Ants

I hope I can do justice in describing this moment. James, Maggie and Will are watching "Quick Draw McGraw" in Spanish. This is the happiest I've seen James today (not counting the Upper School faculty meeting this afternoon when he realized they were serving doughnuts.) James has been waking up with the rooster next door, which is generally around 3:00 am each morning. We live on the edge of campus - we were told there are squatters living on the other side of the wall. After asking around, turns out the family has lived on the land for over 40 years. Over the summer, they built a new two story cement block structure to live in. Luckily there are no windows on our side, or our bedrooms would be at eye-level and about 12 feet apart.

We finally got to see a couple of the young "squatters" on Sunday when they decided to paint the cement block on our side. They were using rock climbing equipment to dangle next to the wall while they painted. Maggie summed it up beautifully. "That's the color of Gumby," she said. My hope was that if they did fall in our yard, they would grab that big bunch of bananas on the way down. (Mila assures me we have another week or two before it's picking time.) The Gumby decorating theme was eventually abandoned for big sheets of black plastic - not nearly as jarring to the eyes.

I promised everyone an explanation of Salvadoran ants. I'm jealous of the new teachers who were forewarned and brought some sort of special ant poison. My first introduction to the smallest ants I've ever seen was when they moved inside my laptop. I eventually popped out my DVD drive to find a very small crumb inside - the perfect ant bait. These ants swarm around anything sweet. Our neighbor swears that she saw an Oreo move, and I believe her. Luckily we have white counters, so it's easy to spot any left-over crumbs. But if you miss one, the ants will point it out to you swiftly. They are quick, they are small, and they are everywhere. I've never had such a clean kitchen in my life.

Strange weather we are having - instead of the normal evening shower, it has rained all day. This is a first for us since we arrived. Maggie is amazed at all her friends who work so hard to straighten their hair. Running back and forth to class today brought out everyone's natural curls. But Maggie just got compliments at how straight her hair was. I guess we all want what we can't have. I've pretty much given up on hair and make-up. It's just a waste of time in a tropical climate.

Not sure how I went from Spanish cartoons to ants to hair do's. The weather has me rambling tonight. Next blog entry - the Dunlaps driving around the city in the rain. Adios!

Monday

I started off my first Monday morning as a school teacher with a pop quiz - now I know what's fun about being a teacher! Maybe half my class actually read the first three chapters of The Scarlet Letter (I know, what a way to ruin a weekend!). We'll see if and when they decide that I'm serious about American Literature.

Vicky Strange and my mother pulled off a minor miracle this morning. The Salvadoran government would not accept my wallet sized birth certificate. Amazingly, Mom was able to find the original from the Cherokee County Hospital and have Vicky fax it to EA this morning. So it looks like my work visa will be processed. James has not been so lucky - so I've ordered a Fed Exed version of his birth certificate ($50 later). Hopefully it will get to Mom this week and then she can fax it down. I tried to order my own from this website as well, but failed the security quiz to see if I was really Susan Dunlap. I passed the James Dunlap quiz instead!

Speaking of paperwork, James is filling out more lost luggage documentation for Delta. We've pretty much replaced everything he lost, but it sure would be nice to get some money back.

We've decided to spend some money on the apartment. We've purchased the necessities (microwave, towels, ironing board, dishes) - all the boring stuff. But we are now realizing how much we are affected by our surroundings, and these white walls and plain furniture are depressing. The project to paint used furniture has stalled - we've got to make it a priority. And as tomorrow is my birthday, I've asked for a woven hammock for the back porch. That should add some much needed color to the house.

James and I have volunteered to help with a national test for Salvadoran teachers. About 2 to 3 thousand of them are being tested in their ability to speak English. The test will be held on campus for the next 6 weekends. We go for training tomorrow. This should be interesting. Parking alone will be something to see. We'll make sure we don't try to leave or get back home during the testing.

Lots more to tell you all but I've got to go work on my lesson plans. Next entry I'll tell you about Salvadoran ants! Susan

P.S. Mila's pupusas were pure Salvadoran comfort food - out of this world!

Pupusas

OK - I know - today was the first day of school and what in the world is a pupusa? Maggie and Will walked ahead of us this morning as we headed out at 7:00 am, and I was sorry I hadn't taken a photo of them in their new uniforms - white shirts and blue bottoms. They rolled their eyes at the suggestion and headed off to school, but I promise a photo soon.

