Dunlaps in San Salvador

The Salvadoran Military

2008-11-25T08:24:00.002-06:00

Luis has just returned from a Model UN trip to Egypt. He had talked about writing a blog about that experience, but was instead inspired to write a polittcal history of the Salvadoran military. His point of view is quite interesting. Here is Luis:

As I walk down the streets of my hometown, I can’t help but feel like something is missing. Is it the lack of safety? Maybe. Is it the constant economical change? Maybe. Is it the constant political activity? It could be. All in all, what can a seventeen-year-old boy do to cope with the situation? I don’t know - I’m just a kid. But as a citizen of this wonderful country, I feel the need to demystify the Salvadoran military, and how we arrived at where we are today.

The Salvadoran Armed Forces were instituted back in 1821 when El Salvador had finally achieved its independence from Spain. This institution was created with three goals in mind: 1) defending the Integrity of El Salvador, 2) defending its citizens, and 3) preserving its national institutions. The founding the institution can be attributed to General Manuel Jose Arce, who became quite a figure in Salvadoran History. However, in its beginnings, the Salvadoran military was antiquated, using old, if not outdated, weapons and tactics. This did not seem to matter to the Salvadoran government, as it seemed as if technology did not matter in Central American warfare. As time passed, Mexico and Guatemala got the idea that they could unite Central America into one whole state, again. This had already happened back in 1829 with the Federal Republic of Central America, and it had ended in catastrophe. El Salvador, the only country in Central America to go against this thought, knew that this union would not end up well. El Salvador ended up fighting against two bigger countries. Guatemala and Mexico attacked El Salvador, but EL Salvador managed to put a halt on the combined forces, even though the Salvadoran Army was smaller than that of Mexico and Guatemala. The Mexicans were stopped in a little town which now is called "Mejicanos."

As time passed, the Salvadoran Military remained the same. No real advancement occurred until the turn of the century. With the 1900's at hand, a new age was coming to the Salvadoran Army. As every country in the world began arms racing, El Salvador had to continue this trend. It began to buy Czech rifles, in big quantities, and began bringing military advisors from Europe. The military had been finally "modernized." However, as the 1930’s approached, the Great Depression that had hit the United States and Europe so hard was finally reaching El Salvador. Coffee prices fell so hard internationally that the national economy was devastated. Indeed, the country was in need of a "strong" leader. Therefore, el general Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez became the next "president" of El Salvador. Most commonly known as "General Martinez,” he was a strong advocate for the military. He brought discipline to the army, but his methods of ruling were quiet questionable.

During the 30's, there was this trend to put up dictatorships. El Salvador, following the status quo, put up a "dictatorship.” Due to the fall of coffee prices, thousands of peasants, mostly Indian, marched for better wages. The main mastermind of the march was the communist leader Farabundo Marti. The Salvadoran Government knew this and acted following the status quo of the time. The march was stopped, but thousands of Indians died.

Ironically, when the United States declared war on Germany, so did El Salvador. Thus, El Salvador ratified its power as a Central American nation. During this time, the United States feared a Nazi invasion, and offered to send down some Marines in order to help secure the area. Most Central American countries were glad to get this help. However, El Salvador denied the entry of such troops. El General Martinez believed that by letting foreign troops into the country, he would be not only insulting the armed forces of El Salvador, but letting foreign influence into the country. Furthermore, El Salvador was present in the European Theatre with troops to Europe, even if it was only about two hundred.

When the 1950's and 60's came, thousands of Salvadorans moved to Honduras looking for jobs. In effect they found jobs, but these were not free. They came at a cost. The cost was war. When the many Hondurans realized that their jobs were being taken by Salvadorans, they reacted violently. The Salvadoran government acted against this threat, and in 1969, after a soccer match between El Salvador and Honduras (which El Salvador won giving the name "la guerra del futbol" to the war), El Salvador declared war on Honduras. The War of 100 hours, or "la guerra de las cien horas," had begun. El Salvador’s military penetrated deep inside Honduran territory, causing heavy casualties on the Honduran side. El Salvador was ready to declare this a military victory, when the OEA (Organization of American States) interfered and forced peace down the throats of both El Salvador and Honduras. In the end, El Salvador achieved a military victory, but it had achieved a political loss as it had lost much territory to Honduras as compensation to them. In effect, the Salvadoran Armed forces have demonstrated throughout the years that the number of guns does not matter. It is the spirit and strength of the soldiers that matter. I can’t help but feel proud of my country for most of its achievements.

Blue-White Passion

2008-11-23T20:36:00.002-06:00

I let two students write about soccer for the blog. I'm sure there could have been more. But I could not deny Jose the opportunity to write about his favorite sport - he is such a big fan. Here's his play-by-play:

Salvadorians have a left/right political barrier, and that is the main problem right now in our country. But there is one thing that unites us. It's what people follow, feel, and live no matter what is happening. When the match day is announced, people started making plans around it. People don't rest until tickets are sold out. This sport is like the "main religion." It's our "same language" and it's our "beloved obsession." I'm talking about soccer. Soccer is like a seesaw. Sometimes, the national team plays really well and everyone just can't stop talking about that. But there are some times that the team plays badly and it becomes a non-desirable. Win or lose, the whole country follows the adored "Selecta."

To our fortune, and the players too, the Salvadoran team is doing quite well now. There's this blue-white euphoria because we are prevailing against the most competitive adversaries. El Salvador has a respected soccer reputation because we have qualified for two FIFA World Cups. But the catch is that we haven't had a decent team for almost ten years. That's too much time for us - the unconditional fans whose world revolves around soccer.

In the past year or so, we were playing badly. We were underrated in the FIFA rating and had to play two different matches before entering the group stage. The teams that often play these matches are the lesser teams like Anguilla or the Virgin Islands and other small islands in the Caribbean. We, as fans, were furious at the decision made by FIFA. We were worried because at the end of the first match, we would have to play a stronger team, like Panama. Salvadorians started to get worried because Panama knocked us out from the first group stage last time.

The road started when we were paired up in a game versus Anguilla. Nobody knew who that team was or any famous player, or, in other words, any good player from Anguilla. Just days later, the newspapers started doing their job. The whole country was now aware that Anguilla didn't even have a FIFA approved stadium! Imagine that! The newspaper articles asked "what do you think the score of the game will be?" The predictions made were between 4 to 6 goals to 0. One of the people interviewed said 12-0! That would surely be some triumph!

All these speculations continued until the match day finally came. The whole stadium roared. 45 thousand blue-white fans were singing the same anthem, dreaming the impossible, living the same passion: a victory to soothe doubts and critics. The starting whistle was blown and the ball rolled and there was no Salvadorian who wasn't watching the game. We started with a 2-0 in the first 15 minutes. It looked like an easy game. Before the end of the first half, we were already 4-0.

Who would doubt a Salvadoran victory? Anguilla has no professional soccer players. Most of them are firemen, policeman and electricians. The whole stadium was about to explode and it was worse when our home team went in the pitch again. What we didn't know was that the party hadn't even begun. The goals came, one after another, after another, until we reached the final whistle with a fantastic score of 12-0 - just as the fan predicted! Everyone was in a state of something between goose bumps, exaltation, and joy. It is just something you must feel our passion to live, that Blue-White passion that unites us.

A Korean in El Salvador

2008-11-23T18:10:00.002-06:00

I asked Sang Uk (known around school as Saggy) to write about what it was like to be a Korean in El Salvador. Saggy has traveled extensively and has a global view of his future in this world. Here is his perspective.

El Salvador is a small country that is nestled in Central America. Civil strife ravaged the country only a small number of years ago. Its political state is constantly landlocked in an indirect battle between left wing and right wing supporters. However, these small setbacks are not preventing the country from quickly raising its once damaged economy.

The above summarized historical definition also applies similarly to another country. All one needs to do is to replace the world ‘El Salvador’ with ‘Korean Peninsula’. Korea shares some historical pains with El Salvador. Korea also takes pride in its rising economy. Korea is as much the small jewel of East Asia as El Salvador is the pearl of Central America. I am a Korean.

Unfortunately, Koreans in El Salvador do not generally fit in. Due to our history, we’re fiercely independent and it doesn't help that Salvadorians are independent, too. El Salvador has a large gap between the upper class and the lower class. Most Korean families set up large factories for cheap quantitative production of materials and, as such, appeal to the lower class, while making enough cash to be considered upper class. This ‘breach’ alienates Koreans in a way comparable to bats. We don't really belong on land, but are not totally comfortable in the air either.

That’s not to say that Koreans totally exclude themselves from Salvadorian life. Spanish is learned rapidly by Koreans in order to communicate with the indigenous people. Communication, however, is limited to necessary talking. Styles of humor and topics of interest are much different between the two peoples. As such, Koreans tend to hang around one another rather than socialize around with Salvadorians.

The world we live in is not a flat one. We live in a spherical world where every inch of the globe is different from any other. It is hardly surprising that Korea, which is thousands of miles away from El Salvador, should have different customs. Koreans in El Salvador, unable to fit in properly, have set up independent churches, restaurants and schools here. I myself have many Salvadorian friends, and I've learned to properly communicate with them. I've lived in El Salvador for two years and have grown accustomed to the Salvadoran cultural heritage. However, I still marvel at how different I act when I’m around Koreans than when I’m around Salvadorians.

What Coffee Means to Me

2008-11-23T17:57:00.002-06:00

Andres is one of the deep thinkers in my class. He is also trying to teach me to get his jokes. I am far too literal - but I'm working on it! Andres tries to explain the difference between what the every day meaning of "coffee" and "coffee" here in El Salvador.

Coffee was much more than just a product; it was known to influence our economy in previous years. The two-syllable, six lettered word began to be grown in the beginning of the 19th century. It started to contribute to the economy and immerge as a main export at the beginning of the 20th century. This manufactured good shaped and augmented our economy. It also acted as a catalyst in El Salvador’s exponential growth in the economy during the 1940’s.

Although the economy benefited immensely from this staple crop, coffee’s decline in value, and the monopolization of this crop from a number of companies, affected El Salvador negatively. It radically changed the country’s dependence on coffee as a main source of income, and left numerous “cafetaleros” (coffee plantations owners) unemployed. As a result, the country opted for other sources of profit, in attempt to reshape the country’s economy.

Now that you are “experts” on this topic, I would like to tell you what coffee means to me as a Salvadorian. When I say coffee, much more comes to mind than the delectable hot cappuccinos or cold frappes known to the majority of us. Coffee is much more than just a number or a date in our history. It is much more than a source of income or profit to a variety of people. Coffee is something that has carved our history.

Coffee is everywhere these days. The problem is that when the majority of people hear the word coffee, the universal meaning comes to mind, whether it is a pleasant moment of relaxation or an energy drink. But when I hear this word, I think about how much coffee has helped shaped our country. It has helped us craft our identity into what this country is today. And although I struggle to see beyond superficial meanings, I believe you can also understand coffee’s importance in El Salvador. So wake up people; it’s time to ponder!

Dancing in El Salvador

2008-11-23T17:54:00.001-06:00

The junior class recently completed an amazing dance production, a long standing EA tradition. Front and center and loving every minute of the performance was my student, Alex. She is not exaggerating; she is always dancing. Here's Alex.

Once again, I'm late. The show starts in half an hour and Nené de Roeder asked us to be dressed and ready in the camerinos an hour before the performance starts. The line for the entrance looks a mile and a half long, and most of the faces I see are familiar. When you live in a country so small, there is not a day that you don't run into someone you know.

I rush in after a quick kiss on the cheek from my mom and a 'Suerte, ¡baila bonito mona!' (Never in her life has my mother called me the traditional word for girl, 'cipota,' opting instead to refer to me as 'female monkey.') Dashing into the first backstage room, I discover that it's the younger girl's changing room; ours is the other one. I power walk to the Senior's/Junior's room to drop off my things before sneaking a peak into the theatre from the stage. People have not even started to come in. In unadulterated Salvadoran tradition, five o'clock means six o'clock, or maybe even six thirty. God, I love this country.

I hear familiar voices saying 'Niña, you were supposed to be here forty minutes ago!' With quick pecks on the cheek and sincere hugs, I greet my friends from Jazzing. Some of the girls have been dancing for around fourteen years; others have just been there for a couple of months, mostly transfers from other dance studios. I have been dancing on and off for around eleven years. By on and off I mean attending classes; everyone knows I cannot spend more than fifteen minutes without at least getting up on my toes. Ironically, I don't even dance pointe.

PRIMERA LLAMADA

After this announcement we all go to pseudo stretch. Eight grand pliés á la seconde will have to do, for the butterflies in our stomachs and adrenaline pulsing in our veins allow us no more. After the quick sweat, we fix our makeup, at least the punctual ones do; my kindred spirits and I begin applying concealer, foundation, blush, bronzer, mascara, eyeliner, so on and so forth.

SEGUNDA LLAMADA

The mellow male murmur announces the show is starting in around five minutes. A couple of us rush out to the crowded stage to practice the choreographies, counting out loud as to not forget a single step. Chainé derecha, chainé izquierda, dos, tres, cuatro, step, step, open, close, siete y ocho. Paso, paso, up, down, cinco, seis, siete, y ocho. Pasé, stag leap, cinco y seis, out, and in. The euphoria is palpable.

ESTA ES LA TERCERA LLAMADA. COMENZAMOS. ('This is the third and final call. We begin.')

Twice every year, Jazzing Dance Studio holds a show in Teatro Presidente, which is located next to Museo de Arte MARTE. Vivrajazz Studio, Escuela Nacional de Ballet
Morena Celarie, Fundación de Ballet El Salvador and other dance troupes also leave their sweat and hard work in Teatro Presidente's stage. Besides the ballet folklórico, as it is called, there are many genres of dance regularly practiced in this little lost country in Central America. Traditional ballet is taking secondary stage as the hip hop and 'street' music take over the scene. The most renowned of these schools is Fusión, owned by Billy Grimaldi. Fusión teaches street jazz, a hybrid of styles as the name suggests.

Another type of dance studio in El Salvador is the jazz-focused ones. The two main are Jazzing Dance Studio and Vivrajazz Studio. Their main show is jazz, but they teach ballet, pointe, and tap too. These two schools compete internationally in Dance Masters of America and Dance Educators of America competitions. Both these academies normally get at least a silver medal if not high silver or gold.

These relatively large groups of students taking part in the dance scene of El Salvador supported my theory of the international influence on dance, as well as in all other aspects of the Salvadoran culture. Around eighty five percent of the groups danced songs or remixes containing hip hopesque or 'street' American music.

Whether it's the classical elegance of ballet, the sultry sounds of tango, the energy of jazz dancers, or the blood boiling heat of salsa dancers, anything can be found in the petit country I call my home. If you will excuse me, I must now go put on stocking and jazz slippers to practice for our presentation on December the second: One Hundred and One Dalmatians. And I'm a thief, not a pup.

The Legends of "el Cipitillo" and "la Siguanaba"

2008-11-06T12:05:00.003-06:00

Legends and myths are an important part of El Salvador’s culture and tradition. Grandparents or older relatives usually tell them to young children (or, as we call them, “cipotes”) and they often have a didactic or moral purpose. I remember my aunt loved to tell my cousins and me these legends to scare us and get us to behave when we were at her house. Among the most famous ones, and also the ones I liked the most, are “el Cipitillo” and “la Siguanaba”.

