Sleepy Sunday

It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s cloudy. I’m taking a break from memorizing my student’s pictures in the EA yearbook. I want to hit the classroom tomorrow knowing all 95 names - I’d say I’m about 10 short at this point. I have lunch room duty this week, which means I have to eat in the student cafeteria. As unpleasant as the food can be, it will give me a chance to quiz myself on names. Knowing students in alphabetical order is one thing, knowing them on sight is another. I have six Carlos’s and five Adrianna’s this year; that might make it a little bit easier.

The internet and the cable are out right now, but I’m not sure why. It is so quiet in the house. We are anxiously awaiting James’s return from the States this afternoon. His best friend, Mike Johnson, died last Tuesday. James stayed for the first day of school, and then flew home to South Carolina on Thursday morning for Mike’s funeral. Because Mike was a former headmaster at the Spartanburg Day School, Dr. Skipper went back to Spartanburg with James. I wish I could have gone as well, but the expense of two plane tickets on short notice was more than we could afford. It is comforting to know that we’re not that far away, and if we need to get home quickly it looks like can.

I finally drove the Volvo while James was away. It's running great now, but it still fills up with ants every now and then. We still can't figure out why. Maggie and I went out after dark to buy her school supplies. I counted three missing manhole covers between here and the school supply store. This is definitely not a country where you can drive and talk on your cell phone. You really must concentrate. I confess that we did miss one turn yesterday coming back from the mall. But if you drive far enough, you’ll come to a traffic circle that will turn you around the other way. And you’re never truly lost if you can still see the volcano.

Our new home office overlooks a tiny garden that draws hummingbirds. I never knew that they made a clicking sound. It’s nice to watch them while I type. I really need to start on my lesson plans and go back to grading quizzes. I’m starting my Master’s degree in a few weeks, and James and I have to get back to our Spanish lessons. Time will go quickly this semester.

I’ve included a photograph of our dining room, primarily to show the painting that we bought at a local art gallery. Although it is a Salvadoran artist, the scene reminds us of low country South Carolina. The dining room walls are green now, but I’m afraid we’re off a bit on the shade. Our next holiday is September 15, Salvadoran Independence Day. I think we’ll be experimenting with paint colors then.

The van should be pulling up soon with James and a suitcase full of Walmart merchandise. Can’t wait to see both. Susan

Mila and More

We have spent a lot of time lately with our housekeeper, Mila. Normally we’re in school and not under her feet, but the last few weeks we have all been in the house together. (Good news – our car is finally back from the shop! There was a massive ant invasion when it came back to us – but I think we’ve got that under control now.) Back to Mila - it never ceases to amaze me how hard she works. We were discussing the age of our washing machine, when she volunteered her age - 56. She also told me that her house has been without water for three days. I’m sure she considers our home to be pretty fancy. We are grateful for the time she spends with us.

I think Mila appreciates our rudimentary Spanish. We are communicating more than we did last year, and I haven’t sent her home since we got back (like I did by mistake last year.) Mila tries to talk to me more, and most of the time I get what she’s saying. I think she gets a kick out of the big smile on my face when I understand her Spanish.

Mila has been the one to give us bat advice. We have been more diligent about closing the doors at night (I really don’t like bats.) She also took our cross left over from Dia de la Cruse and posted it by the back door. She said it will keep the bats away. James took down a big clove of old garlic that someone else had nailed over a door. I’m not using the “v” word, but it does seem like the folklore here is heavy on the vampire part... I’m just glad we haven’t had another bat in the house.

We have been out and about a little bit, trying to enjoy the last few days of vacation before school starts. We took our first trip to the peer with Todd and Kathy Gordon. We bought jumbo shrimp fresh off the boat (at least I think it was fresh). There are big cranes where they hoist all the boats up onto the peer. Then all the fishermen unload their catch for the day. (We visited the Atlanta Aquarium this summer and marveled at the sea life. Here it seems that they eat everything that we saw on display – eels, sharks, manta rays. I guess just about anything can be filleted.) We also saw turtle eggs for sale – even though there is a huge push to try to get Salvadorans not to eat them, it looks like they are very popular.

We took a trip to the beach on Tuesday with the Fawcetts – sort of a last hurrah before school starts. (That's Will in the middle of photo.) We ran into a protest on the highway – lots of people carrying signs, with newspaper and tv reporters everywhere. Turns out the demonstration was against the rising bus fares. It was pretty early in the day and we managed to get through the crowd. We saw a picture on the front page of the paper the next day that showed the highway completely blocked by the protestors. Our timing was really good. When we arrived at the beach, the club was closed for repairs. We had a cooler full of sandwiches and drinks, so we just went on in. We had a whole stretch of beach to ourselves. There was a big storm here in June that dumped thousands of rocks on the shore, so we spent most of the time in the club’s pool. But it was so nice to see the Pacific again. I’m still amazed that we live that close to the shore.

Our first faculty meeting is tomorrow morning, and then we’re headed to a faculty retreat about two hours from here at La Palma. It’s another part of the country that I haven’t seen, so I’m really looking forward to the trip. We’re going to paint the dining room when we get back, so I promise to post some pictures of the house after that. I think James will be relieved when I start teaching again and quit messing with this house. More to come! Susan

Nature

I had forgotten how much nature we live with here. The doors and windows are open all day and there’s always a nice breeze. I had a real problem in SC getting used to air conditioning. It seemed to cold to me after living without it for so long. In the heat wave that SC’s having right now, AC is an absolute must. But here it’s mostly pleasant. When it gets really hot, we just go swimming.

Having moved from one side of the complejo to the other (100 feet?), I didn’t expect to have any major adjustments. But... we are now just a small parking lot away from the school’s finca, a nice garden/small park. Before we backed up to squatters, people living on a small parcel of unclaimed land between the school and a city water tower. They had dogs and raised chickens, so those were our daily noises. On this side, we hear all sorts of different birds that must live in the finca. We were waking up at 5:30 a.m. when we first arrived, but we’re already used to the bird songs and we’re sleeping till 7:00.

Yesterday morning, something swooped by my head as I came downstairs. I thought it was a bird in the house, which always makes me really nervous. It turned out to be a giant moth. (This ridiculous photo shows you that the moth is about the size of James's hand.) We’ve had a number of them get in lately. Besides startling me, they seem harmless. About 30 minutes later, I saw what I thought was another giant moth. Unfortunately, this time it was a fruit bat. Mila had warned us about the mess bats make when they get in the house, and to make sure we closed all the doors at night. (I was so impressed that Maggie knew the word in Spanish for bat.) Still, we must have forgotten to close the door to the back hall, and one got in. We had three children visiting yesterday, so all five kids had a great time chasing the bat through the house. I stayed in the guest room until it was gone. Looks like we are bat free today.

The only other battle I fight is with sugar ants. They descend on any sweet crumb dropped anywhere. But I’ll take animals and insects over heat anytime. Hope it cools off soon, South Carolina. We’re thinking about you! Susan