Not much news

We are all in a holding pattern till Maggie gets home on Saturday from her Middle School Exchange Trip. She's having too much fun in Knoxville, Tenn. My uncle suggested she request political asylum there. No chance. I want her home.

This week at school we had honor roll assemblies. Maggie missed her's because she's out of town. She and Will both made straight A's. Here's a photo from Will's assembly. I think there were more boys on stage, just not in the photo.

We are planning to spend Thanksgiving on a coffee plantation. Judging by the brochure, it looks beautiful. I just can't stay home in our apartment and miss my mother's cooking. More news to come, promise!

Forever late

Seems like I am always behind on posting. We put Mags on a plane yesterday for Tenn. I'm sure she is having a blast. One of the big thrills for the Salvadoran students when they go on exchange to the States is to go to WalMart. There's just nothing like it here. But a few of my 11th graders talked about how they can't stand to go to WalMart. They say it smells like detergent and plastic. I guess I kind of like the old WalMart smell. I miss it. Anyway, can't wait to see what Maggie brings back from home. Hope she doesn't have trouble getting grits through Salvadoran customs.

My new photo is of Mags and me volunteering at a shelter right after the landslides hit. There were 70,000 people left homeless. The government set up shelters in elementary schools. The one we visited had about 50 children there. We played with the kids for a few hours and gave the parents a break. Do you like the new love of my life? His name was Douglas. I was in heaven holding him. He loved the noise and the excitement - a very easy baby. Maggie and I also fell hopelessly in love with a 10 year old boy named Moises. He and all his friends kept wanting to see Maggie's retainer. I'm sure it was the first orthodontic appliance they had ever seen. That got old for Maggie pretty quickly. But he touched our hearts when he offered some candy to both us. They have nothing and still they share.

Notice the date on the photo. It's not wrong. It's backwards. October 11 is written 11/10. It's so hard for us to get it right! Also, phone numbers here have eight digits instead of seven. There are just little things that you assume everyone in the world does the same - not true.

Salvadorans are also very official. Not sure how else to explain this. For example, if you are filling 0ut any sort of form (and we have filled out a lot of them - car insurance, health insurance, life insurance) and you make a mistake - you have to fill out the form all over again. No white out, no initials, and for heaven's sake don't scratch out anything. Start over. Maggie needed a permission slip to leave the country with someone other than her parents. It's pretty standard - I used to notarize them at SDS all the time. Here we needed six people - both parents, a translator, two witnesses and an attorney. And still it was not complete until it was stamped again at the attorney's office. And we had to sign the forms in English and Spanish. I was not about to mention that my middle name was misspelled!

Thanks for all the emails from friends asking if we were safe during the storm. It rained heavily for two weeks straight. You have no idea how much we now appreciate blue skies. The dry season is coming. We're headed to the beach in the morning. Can't wait! Susan

Only good news

I made a deal with my brother, Dick, that I would only send good news home - happy phone calls, happy emails, and so far, one happy newspaper article. But I feel like I'm only telling one side of the story. If anyone were to read The New York Times, they'd see that Central America is under water. It has rained since Friday - constant rain. So many people in El Salvador live on the sides of mountains. Needless to say, their homes have washed away.

But to answer the question my dear, sweet, mother is wondering, "are we safe?" Yes, of course. We're soggy, we're mildewed, we're stir crazy, and we're safe. The Ministry of Education closed all schools in the country on Monday. We just got the call that schools are closed for the rest of the week. We have read, watched movies, played cards and gone door to door visiting friends in the complejo. Everyone has a leaky something right now - floor, roof, wall. It's only drizzling as I write this, which is such a relief.

If you check out weather.com, you can see the storms that we are underneath. I walked around school today. The classrooms are pretty dry. But the roads are messy. We've made a grocery store run, but other than that it is best to stay close to home. We gave the last of our "Mila dinners" to the school guards. Evidently it is a challenge right now to have food delivered, and they work 12 hour shifts at the gate. I bet Pizza Hut and Pollo Compero (the KFC of Central America) are doing brisk delivery business this week.

I have tremendous respect for the people of this country. They are up against some incredible odds - seems like nature won't cut El Salvador any slack right now. But I'm also amazed at how sheltered life in the States can be. I wonder if any of this news has made CNN. Mexico and Guatamala have offered aid to help with the recovery. No word on the U.S. just yet.

I'll try to write an even balance of life in El Salvador from now on. The kids are fine and James is fine. And we all can't wait to see the sun again.

I'm driving!

The title of this blog should be "I'm driving, and it's still raining." The dry season should start at the end of this month. I think I've seen more rain in August and September than an entire year's worth of precipitation at home. We had a REAL downpour last week. Just a whole lot of rain (maybe six inches) in less than an hour. It ended up flooding some of the low-lying classrooms on campus, so we had a teacher work day on Tuesday for everything to dry out.

The storm came right at the time school was letting out, so everyone had to stay late. It also happened to be Will's birthday. Luckily, we had scheduled his party for Friday. But, of course, it rained then, too. We scrapped the pool party and had everyone over to the house instead. Almost everyone from the complejo dropped by, along with some other dear friends from school. I'm sure we set a record for the number of people ever in this house at one time.

Will was also honored in assembly on Friday for being the most respectful boy in his homeroom (they honored a boy and girl from each class). The rumor around the Lower School was that Will's father must be a Marine, because Will says "yes, m'am" and "yes, sir." We're very proud of him!

The big news for me, outside of the fact that I've completed two Spanish lessons, is that I'm driving. It doesn't seem like a big deal, I know. But in a city of two million people, when it seems like they are all out there on the streets at once, driving is an adventure. I've really enjoyed it so far. I've yet to drive alone - that will be my next major accomplishment.

Maggie's big news is that she has been chosen to go on exchange with the EA Middle School. They'll be headed to Knoxville on October 20 for nine days at The Webb School. Then those students will visit here in February. I know it seems pretty silly for Mags to go on exchange to Tennessee, but she is very excited. And the group meets every day at lunch to plan their trip, with all conversation taking place in Spanish. She's picking up the language quicker than any other Dunlap!

Don't know if anyone saw El Salvador in the international news, but we did have a volcano erupt yesterday. With all the rain, we couldn't see the eruption from here. It was about 40 miles from where we live. But please keep the country in your prayers.

That's all for now!