Folklore recounts that Sihuehuet, which means beautiful woman, was having an affair with the son of the Nawat god, Tlaloc. She had a child called Cipitillo, but when Tlaloc found out, both mother and son were punished. She would be called Siguanaba, which meant ugly woman. According to the myth, she appears to be beautiful at first but she turns into a horrible creature after attracting males who travel at night alone near rivers where she washed clothes or bathed. People who swear they have seen her say she has black hair infested with lice, dark wrinkled skin, and long dirty nails. Her victims, who are usually single or unfaithful, came out with fevers, lice in their hair, and scratches all over their backs and arms. It is said that the only way to prevent her attack is to bite a cross or religious medallion, or pull her hair.

Siguanaba’s son, Cipitillo, was neglected and malnurished by his mother, who left him alone most of the time. He is condemned to live forever as a young boy with his feet in a backward position. Cipitillo is portrayed as having a big belly. He has the ability to teletransport. He wears a large pointy hat (like the one I’m modeling in the picture) and likes to eat ashes and bananas. Although according to legend he is not harmful, he likes to bother people (especially pretty ladies) by laughing boisterously, by throwing things, or by whistling.

So whether you believe these legends or not, if you visit El Salavador, stay away from rivers at night. You never know what you could find!

Fireworks

2008-11-06T11:56:00.005-06:00

Paulina is a horseback rider. Riding is very competitive here, and a number of my former students have competed. But Paulina did not write about horses. Instead she decribed a Salvadoran tradition that the Dunlaps have "almost" gotten used to: fireworks. Here's Paulina:

Fireworks in El Salvador have been a tradition that goes way back to town celebrations. These celebrations are done in honor of a local saint. To honor this specific saint, people added enthusiasm to the celebration by blowing up colorful fireworks. Subsequently, fireworks became more frequently used in different holidays, such as Christmas and New Year's Eve. Today, fireworks are manufactured in smaller and more varied forms, allowing everyone to join in the fun.

Interestingly enough, fireworks in El Salvador can be purchased legally by any civilian. Big fireworks are bought as spectacles for big parties. These large fireowrks can be found in stores such as “El Dragon Chino” (the Chinese dragon). When Christmas is approaching, firework selling stands are put up in nearly every traffic circle in the city. In these stands you can find other types of firecrackers such as volcancitos, silbadores, fulminantes, estrellitas and morteros.

Volcancitos, as the name proposes, are little volcanoes that when lit release light of all colors, as if it were lava. Fulminantes are little colored balls that have to be thrown hard against the floor in order for them to burst. When they burst, fulminantes release a tiny flame that goes out almost immediately. It is always fun to have fulimante wars by throwing them near to other peoples' shoes. People start jumping all over trying to avoid them. Estrellitas are little sticks that are lit in the tip and burn like stars. These are usually used by little kids because they are said to be the safest.

The most fun are silbadores. Their shape is that of a little thin stick with a tiny string at its tip. You have to fire up that little string and hold the stick until it makes a whistling noise. When you hear the noise, you thrust the stick up into the air and it launches like a rocket. One of the most memorable events of Christmas for kids are silbadores wars. They consist of thrusting silbadores up in the air in the direction of the opposing team. These are harmless since it has very little gunpowder and the only thing that impulses them is air going through a vent they have. Nevertheless, everyone runs at the sight of silbadores. These wars are only for older kids because the running may be a little more dangerous for little kids.

Even though these "battles" might seem a little weird and dangerous, there are very few injuries with these types of firecrackers. The most dangerous are big morteros, and they have already been banned. There are millions of other types of firecrackers, but the ones I’ve mentioned are the most common. Christmas and other celebrations would not be remotely the same without fireworks!

Soccer in San Salvador

2008-11-06T09:20:00.005-06:00

Manuel is the quiet one in the class. I am learning more about him through his writing than in class discussions - but I think he is worth getting to know. His love for soccer is unmistakeable. Here is his story:

Thousands of fans are yelling; people are selling sodas and fireworks. There’s a lot happening on a soccer night at the stadium in San Salvador. There’s a party all the time, even if the favorite team is losing. The Estadio Cuscatlan is the biggest soccer stadium in Central America; it has a capacity of over 50,000 people. It is also the most modern stadium in Central America and the Caribbean. The stadium has VIP boxes, a great field for the game, and a LED screen.

I have gone several times to the stadium for different events, but most of them were soccer matches. The teams aren’t that good, but just the fact of being there and the mood of all the people around me makes everything very exciting. You hear screams, you hear curses, you hear drums all around. Huge Salvadoran flags wave majestically. Being there with your friends and family watching an intense match is enough to make your night memorable.

I remember the time I went to see the inauguration of the LED screen. It is huge, 40 meters long and wide. The screen is used to show parts of the game and many, many commercials. There was a special match that night between the Alianza Futbol Club and a team from Puerto Rico. It was a pretty boring game that ended in a tie 0 to 0, but during the half time there was a spectacular show of fireworks that made the whole stadium rumble.

One of my favorite parts of going to the stadium is all the food. There is a burger cart called Mister Burger that sells the greasiest, nasty-looking burgers you will will ever see and love. They are simply great! All of my friends love them, but people say that they can make you sick. I even have friends whose parents don’t let them eat those burgers because they look so nasty.

Going to the stadium is not just about going to see a soccer game. The food, the people, the drums, the flags, the shouts: all of these things make a soccer match more than just a simple show. It is an unforgettable Salvadoran party.

Cantando Por Un Sueño

2008-11-06T08:47:00.005-06:00

Pati plays handball with Maggie. I really appreciate how welcome she has made Mags feel on the team. Pati does not write about the sport here (although she could have bragged about the girls coming in second place in the Central American tournament!). Instead she decribes the t.v. show that everyone is watching. Here's the story:

As with many other countries in the world, El Salvador is a great supporter of the arts and a fanatic of music. There is a television show on at the present moment called "Cantando Por Un Sueño" or “Singing for a Dream.” This program consists of couples who sing together in order to achieve a dream. The dream has to be to help someone in need. The singers are raising money either to donate to some hospital or public help center, or to help a specific individual with the costs associated with a health problem that someone may have.

The couples are made up of a national celebrity who can sing, and a regular person who is the one with the "dream." The couples are always made up of a man and a woman. During the program, which is live every Sunday night at 7:00 pm, the couples have to sing two different songs and are evaluated by four judges who are professional singers.

At the end of every episode, there are always two couples who are sentenced, which means that in they are the ones with the lowest scores and that they are at risk of being kicked off of the program. The sentenced couples have to have a challenge or battle between each other on the next episode, and the fans can send text messages in order to save their favorite couple. At the end of the program, one couple will win and that couple will be able to make their dream come true of helping who ever they want to help.

Bienvenus, Bienvenidos

2008-11-06T08:37:00.006-06:00

Cristina is a new EA student who just moved to El Salvador from France. She is a quiet thinker, but she really comes to life on paper! I admire Cristina for moving here at the beginning of her junior year. She is making it look so easy:

Imagine two worlds belonging to the same planet, breathing under the same sky. Two worlds that have opened their doors to humanity and have welcomed each one of us into the beauty of its existence. Two worlds that seem to be separated by just miles of ocean but that are, to our great surprise, inevitably distinct. Two words, two worlds.

Bienvenus a Paris. A sophisticated atmosphere seems to have taken control over its people. Immense constructions, elegant boulevards, famous “brasseries” are marking its territory, introducing the advantages of their home. The hot smell of the morning “baguette” fills the city with delicious excitement. The first Taxi has just kidnapped its lucky victim and begins its tour around the streets of Paris. It crosses the bridge Alexandre III, leaving its passenger wordless as he sees the uniqueness of European architecture.

Bienvenidos a San Salvador. Suddenly, the air seems to have changed color. A sign catches my attention. A large panel of wood is holding itself with great balance on a weak iron ramp. A school bus just passed by. Oh no, wait, where have all the children gone? Men and women, holding each other tightly are in search of a hand that will help them stay aboard. Quick, turn around! Did you just miss that scene? A heard of cows, crossing the road as if it were its own, hoping the next car will make a stop. The daily chaos of the streets of San Salvador has just turned off the alarm.

Bienvenus a Paris. A young couple is taking pleasure in a morning nap under the skinny legs of the Eiffel Tower, enjoying an agreeable spring breeze. They later on take a walk on the large sidewalks of the Champs Elysées, admiring the numerous boutiques that dress up the avenue. One o’clock: it is time for a healthy lunch. They look up the choices that are presented to them and finally decide to taste the French specialties. To begin with, a dainty foie gras, followed by a reasonable portion of escalope d’agneau, and for dessert, the French’s favorite, profiterole au chocolat. Lunch seems to be going perfectly until the painful moment arrives. As the waiter approaches the table, the handsome gentleman doubtfully opens his wallet, carefully slipping out his credit card. As he peaks to see the amount written on the miserable piece of paper, the smile suddenly fades away, making place for a more unsatisfied look. Oh well, one more expensive but exquisite meal. I guess people prefer just getting used to the costly way of life.

Bienvenidos al Salvador. A group of friends has just enjoyed an entertaining day at the beach and decides to drive back early in order to make it for lunch at their favorite restaurant, Tipicos Margoth. This suitable “pupuseria” is the ideal place for a low-cost meal and presents a diverse menu that appeals to all kinds of tastes. Pupusas con frijoles, pupusas con queso, pupusas, pupusas, pupusas. On the other side of the road, two young teenagers have just arrived from their soccer match and would kindly accept a portion of “papas fritas de la calle.. What is better than a greasy ration of French fries with ketchup that some may call “junk food”?
- Se vende papapas fritas!
- Elotes! Quien quiere elotes!
- Pupusas! Pupusas! Pupusas!
The cheer of the muchachas echoes through the entire pueblo, inviting all those who would receive a typical Salvadorian snack.

Bienvenus a Paris. A woman steps in her Smart and drives through a red light, causing the orchestra of musical honks that seems to go on forever. On the other side of the street, a young girl walks out of a store, kindly holds the door open for a man rushing out as if he was late for his prom date, and stays behind without even receiving a “merci.” To add up to this bewildering spectacle, a young driver, proud of having earned his license, generously leaves clear the cross road for an elderly man who doesn’t even bother to offer a smile. This is how goes a classic Monday morning on the streets of Paris.

Bienvenidos al Salvador. Now turn the page and begin reading the story of a typical day in the heart of the Latino crowd. It was an early Friday morning and all students were arriving at school. This new girl had just arrived from the other side of the globe and everyone was wondering what she was doing landing in a country so far away and unusual. It was no time for asking such questions though. As the Latino culture requires, everyone got into their positions and welcomed the “French girl” as warmly as she could expect. There was no way that they would abandon a stranger who was entering a whole new experience. And so the days passed by and little by little, they began transforming the new girl into a half French half Salvadorian soul.

There is no way one could describe a place in our world being better than another. Each country has it advantages and drawbacks. Learning about how two very different cultures manage to integrate themselves in our society and bring significant impact to our lives is a way for me to discover what my existence is really about. After recounting my story, I have just a few more words to say: Bienvenus, Bienvenidos, Welcome everyone.

My New Life in El Salvador

2008-11-06T08:18:00.006-06:00

Carla is from an embassy family. I love having embassy students in my classroom because they have lived in so many interesting places in the world. Lucky for Carla, she has lots of family in El Salvador to help her make the tranistion. Here is her story:

There are so many things that come to mind when I hear "El Salvador." At first it meant "vacation" or "family" or "beach," but now I guess it means "home."

I was born here in 1992, from a Spanish/Salvadoran mother and an American father. My mom was born in Spain, but she grew up here her whole life, and I have a whole bunch of family who live here. However, when I was 3 months old, I moved to Egypt. I can't say I remember much of what El Salvador was like during that time. All I know is that it was around the time when the civil war had ended and things were just beginning to get better. I would return here every summer-and for the births of my sister and brother. Later, as I moved from place to place, El Salvador was the only place where I felt stability. Even though we moved every 3-5 years, we would always return to El Salvador.

During these years, my family would go to beaches, among them El Zunzal and El Balsamar. These are exclusive beach clubs, but these were the same clubs my mom grew up in when she lived here. The waiters and staff remember seeing her grow up, as well as seeing me grow up. El Zunzal has amazing waves to surf in, and this beach usually attracts American tourists and surfers. El Balsamar is more private, and it is a gorgeous beach. Also, during these years, we would see family almost everyday that we weren't at the beach. El Salvador did feel in a way like home, because I always felt loved and felt like I belonged here. My mom would run into many people she knew when she lived here, so people that I see even today remember me growing up.

There was a time, however, when I was about 9 years old, when we stopped coming here during the summer for about 2 years. That's when El Salvador's change really hit me. When I came here as a small child, most of El Salvador was forest. Many of the highways that I see now weren't even there. I remember driving in the car with my mom, and hearing her complain about how much El Salvador has changed and how she couldn't find her way around. Coming to El Salvador suddenly stopped being the beach vacation I was used to. There was so much more to do! Now, we were able to go out to the movies more, eat at different restaurants, and go bowling. I guess that was partially because my cousins were already driving and had more time to take us around.

Then, in my sophomore year in high school in Virginia, I got the news we were actually going to come and live here. By then, I was used to moving. I almost was waiting for the move to come, but this time it was different. Usually, I started off new, but coming here was a completely different story. My move here was really interesting, it was very different from what I expected. The Salvadoran culture is very different from the American culture, especially in terms of family. Back in Virginia, I had an aunt who lived about 30 minutes away, and we saw her once every two weeks or so. I came here and it was the complete opposite, I see my family every day. There is always someone at my house: whether it be my aunt, cousin, great aunt or grandma. I have also met a whole bunch of people who I didn't know were related to me in any way. Everyone is so outgoing, and so close, so united. There is always something to do every weekend, and there are a lot of parties, too. The atmosphere is so exciting and fun! It has been a culture shock for me in many ways, but I am glad to see how wonderful life in El Salvador actually is.

Fernando Llort: One of the Greatest Salvadorean artists

2008-11-06T08:08:00.004-06:00

Andrea is the artist in the class. She decorates her tests with cartoons - they are priceless. I can't wait to see what she does with her talent. Here is her profile of one of her heroes:

When ever I am traveling outside of El Salvador, I meet people who ask me where I’m from. And, as expected, after my answer there comes a “Where is that?” Through the years, I have become used to knowing that many people don’t have any clue as to where El Salvador is located, so I don’t care anymore. W,ell not as much as I used to. Nevertheless, I am still very troubled and annoyed when people give little importance to El Salvador’s art, for it is something that tells a lot about who we are, the changes we as a country are going through, and the culture that we are a part of. One of the best examples if the art of Fernando Llort.

The crib of El Salvador’s art is a town in the north called La Palma, in the department of Chalatenango. La Palma is a serene place surrounded by woods and mountains, which became the birth place of Fernando Llort’s artwork. He was one of the first Salvadorean artists who truly wanted to expand our artistic culture. When he came back from his studies in Germany, Llort went back to La Palma. There he developed his own artistic style which, in my opinion, truly captivates El Salvador’s essence. His inspiration for this style was centered on the seed of the “Copinol” tree. He soon founded an art studio made up himself, his wofe and ten other people. He called the studio “La semilla de Dios” (the seed of God). Later on, he also set up a gallery called “El Arbol de Dios” (the tree of God).

In time, Fernando Llort’s art gained popularity. In March of 1983, he was asked to arrange the altar where Pope John Paul II gave mass on his visit to El Salvador. This was a great honor for him, for he was and still is a very spiritual man. Another religious assignment was given later to him: the decoration of the Metropolitan Cathedral of El Salvador. This assignment took Llort and his team around a year to finish, for he painted the murals on the great Cathedral with a passion that became even greater because of his spirituality. Llort has become one of El Salvador's most known artists, with works displayed in the White House, various museums in New York, and the Vatican.

