Guatemala and Other Service Adventures

I taught the majority of a childrens´ class this week! Our virtue of the day was service. After a prayer and short discussion of the meaning of the theme, I helped the children memorize a quote and sing a song (in Spanish). I also read a story to them that demonstrated an example of ¨servicio¨. We end each class with something artistic, usually drawing = so cute!

My usual week here consists of a childrens´ class, multi-faith devotional meetings, two English and virtues classes with local youth and study circles. Baha´is all over the world provide these services to whomever is interested.

Plus, as you may see, I´ve recently been spending time traveling to other parts of El Salvador to teach my faith. During my conversations with people, an attidude of sharing is emphasized. I am not here to preach to people, but to share a message I love dearly. I like this simple, easy-going approach and being able to aquaint myself with amazing people, both of my religion and not.

My roomie, a family from Olocuilta, and I traveled to Guatemala last week. After 5 different buses and 15 hours we arrived in the city of Cobán. I met a lady who had moved there from California 30-some years ago. She had white skin, like my mom, and blue eyes as well. The host family we stayed with looked like my cousins from my dad´s side of the family. I like these reminders of my family a lot and it further demonstrates the unity of mankind. Some women of Cobán wear their traditional blouses and skirts. It was neat to see the mix of old culture and modern clothing walking side by side in the streets. When we visited the Baha´i Center, I could see some beautiful houses of many colors on the hillside. In my mind I thought, ¨Wow, I want to live in one of those houses.¨ Turns out, it was a cemetary...oops.

My new camera was delivered to me by a gracious friend from Fairbanks, who visits the country frequently. A part of me is happy, but it´s also difficult to find joy in such things when you walk in poverty. There are so many beautiful things about life here, but much sadness as well. And I know I´ve just begun to learn about the least of it. I am so lucky and my duty is to share what I was so fortunate to have been given. Love is all around me, but there is a large part of me that can´t rest while there is such injustice in the world.

And please post a comment if you´d like to know more about a certain aspect of my service. My hope is to share positive international news, but also portray as realistic as possible the conditions of life in this country. Hasta luego, adios.

San Juan Tepezontes, La Esperanza and more!

Right now, I'm happy to just be sitting in a chair. That being said, I've been able to visit more of the area around Olocuilta, by bus some of the time, but mostly by foot. My expeditions began this past Sunday. A group of us took a bus to San Juan Tepezontes, which is about 50 minutes up the mountain. After I got off the bus, I was told we'd be taking a walk. Now this meant hiking down a cobblestone and dirt road about three kilometers in the sun while I was wearing flip flops. Truely not complaining, because the scenery was amazing! And when we arrived in the town of La Esperanza, the people I visited made the journey worth it. I'm getting to where I can better understand the Spanish of children. At one home, I sat near a grandma whose grandson was on the other side of her. He kept trying to poke me with a balloon on a stick, until it popped in his face, then I decided to sit next to him and we chatted for a bit.

Earlier today, we took a much longer hike to a place I forget the name of. The journey went someting like this: walking along the highway, up a hillside, through a little residency, down a dirt path to the edge of trees, down through the trees to a river, along the river rocks, and finally arrived at a little house in the middle of paradise, or so I'm going to call it. All of this took 3 hours. I made this journey with two Baha'i families I met here. Some of their kids navigated the trails effortlessly and inspired me to get into better shape! The little house turned out to be a place where water was filtered and stored. I'm getting better at transitioning between places with running water and without. If I haven't mentioned already, you generally can't flush toilet paper in the country. It's deposited in a wastebasket instead.

There's a whole list of little things such as these I've become more or less acclimated to. Up until recently, I always wondered if I had changed. I kept thinking, "Okay, if i go home now, will anyone notice anything different about me?" Today, I stopped trying to look at things that way. Perhaps this is not the time for such a question. Currently, I'm focusing on taking it all in. The ups and downs of adjusting to a new culture and life are just a part of the process. The main point is that I'm dedicating a year of my life to helping other people. Whether things go as planned or not, it is nice to know I have another life in Alaska awaiting my return.

Chalatenango

Oh wow, November is almost over! In synopsis, there have been additional festivities, lots of rain, and a new adventure north. At the beginning of the month were celebrations of both the Day of the Pupusa and the Day of the Dead. For the first, one can only guess what I ate for breakfast :) And the for the latter, as is common in many other countries, people eat sweetened pumpkin, called ¨ayote¨ here. I didn’t visit any graveyards and it was explained to me that only those with buried relatives do so.

