Stuck
We are back in El Salvador after six weeks visiting family and friends in South Carolina. We have been here for almost a week, and I am driving everyone crazy. A number of things are in limbo – we have no car, no internet (just fixed!), no television and no place to sit. I have cleaned and organized the house, but I’m running out of things to do until we can get our life back in order.
Our car battery refuses to hold a charge, and we spent a couple of days eliminating all the obvious solutions. So the car has been towed away. The challenge is that Agostino holidays begins officially on Wednesday, so everyone else in El Salvador wants to get their car repaired before they go in vacation. I know it sounds odd, but everyone in El Salvador goes on holiday at the same time. We have borrowed an old Jeep from another complejo couple; it’s good for running to get groceries and going on short errands. We have no idea if our car will be fixed anytime soon.
The school has contracted with a new company for cable and internet service. Today is the day they are rewiring all the houses. In the meantime, we have been watching dvd’s and reading. I could start writing lesson plans, but August 24th (the first day of school for us) seems so far away.
The “no place to sit” problem is my own doing. We sent all our furniture out to be recovered now that we have a real house. I went to an outlet in Gaffney and loaded everyone’s suitcases to the maximum weight with yards and yards of new fabric. The upholsterer came last week, but I didn’t ask him when the furniture would be ready or how much it would all cost. Spanish still intimidates me.
The best news of all is that we are now living in a real house. It is our first in El Salvador. I counted – this is our sixth residence in a year. We lived in our pink house in Spartanburg, my mother’s house over the holidays, and a friend’s double-wide trailer this summer. We are now in our third residence on the school’s campus – the first two were apartments. Whenever I go to look for something (like a vegetable peeler), I can’t remember which house I saw it in.
The smell of pupusas has filled our new house. Mila is cooking and all is well. We went to Hyper Paiz on Saturday to buy some groceries and get hair cuts. Hyper Paiz has now been purchased by Wal-Mart, but nothing in the store has changed. They had a cleaning products give-away going on Saturday. It was more crowded there than a mall in the States in December. And I had forgotten how everyone watches Americans walk by. I admit there are not many of us here. I caught myself staring at a blonde-headed girl yesterday. She seemed offended. She better get used to it.
I have no pictures of the new house just yet – waiting for furniture and then I’ll post them Till then, here’s a photo from our summer trip to Washington (how pathetic to post summer vacation shots!). I head to the center of town tomorrow with Letty to pick up some new bar stools. The seats are colored plastic string. I ordered all red – normally they mix red and blue and pink and green all in one chair. Guess my native tastes have not developed yet. But for all the warnings I had heard about shopping downtown, I was pleasantly surprised. It was crowded and noisy just like everywhere else.
More blog updates to follow! Susan
Our car battery refuses to hold a charge, and we spent a couple of days eliminating all the obvious solutions. So the car has been towed away. The challenge is that Agostino holidays begins officially on Wednesday, so everyone else in El Salvador wants to get their car repaired before they go in vacation. I know it sounds odd, but everyone in El Salvador goes on holiday at the same time. We have borrowed an old Jeep from another complejo couple; it’s good for running to get groceries and going on short errands. We have no idea if our car will be fixed anytime soon.
The school has contracted with a new company for cable and internet service. Today is the day they are rewiring all the houses. In the meantime, we have been watching dvd’s and reading. I could start writing lesson plans, but August 24th (the first day of school for us) seems so far away.
The “no place to sit” problem is my own doing. We sent all our furniture out to be recovered now that we have a real house. I went to an outlet in Gaffney and loaded everyone’s suitcases to the maximum weight with yards and yards of new fabric. The upholsterer came last week, but I didn’t ask him when the furniture would be ready or how much it would all cost. Spanish still intimidates me.
The best news of all is that we are now living in a real house. It is our first in El Salvador. I counted – this is our sixth residence in a year. We lived in our pink house in Spartanburg, my mother’s house over the holidays, and a friend’s double-wide trailer this summer. We are now in our third residence on the school’s campus – the first two were apartments. Whenever I go to look for something (like a vegetable peeler), I can’t remember which house I saw it in.
The smell of pupusas has filled our new house. Mila is cooking and all is well. We went to Hyper Paiz on Saturday to buy some groceries and get hair cuts. Hyper Paiz has now been purchased by Wal-Mart, but nothing in the store has changed. They had a cleaning products give-away going on Saturday. It was more crowded there than a mall in the States in December. And I had forgotten how everyone watches Americans walk by. I admit there are not many of us here. I caught myself staring at a blonde-headed girl yesterday. She seemed offended. She better get used to it.
I have no pictures of the new house just yet – waiting for furniture and then I’ll post them Till then, here’s a photo from our summer trip to Washington (how pathetic to post summer vacation shots!). I head to the center of town tomorrow with Letty to pick up some new bar stools. The seats are colored plastic string. I ordered all red – normally they mix red and blue and pink and green all in one chair. Guess my native tastes have not developed yet. But for all the warnings I had heard about shopping downtown, I was pleasantly surprised. It was crowded and noisy just like everywhere else.
More blog updates to follow! Susan
posted by The Dunlaps | 5:27 PM
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