Images of his work:

http://www.salvaide.ca/Images/Fernando%20Llort%20Framed.jpg

http://web.mac.com/fernanllort/fernando-llort_%28e%29/My_Special_Moments_files/Catedral_SanSalvador.jpg

Nature in El Salvador

2008-11-06T07:59:00.006-06:00

Tonito is an enigma to me. He is the video game fan who wants to be a zoologist? He describes himself as a paradox. I agree. Here is a story about one of his passions:

It doesn’t take too long for anyone walking around the countryside of El Salvador to realize that indeed, this place holds a beauty that is seldom seen. In fact, El Salvador is a nation seldom heard of, but down here in this Central American tiny nation live proud people with a love for their mother country and for Mother Nature. The green, exuberant forests, the warm, sandy beaches, the gorgeous national parks, and the majestic volcanoes of this tiny nation are a great source of its pride and beauty, and they are vastly protected by a small group of people who care for its well-being above many other things.

There is a constant battle, however, to preserve this green beauty that is the Central American forest and the other natural beauties of the land. Unfortunately, some people regard living, arable land in a higher esteem than the beauty that is nature. Indeed, El Salvador is the second most deforested nation in Latin America, after Haiti, and it has a severe problem dealing with species’ decline and dangerous issues such as turtle egg poaching. These problems and the ignorance posted by many people regarding the destruction of nature are what often mark El Salvador as a third world country.

All hope is not lost though; there are many people willing to sacrifice a portion of their own lives to save the lives of many plants and animals. Many scientists working in organizations such as FUNZEL (translating in Spanish to Salvadoran Foundation for Zoology) and hardy volunteers work day and night to preserve the wildlife that exists in this tiny and special nation. National parks like El Imposible (The Impossible) are protected areas secured and cleaned vigorously to ensure that despite human interaction in the environment, the place remains as pure as possible and safe for all the wildlife existing in it.

No matter how long and how hard the battle to preserve nature is, there will always be people here willing to sacrifice much of their lives in exchange for the survival of species. Nature does not depend on mankind; in fact, the truth couldn’t be farther away from that. Nature is a force independent of any human variable; it is composed by an undeniable existence, and we cannot defeat or save nature. We should allow nature to exist just because of its sole right to exist, not because it makes us feel any better or benefits us. Natue is alive and therefore has a right to live. This is true as much in El Salvador as in any other nation on the globe. There should always be a will to help in preserving the current natural life everywhere, so take the valuable example that strong men and women have posed here in El Salvador.

The Ups and Downs of a Young Driver in El Salvador

2008-10-07T14:01:00.002-06:00

Arianna wrote this piece about the challenges for teenagers driving in a big city. I hope you can see her humor in her essay. She has a knack for making me laugh - even on the dullest assignments! Here's Arianna:

In El Salvador, driving is allowed at the age of 15, but only after rigorous paperwork and insurance money. I am proud to say that I learned to drive at the age of 13 with my dad’s help and despite my mom’s pleas in the heavy Salvadoran traffic. A juvenile license is not so hard to get- you only need to take one month of certified driver’s ed and take a vision test (in this really blurry and overused machine with poor lighting, signaling whether the letter E is upside down or sideways). You also must take a “theory exam” on a computer and, finally, a practical test.

I failed the written part once. I got a 5.8 instead of the passing grade which is a 7. I was devastated because I usually do well on multiple choice questions (for some odd reason, I couldn’t answer what would I do if I saw a dog ahead of me on the left side of the street….go figure). I had to wait 15 days for the retake. After studying, or highlighting, the WHOLE two booklets, I found out that I had to avoid the dog and honk within 50 meters. I passed the test with an 8. Immediately after that I went to SERTRACEN, which is the office in charge of giving you your license. I had my picture taken, and gave them all the necessary information to obtain that glittery blue plastic that would allow me to roam the streets of San Salvador-from 7 to 7- without adult supervision.

In our society, it is very common to encourage your children to drive at a young age. My dad learned to drive when he was 11, and my mom, well she’s an exception since she learned to drive at 20. To be honest I am not overly excited to drive, and I would pay my brother to drive instead of me except for the fact that he just loves driving. He likes to swerve in and out of traffic, honk obnoxiously, rush to get to places, and wait at the long stoplights.

If I’m not thrilled to drive under normal circumstances (7 minutes to get from my house to school), I am less thrilled to drive now that an expressway is being built and my normal school route has been closed. I must say that if in a good mood, I enjoy the urban culture and adventure- the crowded and colorful buses with really complicated names (Maritza Esmeralda, for example), the pedestrians who stubbornly refuse to use the pasarelas, the puzzling traffic circles, and the illuminated streets of San Salvador filled with thousands of headlights. Weird tests with blurry E’s, lots of paperwork, and traffic are just a part of the ride. In my experience, driving here is a roller coaster-fast, uncontrollable, and electrifying.

The First Week of August

2008-09-30T13:48:00.004-06:00

Vivian wrote this entry about her favorite part of the summer. I have known Vivian for years through her drama preformances. I think the first time I saw her on stage, she was in 8th grade. Now I have the pleasure of seeing her almost every day. In the photo, Vivian is the second from the right.

Lago de Coatepeque is a small lake that is about 45 minutes away from the capital city of San Salvador. The lake is located in the department of Santa Ana. This is a volcanic lake, which means that it formed in the crater of an extinct volcano. It is very, vrey deep! 20,000 people live at the lake, plus about 5,000 tourists who come monthly. Many local Salvadorians also own lake houses that they use during the weekends and vacations.

I think “Semana de agosto” at the lake could be one of the best weeks of summer. It is the first week of August, and everyone with a lake house will go. If you don’t have a house, you’ll find a friend to go with. Summer is about resting and recovering, but that does not include this week. I’m not sure about the older more adult generation, but we teenagers don’t sleep at all. Everyone is in a happy and cheerful mood, but at night there is also a good deal of drama and gossip to retell later.

During the day we visit all our friends' houses; we also spend a lot of time making new friends. We go on the wave runner and on the boats. If there is a breeze, people also go wind surfing. We go tubing on the lake and try to get a sun tan. We all eat together at different friends’ houses. We have a blast. Each night there is a party at a different house. Everyone goes. There is lots of gossiping, music blasting, and plenty of flirting. This week is full of excitement, but it also symbolizes that the end of summer is near. This is about all I can say about “semana de agosto.” I can’t wait for it to come again!

Foods in El Salvador

2008-09-30T13:26:00.003-06:00

This is Bea's description of her favorite Salvadoran foods. I taught Bea's brother two years ago. So many of my students now (around one-third) are siblings of former students. Bea is a happy young lady who puts a lot of effort into her studies. As she told me, "I don't like 80s..."

Pupusas. Elote Loco. Semita. Se me hace agua la boca solo con pensar en ellas. (My mouth waters just thinking about them.) These are just a few of the foods Salvadorans love to eat, whether it’s a Friday night at home with friends or Sunday afternoon with the whole family. These foods can be enjoyed during carnivals or on a daily basis, but the most craved foods are the street foods. Mango. Platanitos. Pastelitos de Chucho. They all have a taste no Salvadoran can resist.

Pupusas are the typical food here in El Salvador. They are made of corn, just like tortillas, except they have an ingredient in them like cheese or frijoles, or sometimes both. They can be eaten with a red sauce made of tomatoes and with “curtido,” which is cabbage with carrots and vinegar and sometimes a spicy condiment. They are typically enjoyed on a Sunday night with the family.

Literally Elote Loco is “crazy corn,” and in a way it is. It is usually sold on the streets during various carnivals. It is a whole corn on a stick with ketchup, mayonnaise, and cheese. As weird as the cobination sounds, it is delicious!! If you ever visit El Salvador you can’t leave without "crazy corn."

Semita is usually enjoyed after any meal with a cup of coffee. It is sweet bread that has some sort of jelly in it, like pineapple or guava.

Every Salvadoran goes crazy for street foods. I have no idea what different ingredient they have in them or what vendors do to prepare them, but they definitely have a different taste than any other foods. Mango is usually sold in a plastic bag. It is cut in long stripes that makes it look like spaghetti. The stripped mango is eaten with lots of lemon, salt, and chili.

Platanitos are fried plantains. As well as mangoes, they are eaten with lemon, salt, and chili. This is no surprise. We Salvadorans love to add lemon to everything we eat, from fruits to tortillas to steaks.

Pastelitos de Chucho mean dog empanadas, but don’t worry. They are not made of dog meat; it’s just a name! They are exactly like chimichangas, but for example in Ahuachapan they are mini chimichangas served with a hot red sauce and “curtido." They are not served on plates, but they are served in plastic bags just like mango or platanitos.

This is just a small example of the kind of foods we love. You can also infer what type of people we are: pupusas on a Sunday night with the family, lemon added to everything we eat, pastelitos de chucho meaning dog empanadas. We Salvadorans are family people. We are also crazy people who can’t eat a single food without adding lemon to it. Pastelitos de chucho, well, that just adds to our craziness. Most importantly, we love our country and we love our craziness.

A Salvadoran Legend

2008-09-30T08:01:00.003-06:00

This legend was retold by my student, Raul. So far Raul has been pretty quiet in my class, but I have learned that he really likes to lift weights and he lives to play video games. Enjoy his story!

Salvadoran people are originally of Mayan descent, but eventually they became a mixture of Spanish and Mayan after the Spanish invaded “The New World” and took over Central America. The effect, in relation to culture, was that legends became mixed as well. The result was the incredible stories of the Mayan that related to gods and strange creatures joined with the stories of the Spanish culture that related to supernatural events with ghosts and demons.

That combination created many new myths that are now part of the Salvadoran culture. One example of a myth from El Salvador is La Siguanaba, which tells of this beautiful woman who was punished by a god because she wouldn’t take care of her son. She was too concerned with attracting men, so the god cursed her into becoming this evil, ugly, and disgusting creature. It is said that even to this day, men, when coming late at night to their house, may find a very pretty woman along the way that seduces them. When they get close to her, she turns into a demon. Those taken by her are never seen again. If you listen carefully during the night, near small towns, you can hear her laugh when she gets her next victim.

The legend of La Carreta Chillona began in Spain, direct evidence of the mixture of cultures. A little boy named Terencio was adopted by a priest who taught him how to read and write. The priest always tried to convince the boy to become a priest. Terencio would always say no, although he promised he would be a good man who would help others. Eventually, the priest died of old age, and Terencio moved to another town where he began to work for a doctor. He tagged along more for the urge to learn than to actually help. With time, he learned what he needed to know. A few nights later he took advantage of this group of people that were going to take a ship to go to some distant place. He told him he was a doctor and would offer his services to them if they just took him with them; the people said yes.

Eventually, Terencio appeared in San Salvador. Because no one knew him, he lied and said he was a miraculous doctor. He began to practice his “profession,” and for the people who died in his hands, he said, “It´s God´s will.” Those who were lucky and didn’t die had to pay him in some way. Eventually, he became rich. One night, when Terencio was coming back from a bar, he heard a noise, as if it were footsteps. He began to walk faster and faster, until he heard the voice of the priest that took care of him when he was a child. The priest was disappointed because of all the people he had killed or had made suffer.

Thus, the ghost forced him to pick up the bones of all his victims and told him to build a charriot. When he was done, the priest told Terencio he was already dead, and he was to wander for all eternity until he laid to rest all the bones of his victims in an appropriate cemetary. It is said that around midnight, Terencio wanders in San Salvador near small towns and villages mourning. You can hear the sound of chains and bones cracking in the distance, and there have been several accounts where people have testified to seeing him.

Independence Day at EA

2008-09-29T18:19:00.005-06:00

Ceci wrote this article about a recent school celebration. Ceci has been spending a lot of time at our house lately. She and Maggie are physics partners, and they have lots of projects to do together. The catapult and the cannon were big hits. I'm just impressed with how well she and Mags use the power tools! Ceci is the one on the left.

It was the morning of September 12, 2008. Senior students made last adjustments to their outfits, juniors fidgeted with anticipation, fourth graders played with flags of white and blue, and everyone looked forward to one thing, and one thing only: the Escuela Americana annual celebration of the independence of El Salvador.

But this isn't just a ceremony commemorating the freedom of our country. Like almost everything at EA, it is something brimming with tradition and significance. The event is led by the current senior class. The national anthem is sung, the "Oración a la bandera" (the Salvadoran version of the Pledge of Allegiance) is recited, and the flag is brought in by its very own student escort. But there is more. Fourth graders perform marches they have practiced for weeks, two senior students recite essays they have written about their country, and the whole senior class dances in the typical Salvadoran style. Most important of all (to the junior class, at least), the twelfth grade presents the eleventh grade with the right of carrying the Salvadoran flag and the responsibility of honoring it and respecting it. This transaction represents a transfer of power of sorts, a way for the senior class to tell the eleventh graders that things are in their hands now. Of course, this is just taken as an excuse for the juniors to be as loud and obnoxious as humanly possible for about a minute and a half, while they celebrate the thrill of finally being in charge of something. And boy, do they relish it!

For the past eleven years of my life, I have watched this ceremony from the sidelines. I have clapped, sung, and enjoyed the overall high that comes along with an event of this magnitude. But this year was different. I was chosen to represent my class as one of the six students who escort the flag after it is given by the seniors, so I watched everything from a completely different perspective, on a physical and personal level.

As I stood on the stage, I realized just how much I love this tradition. I smiled and clapped as the fourth graders did their best to remember the complicated steps to the intricate marches, and I laughed as the senior girls twirled around in colorful dresses, having a great time. And, as my friend Adri received the flag from the senior representatives, my classmates over on the bleachers screamed like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't have been prouder to call myself a "Guanaca".

I cannot think of a better way to describe this celebration other than to say it is a sensory explosion. Not only is the music incredibly loud and the decorations overwhelmingly vibrant, but one must be careful not to get hit on the head by a rogue candy bar (courtesy of the senior dancers) or to get trampled by the delirious juniors. It is big, loud, and merry, like everything in El Salvador should be. It is one of the things I'll miss the most about home once I'm off at college, because it shows just how good EA can be at school spirit. We excel the one thing Salvadorans do best: celebration.

Volleyball in El Salvador

2008-09-25T09:32:00.003-06:00

This post was written by my student, Conchita. She is the smile in my classroom. I'm not sure if anything ever gets her down. As you can guess, she is also an enthusiastic volleyball player.

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. However, its size does not limit its passion for sports. The most popular sports in this country are basketball, soccer, and volleyball.

Volleyball is included in most private school programs. Interscholastic volleyball is separated between boys and girls in the following categories: under 12 years old, under 14 years old, under 16 years of age, and under 18. After 18 years of age, students are not allowed to participate in intercollegiate games. There is a main interscholastic championship which includes all local qualifying private schools, called “Colegiales.” This championship is usually held from the beginning of May to early July, because the local school system doesn’t have summer vacation during this time. The winning team gets an all expenses paid trip to Puerto Rico to play against other qualified teams. The funds come from the National Volleyball Federation.

But volleyball isn’t limited by age or educational level. The Volleyball Federation also sponsors an open championship for all ages. The categories in this championship are based on skill: category I being the best and category III being the “newbies.” You choose what category to start in, but if you finish last place twice in the same category, you are moved down to the category below. However, if you win first place in your category, you are moved to the category above. The winning team in category I wins a trophy and a cash prize.