Maggie quickly discovered that the girls hem their skirts - her's was the length that it was when we bought it in the school store. She's still deciding what length she wants (no one, it seems, follows the rule of one inch above the knee.) Her new friends (who seem to mostly be named Arianna) kindly showed her how to cuff her sleeves, which is another cool uniform adaptation that no one tells you in the school store. The highlight of the school store for us was that one of the part-time employees goes to Converse College. We met Rebecca and her friends at the Sandwich Factory one Saturday last Spring and had lunch together. She is absolutely lovely and Converse is lucky to have her.

The first day of school was pretty typical: we all made mistakes and survived just the same. But the real highlight of the day was finding out that tomorrow, Mila is cooking pupusas for us. They are small, round, flat tortilla like things filled with cheese, beans and meat. We bought frozen pupusas at the grocery store and probably won't try them again. The meat inside is called chicharron, which is basically pork fat. You'd think Southerners who have eaten pork rinds could handle chicharron, but it was not the best food choice we've made since we arrived.

I think Mila is trying to tell me that she needs a clay dish to cook in. Hopefully she'll be able to make do until I find one. We bought the corn flour (nix tamalizado) and the special cheese (quesillo). Please remember that Mila speaks very, very little English and I speak even less Spanish. We play charades together in the afternoon and some how make out a grocery list. We're missing the curdito, a pickled relish that tops the pupusas, but that's ok. Not sure if you buy it prepared or make it fresh. Maybe Mila can act that out for me tomorrow.

Everything's an adventure! We'll let you know how the pupusas turn out.

Dad's Clothes

Our flight to El Salvador was quite unusual. My back went out on Wednesday prior to our Saturday flight. (I guess the highlight was being wheeled throught the Atlanta airport in a wheelchair!) My packing was last minute and I stuffed a suitcase full of my clothing, shoes, and a shaving kit with medications. THAT, of course, was the suitcase that didn't make it to San Salvador. I have since replaced the medications. This includes taking Will to a local doctor. Try that with almost no Spanish. Everyone -- doctor, staff, pharmacists -- have all been very helpful. My brother-in-law, Dick Willis, has replaced many of my clothes. He Fed-Exed the clothes to a teacher in Tennesse who brought them in his carry-on luggage. Now I am ready! The top photo shows me in a new Ralph Lauren shirt and a great hand-me-down Brooks Brothers tie. The next shot shows me in a new knit shirt I bought at the local upscale Multiplaza Mall. A perfectly good, solid color shirt. Upon examination at home I found the lovely racing stripe on the collar. Obviously intended for the Latin American market. Thanks again, Uncle Dick!

TV

We have treated ourselves to cable television. There are 70+ channels, with less than 10 in English (and one in Chinese). Most of those have Spanish subtitles, so we try to read and learn something while we watch. Will asked this morning when we were getting cable television with English cartoons. The answer is never. All cartoons are in Spanish. We watched Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids in Spanish this morning. They say "hey, hey, hey" a lot faster.

The two all English channels are HGTV and the Food Network. The Food Network is not helping our cooking much, though. We changed from omelets to scrambled eggs yesterday. We've got to branch out at some point. Mila starts cooking for us on Monday, which means we have to go back to the grocery store. Everyone stares at us, but it's not in a mean way. We definitely don't blend in.

HGTV is entertaining. It inspires us to decorate this little apartment. We scrounged a chair out of the school storage and we're going to try to paint it today. We bought paintbrushes and one sheet of sandpaper (you can buy one sheet of sandpaper here.) If it looks nice we'll put a picture of it on the blog. Maybe HGTV should come to El Salvador. We'll keep you posted on our decorating efforts.

Fruits of El Salvador

We are trying to learn about the fruits around the complejo. We missed mango season. The coconuts are falling around the pool now, but they're not like the coconuts we're used to seeing. There is an orange tree by the pool as well, but it is pretty much first come first served on getting the ripe ones. So I broke down and bought a bag at the grocery store yesterday - 5 pounds for $.79!

One of my goals is to eat locally and spend less for food. You can buy American products here; they just cost so much. For example, we promised to bring the teachers by the pool a bag of Doritos on Friday. Will grabbed a bag in the grocery store. It wasn't till someone complimented us on our true American Doritos that I wondered how much we had spent - a mere $5.00. So we're trying local brands now.

I am especially proud of the lime-aid I made from limes in our little back yard. You can also see the banana tree out back as well. The bananas are about 15 feet in the air. They are still green - so we think we have some more time to figure out how to pick them. They will be great on the crazy bulk cereal I bought - three 5 pound bags of it! Couldn't help it - it was so cheap - $2.50 a bag. U.S. cereal was $10 for a double box.

Maggie just saw a orange (more like bronze) hummingbird. They seem to like the lime tree as much as we do.