and a nice taste of home! (We are in charge of dinner for July 4th so stay tuned for pictures of that!)

One afternoon we were able to help an American group that was leading a VBS at a local church. This is the pastor of the church and the rest of the Duke group.

Sounds of El Salvador

Sounds of El Salvador. –Ben

To allow you to imagine what daily life is like a bit more, I’m going to describe sounds that are most common to our daily routines.

Child’s bike horn –You know that really cool bike you had as a kid? Remember how it had that horn with the bulb you squeezed to make a high pitched noise—the one you used to let all your playmates know you were romping through the neighborhood?  We hear those every day, all day.  They’re the universal, Salvadorian call of a bread seller. Sometimes they are in fact on a bike with their giant basket of bread rigged to the handle bars.  Other times, they’re just walking with the bread basket on their head, but they ALWAYS have one of these horns.  Kneed bread? Have a horn.  Need bread? Listen for one.

“¡Siete plátanos por un dólar!” –Seven plantains for one dollar! The number of plantains has ranged anywhere from six to ten since we’ve been here, but the price is always given as a dollar rate.  These sellers are also uniform. They all have a loud speaker / megaphone through which they playback a recording of a deep-voiced man announcing today’s plantain price.

“Coco-ro-co” –Cock-a-doodle-do. (The onomatopoeia is slightly different in Spanish.)  Roosters are around town and they don’t just crow when the sun comes up.  I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I’m starting to think the movie scenes with roosters crowing when the sun comes up are Hollywood lies—that or Salvadorian roosters are blind. 5 am? Right time to crow.  10 am? Definitely. 5 pm? Need to announce the end of the work day. 11 pm? Still perfect timing.  2 am? Always a good time. (Rooster crow count while writing this blog: 5)

Car noises—Sidewalks are not too wide in Ahuachapan, and I think this is true in most Salvadorian cities.  It’s generally true that you can touch the front door of a house with one hand and a passing car with the other. Because of this, we always hear when buses and cars drive by.  Additionally, all of the nicer cars are equipped with extremely sensitive alarms (for good reason, we hear).  It’s not uncommon for a passing car to set off an alarm of another car.  The van that’s generally used to transport our group is this way.  Horns are obviously used frequently as well.

“Quesadillas!” –similar to the bread man, we always hear the quesadilla seller.  However, he generally just uses his voice to advertise.

Various salesmen—Everyday we get about 1 or 2 people (while Hannah and I are home, probably more while we’re gone) who are selling any variety of household goods.  They just walk by the house and talk in the doors.  Our house abuela (grandmother) simply tells them, “No gracias,” and they continue on.  (The exterior doors are generally two parts—some metal bars that can stay shut and a steel sheet that can be opened away from the bars to allow a breeze and sunlight to enter.  The metal bars are akin to a screen door, so they allow for conversation between the inside and outside of the house.)
 

Dog Fights—Almost every family has at least one dog, and there are plenty of strays as well.  Plenty of these show their dominance around the neighborhood.  We haven’t had any problems with them yet, but about every other day we hear what sounds like a new dog’s introduction to the neighborhood.

Spanish – Bet you weren’t expecting that one.

These are some average sounds we hear at home and around town.  It’s noisy, but it keeps us entertained even when we’re just sitting at home.

 

 

 

 

Three Weeks In!

Hola! It’s Hannah again. We have had some difficulty in uploading pictures thanks to lack of compatibility between my iPhone and our Google blog. I found a solution but limited wifi and having to download all 300 pictures from my phone to a Google app is taking a while. We will get pictures up as soon as possible. We have completed two weeks of language school. We have learned so much in just two weeks. While it has been great to learn more Spanish, there are days that we come home from class completely drained and/or frustrated over a difficult topic. We attend class Monday-Friday from 8:00am-12:00pm. We are continuing this schedule for two more weeks. After the four weeks we think we are going to drop down to just three times a week. We have individual tutors which has been great for learning at our own speed. My tutor, Frank, has never traveled to an English speaking country but his English is phenomenal! He has studied English for 5 years at a university. There are times when I teach him some English words because he does not understand what I said. I also teach him some Texas slang like ‘fixin to.’

