My Salvadoran Mailing Address!!

Some of you have been asking about my mailing address here in El Salvador, so finally, here it is! I'm giving you my work address, because chances are my living arrangements will change at least once or twice more this next year!
Unfortunately mail isn't the most reliable, and will probably take a month or maybe 2 to get to me. But better late than never! And it's recommended not to send large packages, or anything valuable, because they might get opened up/stolen. But something small/sentimental would be appreciated :)
Anyways, here's where you can send things to, if you feel so inclined. But emails are always nice too!

Asociación Nuevo Amanecer de El Salvador
Attn: Maria Steinman
Colonia El Triunfo
Final Pasaje Molina #14
San Ramon, Mejicanos, S. S.
El Salvador
2284-1353

Recap of Language Study in Guate

Can’t believe it’s already November, and that it's been 3 weeks since I said goodbye to all my friends in Guatemala City. I thought before I started writing more about my experiences here in El Salvador, I would finish a blog post I started writing a while ago, about my time spent in Guate for language study. I've had a lot of time these past few weeks to be alone and think about everything that's been going on (sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not...) but hence, this is why there's been more blog posts lately!
I had such an amazing time in Guatemala that I wanted to write more about it, and now that life has slowed down a bit, I finally have time to do so. 

I spent a month and a half studying Spanish at CASAS, and although I learned a lot, I still have a LONG way to go until I'm finally fluent.

CASAS is a program run by SEMILLA, the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary in Guatemala City. The Spanish word “semilla”, means seed. The mission of SEMILLA is “to prepare men and women to follow Jesus Christ faithfully and, thus, to live out the reign of God with justice and peace today”. The Seminary was started in the 1980’s, by Central American Christians who were beginning to learn more about their Anabaptist roots. Besides the CASAS program, SEMILLA runs 3 other programs: a Biblical, Theological & Pastoral Training Program, SEMILLA Publishing (which prints and distributes Spanish language editions of Anabaptist/Mennonite publications), and a guest house, (which if you’ve ever come to Guatemala with MCC, you have probably spent a night or two here – I stayed here my first and last night in Guatemala when I came 6 years ago with a group from my church, on an MCC Work and Learn Team).

All 4 departments/programs of SEMILLA are located at the same site, so I was able to meet people working in other departments as well. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. They have a great community there (kind of reminded me of Grebel!) and all the staff meet together every 2 weeks for a chapel service, which I got to participate in twice during my stay there.

CASAS stands for Central American Study and Service. It offers Spanish classes (for all levels), accomodations with host families, and scheduled activities for the students to learn more about Guatemalan culture and history. Although I had learned most of the Spanish grammar rules in my university classes, it was a good review for me (since I had forgotten most of it!) and I'm so glad I was given the chance to study for so long, before beginning my work with ANADES. Plus, it's one thing to "know" the grammar rules, but it's another thing to actually use what you've learned while having a conversation with a native Spanish speaker! 

Plus, the CASAS teachers are great, because not only do they focus on teaching you grammar and vocab, but they also work on conversational Spanish (my teacher and I could have chatted all day if we wanted to!) and teaching you about various social justice issues in Guatemala. People can study there for university credit, or non-credit (like me), and can be there from 1-3 months. I have met quite a few people that did the 3 month CASAS program, and loved it, and have since returned to Guatemala again, in part because of the great experience they had here the first time. If anyone is looking for something to do either before, during, or after university, I would recommend looking into it! Here's the website, and feel free to ask questions!

http://semilla.org.gt/casas%20en.html

Here are some highlights from my month of studies (besides writing tests, and learning my Spanish grammar and verb tenses, of course):

-         Conversations in “Spanglish” at morning snack time and lunch in the cafeteria with the other CASAS students, as well as the wonderful CASAS and SEMILLA staff members

-         Getting to know the 3 other CASAS students better, and building great friendships with them – Aaron is from Pennsylvania, and is a fellow MCC SALTer, who will be spending the next 10 months working with the indigenous community in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. Rachel is from Ohio, and is beginning her 3-year MCC term. She will soon be headed to Alta Varepaz, to work at Bezaleel (the school where I volunteered with my church, 6 years ago!) to teach in the nursing program. Lastly, Florian (or Flo) is from Germany, (he was the only one not with MCC) and will be working for the next year in San Salvador, with the Lutheran Church.  

-         Day Trip to beautiful & touristy Antigua

-         Playing card games with my 60 year old Spanish teacher Edna (best teacher ever!), while blasting Enrique Iglesias music

-         Trips across the street for ice cream at Sarita!

-         Making rellenitos! (hard to explain, but they’re kind of like a fried donut but made out of plantain, with puréed black beans and sugar in the middle – sounds gross, but it’s actually a really yummy dessert – one of my favourites in Guate!)

-         Trip to the beautiful Guatemala City Zoo

-         Playing Apples-to-Apples in Spanish!

-         Volunteering at a hospital down the street, playing games and giving lots of love and hugs to 30 malnourished kids, who live at the Nutritional Centre at the hospital, because their parents can’t afford to feed them or take care of their health needs

-         Learning about Guatemalan culture, education, history, politics, social justice issues (and even dating customs!) from my teacher Edna, and teaching her about Canada as well

Here are some pictures with me and some of my new friends :)



Lunch at CASAS (don't worry, lunch usually didn't come in styrofoam plates).
Aaron, Flo, Rachel and I





cooking up some Rellenitos in the CASAS kitchen! mmmmm...delicious!




