Impresiones Primeras

Hola amigos!

I arrived in El Salvador safely midday on Wednesday. The flight was great and very easy. I flew into Atlanta and from there went to El Salvador. The plane to San Salvador was packed with Salvadorans and I was one of 10 white people. It was an amazing experience to be with so many people returning to their home county and to see their joy when they greeted their family members.

My time so far has be great! The other people in the program are very much on the same wave length and it has been great to have conversations with them. I live in the biggest house in a single room. My room is directly connected to the courtyard that has two wonderful hammocks. Our house feels like you are always outside which is pretty amazing. We have several Salvadoran women who cook for us and prepare amazing authentic Salvadoran food. All meals are accompanied by tortillas and usually beans.

Today we went to the mountains to visit different pueblos where people will be volunteering. The people were overjoyed to have us in their communities and wanted to make us feel at home. To get to the second site we had to take trucks up the steep mountain slopes. We rode in the back and held on for dear life. There were two slopes in particular that were almost straight up and the trucks struggled to make it to the top. It was pretty incredible to see the how much people in the furthest community has to walk on rough terrain to make it to the city center and back. While seeing the volunteering sites has begun to make this experience feel more real, I still feel like a tourist and that this experience will soon come to an end. We travel in a group of 30 gringos and are constantly stared at. But that is part of the experience and I am excited to have that feeling change.

I have only been in San Salvador for 4 days but it feels like I have been here for a long time. And yet again it still hasn't sunk in that I will be living here for 4 months. It is hard to decide what to share with friends back home and what experiences will help give you a glimpse into my life. It will take a while to figure out how this blogging thing works so just bear with me.

Entonces, hasta el próxima vez.