A few days ago we watched a documentary about immigration. Living in the U.S., it is easy to assume that immigrants want to come to the U.S. for the sole purpose of wanting a better life/to make more money. Since arriving in El Salvador, we have heard many different reasons for why people flee to the U.S. We heard a story about a teenage boy who refused to be in a gang so the gang wanted to kill him. He was forced to leave his country for the safety of his life. There was another story about a teenage girl who refused to marry a gang member. They were threatening to kill her so she had to flee her country. The documentary also talked about when a parent is deported, sometimes the children are not allowed to leave with their parents. This often leaves children in foster care and sometimes they never reunite with their parents. I wish there was an easy solution to solve some of these issues, but I know it is very complicated.

It has been so interesting to hear about the different churches in the area and learn how each church began. We have talked with many pastors and have participated in a few home visits. We are so lucky to be here for 10 weeks and truly get to know the people in Ahauchapan and see some of their struggles first-hand. We thank you for your continued prayers while we are in El Salvador and ask that you join us in praying for rain for El Salvador. It is their wet season but they have not received as much rain as they normally do. Last year they experienced this same issue and many farming families struggled with their crops. (Texas people, send the rain this way, please!) We enjoy when it rains also because it cools it down a little bit! J

Specifics

It’s Hannah! What a crazy couple of days it has been. Saturday was a whirlwind of emotions between watching my baby sister graduate college, saying goodbye to family, and leaving the U.S. for 10 weeks. It has been a great first few days though! Like Ben was saying, everyone here has been very accommodating to us. The amount of food we ate the first few days we were here was crazy.

The mosquitos haven’t been as bad as we thought they were going to be. I thought I would be getting bit 20 times a day and it has only been about 5 times a day. Since mosquitos seem to be more attracted to me than anyone else, I have been applying bug spray like it’s my perfume. We decided that Ben doesn’t get bit as much because he has so much hair on his legs it’s too difficult for the mosquitos to get to his skin. J [Upon further examination, this is false. –Ben]

We have enjoyed our host home very much. I have been very impressed with Ben’s ability to communicate with the family in Spanish. I’m normally more talkative than he is in these types of situations but his Spanish is better than mine so he is doing most of the talking. I told him the first day we were here I don’t think I’ve heard him talk this much in a long time. He is really enjoying learning Spanish and trying to communicate with the family. Our host’s mom is the main person we communicate with during the day. When we don’t understand something she does a great job of acting it out so we understand. She will also act things out for the fun of it. When we told her that Ben used to be shorter than me she stood on her tiptoes and said “Hannah, you,” and pretended to look down at Ben and wave. When you don’t speak the same language you do whatever you can to understand each other. One night Ben was trying to figure out the word for rooster but our host’s mom did not understand. So naturally Ben made the noise and asked what animal made that sound.

While it has been nice to have everything done for us, it is difficult to just sit back while someone else cooks all the meals, washes the dishes, washes the clothes, and takes care of the house. We needed to wash our clothes so we asked our host’s mom to teach us. She told us she would do it but on this particular day we didn’t have much going on so we told her we could help. She seemed hesitant at first, but eventually showed us. They wash all of their laundry by hand. That is hard work. You definitely don’t want to wait a week to wash your cloths when you have to wash them all by hand. We cannot thank our host family enough for all they have done for us, and we have only lived with them for 4 days 8 days!! I’ve attached a few pictures of our house and what we’ve seen in the first few days in Ahauchapan. Language school has started so hopefully my Spanish will be increasing in the next few weeks and I can begin to talk with our host family more!

[Corrections included.  We write blogs when we have time and post them when we have internet. –Ben]

-Ben Faus

El Salvador

This blog will be a bit eclectic and long.  Our host home doesn’t have internet, so we’re at the mission center this morning as we await language classes this afternoon.  Thus, we’re writing as much as we can before lunch.

