First thing's first - I finally have a host family! Although I was beginning to get into a routine in my previous home, and enjoying the quietness and independence of living with 2 nuns (not the typical SALTer experience, I would imagine!), I was happy to move in with a more "typical" host family, and have more people around at home to practice my Spanish with. 3 weeks ago I moved in with Ana Mirian, the director of ANADES (the organization I work for here in El Salvador), and her family. The household consists of Ana Mirian's mother Hilda (who owns the house, which was built by her late husband), Ana Mirian's husband Miguel, and their 3 children Karla, Miguel (or Miguelito) and Belén.
Miguel works long shifts at the hospital (he's a doctor, I think!) and Ana Mirian is always very busy with ANADES work or events, so they are not home too often. I interact mostly with Hilda, the grandma, who has been very sweet and welcoming to me. She is home most of the time, looking after the 2 youngest kids (since right now they are on summer vacation) and doing most of the cooking and cleaning in the house. Miguel (the son) and Belén (the daughter) are 8 year old twins - they were super excited to welcome me as a new member of their family, and are always giving me hugs and talking my ear off every chance they get. They're super cute, but luckily when they get to be a bit much, my bedroom is located upstairs, so I can just go up to my room and shut the door when I need a break! My other host sister Karla turned 22 last week. She is also very nice, but super busy so I don't see her very often either. She studies at the university during the day, and then on evenings and weekends works at Starbucks. They also have a pet turtle, which I discovered rather surprisingly the other day in the backyard/patio area!
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| host siblings from left to right, Belén, Karla, and Miguel |
My work at the pre-school, Centro Hogar, is going very well. It is almost always the highlight of my day, because the kids are just so adorable and fun to be around. The school year in El Salvador is different then back home. Here it goes from January to November, with summer holidays in December for the kids. This means that Friday is the last day of classes at our school and on Saturday we will have "la clausura" or the closing program, for the parents. I will give a better summary of my work here at Centro Hogar and ANADES next week, once the school year is over, and I have more time to reflect on it.
Overall, the month of November has been a good one. As I get to know the city of San Salvador better, and as my relationship with my host family and my co-workers at ANADES grows, I am beginning to feel more at home here. I celebrated my 24th birthday a week and a half ago, and although I was a bit homesick that day, this past week I enjoyed 3 different birthday cakes/celebrations (a record for me, as far as I remember!) with my 3 different families here in Central America - my Guate host family, my MCC "family", and my El Salvador host family, which definitely lifted up my spirits and cured my homesickness and loneliness I had been experiencing! I spent 5 days in Guate, where we celebrated American Thanksgiving with the MCC team or "family" in the city, had our MCC team Annual Meeting in beautiful Santiago Atitlan, and I also had a chance to visit my Guate host family! It was definitely the highlight of the month for me! Also, just getting out of El Salvador for a little while and having more time to talk with my fellow MCCers, helped me reflect upon all the blessings I have been experiencing in El Salvador and helped me have a more positive attitude about everything that's been going on the past couple months.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me emails this past month - although I haven't had time to respond, they have been greatly appreciated!
Lastly, here are some pictures from my 3 wonderful birthday celebrations :)
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| Birthday celebration #1 - delicious apple pie, with my Guate host family |
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| Birthday Cake # 2, in Santiago Atitlan. Celebrating with everyone from the MCC Team and MCC's partner organization ANADESA, who had birthdays in the past few months |
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| Birthday Cake # 3 in San Salvador! Joint celebration for Karla and I. Back row, L-R: Olivia (friend and co-worker from ANADES) and my host grandma Hilda Front row, L-R: Belen, Karla, Miguel, and I |
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