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