We arrived in El Salvador Saturday.  When Hannah and I arrived at immigration, there was a large group of American students that walked up behind us. A person from this group walked up to the desk and I noticed the giant “BAYLOR” on their shirt. Then I turned to look at the rest of the group and saw the husband to my advisor at Baylor and member of the church I went to and interned at in Waco. We chatted briefly (between talking with the immigration officer) and then left to meet with our group.  I personally took it as particularly providential.  God provided a sense of comfort through something familiar immediately upon our arrival.

            Our supervisor and a church administrator picked us up and drove us home, and there was a wreck that caused us to reroute, adding about 45 minutes to our drive.  We stayed at the Mission Center from Saturday through Monday.  The other three Duke students moved to their host homes Monday evening, and Hannah and I moved Tuesday afternoon.

We went to a church about 30 minutes away Sunday. They had a special mother’s day celebration after the service, giving mugs to all the moms present.  They also served food: something like a hotdog bun with chicken inside and veggies on the side.  Hannah, another group member, and I all got a little sick Monday, and our supervisor thought it was likely because of that food.  Hannah and I were able to wait it out, but the other group member got it pretty bad and needed some medicine. 

Church was good.  Our supervisor preached, and I actually understood large portions of what he said, but then my brain would get worn out from concentrating and I would zone out for 2-3 minute chunks.  When we were singing it was almost impossible to understand what was being said.  Hannah recognized one song because she picked up the word “luz” (light) and the tune of “At the cross at the cross where I first saw the light…”. Although, we discussed later that we didn’t recall hearing anything that sounded like cross, but perhaps there was a slight change in the lyrics.  It was definitely the tune of that song.

            We took our language school placement tests Monday.  I felt good about the amount of things I remembered, and I continued to feel this way interacting with some of the children who live at the mission center.  However, clearly my language ability (or perhaps the fact that I’m a foreigner) still gets in the way.  We tried to get cellphone minutes at a store close to the school because we finished a bit before we were supposed to, and it didn’t go well. I couldn’t understand the reasoning the store owner gave, but she basically told us she wasn’t able to help us due to the company we’re using for service. There was clearly a sign for our service provider over the store, but the reasoning she gave for not being able to help us was lost due to the speed of her speaking.  Her body-language and tone also seemed to be not too inviting, so my first thought was that we weren’t wanted. Maybe this wasn’t right to think, but it was hard to avoid.  Whatever the case, it was somewhat deflating to have my first experience with a stranger in El Salvador not end how I anticipated.

            Thankfully our host home has been much easier to navigate. They are extremely accommodating: they ask us when we want to eat, what we want to eat, and how we want it cooked.  It’s difficult to convey that we can do whatever they normally do (other than Hannah eating bread) because they just reply that they want to accommodate us.  I think because of this we’ll have to learn to be a bit more decisive about things. Our host is the church administrator. Also in her house are her mom, her aunt & cousin, and her son (who is 4).

            Yesterday (Wednesday) was our first full day at the house, and we didn’t have anything planned, so we spent a lot of time talking with our host’s mother.  She only knows a few words in English, so we had to ask her to explain a number of words, but we were able to navigate conversations in Spanish that consisted of topics such as food, differences between here and the US, what our apartment in the US is like, the fact that Hannah attracts every mosquito alive, the recent completion of their house (and what happened to their old houe), and differences between washing machines/dryers and hand washing clothes.  We also talked about the service of thanksgiving they had at their house on Tuesday night for the completion of the house and how it’s good to share with friends when God gives blessings.

            The people in El Salvador are definitely not short on hospitality.  All of our hosts in the mission center and in our host homes have been very gracious.  When you can hardly speak to anybody, such kindness makes the adjustment to a different culture a bit easier.   We’ll be sure to share stories of this hospitality in the future.