The rules in El Salvador are the international rules plus a little extra strictness. The net height for women is still 2.24 meters, and 2.43 meters for men. However, in El Salvador, players MUST wear long socks (no crew socks), and tuck their shirts in. For local tournaments, players can only have jerseys with numbers one through eighteen. If a team member fails to abide by the dress code, they either can’t play or must pay a five dollar fine (depending on the importance of the game).

Even though El Salvador is a small country, passion is everywhere. There is even passion for volleyball. You can spot single mothers who work all day, using their vacation time to participate on the open championship. These women have no worried expression; they are doing something they love.

AP Students to update blog

2008-08-24T18:41:00.002-06:00

My AP students are working on personal essays on Salvadoran culture. Here's my article that ran last Christmas in the Spartanburg Herald Journal. Look for more soon!

Holiday plays loud in the tropics by Susan Dunlap

El Salvador celebrates Christmas in a big way. That's understandable, when you realize that this is the only country on Earth named for Jesus Christ. (El Salvador translates as "The Savior.")

You are just as likely to hear Christmas carols in English playing over the mall loudspeakers as anything else. But there's always a Salvadoran twist to the celebration: Here the Christmas music is played extra loud. And it's playing on top of the bands that are playing in every store.

All this noise seems to fit with the giant Christmas decorations, the life-size manger scenes, the lights in every coconut tree and the costumed elves you can rent to carry your packages. This country really knows how to celebrate.

The tropical weather does not fit with the malls playing "Let It Snow" and "Let's Go for a Sleigh Ride," but no one seems to mind the disconnect.

The weather in December is like a perfect spring day in South Carolina - a light breeze, a cloudless blue sky and temperatures in the high 70s. There's zero percent chance of rain. Christmas in El Salvador is right in the middle of the country's dry season. But the perfect weather means everyone's yard is full of blooming poinsettias.

All you have to do is plant them in January, and they come back full and colorful next December. In our yard, the poinsettias are about 3 feet high, blooming right next to the banana trees that are bending over with fruit.

When my students at Escuela Americana and I first compared notes about Christmas traditions, they were as surprised as I was about the differences. Christmas Eve here is more like our New Year's Eve; the restaurants and bars stay open all night long. My students assure me that you need a reservation to get in anywhere because every place is full.

For those who aren't celebrating in the streets, families hold open houses and invite all their friends. Dinner is served after the midnight church service.

The food varies with the family traditions. The main dish might be ham or turkey or hen, cooked in a big clay pot. But what everyone seems to agree on is that there are not a lot of people sleeping the night before Christmas.

The decorations and the holiday treats go on sale here at about the same time as in the U.S. There are also a lot a lot of street vendors to buy from at every major intersection. You can buy almost anything while waiting for the light to change, like a dozen roses, a DVD, a beach towel, a kite or a bag of local oranges. The streets are full, and the traffic gets really heavy. But the time to buy something is when you first lay eyes on it.

There never seem to be any "after-Christmas" sales. The store shelves are cleared of all the holiday merchandise well before Dec. 25. If you wait till the last minute to shop, there's almost nothing "Christmasy" left to choose from.

Probably the most unexpected part of the holiday season here is the fireworks.

Just like everything else, you buy fireworks from your car. A couple of the big traffic circles are lined with fireworks shacks during December, and they can sell you anything that you've ever dreamed of that lights up or explodes.

Christmas Eve fireworks are difficult to describe. They all begin at midnight and continue for a solid hour. It sounds like Spartanburg's "Red, White and Boom," only multiplied by 100. Everyone shoots off something. Fireworks fill the sky no matter which direction you look.

What makes a Salvadoran Christmas unique is that more than 2 million people live in the capital city of San Salvador, and they all celebrate together. No wonder it's so big.

Mags is on the road again!

2007-11-11T12:27:00.000-06:00

I wrote this blog while sitting in my Master's class - "Special Education in the Regular Classroom." I promise I was paying attention at the same time... Yesterday was the half-way mark for me. Half-way through the class, and half-way through my degree! A master's degree in International Education - at least it sounds important.

My goal this year was at least one blog entry per month. I'm not sure what happened to October. It's not that we've been traveling. The world traveler right now is Maggie. She went to Antigua, Guatemala with her AP Modern European History class last month. I was especially jealous. They studied Baroque art and architecture with a historian and an art historian from the school. Maggie could not stop talking about it when she got home.

Most people drive to Antigua from here. There are a number of fancy bus companies that offer the route. But the over-riding attitude (pun intended for my AP Language students who read my blog) is that the route in not safe. Evidently the high-end tour buses are being frequently robbed. So all the parents of the AP students paid for airline tickets. Mags said she was in the air for less than 20 minutes, but it was certainly worth the expense. As I type this entry, I am waiting for her to return from Costa Rica.

I've been to Costa Rica as well, but I never made it out of the airport. We changed planes there last year on our way to Bogota. I almost ended up staying, but not because it was such a nice place. I was so busy arguing with a salesgirl in the gift shop over the "buy two - get one free" bracelets I was trying to purchase that I almost missed the flight out. Luckily Mags doesn't have enough money to get in the same trouble. She was there for the International Knowledge Bowl tournament. I imagine she spent most of her time competing in a Costa Rican school somewhere. I hope they did well. We practiced as a family by watching Jeopardy on tv.

The only place James and I have been lately was a new Habitat for Humanity village in Santa Ana. There's a nice Carolina connection - Habitat Charlotte purchased the land for Habitat El Salvador to build a whole community of new homes. All the concrete curbs have been poured so you can see the future lay-out (although it was amazing to see how quickly the weeds took over the curbs in the rainy season). Now there is a Day Care Center and one completed duplex. There were five new houses beginning on our last trip. James takes the National Honor Society back on Saturday while I am still in my master's class. I can't wait to hear how much has been done.

I finally got to go into a completed house. The houses are painted cement block with tile floors. There are three small rooms - two bedrooms and a central living/kitchen area. The large room is about 8' by 12'. The back porch has a big sink and a small attached bathroom with a toilet and a shower. In a tropical climate, a lot of living is done outside, so a small house is not necessarily a big problem. But this house looked dry and safe and definitely earthquake proof.

Speaking of earthquakes, I had developed my own early warning system. Whenever our jalousie style windows started to rattle a bit, I knew a quake was coming. What I forgot about was the windy season (in between the rainy and the dry seasons). I spent all last weekend thinking an earthquake was coming - because the windows rattled day and night from the gusts of wind. It's cooler now and the winds have died down - but a fair trade off from the weeks of rain we had. I will not miss grey skies.

Even though the papers are piled up a mile high, I think I need some sunshine. They will be waiting for me when I get back later. Can't wait to see everyone at home at Christmas!

Dunlap Family Portrait

2007-09-08T17:07:00.000-06:00

I admit - the last six weeks have been really tough for me. It felt like Will was gone forever. He finally returned on August 9th, and then we started the whirlwind of the start of school. But life's routine never felt so good! You can tell I have not been teaching for long, because instead of enjoying the summer, I feel utterly lost. Now I am knee deep in tests and essays to grade, but life is so much better.

The only complaint I have is that I really miss the sunshine! We got a little of the mess from Hurricane Felix, but it seems like it's been raining for a solid week. We did get a day off from school for the storm. The Ministry of Education closes school for the whole country, and that includes us. I'm about ready for the rainy season to end all together. Then it gets real windy for a while, and then perfection settles in for a good six months.

We finally chose our new personalities for our "Libras de Amor" stickers. This is a non-profit group that helps disadvantaged Salvadoran families. Their main fundraiser is to sell stickers. They are in all the grocery stores and check-out counters all over the place. You have to sort through and find the sticker that resembles you the most. When we sold the Volvo, we started the hunt for our new faces. There are no blond boys (wonder why?), so Will is always dark-headed. We searched forever for cat stickers, too. Mags got out her pens and personalized the second cat. I'm not a gardener at all, but I tried to match my hairstyle instead of my personality. Anyway, here's our family portrait in stickers.

Independence Day is next week - hello three day weekend! I cannot wait. There's a big school assembly and the seniors dance in traditional Salvadoran costumes. I like the pageantry, and the day off. I still have not mastered the national anthem here - that needs to go on my to-do list.

I have 93 students this year, and a new classroom on the second floor. It's sunny - which is wonderful - and hot. I have one class with 23 students, so they moved me to a bigger room. We sneak off to the library in the afternoon in search of air conditioning. I'm teaching my first Advanced Placement class this year. It's a challenge - but I love it. Will has moved up to Middle School. Maggie is my student this year. That's a challenge too. But her classmates are really good sports about it. I'll teach her next year as well. I hope she doesn't get sick of me.

I had an article published in the Spartanburg Magazine about my life in El Salvador. It was a real thrill for me to see my writing on glossy paper. As soon as the link is posted, I'll add it to my blog. My students are struggling with their writing styles - I certainly understand the challenge. I had a couple of boys try to skip the conclusion on their first essay assignment by just writing "peace out." I understand the temptation - but I'll spare you all the same ending. Ignore the Weather Channel and come see us!

The rainy season

2007-07-24T15:09:00.000-06:00

The thing about the rainy season in El Salvador is... it really rains. This is our first "summer" here - only it is really winter. And winter in July mostly means rain. But the backyard looks great. Everything is growing. Even pots of plants we hid because we thought they were dead - those are growing, too. The mango tree is dripping with fruit. We have been enjoying the Salvadoran snack of sliced green mangoes with worcestershire sauce and lime juice. I'm not good at cutting the green mango - I have a band aid on my thumb to prove it. On our next trip to the grocery store - we are going super native! We are going to buy the green spice called "alguashte" - it is ground up pumpkin seeds. Then we'll sprinkle that on the mango as well.

We have bananas again on our trees. I still can't believe bananas grow pointing up. And I just now figured out where cashews come from. I have been seeing the fruit here and didn't know that "thing" attached at the bottom was a cashew. No wonder cashews are so expensive. I'd never make it as a Salavadoran farmer, but I sure am learning a lot.

We have had some wonderful visitors from S.C. in the past few weeks. Vic and Linda, our neighbors, and Natalie, Maggie's friend, both came and stayed here in the complejo with us. We shopped, we ate, we drove around a lot. It was so nice to have a little piece of home with us for awhile. It also helped us with missing our son, Will, just a little bit less. We have driven back and forth to the airport a bunch, but the trip we are most looking forward to is Will's return on August 6. We wandered around the airport when we took Natalie on Sunday, and we finally found the Pollo Campero on the third floor. Every time we get on a plane there are loads of boxes of roast chicken. Now we know where they are coming from.

We took Vic and Linda to the Botanical Garden. The picture is of the flower I really want to grow in our backyard. I think it is amazing. The most entertaining part of the garden visit was watching an employee cut down a tree. He climbed a really tall dead tree barefooted. Then he cut off most the limbs with a machete. It was better than watching the Travel Channel. I think we sat there for 30 minutes. He was so agile. I still can't figure out how he did it without shoes on.

I realized today that I have forgotten my password for my online banking. But unlike the States, there is a lovely note in Spanish on the bank website encouraging me to visit my Personal Representative to get my new password. I foresee another adventure when we go to the bank. We have been running into a lot of "no ay" lately - meaning whatever it is we want, they don't have it. Sometimes there's a long explanation - sometimes there's not. Hopefully I won't get the "no ay" treatment at the bank. They are usually pretty nice.

We also took our visitors to the pier and the beach. We walked all the way to the end of the pier and saw a man fishing while wearing a Clemson hat. He was delightful. Turned out his brother is getting his Ph.d. there. James was sorry he didn't take his picture. You just never know who you will meet here. The other picture is from the beach club. The pool we are standing in does not look like much - but it is lovely. The club has these big rock pools by the ocean - the waves splash over the walls. The nice thing is that you can swim and not worry about the rough current. We are laughing in the photo because Linda looks so short.

For everyone considering a trip to El Salvador - please come visit us! and please bring magazines. I've run out of Oprah's so I'm reading back issues of Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker. I think I'd read anything at this point. Oh, guess what. For the third time today - it is RAINING!

Just three of us

2007-06-25T20:15:00.000-06:00

Ok, Ok. I was sad knowing that Will was going home to SC for the summer. Once he left, I was super sad, even though he is in heaven visiting all his friends. Still, that's no excuse to quit blogging, I know. I'll add some nice photos to show that we do, indeed, still live in San Salvador. The three Dunlaps who are still here are in summer school. Maggie is taking Latin American History (and loving it) so that she can skip ahead in history next year. Here she is at prom (James and I have to chaperone - we didn't crash the party). The tall young man on the right is her date. His mother is from North Carolina and his father is from El Salvador - so he and Mags have been good friends. They both understand the power of the Krispy Kreme doughnut.

I am teaching SAT prep, and James is teaching World History. The difference is that my students are there by choice, and his are there to try and pass the course. But no one REALLY wants to be in summer school, I am sure.

Maggie's big news is that she scored her first goal in a handball game today. She has school everyday till 3:00 and then handball in the afternoons - I'm not sure if she is going to have much of a summer. James is painting everything in sight, including a giant world map on the back wall of his classroom. I finished my fourth class for my master's in International Education (or something like that). Only five more classes to go!

I have still not adjusted to this lifestyle. Many of our dearest friends for the past two years have moved back to the States. The transient nature of this little community is almost impossible for me to accept, even though I know I will make new friends when school starts up again. We ended up buying furniture from everyone before they left. The house looks happy and full, while I'm still sad. Speaking of a full house, we hosted an ice cream party for the senior class before graduation. We had at least 100 people in the house at once - a new record. The kids even stayed and helped clean up. We will miss the class of 2007 -they were very special to us.

The sun is out most days. It's the rainy season and it's not that hot. I think a trip to the beach is in order to cheer up the remaining Dunlaps. James is still loving soccer. I think a trip to the soccer stadium might be in order for him. Here he is on graduation day with two of his favorite soccer coaches.

My fun Salvadoran fact of the day - the driver's licenses here do not list weight. They do list skin color, though. I find that fascinating. Come see us! Susan

I can't believe it is May

2007-05-05T17:37:00.000-06:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo! It seems pointless to even say it. There is no celebration in El Salvador for this Mexican holiday. But we did just have Dia de la Cruz, and the cross in our backyard has been beautifully decorated by Mila with colored streamers. And the biggest holiday ever is coming up - Mother’s Day! I horrified my students by asking what was the exact date for Mother’s Day. They didn’t know that it’s a set holiday here and a floating holiday in the States. Benjamin said, "Oh, it’s like Thanksgiving!" and then they forgave me. I promised them all that I really love my mother.

I can’t bring myself to look at the last time I updated the blog. I have gotten some really amazing comments from Salvadorans all over the world. I owe everyone better, I know! We have been all over the country since Spring Break. I guess it’s almost understandable that I haven’t written. I also survived and completed my third master’s class. Only six more to go and I’ve finished the program. But we have to live through final exams first, and then another master’s class, and then our first summer school. James and I are both scheduled to teach, and Maggie is trying to get ahead in history by taking Latin American Studies this summer. What I didn’t expect was that school would start again so quickly. It looks like we’ll have about 10 days of vacation between the end of the summer session and the first faculty meeting. That gives us enough time to fly home, give our families a hug, hit Wal-Mart, and head on back here.

Maggie has her first handball game in about an hour. She just joined a school sport. Handball here is not the same as in the States. Mags says the rules are like soccer, but you dribble like basketball and throw the ball into a net to score. The amazing part to me is that everything is in Spanish - I'm so impressed that she even knows what the coach is saying. The game is at another school or I’d be there watching. It would probably make her nervous. They play the game on a smooth concrete surface and there seems to be lots of tackling. I probably don’t want to watch.

