8 months in...

It is hard to believe that it's been 8 months since I left Canada and began my SALT experience. Although at times things have been rough, the time has flown by sooo quickly. And it seems like every month is going by even faster than the previous one.

Here is a quick re-cap of the past few months.

February:

• participated in an MCC Work and Learn Team trip to the department of San Marcos in Guatemala. Spent a week in the beautiful (yet cold!) mountains of Guatemala, learning about the lives of farming families in remote rural areas, and the challenges they face such as poverty, lack of infrastructure, immigration, climate change, and Canadian mining companies. We also learned about their strengths: the importance of their families and communities, their hospitality, their aptitude for hard work in difficult situations, and we learned about the creative initiatives they are doing with their co-operatives, with sustainable agriculture and economic development. Besides the beauty of the natural landscape in San Marcos, what made the experience even more beautiful was the diversity of the WAL team - we were a group of 2 Canadians, 3 Americans, 1 Mexican, 2 Salvadorans and 2 Guatemalans, with a wide age range (from a male university student, to a 65 year old grandma), learning, working and sharing together, and that in itself is an experience never to be forgotten. 
• my parents, as well as my mom's cousin and her husband, came to visit me in El Salvador for 2 weeks. It was great for me that they could see a bit of this beautiful country that has become my home, meet my Salvadoran host family, co-workers, and some of my friends, and we even spent a quick weekend in Guatemala so they could meet my Guatemalan host family as well as some more of the MCCers of our Guatemala/El Salvador team. 

March:

• our MCC Guatemala/El Salvador team had our team meeting at Costa del Sol, a beach here in El Salvador. I know, I have a hard life :)
• I spent a weekend in Guatemala City, visiting with my Guatemalan host family. I was supposed to meet up with Rockway's Guatemala group, and travel with them for a few days, but I ended up getting the flu so I couldn't join them, which was pretty disappointing. But I guess I can't do everything, and I should be grateful that this was my first major sickness incident since arriving in Central America (and compared to stories I have heard from other SALTers, I really have gotten off easy in regards with my health).
• March 24th was the 32nd anniversary of the assasination of El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero. Along with many of my ANADES and Centro Hogar co-workers, I participated in a march to commemorate his life and death. (For those of you who don't know who Oscar Romero is, I will be writing a blog post about him shortly! But in the meantime, you should probably look him up! He is a hero and martyr for many Salvadorans) 

April (so far!):

• my sister Bethany, as well as our friend Nithya, came to visit me for 2 1/2 weeks! I had a week off from work for Easter, so we did some travelling in Guatemala, as well as some relaxing at the beach here in El Salvador. It was a lot of fun to have visitors again, but also somewhat exhausting, so I am glad to have a bit of a break now for the rest of April. Hopefully that means that my blog posts will become more frequent again!

my Salvadoran host brother Miguel, bonding with my dad

with my Salvadoran host family, showing off the new Canadian gear that my parents brought for them

fancy restaurant in Guatemala City

with my parents, and my Guatemalan host parents

A banner at the Oscar Romero march.
 "and on behalf of those voices, I raise my voice to say: do not idolize your wealth, while others are left starving to death"

at the beach in El Salvador, with Bethany and Nithya

watching some Easter Processions in Guatemala City (Easter Week is really big in  Central America)

people on the street making "alfombras" (carpets or street decorations), another important Central American tradition for Easter Week 

some finished "alfombras". so pretty!