Edna and I on our field trip to Antigua



The Role of Humans in "Natural" Disasters

I thought I would recommend a couple more articles about the El Salvador floods that I read in the past few days.

The first article is about how human factors contributed to the tragic effects of the floods in Central America. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/1025/Deadly-flooding-in-Central-America-how-people-contributed-to-the-tragedy
It's a safe assumption that these same factors worsen the horrible impact of most natural disasters that happen throughout the world, and not just here in Central America. And it's so sad that although there are many things that could be done to prevent a lot of the deaths and devastation (by governments, local communities, and us back home in the Western world), history continues to repeat itself over and over again.

The second article continues talking about the aftermath of the floods, and in particular, the devastating loss of crops throughout the country.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15457562

Besides the immediate needs of shelter, food and health care, the long term needs will be even greater. The rains happened just before crops were ready to be harvested, and so not only will this year's crops be lost, leading to a potential food shortage in the country, but there will also be a lack of seeds available for the next year's crops.
Although Mennonite Central Committee does not have any specific emergency relief for El Salvador or the rest of Central America, the needs of the country are great and widespread, not just with the immediate disaster relief. So I'm sure any money going to the country would help out a lot! If you would like to donate some money through MCC, there are 2 different options I found on the MCC website - you can donate to a program run by ANADES, the New Dawn Association of El Salvador (the partner organization that I'm working for) for people living with HIV and AIDS in El Salvador, or you can just donate to MCC's programming in El Salvador in general, and the money would be distributed to MCC's 3 partner organizations in the country (including ANADES).

Here's the link for more information:
https://donate.mcc.org/filter/bycountry/results/taxonomy%3A5.39

Rejoice in the little light we carry

The month of October has been a difficult one for me…I’ve experienced home sickness (for Canada, and more recently Guatemala), faced culture shock, and have felt overwhelmed, lost, confused and lonely in a new country and new home, and have felt anxious about the many uncertainties in my life. Although I'm trying to just take one day at a time, it's hard to do! But when I take the time to intentionally think about everything that’s been going on (and not just the bad things), I can find many things to be thankful of.

First of all, this past week I have been catching up on some of my fellow SALTers’ blogs, as well as the comments on the SALT/IVEP facebook page. It’s nice to have some of my feelings validated, and to be reminded that I am not the only one experiencing culture shock and loneliness. An IVEPer shared this quote on our facebook page last week, from Henri Nouwen’s book “Bread for the Journey”. It was exactly what I needed to read (and re-read!), to help me stop complaining and worrying about the future.

Enough Light for the Next Step by Henri Nouwen
Often we want to be able to see into the future. We say, “How will next year be for me? Where will I be five or ten years from now?” There are no answers to these questions. Mostly we have just enough light to see the next step: what we have to do in the coming hour or the following day. The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. When we are able to take the next step with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we go. Let’s rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all shadows away.

I know that there are many things I can learn from the shadows in my life (and that my SALT experience will be so much richer because of this) but I wanted this blog post to be about recognizing and rejoicing in the light and sunshine I experienced amidst the storms of my first 2 weeks here in El Salvador.

1)    My two kind co-workers/housemates, who happily took me in, despite the extremely busy and stressful weeks they’ve had working at ANADES and dealing with the effects of the storm. I am slowly getting to know them better, despite their continued busyness, and on Friday night we even went to the movies together (the first non-work related thing I’ve seen them do, since arriving here!)

2)    Salvadorans are extremely friendly and welcoming people, so despite having been here only 2 weeks, I have met a lot of new faces, both in my neighbourhood and at my work at ANADES. I have many acquaintances, but not too many friends yet, but I’m sure that will come with time!

3)   Staying in touch with friends and family from home, as well as the new friends I made in Guatemala, has been a huge support for me – it’s nice to know that I have many people thinking of me

4)   I finally started my job on Monday, which was great! I was greeted bright and early by 20 smiling, adorable little niños (ok, a few of them were crying and were a bit afraid of me at first) but by the end of the day, I felt that I was already building a relationship with many of these kids. And I am very grateful for my boss and all my co-workers at Centro Hogar who have really welcomed me as part of the team, have answered my numerous questions, and have been really patient with me when I don’t understand what’s going on (either due to language barriers or differences in culture, or both!)

Although there are still some uncertainties when it comes to my job and what my role is, I am constantly trying to remind myself to rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all shadows away. For now I just need to get more of a feel for ANADES and Centro Hogar, before I start taking initiative in the other parts of my job. For now I am just happy getting to know these precious little kids and helping out wherever needed.

And in regards to my living situation – it turns out that they don’t actually have a host family ready for me yet, so I will continue living with my co-workers. It could be for another week, or it could be for another month or two, I have no idea!! Although the not knowing kind of stresses me out a bit, I am trying to stay positive. First of all, I am just happy to have a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in. When I remind myself that thousands of Salvadorans have been left homeless due to this month's floods and mudslides, it’s hard to complain about my own living situation! And although it isn’t a typical “host family” experience, I really enjoy the neighbourhood we are living in, and I have now figured out how to take the bus to and from work on my own, as well as to Metro Centro, which is the largest shopping mall in Central America (and I thought the ones in Guate were big….). These were huge accomplishments for me, since I was pretty terrified of taking the city busses here at first! So, these are the little bits of light that I’ve been clinging onto these past few days.

Anyways, sorry that this blog post has been a little bit all over the place – but that’s kind of how I’ve been feeling, so hopefully you can understand or get something out of it at least!

Keep your emails coming – I could use some encouragement, and would love to hear about what’s going on in everyone’s lives back home J