Instead of writing too much (because I have tests AND essays to grade this weekend), I thought I’d finish this entry with pictures. The one of James and me and a very tall EA student has a pretty interesting story. This young man is Gerardo Munguia. He has made the final 12 in MTV’s search for the new Menudo. He was a really good sport in letting us take his picture. He flies back to the States at the end of May for the final competition. The reality show starts in a few weeks on MTV. Cheer for him - he’s the only Salvadoran who made the finals.

The photo of the beach was taken over Spring Break in the Juquilisco Bay. We stayed in this amazing house on an almost deserted island (there had to be a village somewhere because there were loads of cows on the beach). You have to look carefully to see the house - it's that square thing in the middle. We took the picture as we were leaving in the boat. Boats are taxies in this part of the country. It was beautiful but it was also really really hot.

Will went to see the premier of Spiderman III last night, and Maggie is off to a quinceñera tonight. I have one child clinging to his American culture, and one child who hasn't looked back since we left. Life is good both ways. Susan

Spring Break - Finally!

2007-04-02T09:15:00.000-06:00

Poor Will. We went to the movies last night. It’s Semana Santa right now and I wanted the kids to have a fun Spring Break. So everyone got to invite a friend, and off we went. Mags went to see "300," James and I saw "Little Miss Sunshine" and Will went to see the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." But I forgot the BASIC movie rule - cartoons are always in Spanish. I could hope it was educational for him, but I think that would be a little too naive on my part. So I guess I still owe him a fun outing.

All three major networks are down on cable right now. If you hit tv at the wrong time of day, you are only left with infomercials. There’s some funny stuff that pops up now and then. "Little House on the Prairie" in Spanish can amuse me for a minute or two. Kevin Costner’s disaster, "Waterworld," was on this morning. TV is not a real temptation down here.

We do have some short trips planned for vacation, including Suchitoto and Bahia de Jiquilisco. Suchitoto is a colonial town. Two of the teachers here go almost every weekend. They made reservations for us in their favorite hotel that’s supposed to have a beautiful view of the lake. The bay is a much further drive and involves a ferry ride. We’ll be staying on an island. The house is full of people, so I think we’re sleeping on the front porch. I don’t think we’ll last long there, but I have been dying to see it.

It has finally rained once. The cicadas are making lots of noise. That means the rainy season will be here soon. The locals don’t pay a lot of attention to the cicadas. To us, the noise is like a piercing dog whistle. There are times when you can’t talk over them. They’ll stop singing when the rain starts. I think it’s been six months since it has really rained. I can’t wait.

We’ve been staying in the complejo more often because of the road construction. James got rear-ended (he backed up into the side of our car) by a pick-up truck recently. That slowed us down just a bit. But it turned out the driver’s boss was the CEO for one of the big insurance companies in town. Our car was fixed in no time. Now we still have paint pealing on the car, and one shiny new passenger door.

I’m sure there are more stories about our inane adventures, and our completely inept attempts to speak Spanish, but I think we need to hit the road. I feel the need to just sit and enjoy the view for awhile. I promise to post some nice photos when we get back. The ones here are from an attempted climb up the Santa Ana volcano (it's now active again, there won't be another attempt anytime soon. And I'm ashamed to say I didn't take the picture; I was back in the mountain cabin.) That's Will in the bushes; you have to look carefully. The other photo was our last Habitat build this year. We managed to go on four trips. I thought that was pretty good! We love the kids and always have a good time. The last photo is from a birthday party we went to for one of our favorite students. I can't believe the seniors will be out of here soon. James and I will really miss them.

OK, OK. We're going now! Susan

Never will be a native

2007-02-18T10:32:00.000-06:00

I’m remiss again in updating the blog. In truth, I embarrassed to admit how many days go by and I don’t leave campus. One excuse is just being busy. I finally finished my second class for my master’s degree (maybe seven or eight to go?). The classes met on campus for two weeks straight: three hours every afternoon after school and two eight-hour marathon sessions on back to back Saturdays. The class was enjoyable. We had a fantastic teacher with a great sense of humor. But it is a challenge to try to teach and learn at the same time! In the middle of all that, James got sick. We ended up eating everything in the pantry because neither of us could make it to the grocery store.

There’s another reason we don’t go out as much. There is a major road construction project going on right now. Parts of Jerusalem Avenue and El Paseo are completely destroyed. I worry about the businesses on those two main streets. There are simply places you cannot get to right now. James and I went out Friday night to visit one of our former students in the hospital.( As a side note, if I’m ever sick I’m going to Hospital Diagnostico. It was as nice as any Marriot I’ve ever stayed in!) But getting to the hospital was a challenge. James went back out on Saturday to the hardware store, and he said that the route we had taken on Friday night was now closed. And to add to the mess, little side neighborhoods are closing their streets off as well. I’m sure they didn’t appreciate the cut-through traffic, but I’m surprised they can get away with closing city streets! So you add about 20 to 30 minutes to your drive time right now. They are promising only a few more weeks of construction. I hope that’s true. I hope my favorite coffee shop is still in business when the streets are re-opened.

We are headed to a horse farm for a birthday party in a little while. I think getting out of the city will do me good. We are trying to negotiate our summer plans right now. We have the opportunity to possible stay here and teach summer school. I’m excited about the possibility, but worried about getting homesick. We definitely will head to South Carolina for a few weeks, maybe during the Agostino holidays.

I have been reading a travel guide to El Salvador that James checked out of the library. I’m disappointed in myself about how little I still know about this country. I guess I figured I would absorb Salvadoran culture, just like I hoped I would absorb Spanish. Though I’ve learned a little bit of each, there is still a lot more work for me to do. I don’t think I will ever get over the feeling of this place being foreign. For example, I was sitting in my master’s class and I kept hearing what I thought were kids squeaking their tennis shoes on the terrazzo floor outside our classroom. I didn’t realize how easily I can be distracted. I was ready to ask my classmate who was sitting by the door to go tell those kids to stop. And then a friend leaned over and said, "Hear those toucans?" I had to laugh - what a city girl I am, can’t tell the difference between a toucan and a tennis shoe. I did finally get to see a couple of toucans in a tree outside my classroom. All I could think about was the Fruit Loops mascot. Maybe after I learn Spanish and the Salvadoran culture, I’ll take up bird watching.

So much to do... and as always, so many papers to correct. There’s a chance I’ll teach an A.P. English course next year. Hope Mrs. Dobbs, my A.P. English teacher, would be proud. For all my friends who are cold while they are reading this, I am so sorry... It’s a little windy today, but otherwise 80 degrees never felt so good!

Buying Eggs

2007-01-14T13:26:00.000-06:00

I am forever comparing my "new" life to my old one. I marvel at how I have adapted, and then I laugh about the habits that are so deeply ingrained that I cannot change them. Take eggs, for example. Someone warned me before I moved to Central America, "Watch out - they don’t refrigerate their eggs." And it is true. Eggs are simply on the shelves in the grocery stores. We bought 60 eggs for the Grits Party last Sunday. (And by the way, we did not buy five dozen. Eggs don’t come in multiples of twelve, but instead multiples of fifteen. We bought two packages of 30 eggs each.)

I’m not sure what I was thinking. It turned out I already had enough eggs at home and I really didn’t need any of them - let alone 60. Here’s something else I love. Usually if you buy a carton of 30 eggs, you get something free. I’m sure I’ve written about this before. I’m fascinated with whatever "freebie" is attached, because it never seems logical to me.

My favorite free egg gift was a washcloth. It had Winnie the Pooh on it and we ended up tucking it in a baby present. I avoid the eggs that have a bottle of kolachampan taped to the side. I apologize to Salvadorans all over the world, but I just don’t like kolachampan. It’s a type of drink, and it is the same color and consistency as orange soda. But there is no way to prepare yourself for the taste. All the guidebooks say, "It’s sweet." My take is that it tastes like liquid bubble gum. At the very least, it should be pink. Then you wouldn’t be so surprised the first time you drink it. Maybe.

I went through a free spaghetti with eggs stage, and then a free consumé stage. One day I looked in my pantry and realized I owned 35 packets of consumé. While I liked getting it for free, I never had a plan to use it. That’s when Will suggested we start our own black market, and maybe we could trade consumé for something we really needed. On the days that I just can’t face the choice of another free thing that I won’t use, I seek out the containers of eggs with nothing attached. Then I don’t feel so guilty.

So the 60 eggs sat on my counter for a week. We didn’t have room for them in the refrigerator, and I was really trying to just "go local." By Saturday, I caved. I took 30 eggs to the neighbors. No one really locks their front doors around here. So I literally snuck into the kitchen, begged the dog to stop barking, left the eggs and went home. And then I finally refrigerated the other 30. I know they don’t have to be kept cold. I’m not even sure why eggs are cold in the states. But they bother me sitting on the counter. It’s like hanging a picture upside down. It just seems so wrong.

For those of you who wondered, we fed 75 people at the Grits Party. I didn’t write about it sooner because we also had a giant grits disaster. It turned out that you couldn’t cook grits in Salvadoran enamel pots. The bottom of the pot is too thin. That's the pot that is sitting in the sink in the photo, and that's Paige with me. She kept me calm while the grits were burning. We had to throw away 10 pounds of scorched grits before we finally got it right. (That’s 10 pounds of dry grits - add the water needed and it was probably closer to 20 pounds - James said it was like trying to carry a dead body in those trash bags.) But the breakfast casseroles were delicious, and the bisquick biscuits were a hit. I even tried a "tater tot" casserole. Lord knows it wasn’t healthy, but it sure did taste good.

We’re back in school now and almost back on a schedule. We have this Tuesday as a national holiday. It is the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Salvadoran Peace Treaty. I think that is cause enough to celebrate. We’re off on another adventure - something about a cabin on a volcano. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Fireworks in San Salvador

2007-01-01T10:49:00.000-06:00

A couple of my good friends in Spartanburg give me a hard time (deservedly so) for not updating my blog more often. The truth is that once you get into a routine, life is not really blog worthy. We go to school, we buy groceries, we go to the dentist. With the exception of the occasional small earthquake here and there, life here is not that different from South Carolina.

For now, we are tour guides for our guests, with lots of adventures to write about. We have been working our way through the Central American guide book that we bought at Barnes and Noble in 2005. I was amazed yesterday to realize we had done almost every “day trip” from San Salvador that the book suggested.

We hired a guide to manage some of our trips. Our Volvo does not seat seven passengers comfortably, and the big van that Carlos drives is very comfortable. (Not to mention that he makes far fewer wrong turns than we ever do...) Our first outing was to a park called Los Planes and then on to La Puerta del Diablo. This was my fourth trip to this amazing rock formation, so I felt confident that there would be no surprises. Wrong! It was so windy that I thought we would lose our footing. We climbed to the cave - not a strenuous feat but more stairs than my mother wanted to take on. We got back in the van pretty quickly because the dust was flying, but not before I was able to properly embarrass Maggie by dancing in the parking lot. I love the music they play at the little stand that sells the pirated cd’s. You can buy them for $1. Carlos’s father bought one and we played it for the rest of the day.

We crossed the city and headed for El Boqueron - the crater. You can see the mountain peak from where we live, but it is misleading. The volcanic crater is actually behind it. Something else caught us by surprise at the top - it was cold! With the combination of the wind and the drop in temperature, we didn’t stay long at the crater. There was a lot of vegetation growing on the walls of the crater, which I didn’t expect to see. It was like a forest growing on steep cliffs. My desire to hike to the bottom is gone now - that is a really deep hole. We had been warned numerous times that visiting the crater was not safe, but we felt very secure. There were lots of policemen there, including three on horseback. The trip was well worth it. As we headed back down, Maggie mentioned that there was something on the back of the van. Turns out it was a little boy holding on to get a ride home, I guess. We stopped and he got off - glad she noticed he was hanging there.

We rewarded Nana with a nice lunch after her two climbs - pupusas and chicken (really hen) soup from a restaurant on the other side of the mountain called Café Miranda. The view and the warm sun perked her right back up. We didn’t realize until we went to pay for lunch that the restaurant had no power (when they couldn’t take our credit card). Guess our lunch was cooked on a gas stove or an open fire - either way it was really good.

We’ve now seen both of the big museums in town. It’s amazing what you put off when you live here, and then how much you see when visitors come. We finally made the trek yesterday to the nearest site for Mayan ruins, called San Andres. The museum was very simple but informative, and our guide was delightful. Of course we would have been lost without Carlos; he translated the tour into English for us. I ended up learning a lot about “anil,” which is indigo. You’d think a good South Carolina girl would know how they harvest an indigo crop, but I had no clue. Turns out when the Spaniards found no gold here, they ended up exporting indigo instead. Will was fascinated by the battles with the Spaniards. Evidently the Salvadorans put up a valiant fight. Will asked who won, and Carlos simply said, “We speak Spanish, don’t we?”

We then went on to Santa Ana. The town is famous for its architecture. The money in Santa Ana originally came from the surrounding coffee plantations. Most of the buildings date back to 1900, and they are well preserved. I’d never been to the city square on a Saturday. It was packed. We ate lunch, visited friends, and Nana came home with a sack full of oranges, tangerines, grapefruit and avocado, all picked from the yard of the family we went to see.

James and I managed to squeeze in our 20th wedding anniversary this week. But for New Year's Eve, we’re laying low literally and figuratively. The word is that New Year’s Eve fireworks are louder than Christmas Eve. I can’t imagine. We have bought a few of our own to shoot. Hope the kids don’t have high expectations, because James stocked up mostly on sparklers and volcancitos (little volcanoes). But we’ll set something ablaze and welcome 2007. Happy New Year, y’all!

P.S. I’m posting this the day after New Year’s. The fireworks last night were incredible, but the funniest part was missing the ball dropping in New York City. We completely forgot about the time difference, and tuned in an hour too late...

Ho Ho Ho

2006-12-25T19:53:00.000-06:00

There have been moments when it felt like Christmas. When we stood in long lines at the grocery store yesterday, when we sang Christmas carols (in English) at the Union Church last night, when we started to open our stockings this morning, then it felt like the holiday we know. But there are still moments of “where am I?”

A few days ago, James and I went to Hyper Paiz to buy some last minute gifts. Hyper Paiz has been purchased by Walmart. Just this month they started stocking “Equate” brand items that are so familiar in the Walmarts at home. They’ve removed the selection of native candy from the check-out line; that made me sad. Now it’s all Snickers and Hershey bars. But the lines were moving quickly and the music was blaring when we were there, so I couldn’t really complain. I looked over at a Salvadoran Santa in a red suit playing a game with some children across from the checkout counters. Then I noticed they were tossing around a giant stuffed ham - never did figure out what that was all about.

Last night was Christmas Eve. We went to church, then over to the Magana’s for Christmas Eve dinner. Maggie and Will had gone on ahead of us. By the time we got there, Maggie could name all the different fireworks in Spanish that they had already shot off. The loudest one translated as “mortar.” Based on the noise it made, thought that was a pretty descriptive name. Dinner was a turkey cooked in some delicious red sauce that I’d never had before. Julio Magana is a master chef, and that was without a doubt the best turkey I’d ever had.

We got home early enough and waited for midnight. And boy did it come. I marvel at a city where everyone waits for midnight and then simultaneously shoots off fireworks - young, old, rich, poor - they all shoot off whatever they can that makes noise. Maggie’s room faces one direction and ours another and we both watched the sky light up for almost an hour. Fireworks may not seem “Christmasy,” but boy do Salvadorans know how to celebrate. It was a magical moment.