A couple weeks ago was a time of massive rainfall, landslides, and other catastrophic consequences throughout the country. In our area the internet was out until today and the water main still isn’t functioning. This is nothing compared to all those who lost their lives, are homeless or missing. Never before had I seen so much rain or evenings of constant thunder and lightning. Usually, it is supposed to be transitioning into summer during this month. Ironically, right before this all happened we had taught the students of our English and virtues classes the phrase ¨it’s raining cats and dogs¨.

The northern part of the country didn’t have as much rain damage. I traveled there to a province/district named Chalatenango for several days last week and again for the earlier part of this week. It was one of the most amazing times, mostly because of the location of the Baha´i Center. It’s in a neighborhood with bunches of the cutest children, playing soccer in the street, arguing about the number of stars in the sky and making fun of each other. The couple who live at the center are Honduran and have a son, who’s now 1 year old! His birthday party was last Saturday and it was so entertaining watching him improve his art of walking. One of the few words he can say is ¨agua¨ and likes waddling up to people, trying to drink out of their glasses, haha! I also met a few youth who had recently accepted the message of our faith and it was inspiring to speak with them.

When I stop to think about it, I realize I’m not in Alaska. Other times, like today, I spend hours listening to songs that immerse me in memories of home. While I firmly believe people are essentially the same wherever you travel, I’ll take this moment to highlight the different lifestyle here. Firstly, people don’t heat their homes. Okay, that seems like a given, but I was really taken aback during my first few weeks, always looking for base-board heaters. Markets are set up mostly every day on the streets and common beverages you can buy there are coconut juice and ¨horchata¨, made from seeds = amazing! The most common bumper sticker I see, other than ¨Jesucristo vive¨, is ¨Guarde su distancia¨ meaning keep your distance. I’ve now gotten to the point where if I go a whole afternoon without hearing Reggaeton, I go into withdraws. Water is another topic of curiosity. Tap water can’t be ingested and everyone uses blue plastic jugs to dispense water, like the kind commonly found in business offices. Houses also have ¨pilas¨ which are large concrete basins from the floor to about waist-height. My roommate saved me from the mistake of drinking from it, as this water is normally used to wash clothes and such. Oh, and the bus ride from Olocuilta (south) to the city of Chalatenango (north) cost only $1.43 plus a $3.00 cab ride in the capital. And yes, they use U.S. dollars here, lucky me.

Since I’m not sure how the internet situation will be, thought I’d fill you in all at once. My closing thoughts of the evening are of inspiration and the joy of experiencing different cultures. I recognize that I’m fortunate to have a home to return to. My roots and a large part of my identity will always remain with Fairbanks. Nevertheless, living in El Salvador feels completely normal and it’s nice to know that every place in the world is encircled by beauty. My time abroad is filled with many new events, but more so of moments where I’m reconnected with who I am. This place affirms that the entire world can be your home and that there is always more to learn. It’s not always happy or easy, but the value is in the power to grow, adapt, and change.

Cuidate, take care!

Que Vida la Mia

What life of mine!

Since my last post I´ve come to realize that I find much happiness in music. However, on Halloween night, a bunch of people decided to have a get-together down the street. Yes, that´s right, again I was serenaded til the wee hours of the morning. I would have joined the festivities, but I had returned to Olocuilta that afternoon from another brief trip to San Salvador. So I was tired. It was a whole new experience hearing ¨Girls just wanna have fun¨ on my costume-less October 31st!

As far as new service projects go, we´ve started a Children´s Class. This consists of singing songs, virtues, and art projects. What´s interesting to note is how the kids were invited to the class. I first met these siblings when they were begging outside of our house. Later, our host had the idea to extend some hospitality to them. So it´s a happy ending to one of the grimmer aspects of life here. And only recently did we successfully stop them from showing up at our gate at 7am and yelling ¨BUENAS¨ at the top of their lungs :) They´re precious.

I also got to visit Colegio Ridvan last week. It is the school I was intended to serve at before my plans changed. About 100 children go there and they are all the sweetest people you´ve seen! My roommate used to teach there for several months, so when she stepped through the door, she was greeted by a mass of exuberant kiddos. What a rockstar moment! They were all so happy and school was so colorful. An outside wall even had a mural on it, que bonita la pared!

My time here has been such a wonderful education already. For now, I´m dedicated to seek out what I find truely matters in life. University is great, for sure, but it´s nice to take some time off work and school. Learning doesn´t occur only in the classroom and I whole-heartedly encourage any student to seize an opportunity like this.

