first day of praxis adventures

so yesterday was our first day at our praxis sites and it was great. my site, as i mentioned briefly before, is called San Ramon and there are basically 3 parts. The first is helping out at a day care/after school program. i´m there from about 8 to noon and i´m with the class called materno 1 which is basically all the 1 year olds...crazyyy. but awesome. i´m looking into investing a smock of some sort to wear while im there because i dont think ive ever had so much bodily fluids on me at once. snot, spit, pee, regurgitated food, and everything inbetween...all out of love though im sure, haha. they were great, a little apprehensive at first (i am quite a bit taller, not to mention blonde hair and blue eyes...i probably look like some kind of crazy white monster) but they warmed up to me pretty fast. there was one little boy who i think has some separation anxiety but he was basically attached to my hip the second he saw me. every once in a while he would venture off with the other little chickadees but one little thing would set him off and he´d come screaming back to me, haha. if i wasnt holding him, he was holding my hand...or finger...hes pretty tiny. so adorable though.

then the second part of my site is with a co-op/church community in this woman named Anita´s house. the co-op has beautiful things, shirts, skirts, headwraps, jewelry, and a whole bunch of other super crafty stuff...basically, its super dangerous for my bank account, ha. the church community is full of strong women so it will be amazing to hear their stories and learn from them. they were a part of the catholic church that is nearby but after the war, they got a priest that was ultra conservative and wanted to go back to pre-vatican II and after months of trying to talk with him and work it out, they decided to leave that parish and form their own. every sunday they have a celebration of the word (which i havent been to yet but im interested to go check it out in the near future). the celebration is all-inclusive, women, men and children alike, and they dont have a priest or regular person that leads. they take turns among the different people in the community sharing stories and leading each week. basically it sounds really sweet. when i´m with that part, we hang out at the co-op or go around the community doing home visits to talk and get to know people.

the third part of San Ramon is a comedor/soy project. there are a few women that make soy milk for the community and there´s also a computer lab there where they offer computer classes for the community. they used to get funding from the marionists but within the last couple years the funding stoped so to compensate, they started a small restaurant. thats where we eat lunch when we´re at our praxis site which is sweet because the food is incredible.

so on mondays, i´m with the kiddies until noon and then with the co-op until 5ish, and on wed. im with the kiddies til noon and then with the comedor til 5ish. im pretty pumped to get to know everyone in the community better over the next couple months...hopefully my spanish will keep improving to allow that to happen...

sometimes its necessary to be ridiculous

small update:

a couple nights ago we were having reflection about how we were feeling up to that point. they taped prompting words on the wall to get our minds going. at the moment, i was feeling super joyous because we just finished having a small dance party to paul simon in the living room so at first i wrote about joy...then my mind began to wander (as it so often does) so i thought to myself...what are the times when dancing is ever mildly inappropriate? the following is the list i came up with during our reflection:

*funerals
*following the word "bomb" in an airport
*when your tongue is stuck frozen to a metal pole
*after a dog bite
*when climbing a tall ladder
*in route to jail
*when in the process of cutting someones hair
*when you`ve just been told not to dance
*when you have large amounts of loose chance in your pockets
*anytime Kenny G. is playing
*when you`re supposed to be movementless/noiseless backstage at a show
*when there is a poisonous ______ about to bite you
*after "Simon says stop dancing"
*when posing for a still painting
*when the camera`s on you at a televised debate
*at a football game where your team scores but you`re entirely surrounded by fans of the opposite team

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on friday afternoon one of the casa cooks/friend/aunt Lupita, was kind enough to come to our first history class and she shared with us her experiences during the war. it was so incredible, the things her family had to go through in order to survive...some of them didnt survive.

then on friday night we had "casa olympics" which were soooo fun. i was a proud member of team elephant who ended up placing 2nd!! woot woot. and not like its a big deal or anything but i WON 2 of the 4 events. i won the banana eating contest and musical chairs....it was pretty clutch to say the least, haha. then we had a massive dance party after which was awesome...i taught everybody a dance that FSA taught me and my friend andy and i taught everybody soldier boy too.

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today a few of us went to the mall and guess what....i got my nose pierced. there were 4 of us total who did it. it was completely an impulse thing (my favorite kind) and its really cute (or at least i think so, ha.)

hola!

hello friends, family, lovers and everything in between!
i hope you are all doing well, whereever you are at the moment. i just began my current adventure in El Salvador where i will be spending time living and learning for the spring semester. ive decided to try a blog as ive heard they are easy to manage and a good way to keep others updated a bit on what im doing. i left the states on jan. 9th and flew to nicaragua where i spend a week with my family in managua that i stayed with over this past summer for 2 months. it was a great way to spend time with them again and ease my way back into speaking spanish. then on the 16th i got on a bus and made my way to san salvador to meet a bunch of new friends that i will be spending countless hours getting to know, learning from, and having fun with.
so far, so good. the people are great, the food is delicious, the mountains are breathtaking, and the heat is intense. all the casa students will be spending 2 days a week (M and W) at a praxis site doing a whole ton of different things. over the last week or so we´ve been visiting all 9 sites, learning about each one along the way. my site is called San Ramon, and i´m really excited about it (i´ll tell ya more about that later though). we started classes yesterday, which was weird but great at the same time. i had philosophy with Fr. Mark, a jesuit who was also here teaching last semester. he´s incredible and full of stories. i cant wait to spend more time with him. then this morning we had theology with Sr. Peggy who is a spitfire to say the least. she´s one of those sassy old nuns with a open mind and and an even wider open mouth....in a nutshell, i love her already. this afternoon we have history with Gene who we´ve spent a bit of time with already since we´ve been here. he´s probably the most famous american journalist within el salvador so im confident that the class with have so much to offer for our hungry minds.
i dont want this to be to long, as i fear it may be already, but i guess i just want to say that i love it here. i already have so many stories, i wish i could tell them all, maybe they´ll come out bit by bit. but i´d love to hear what all of you are up to as well so send me emails (or snail mail....cough cough). i hope all is well and hopefully i´ll be able to update this every once in a while to let you know what i´m up to!

paz y amor!