We sauteed shrimp tonight instead of the traditional roast beef and a range of casseroles. But the shrimp was fresh from the pier and really good. Getting a sunburn on Christmas Eve did not seem like a typical holiday tradition, but it was nice to get out in the sun yesterday. We’ve taken our family to the beach for seafood, and of course to almost every mall in the city. Tomorrow we’re going to go up to the top of the volcano and look in the big crater. That was on my list of things to do in 2006 - I’ll just get it checked off.

We had a potluck dinner on the 23rd - sort of an “everyone who didn’t go home” party. It was nice to have a house full of people. Now things have settled back down around the complejo. At some point I’ve got to start planning the Dunlap’s Second Annual Grits party that we’ll have the day before school starts back. We want to see how many people this house can really hold. If you can get here, you’re invited. Merry Christmas to all!!!

It's exam time

2006-12-11T15:51:00.000-06:00

If I have a big pile of mid-term exams to grade, then for some reason I become inspired to update the blog. I was technically waiting for James to write this story, because he and Maggie had the last adventure. But it's old news now, so I'll just have to tell their story for them.

Maggie has been working hard on the Varsity Knowledge Bowl team at Escuela Americana. Her sponsor, Carmen, swears that Knowledge Bowl is not the "nerd club." The team practiced for weeks to prepare for the trip to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, for the Central American championship. This is the part of the story where we earn the title of "really bad parents." In our defense, we all had a lot going on that week. Every time we thought Maggie had all the paperwork necessary to leave the country, some other technicality cropped up. This trip took place the day after the school's 60th birthday celebration, in which Maggie gave tours all day and then played the clarinet with the band during the all-school assembly. So in our defense, we were all tired the next morning when we had to get Maggie up at 3:15 a.m. James dropped her off around 4:30, and the call came at 4:55 from the bus station. Maggie had everything she needed except her passport, and they would not let Mags on the bus.

A little after 5:00, a friend dropped Mags back off at the complejo. James grabbed his daughter and her passport, convinced that he could catch up with the bus and they'd let her on. His parting words were, "I am not driving to Honduras." Turns out that buses will not stop en route, not even for the $20 James offered the driver. So he did indeed drive to the Honduran border, waited for them to let Maggie on, and then he drove back through crazy morning traffic to get home. It's much harder to get back into the city around 8:00 than it is to get out at 5:00. He only missed one class that morning, but he did come home and take a three hour nap that afternoon. The good news is that the team also won the Central American championship, and Mags was proud of the questions she answered. I don't think we'll be forgetting a passport again any time soon.

The Marine Ball was lovely. James cajoled the ambassador into a photograph with the two of us. Even though I'm not posting it, he also had his picture taken with the waiter from our table. We met a Marine from Columbia, SC. I think we frightened him when we introduced ourselves, but still it was nice to see someone from home. We had nine people for Thanksgiving dinner (ok, ok, including us!). One couple we invited have a daughter, Jennifer, who teaches here at the school. Her parents are from Tennessee, and that was the sweetest sounding accent I have heard in a long time. They were delightful Thanksgiving company for us.

I have an article coming out in the Spartanburg Herald Journal in a week. It is about Christmas in El Salvador. My students were a big help in putting it together. Technically we have not experienced a Salvadoran Christmas, so this will be our first. It will also be the first time in my life I will not be in SC for the holidays. I'm homesick already.

Off to grade. Happy Holidays! Feliz Navidad!

Holidays and other news...

2006-11-11T08:43:00.000-06:00

Think this might be the longest I have gone without posting a blog. Life here is busy and full and warm and pretty darn nice.

Mags was the only 9th grader to compete yesterday on the school’s Knowledge Bowl Team. They beat all the local schools in their first competition! She said the trophy is obscenely large (Salvadorans believe in really big trophies). She was able to answer a lot of questions about vocabulary and American Literature. She said she knew nothing about grammar. Schools just don’t teach a whole lot of grammar these days. I’m reviewing (probably more like introducing) grammar to my 11th grade students right now. The funny part is how much I’m having to go back and study myself. Maggie has also been promoted a year in English - she’s now in class with the 10th graders. She’s very happy in school. And on the good days, even Geometry makes sense to her.

Maggie and I went with friends to the Shakira concert on Monday night. We got home around midnight, but I think it was worth it. I didn’t enjoy the show as much as I did Ricky Martin last year (can’t believe I just wrote that). His show was more entertaining in terms of costumes and lighting. This concert was in a soccer stadium downtown. There were probably 10 to 12 thousand people there. It was fun to listen to Mags sing along in Spanish to all the Shakira songs. And still I have no idea what she is saying. Shakira’s finale was her big hit "Hips Don’t Lie." I can’t even understand the lyrics in English, but she sure can belly dance!

My trip to Bogota was nice, but I was very happy to get back home. Bogota was cold and wet. I’m just not used to that kind of weather anymore, and I had no decent warm clothes. I tried to buy a few sweaters while I was there, but a lot of the stores only took cash. You could definitely feel a certain amount of tension there. I guess it’s related to the drug trafficking. I always felt safe, but then again I also felt really cold and wanted to come home!

Tonight we are off to the Marine Ball. As I understand it, the Marines host a birthday party tonight in embassies all around the world. It’s fun because we get really dressed up. I think this year we’ll know more people there. My dress is pretty fancy. I’m worried it looks like I’m competing in the Miss South Carolina Pageant. Speaking of dressed up, we gave the kids an idea for their Halloween costumes this year. You can't buy costumes here because most of El Salvador skips this holiday. They celebrate Day of the Dead instead. I couldn’t believe the kids agreed to our suggestion. It was just for the school carnival put on by the senior class. Maggie dressed up as me and Will dressed up as James. Most adults had to think about it for a minute, but all the students got the joke immediately. So here’s the picture. James’s tie is forever getting turned around while he teaches, so one of his students made Will turn his tie. It completed the look.

I’m off to walk around the track this morning with friends. There is a basketball tournament finishing up today. I can hear the fans screaming while I type. Our teams didn’t make it to the finals, but they gave it their best effort. The fans were like nothing I’d ever seen before. There are no cheerleaders or school cheers here. So the E.A. students rewrote the vulgar cheers that the Salvadoran soccer fans chant during the games here. Maggie kept translating the cheers for me and they didn’t make any sense. Then someone explained that all the dirty words had been replaced with clean ones. Only in Central America!

I’ll end with the dumbest thing I’ve done this week. I decided to buy a scale. I wanted to see if I could lose a pound or two before the big ball tonight. When I finally got on it, I was so confused. It clearly read "60." Then I realized how ethnocentric I still am. The scale is in kilograms, of course. So we are all practicing our math skills. I’m not going to tell you how to convert - you’ll have to look it up yourself! Happy early Thanksgiving to everyone back home. A pumpkin here is $18 and a turkey is $58. Think we’ll be eating local cuisine instead of traditional... All my best - Susan

What went wrong?

2006-10-09T18:56:00.000-06:00

It’s so hard to figure out where this day went wrong. Was it when I got up at 4:50 this morning? Was it when I got to school early to get caught up and realized we had no water and no electricity? I spent today trying to get organized and write lesson plans for the substitute teacher because I leave for Bogota at 5:45 tomorrow morning. Kathy and I tried to “pre-check” with the airline this afternoon – no such luck. But the ticket agent assured us that if we got to the airport three hours before the flight we’d probably be fine. Three hours before? It’s not going to happen. And we only have a 55 minute layover in San Jose. I may be in Colombia tomorrow night and then again I may not. And my shopping trip yesterday to find winter clothes was a bust. If I do get to where I’m going, hope I can buy a coat.

James and Maggie and I went on a Habitat trip on Saturday. There were six EA teachers and 26 seniors (23 boys, 3 girls) and Mags. Our site looked like the footprint for one house – turned out it was the site for four houses. The EA kids were polite, enthusiastic, and hard-working. We had a fantastic day. Maggie said she learned a lot of Spanish from the contractor. I was in charge of water, band aids and general mother/nursing duties – just about my speed. I taught all but three of these kids last year, and truly enjoyed spending time with them again.

Maggie and I are participating in a Salvadoran mob scene next month – we have tickets to a Shakira concert at a local stadium. This is supposed to be one of the hottest concerts in the world right now. So off we go. Then James and Maggie are headed to Honduras for a Knowledge Bowl tournament in November. We are certainly covering more square miles this year. I need to figure out an adventure for Will to go on real soon. Think he is looking forward to being spoiled by his grandparents when they visit in December.

I finished my first Master’s class! Only eight more to go… Studying nights and weekends is tough in addition to teaching, but I’m sure the result will be worth it. The class was about using media in the classroom. James and Maggie and Will all helped our group produce a video/powerpoint presentation for new international teachers on how to make pupusas. It’s a long story as to why we showed our film while wearing native costumes – but here is my classmate and iMovie genius, Jennifer. We couldn’t have completed the project without her!

Maggie is the new treasurer for the 9th grade. She’s also going to try a Salvadoran sport – handball. I think the team wants her because she is tall. I’m not sure if she can be in the school band and play a sport, but I think she should give it a try. This blog entry is starting to sound like some obnoxious holiday letter that you stick in a Christmas card. I’ll stop here and go pack, and then return to write about Bogota. The adventure continues… Susan

Quince - September 15th

2006-09-24T11:20:00.000-06:00

Well so much for my promise to myself to keep up with regular blog postings. And now it’s been so long that I don’t know where to start. I’ll try to hit the highlights ofthe last few weeks.

Salvadoran Independence Day is September 15. It’s a school holiday, so we had a nice three-day weekend. Every holiday is big here. I’m not sure why this country is so good at celebrating. I guess because there have been so many times in their history that there wasn’t much to celebrate. But for weeks prior to the big day, all the street vendors are out selling Salvadoran flags. The school had their traditional assembly, with speeches and songs. The seniors performed traditional Salvadoran dances, as well as the 4th graders. Boy, was Will Dunlap glad to be in 5th grade this year. He was the little lost gringo last year during the performance.

I really like the Salvadoran national anthem. It’s much longer than the U.S.’s, but it’s pretty. Maggie knows most of the words now. (We have an office in the new house, with two computers. Mags and I sit side by side when we work, only she sings in Spanish. It’s entertaining and bizarre at the same time.) The whole holiday was lovely, but the city traffic was insane. By the time school got out on Thursday, the streets were grid-locked. James went to run errands after school. On the way back, he finally just parked the car on a side street and walked home. I’m not sure if they closed some streets for parades or construction or both, but it was wild. And then on the 15th, the city was completely empty.

We went to the Costa del Sol with friends on Saturday, and ran into lots of EA students on the beach. It’s impossible to travel and not run into someone you know. Will and I gathered pink clam shells on the beach. I’m not sure what we’re going to do with them, but they reminded me of our pink house in Spartanburg, so I brought a bucket-full back home. Maggie and James ended up visiting friends in a couple of really nice beach houses. It was a perfect day.

The photos are from the school celebration. These are the seniors we taught last year, in native Salvadoran costumes. This year is so much more fun because we now know half of the Upper School. And it’s fun to see Maggie in the hallways as well. James has been moved into a classroom in the new science wing. We have no idea how he scored such a nice room. It is really big and all brand new.

I started my first class yesterday toward my Master’s degree in Education. The classes are held on campus. The degree will be from Framingham State University. They hold classes in international schools all over the world. I’m taking a course in Media. I think I’m going to have to learn how to operate our digital camera as part of the class. As a benefit to EA teachers, if you stay here long enough they will reimburse you for all your classes. So a free Master’s degree seemed hard to pass up.

Grades are due tomorrow so I’d better get back to work. If I get finished in time, we’ll go out for coffee this afternoon. Oh and maybe a few minutes by the pool? There’s never enough weekend for me! Susan

Sleepy Sunday

2006-08-27T19:35:00.000-06:00

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

2006-08-17T19:26:00.000-06:00

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

2006-08-04T09:57:00.000-06:00

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

Stuck

2006-07-31T17:27:00.000-06:00

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

Cycling in Central America

2006-05-21T09:04:00.000-06:00

Here's James's first blog entry on one of his favorite topics of conversation - cycling: The Salvadoran equivalent of the Tour de France rolled through the country recently. This sporting event received more hype than any other since I arrived here last July. I have been a cyclist for years. (Last Fall I purchased a bike from a fellow teacher. I cycle in the neighborhood and, on weekends, I climb the Paseo, San Salvador's main drag, all the way from the Plaza Salvador del Mundo to Calle del Mirador. )

Needless to say, I followed the cycling event with great interest. The race had seven stages which took the riders through every department (or state) in El Salvador. There were 150 riders from 10 countries. Two of the stages were criteriums, 20 laps around a 5.1 kilometer closed course. The start/finish line was at the Multiplaza, the fanciest shopping mall in country (and near our campus). When I saw the route published in the newspapers, I was astonished to see that the riders would pass right by our house. I have never been that close to a professional "peloton" and couldn't believe how fast they went and how close together they were.

I found out, too, how difficult it is to photograph a bicycle race, especially with a digital camera that does not shoot in "real time." I had numerous exposures where I had missed my subject entirely! I had a great time riding my bike to numerous vantage points along the course. I spoke with several members of a Canadian team. (They were "too cool" to talk with me. I knew that when I saw their sunglasses.) The American team (all amateurs), and especially the team manager, were nice guys, though, and very happy to hear from a local "gringo." They had a good overall experience but had hydration problems.

The race occured during the hottest, most humid week of the year. One stage finished on "El Boqueron," the crater of the volcano overlooking San Salvador, and some of their guys had difficulty completing the climb. In the countryside, one American hit a cow crossing the road. (Here, cows have the right-of-way.) The final stage was a criterium. A young American led for 19 of the twenty laps and had a lead of more than a minute and a half. He was chased down on the last lap by three Colombians. They won the stage and were also one-two-three in the overall standings. I have never seen such a display of power and speed so "up close."

The Vuelta Ciclista de El Salvador was, on the whole, a great spectacle and a boon for the image of the country. Next year, I'm taking the day off to see the finish at the volcano. James

Remiss

2006-05-21T08:32:00.000-06:00

A friend wrote that I had been remiss in blogging. Certainly from April to May, she was right. We are one week away from exams here, which means I just have to update the Dunlap blog (anything distracting is a temptation today, so I don't have to face grading essays).

I think I might clean out my closet (another disctraction). The question looms - do I give away all the clothes that no longer fit? Can I keep all this weight off when we go back to South Carolina? I'm going to think positively and pitch my big clothes. Now it's simply a question of whether or not I can take my new lifestyle home with me. James and I were talking yesterday about how we'd lost so much weight. The walking has got to be a big part of it. I've completely worn out my favorite pair of shoes - they can't be fixed at this point. Maggie is on her third pair of school shoes. We just walk a lot.

When we come home in the afternoon after school, whatever Mila has cooked for dinner is on the stove. That removes any temptation to call for a pizza or run to the nearest drive-thru. And it is cheaper to buy fruit in the grocery store than to buy junk food. A pineapple is always 89 cents. Mangoes are four for a dollar. Bananas are 18 cents a pound. Why would I ever buy a $5 bag of American Doritos? It just doesn't make sense.

But I have really gotten spoiled by having so few household duties. When I come home to a clean house with all the laundry already done, it's so easy to go for an afternoon walk. The extra time is a real luxury. I've made some good walking friends as well. During the week I walk with the head of purchasing from the school. On Saturdays I walk with a girlfriend while her son plays soccer. And on Sundays, James andI hit the track together. Every once in awhile I can get Maggie or Will to join me. One afternoon, I walked with one of my favorite students. She kept me entertained for an hour. For some reason, walking has gone from being a punishment to beng a nice outing. Maybe it is because there is an amazing view of the volcano from the track. So those are my Salvadoran weight loss secrets. Can I keep it up in SC? Remains to be seen!