Temporary Residency

After a little quest in the land of paperwork mishaps, I´m now officially a temporary resident of El Salvador! Since I´ve spent the past week on this project, I´ve been staying in Santa Tecla and will return to Olocuilta tomorrow morning.

When I arrived here last Saturday, we had a devotional meeting/fundraiser. The event was held at the Baha´i Center that evening. As it is perpetually summer here, the prayers and songs were recited outside. They were so beautiful! These devotions were said for a group of Baha´is who are imprisoned, soley for their beliefs, in Iran and the date of their trial is soon. The fundraiser side of things was for the community of El Salvador, in general. Wonderful food was served and people made donations. All the while there was more music and I met such lively people.

My religion also has its own calendar, where each month spans 19 days. At the start of the new month we get together for a Feast. The one I attended earlier this week was another opportunity for me to meet more blessed people. During the devotions I read a short passage, in Spanish nonetheless, for a group of no less than 30 people. What an accomplishment in my bilingual studies! I may have not made any grand mistakes at that gathering, but I´ve sure said some funny things in my attempts to communicate. For instance, I once tried to say 'I am going to like the children' and it came out 'All the boys will like me'...! However, I´ve learned to embrace my mistakes and relish the moments when I can laugh at myself. Speaking of which, the day I finally located and bought a new memory card for my camera, I dropped the whole thing and it may be broken, oops.

This is a good time for me to reflect on my life´s learning. The purpose of this blog is to share my experiences, but also to convey the fact that all of this is one big process for me. There is always so much more I could say. However, be assured that while I´m having the time of my life, this is a difficult adjustment. My time here has made me question the foundations I base my happiness on. I see many people who have next to nothing, but are rich in spirit and cheer. For me, life always has its polite way of encouraging me to improve.

Rain y Fiestas

I left off last time talking about food, so I´ll resume that discussion now. El Salvadorans eat these wonders called ¨pupusas¨ and Olocuilta happens to be the land of pupusas! They are especially good with a green called loroco. Almost every meal here is accompanied by a tortilla. Both my hostess and the maid are fantastic cooks. Oh, and that´s something else I forgot to write about earlier: maids are very common here. However, the culture is so welcoming of their hired help; they are treated like family. I´m enjoying doing plenty of dishwashing here too, so don´t think I´m off the hook :p

The past two days we´ve been welcoming local teens into our home for English and virtue classes. Yesterday and today, all we had to do was visit two local schools and speak to their directors. Our host explained that my roommate and I are doing a year of volunteer service. We are offering the classes for free and on a purely volunteer basis. After introducing ourselves to several classrooms we had lists of interested persons. So far, we´ve had 40 kids attend! They arrive in smaller groups throughout the afternoon. This will be one of my projects for the remainder of the calendar year. I start leading Baha´i service activities like Junior Youth groups soon.

And I would have pictures for you all, but a tragedy occured! My camera stopped being able to read my memory card on Monday. I tried plugging the XD card into an adaptor, that didn´t work either. So now everything may be lost, I´m not sure what happened. However, I took it to mean two things: I´m a bit of an idiot and also perhaps the past 2 weeks had been too special to capture in picture form. haha...

Currently, it is nearing the end of a two week festival here in Olocuilta. I´ve had the hardest time going to bed at night because of the LOUD rain and partying going on in the evening. I was able to wake up at 5:00am the other day and take a walk down to the river. It was a mile steeply downhill, then back up. I hope to make a regular habit of it! But people keep getting a kick out of the fact that I´m from Alaska. I´m walking around sweating and wilting. Today, the director of one of the schools gave me a cold, frigid drink and said it was like my home! Aww! Seriously, it was one of the most touching moments ever. And I love asking people if there´s penguins in AK, all of them say yes!

Olocuilta

Wow!!! It's hot here! Since it's still raining off and on, the first few days weren't too bad. But now I'm WILTING. My body is so confused, normally it's getting prepared for winter...

And there was a change of plans. My roommate and I will be traveling to Olocuilta soon to help out their community instead of going to the school. We can visit the children in the near future though :)

Even though I'm having bunches of good times here, I'm definitely still getting used to things. Never before had I seen such poverty and wealth living in close proximity. For example, yesterday we assisted with the jr. youth celebration near Lourdes. On the drive there were glimpses of the reality of the Third World. The kids were great though! They performed music, dance and skits. Later in the evening, we went to a birthday party. It was in another guarded/gated neighborhood, like the one I'm staying in now. All the friends and family there were dressed real nice, the living room had a chandelier, etc. And today we passed through a shady area and within a couple miles was a nice shopping center. All this aside, it's the atmosphere of the country and welcoming people that has captured my heart.

