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.