We went to the mall yesterday to have lunch in the Food Court. Will's Spanish has been a struggle for him, but he really impressed me when he ordered his own lunch. I'm still working on the one word technique when I shop. Maggie needed a birthday present for a boy, so I ventured into a clothing store. I asked for a camiseta negro mediano (medium sized black t-shirt) for an hijo de catorce anos (oops - called him my son). But it worked!

While we were eating lunch, there was a small earthquake. It was just a 4.5, but I'd never been out in public when a quake hit. We are usually at home in our little cement house built to California codes. Across from us was a Salvadoran family. The father and I immediately began to watch each other. I think he wanted to see if I would panic. I wanted to see if he would grab his children and run. It's amazing how many thoughts you can have in 8 or 10 seconds. But the quake ended and no one moved and we went back to our lunch.

Such is life in Central America! We'll be back home in less than three weeks. On to final exams... Susan

Mothers' Day

2006-05-14T15:18:00.000-06:00

How could another month have gone by for the Dunlaps in El Salvador? So many times I remind myself that I must write about this or that on the blog, and then I realize I can't remember the last time I wrote anything at all.

The rainy season is back and it is hot and humid. But still we survive sin (without) A.C. James and I continue our Spanish lessons with our dear friend, Sergio. We hope he will teach us again next year as well. I went shopping last week and found a charming sales lady who would speak in one word sentences. Vestido? Blanco? Violeta? Regalo? meaning "You'd like to buy a dress? Do you like the white one or the violet colored one? Is this a gift?" I understood her perfectly. It's when they start rattling off these long sentences that I literally understand nothing. Hopefully over the summer we can learn more Spanish instead of forgetting the little bit that we know now.

The Junior Senior Prom was last night. We went with Kathy Gordon, an Upper School math teacher. No one told me about the receiving line. I stood for an hour and kissed every student who walked in the door. My cheek and jaw were sore - there were hundreds of students at this event. And hairdressers in San Salvador made a fortune yesterday. Those girls all were dressed to the nines! We lasted until 11:00 p.m. - an accomplishment I was proud of.

Maggie was the social butterfly of the family this weekend. She missed her first quinsinera (big celebration for girls when they turn 15) to attend a Salvadoran wedding. Weddings are different here. Dinner is served at midnight. The whole party can go on till 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. At some point they hand out funny hats for all the guests to wear. Mags brought home a giant pig and giant duck hat. Supposedly Tony Saca, the President of El Salvador, was there. But out of 500 guests, Maggie never ran into him. Here's a picture of her before the driver picked her up to go.

She did manage to squeeze in two birthday parties on Saturday. We need to buy lots of fancy dresses for her this summer to get through next year's events. We are headed home on June 7, back here on July 24. Then we move across the street to yet again a bigger house (our last move in the complejo), and get ready for school to start again. It's exam preparation time at EA, so I need to get back to creating my final.

James promises to post a blog entry about an international cycling race that went right by our house. Between that and local soccer, he stays busy as a Salvadoran sports fan. Happy Mother's Day (although technically Mother's Day here was Wednesday, May 10... a holiday to rival Christmas). We'll keep working on our tans between rainstorms... Susan

Too much to say

2006-04-16T09:31:00.000-06:00

My writer's block usually comes from having so little to tell. The adventures of living in a foreign country are over-shadowed by our daily routine - work, children, friends, groceries. The rhythms of life here are not that different from those back home.

But today I face a new challenge. We have done too much to write about. In the last two weeks, we've had our first visitors from the States, our first Semana Santa, and for me, my very first massage. We've climbed mountains, been to the beach, celebrated Maggie's 14th birthday and added two new country stamps to our passports. Where to begin? And, of course, I am avoiding the papers I must grade before school starts on Tuesday - my usual inspiration for blog-writing.

I've included photos from Copan because the trip was incredible. It was three years ago that I hosted a lecture by Fraser Pajak, a local college professor, in my Spartanburg, SC den. He showed slides of his visits to Mayan ruins. I studied the photographs, amazed at what he had seen. But even in the back of my mind I never said "some day I'll go there as well." To walk ancient streets and climb Mayan steps was indescribable for me. Will, on the other hand, threw himself into the experience. We had a saint for a tour guide who answered all his questions and complimented his enthusiasm.

I can't begin to thank all our friends for their generosity in the last few weeks: hosting our visitors from the states, making room on the van for us on the trip to Honduras, showering Mags with love and attention on her birthday... not to mention the Riehles and the Roberts actually packing their bags and traveling to El Salvador to visit us. On this beautiful Easter Sunday morning, I know we are blessed. (Note to my mother - I have no idea what I'm cooking for lunch. I wish I could say it was lamb and roast potatoes, but I couldn't come close to your Easter lunch. And we went to the Easter vigil last night instead of church this morning. It was the 10th anniversary of Will's baptism. You would have been so proud of your granddaughter. She understood pasts of the Gospel and the Sermon - all in Spanish!).

Felix Pascual to everyone. Easter egg hunt in the complejo today at 4:00! I have no idea what this flower is, but it's blooming in our little courtyard. Thought it looked like Easter. Susan

Changes

2006-03-26T19:44:00.000-06:00

One of the most delightful aspects of keeping a blog is the comments I receive from strangers. I think they happen upon my writing when they are homesick for El Salvador - completely understandable. But I love the emails they send me about when and why they were in this country! Always a pleasant surprise...

I thought that the most profound change we would face when we arrived in El Salvador would be the initial shock of moving out of the United States. I'm now fascinated with the way we have changed physically and emotionally in the eight months we have been here. For instance, my style of dressing has changed. First of all, it's hot here and you just wear less. Second, I have now lost 23 pounds and nothing fits anymore! It's either wear Maggie's clothes ( because hers no longer fit her either) or shop. Clothes here are youthful. I went to the hardware store yesterday in a tank top with my bra straps showing because it's just the way women dress here. What shocked me when I arrived is now the norm. (Big bonus - too hot for pantyhose!)

Emotionally we are different as well. We are far less fearful of embarassment. There's no longer a doubt that we will embarass ourselves everytime the interaction involves Spanish. It's just funnier now and far less painful. For instance, I bought Maggie a birthday cake at the San Martin Bakery. By the time I got home, the phone was ringing. I had left my credit card at the bakery. I understood everything the woman was telling me in Spanish "Is this Susan Dunlap? This is the San Martin Bakery. You left your credit card here." The panic set in when I tried to respond. All I could think was "C'est moi." High school French comes back when I least expect it. So instead I handed the phone to Maggie. She did a beautiful job (in Spanish) of being me, and we went straight back to pick up the card. I was all ready to show identification and act out in some sort of charades, "You have my credit card." Instead they all smiled the minute I walked in the door and handed me back my card. Guess we all stick out in this country more than we know. Maggie says how can you miss two tall female gringos in a Salvadoran bakery?

I'll close with a photo - not of some place we went this weekend but of some place where we wish we had been. I think there's no prettier place on earth than under this coconut tree by the Pacific Ocean. Hope to be there again soon! Susan

Election Day

2006-03-12T09:29:00.000-06:00

Today is Sunday, March 12. It is Election Day in El Salvador. We have been advised to stay close to home today, just in case. James is going out later to the fairgrounds with friends so he can observe the election process. Here's what I've learned. Every mayor in every town runs for election at the same time, making for a lively campaign all over the country. But when voting day comes, you vote for the party and not for the candidate. Specifically, you vote for the flag of the party.

My students gave me a hard time on Friday for wearing a red sweater to school. They wondered if I was making a political statement in support of the FMLN, the Communist party in El Salvador. This area is pro-ARENA, which is akin to the Republican party inthe States. I can almost sing the ARENA theme song because we've heard it so much during the campaign. Besides having to stay home (i.e. no beach today), another noticeable difference is that no alcohol is sold in this country from Friday night at midnight until sometime on Monday. El Salvador is very proud of the political process here. It has been an interesting time to be in this country.

Last Sunday, I took Mags and Will to the 45th birthday party of the Peace Corps. We went to a town called Suchitoto (which I mispronounced in class - my version sounds like a Japanese restaurant). There's supposed to be an incredible lake there, which we never saw. We were in the remains of a very old church for a guitar concert and lots of speeches. The photo is of the Dunlap and Fawcett kids in front of the church bell tower. It was a beautiful part of the country, and I'd like to go back when we have more time. We went to a French restaurant and hotel for desert. I was amazed they let us in wearing Peace Corps t-shirts and covered in dust.

The country roads here are a challenge to navigate, especially in our old Volvo. I always worry that I'll hit a farm animal. I think a chicken wouldn't be so bad, but the pigs and cows and donkeys by the side of the road worry me. I drove to Suchitoto because James and a fellow teacher went to the stadium to see a soccer game. The funniest part was when a vendor tried to sell James a beer. He called James "chelito" which roughly translates as "little white boy." My brother said in a way that's a compliment!

I'm nursing a sunburn today from my carelessness at the pool. I've got lots of papers to grade, and the quarter ends on Friday. Time is flying by. Maggie will be 14 next Sunday. She's out so often with friends that we don't see her much anymore. But hopefully turning 14 in Central America will be memorable for her. She wants a cellphone, which I think we're going to have to give in and buy for her.

Note to Theresa - what would I do without a reminders from you to update the blog? Thanks again! Susan

New photos

2006-02-20T19:48:00.000-06:00

I am procrastinating in a big way right now. I'm supposed to be writing a lecture to give tomorrow... which means I just have to update the blog!I wanted to share some photos from a wonderful outing we took on Sunday. Our friends Edgar and Kelly took us to the other side of the volcano. We went hiking around their finca, and then had lunch at a restaurant where we could see Honduras and Guatemala. So here are the new pictures... The last photo is entitled "Don't blame me - Edgar let Will hold the machete."

Sorry the photos are so dark. It was really hot and dusty (I'm looking forward to the rainy season!), so we stayed in the shade as much as possible. If you look over Edgar's shoulder, that should be Guatemala in the distance. Will and I are sitting next to a grove of lemon trees they had just planted, but once again we have found the shade. This finca was full of amazing trees, including banana, mango and orange. It was originally a coffee plantation, so we saw lots of coffee plants as well. Kelly sent us home with a beautiful basket of fresh herbs from their garden. A wonderful day!

Days pass quickly

2006-02-08T19:06:00.000-06:00

How do the days pass so quickly? We have been off campus a lot lately - that and a million essays to grade... somehow I just stay behind on everything. Here's the latest:

1) We have a guest! Anna from the Webb School in Knoxville, Tenn. is here for 12 days. She hosted Maggie in the fall, so we were excited to have the chance to return the hospitality. Anna is an incredibly good sport. She makes the fifth resident in our two-bedroom apartment. But we are loving every minute of having her here. Which brings me to the next piece of news...

2) We're moving next door (probably). This means separate bedrooms for Mags and Will. They have been real troopers sharing our limited space, so they are both excited about the possibility of a new house. The backyard is bigger, too. It seems like we don't own much stuff, but I'll bet it will expand exponentially as we carry it all 25 feet.

3) This has to be the number for good news. Our friends are returning from the States on Monday! Their son has been diagnosed with a bone inflamation instead of bone cancer. We are all so relieved.

4) Thought I'd include some of the lessons James learned in the last week, like birthday parties thrown by American History students are very special. He had a wonderful day! We invited Jose and Alison, our dear friends (pictured here) from the apartment next to us, to come over for birthday cake. Only then did we find out it was Jose's birthday as well. The other lesson James learned this week was rather painful. It was to never drink coffee made in a small town. He went on a Habitat trip on Saturday to a little place named Armenia. Unfortunately that one cafecito kept him in bed for three days! One trip to the doctor and two quarts of Pedialite and he's almost as good as new.

5) My big moment may not sound monumental - but trust me. I called to make a hair appointment, and managed to carry off the whole conversation in Spanish. I may never be fluent, but I'm proud to say that I no longer sweat when I have to try to communicate in this foreign language. There just might be hope after all.

6) Last but by no means least, we watched the Super Bowl with all the complejo residents. Someone set up a big screen by the swimming pool. We had amazing food, and best of all I was barefoot. Life is good!

Maggie just ran in to say she has a Spanish project on coffee due for tomorrow. So I'm getting off the computer... Note to the Burtons - thanks for reminding me that I needed to write again!

The good and the bad

2006-01-18T20:28:00.000-06:00

Turns out I thrive on routine. Speakers from a program called FCD (Freedom from Chemical Dependancy) are visiting campus this week, and they have been meeting with 11th graders during my English classes. I’m supposed to take attendance and then find a place to wait until the start of the next class. I’m sure my co-workers have been jealous of my schedule, but I am dying to get back in the classroom! I feel like someone figured out what I loved to do and then took it away from me. So... one more day of punishment and then I can teach again.

I managed to get our internet cut off this week. It’s the only bill I pay each month. Electricity, water, phone, car insurance - everything else is either paid by the school or automatically deducted from our paychecks. Our one bill is hand-delivered, and then I pay it through internet-banking. This odd arrangement is a good thing, because I have yet to see a post office, a mailman, or even a Salvadoran stamp. I’m sure they all exist - some how, somewhere in this country. The problem wasn’t with paying the internet bill, it was with reading the due date. I’m still getting used to seeing the date first, then the month. So the bill was due on 2/1/06, which I read as February 1 instead of January 2. Live and learn - and rejoice that we are back up and running again.

Our school family was shaken with some tough news last week. The ten-year old son of two of the school’s teachers was diagnosed with bone cancer. I know that some people wonder about the level of medical care in El Salvador, but I thought it was impressive that his doctors were able to make this diagnosis. This boy is a tremendous athlete and a fierce competitor. If anyone can beat a disease, he can. But the school and complejo are a little bit quieter now, and we’re all anxious to hear some good news from the States (the family flew home on Monday). Lots of prayers went with them.

The photo is from a complejo birthday party last weekend. We have all adopted the Salvadoran tradition of celebrating every occasion to the fullest. (Maggie’s way in the back on the right.) Hope you do the same!

Oh My!

2006-01-09T19:53:00.000-06:00

How could it be that I haven't written since Thanksgiving? Turns out writing, giving and grading 91 exams was a lot of work. I salute teachers everywhere - this job takes a lot of time. Then we tried to Christmas shop before heading home for almost three weeks. Seems like a long vacation till we actually got there. I felt like we tried to cram six months of lost time into a few weeks. And we didn't get to see everyone and we didn't get to do everything. But we sure did try.

We're back in S.S. now. School starts tomorrow. My apologies to all our friends back home who use our school email address - it hasn't worked since January 1, and could be down for two more weeks. We promise to catch up after that, though! I'm including the beginning of a well intentioned article I started for the Herald Journal that never got finished (surprise!). So sorry, Jose Franco, I promise I'll try again! The second thing to add is a photo - because blogs without pictures are boring. This picture was taken right before we left. James and I won a limo ride to the EA faculty Christmas party - what a hoot.

Happy New Year to everyone! Oh, and if you heard a rumor that we fed 48 friends here grits once we got home, it is true. Who knows, they might start importing them to El Salvador?

Newspaper article that was never finished...