Some more new things: a common way of saying "guys" is "bichos". And if the group is several girls, one would address them as "bichas". Haha! The accents around the country are pretty different too. One of the most challenging things is learning the region-specific words. And some days my Spanish doesn't quite work, but it's coming along :) Oh, and the food is AMAZING!

Tropical Times~!

Oh my goodness! The rain here in El Salvador has been so intense in the evenings. It's nearing the end of their rainy season, which means it's quite hot in the daytime and POURS at night. There was a little bit of hail today. I stepped outdoors and felt cold for the first time since I came to my new home.

It's now been five days since I arrived in the country. It is clear in my memory, the moment my plane flew over the palm trees and cattle. At the airport, I was so surprized to collect my bags, leave customs, and find myself in front of a huge crowd! There were so many people waiting to greet the passengers. Instantly, I felt the humidity, it's like the air gave me a hug! I searched the crowd and eventually met the dentist who was to pick me up.

We drove a ways to San Salvador, the capital. We passed many coconut stands and stopped at one. I tasted fresh coconut juice for the first time!!! People in the capital drive CRAZY as well. We made our way through the city to another, Santa Tecla, where I am now.

The house I'm currently staying in is gorgeous. It will be my home on the weekends, since I begin my service at a rural elementary school soon. In their backyard are orange and coffee trees. I enjoy listening to the cicadas at night. We hang our clothes outside to dry and people here don't flush toilet paper, since the septic system isn't built for that. But other than these small differences, life here is easy to adapt to. Especially with all of the beautiful scenery, flora and fauna.

I've been practicing my Spanish A LOT. Learning is still a slow process, but I've built my confidence in my ability to communicate. I've said some funny things, as you can probably imagine, and my hosts are more than happy to correct me.

I wish I could express how nice it is to be here. I think of home a lot and enjoy telling people about Alaska. Even here, they think we live in igloos, haha. Now is time for dinner and I'm so hungry. So, my best to all of you :)

Texas

I flew into Houston not sure where I'd be staying. After a few frustrating hours at IAH, I asked for help. The wonderfully helpful airport personnel had me on a bus downtown to a hotel. All in all, things worked out and it was a lesson in taking care of myself.

The following day was spent walking around downtown Houston. I took many pictures of the parks and ginormous buildings. Later that evening, I went to stay with a Baha'i who's a niece of a family friend.

It has felt like home here. I've grown fond of her two dogs and cat. They are the cutest! It is only a few hours before I head back to the airport and leave the country. Reality is still not with me. I'm sure there will be much more to say when I arrive :)

*Anchorage*

The drive down from Fairbanks was BEAUTIFUL! I drove a friend's car here, as a favor, and two of my friends joined the trip in another car. We stopped briefly in Denali National Park and had a jolly time. Fall colors are some of the most extraordinary things! I took so many pictures on the way here. It was neat to see the scenery change as the 360+ miles flew by.

My stay in Anchorage was a time surrounded by love and friends. Met some real fantastic Baha'is down here and ate good food :)

Now it is time for me to head to Houston, TX. Never been, so it should be quite the experience! My plane leaves a little after midnight, but I don't arrive in the "second biggest state" until noon tomorrow. ~Adios~

A Sort Of Beginning

Bienvendios! Welcome!

As I take this opportunity to share with you my experiences, I stop to reflect about what has brought me here. The past few weeks have been filled with so much trip preparation that I haven't aniticipated the future, until now. I'm about to embark on a great journey, but more importantly I will be achieving a life goal: to go on a year of service.

I have been a member of the Baha'i Faith since birth. (Any immediate questions can be answered at http://www.bahai.org/.) Many youth decide and are encouraged to travel to other communities to serve for a year. My time will be spent in El Salvador, teaching at a Baha'i operated school called Colegio Ridvan. More on that to come!

Currently, I'm looking over the things I have packed. I leave Fairbanks (my home) later this morning for Anchorage, where I will spend a few days visiting family and friends. This is only the beginning of my travel and most everything is set. It's nice to finally be able to simply relax and enjoy the moment. Pressing concerns take up so much energy!

That being said, I ought to consider "hitting the hay". Thank you for your time, thoughts and joining me here. Hasta luego, buenas noches,

~Sigourney