One of my favorite songs has always been Kenny Loggins’ "Celebrate Me Home." I loved the lyrics long before I ever had the nerve to leave Spartanburg and move our family to El Salvador. But as we landed in the Charlotte at midnight after being out of the country for six months, all I could hear were the first two lines of the song running through my head. "Home for the holidays," sings Loggins. "I believe I’ve missed each and every face." For me, it’s not just friends and family I have come home to see. I have missed everyone in Spartanburg, from Nick the pharmacist to the shoe-shine man in the Marriott lobby. Spartanburg is special that way.

Getting home from El Salvador for the holidays turned out to be a challenge. First off, I had to finish the semester at Escuela Americana. Because of all the American teachers on staff who travel over the break, the school makes sure all exam grades are in before anyone gets to leave the country. James and I both had 90 exams to grade before we could begin to think about heading home. And the airline we fly on is down to one flight a day to Atlanta, so we were lucky to get four seats for our family.

As we waited to board the plane, James was one of the only people in the terminal to recognize the American Ambassador. We tried to guess what dignitary might be receiving a distinguished welcome to El Salvador. After the plane had almost emptied, we saw a ten-year old girl with a Barbie doll in one hand running full speed up the ramp. Only then did we realize that Ambassador Barclay was welcoming his own family to Central America for the holidays. Seeing their reunion set a happy tone for our trip as well.

One of the best travel tips we have learned is to introduce ourselves to the entire flight staff when we board the plane. It certainly blows our cover as seasoned international travelers (because we aren’t), but it always helps us on the flight. Invariably we leave an item behind on the plane and twice we have had flight attendants come and find us in the immigration line to give us back our belongings. On this trip it was a favorite travel pillow, hand-delivered back to me by the co-pilot.

Customs is another adventure, especially when entering the U.S. from El Salvador. Almost all the locals travel with a box of rotisserie-style chicken. You can smell the hot Pollo Campero chicken throughout the cabin as soon as you board the plane. No one ever breaks down and eats any on the flight - it is the gift to present to your Salvadoran friends when you arrive at your destination. When the customs official asked if we had food or plants to declare, for our flight he added "Do you have any chicken?" Because we were poultry free, and we decided not to mention the pineapple-filled Salvadoran cookies in my carry-on, we sailed right through with a friendly "Welcome Home" from the agent.

Yes. Yes. And no muy bein. Those are the answers to the three questions we hear as we make the rounds to visit everyone during our vacation (an impossibility).The questions seem to come in this order. "Do you like Central America?" and "Is it safe?" and "How’s your Spanish?" We love living in San Salvador first and foremost for the weather. We’re in the dry season right now, almost six months straight of sunny skies and absolutely no rain. The volcano above the city is turning brown (it’s prettier than it sounds). The school waters every acre of the campus, keeping all the vegetation alive till the rains return. I’ve walked into a number of sprinklers on my way to and from class - an occupational hazard during this time of year. Our Spanish teacher Sergio gave us the vocabulary for the four seasons, but I argued that we shouldn’t have to learn words that the culture doesn’t use. There is no winter, summer, spring or fall. The locals divide the year into simply wet and dry, period. It has been nice to hear rain again while we’re home, but we’re thankful we missed the ice and the cold.

Safety in any big city is an issue. We’re careful wherever we go, just as we would be traveling in the U.S. What caught us off guard was the attitude of the Salvadorans. We expected stares on the city streets. We didn’t expect anyone to welcome an American. But the opposite is true. Everyone is friendly and helpful, especially when we make our miserable attempts to speak Spanish. Taking Will out is another story - his blonde hair never fails to illicit stares wherever we go. But I find myself now staring at blondes as well - they are such a rare site in this country.

The language will continue to be a challenge for us. James and I take Spanish classes twice a week. We laugh about how often the wrong word comes out. Our brains are trying to say something that’s not English. I revert to French, and James to Italian. I’ve even spoken a few words of Portugese. Our daughter Maggie is the one whose Spanish has come together beautifully. She takes has three classes taught only in Spanish.

That's as far as I got...

Salvadoran Thanksgiving

2005-11-28T20:54:00.000-06:00

Not quite sure how to describe Thanksgiving in a foreign country. First of all - it's just not here. For Salvadorans, Thursday was just another day. In an effort to escape the homesick blues, we left town. We went with two other families to the mountains (where it was suprisingly cold) near the Guatemalan border. We rented a beautiful house near the town of Ataco.

On Thanksgiving Day, we ate tamales for lunch and pupusas for dinner. Maggie and I helped our dear friend Maria prepare wild rice and apple stuffing before we left the complejo, so we did have some traditional leftovers waiting for us when we got home. In the absence of parades and football, James went on a coffee plantation tour and the kids went horseback riding. I upheld tradition and took a Thanksgiving Day nap.

We got home on Saturday morning and turned around for a quick beach run. We finally took Mags and Will to our favorite restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view from Cafe Zunzal was the reason I wanted to move to this country in the first place. It's that beautiful. We went swimming in November - hard to believe. On the trip home, we managed to get in a political parade. The locals just looked confused.

As we pulled into town, "Sleigh Ride" came on the car radio. I can't seem to convince my body that it is not still the month of July. And I can't begin to comprehend that we are headed home for three weeks and it is going to be COLD there. We'll be staying at my mother's house from December 19 to Janaury 5. Hope to see lots of friends and family while we are there. Can anyone loan me a sweater?

Playing hooky

2005-11-20T16:44:00.000-06:00

James and I have exam review documents due by Friday, as well as final exams completed a week from tomorrow. So... with all this work facing us, we grabbed the kids and went on an adventure. The weather now is just too perfect. The sky is blue and the breeze is blowing. I think I'm still recovering from the rainy season. Who knew how the weather would affect us?

So off we went to Los Planes (pronounced like the word planet without the "t"). It's a park on top of a mountain just a few miles outside the city. We went to the Salvadoran version of Chimney Rock - called The Devil's Gate. We climbed stairs and rocks to an incredible view. The picture of us here is interesting - behind my left hand you might see a red rope. It's a zip line - people were riding down from one of the rock peaks. In the distance the deeper blue color is the ocean. You could see forever.

There were vendors by the parking lot, and a couple of ancient kiddy rides. Mags and Will got on a little ferris wheel that was also run by kids. I can't imagine how old is was. James took a photo but it turned out to be a movie - so you'll just have to imagine the ride. So few things here have warnings, rules or guidelines. It seems like everything we do has an added element of risk - making every outing at the least unpredictable.

I have a confession to make. Letty and I are taking Mags to see Ricky Martin tomorrow night. Why? So we can say we did it. My hope is we'll be home by midnight. But then only a day and half more of school before Thanksgiving holidays. I figure we can catch up on our sleep then. And recover from the three birthday parties we went to in 24 hours this weekend. There's no other way to explain it - parties are big here. We went to the grocery store this afternoon and it was surprising because there was no live music. Salvadorans celebrate everything.

Oh - here's a photo of James and former President Alfredo Cristiani. I'm not sure why he wanted me to take this picture. Maybe he'll explain it sometime.

Happy Holidays to all our friends in SC!

What a week!

2005-11-06T19:23:00.000-06:00

We ran the gamut this week - all sorts of highs and lows. I had a dreadful sore throat that I just couldn't seem to shake. We did learn that antibiotics are available without a prescription, and James kindly picked some up for me on Tuesday. But there was just too much going on to take time to be sick, so I never missed school. Lucky for me, we had Wednesday off (Day of the Dead). I stayed home while everyone else went out and did something exciting.

James and our Spanish teacher, Sergio, went to the central market in downtown San Salvador. James had to dress down - t-shirt and ball cap - so as not to draw too much attention to himself. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it can be dangerous downtown. I'm glad he found a local to take him. He'll have to write his own entry to describe the market.

Of course, it was also Halloween on Monday. We had trick-or-treating in the complejo. Everything started at 5:30 and was over by 6:15 - amazing! Will and his friend Kyle were both Zorro. We got their hats at the artisan market. There is no such thing as a Halloween costume for sale in this country, but everyone seems to make do.

Maggie volunteered Tuesday night and all day Wednesday with a local church. They had learned about a shelter that had no supplies. It's hard to believe that people are still in shelters from the landslides - guess it will be awhile. Maggie's a hard worker and I think they were glad to have her. And her Spanish is really starting to take off. I think the more time she spends being forced to speak Spanish, the better she'll get.

I had the pleasure of chaperoning a field trip to a local orphanage in Saint Thomas on Tuesday. I'm the advisor for a school club called "Helping Hands." I'm not a whole lot of help, since the meetings are all in Spanish! But I was so impressed with the Escuela Americana students who went on the trip. When the priest who ran the orphanage was asked what the kids wanted, he said fresh vegetables. So we took food and played games with the kids. It was a really nice afternoon.

We ended the week with the black tie Marine Ball. It was quite an occasion. The ambassador was there. The highlight for us was meeting the Vice President of El Salvador. Mrs. Escobar had visited Spartanburg about a month ago, and said how warmly she was received. James and I both teach her step-son, and he is a charming young man. And, in the great Salvadoran tradition, the Vice President kissed me on the cheek. It was fun to get dressed up and go out. The other couple in the photo is Letty and Julio Magana. They have adopted us since we moved here - we'd be absolutely lost without them.

We should have a calm week ahead. We're already making plans for our trip home in December. It should be here soon - can't wait.

Not much news

2005-10-27T20:06:00.000-06:00

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

2005-10-21T20:20:00.000-06:00

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

2005-10-05T15:04:00.000-06:00

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!

2005-10-02T08:01:00.000-06:00

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!

And it's raining

2005-09-17T17:56:00.000-06:00

Third night of a glorious four-day weekend (thank you so much Headmaster Skipper), and it is pouring down rain. Welcome to the rainy season in Central America. We have enjoyed two day trips over the holidays. Today we stayed in town, had friends over to swim, and got sunburned yet again!

On Thursday, we drove to Santa Ana with the Magana family. Letty Magana is head of H.R. at the school. She and her husband, Julio, along with their three children, led us to a delightful city about an hour outside of San Salvador (and as with every place we go - it's all down hill to get there). The town square had a festive atmosphere due to September 15 -Salvadoran Independence Day. We walked from vendor to vendor. Julio was the expert at picking the best street food for us to try. My personal favorite was choco-sandia - frozen watermelon dipped in chocolate and nuts. The most memorable snack was "elote loco" - translation "crazy corn." The corn on the cob was brushed with mayo, dipped in parmesan cheese, then equal toppings of ketchup, mustard and BBQ sauce. Maggie is officially hooked.

We finished off our trip to Santa Ana in a pastaleria - a little pastry and sandwich shop. There I tried horchata - milk with a sugar and seed mixture in it. Maggie described it as the taste of milk after you've eaten all the cereal out of it. It was delicious, along with pastries nicknamed "ear" and "lightening." (I've forgotten the Spanish names for both.) Letty's children rode back to the city with us, and gave Mags and Will a free Spanish lesson on the way home. The photos in this blog entry were taken inside and outside the cathedral. I've got some nice shots of the children feeding the pigeons, too. It was all so "Mary Poppins" like.

Yesterday we met two school families at the beach - Costa del Sol. You have no idea how nerve-wracking it can be to try to navigate in this country. But thanks to our complejo friend, Maria, we only had to turn around once - a new Dunlap record. The house we visited was right on the beach. The sand is black. It's very soft to walk on but it looks so different. The beach is also littered with coconuts - they are everywhere. The rental house had a big yard, a bunch of hammocks, 50 chairs (no lie - don't know why there were so many chairs), and a small swimming pool. I got to eat a jumbo shrimp, deveined and cooked on the grill. South Carolina shrimp are going to have to change their names to mini-jumbo. These were super-jumbo!

All in all, a great vacation. We'll head to church in the morning, and spend the rest of the day preparing lesson plans for next week. Hasta la vista!

Sorry for the delay!

2005-09-09T17:16:00.000-06:00

Glen Boggs, a dear friend and brilliant architect, reminded me today that I was behind in my blog postings! We've been out and about trying to do things so we would have material for our first Herald Journal article. So... here's a sneak preview of what I sent to SHJ this week Hope you all enjoy it! Susan

Can I explain life in Central America? It’s pretty simple: no Krispy Kreme, no BBQ, and none of my mother’s home cooking. Some days I wonder why we ever left Spartanburg. James, Maggie, Will and I have been in El Salvador for almost five weeks. I think a description of a typical weekend might give everyone back home an idea of what our lives are like now, including what we miss (everything) and what we are enjoying here (pretty much everything as well.)

James and I are teaching high school students at Escuela Americana in San Salvador. Classes end at 3:00 pm, and by then the cars are backed up almost a half mile at both school entrances. The car pool line runs steadily for 45 minutes. It just takes that long to get 1,700 students off campus. The amazing part is that by 5:00 pm the campus is full of students again. The school’s extension program teaches English as a second language to an additional 2,000 students a year.

Around 4:00 on Friday afternoon, I have my classroom back in order and I’m ready to walk home. We live in a small apartment on the far side of campus (low cost housing provided by the school.) El Salvador is known for all its volcanoes. So for us, the walk home is really the "climb" home back up one of the city's steep hills. I’ve yet to make it home without breaking a sweat, unless you count the days I have to run home because it’s raining. We’re in the rainy season now, and it literally rains every day. I don’t carry an umbrella because getting wet is just part of living here.

My Friday treat is coffee out with the girls. I go to a local coffee shop, Shaw’s, with my new friends Letty and Jennifer. Letty drives, which is another treat because I have yet to get behind the wheel in this country. Forget defensive driving - it’s all offensive here. There’s lots of honking, and cars can pass you on the right or the left. There are also a lot of one way streets. You literally take one route to get somewhere and another to get back. I appreciate James’s interest in maps now. He has done a great job of learning his way around the city.

Coffee in El Salvador is cheap and plentiful. (We buy a gourmet blend for around $2 a bag at the grocery store.) However, I am embarrassed to admit how much I have paid for peanut butter. It’s imported from the U.S. solely for "gringos," and stores can charge almost anything they want. We are enjoying all the native dishes that our housekeeper, Mila, cooks for us, but we are not ready to give up peanut butter and jelly.

As I’m enjoying my cup of coffee, I see one of my students walk in with her mother. I’ve been working so hard on learning 90 students’ names. The boys have been easy - they are mostly Diego, Javier and Raul. The girls are more challenging, all different variations of double names: Maria Jose, Maria Irene, Maria Gabriela and Maria Fernanda. Luckily the student who walks in is a "Sofia" (I only have three of those), and I even remember her outstanding grade from Thursday’s test. I ask her, "Did you tell your mother about your test?" Her mother says nothing, so I assume she doesn’t speak English (the students are bi-lingual but many of their parents aren’t.) Instead, her mother kisses me on the cheek. It’s the standard, polite Salvadoran greeting, but I’m still getting used to it. (When I opened a checking account, the bank representative kissed me, too.)

On Saturday morning, we are up and out of the house by 6:30 am to be back at school by 6:45. It’s not as bad as it sounds. The sun comes up at 5:30 and the rooster next door starts crowing, so we might as well get out of bed. James and I join a group of senior high volunteers to work on a Habitat house. We travel with the school’s volunteer coordinator, four students, two drivers and two armed guards. Armed guards sound scary, but they really aren’t. They stay close by all day, even when we stop at an ice cream stand. Guards are just one of the precautions that people take in this country. They make me feel very safe.

We spend the day in an area called Sonza Cata, laying cement block for a family’s new home. Everything here has to be earthquake proof. What we are building looks a lot like a bomb shelter to me. James has a great time helping the masons. We complete three rows around the outside of the house before we leave for the day. The whole project should be finished in two weeks at a cost of around $4,000. The house will have electricity but no running water. As we leave the site, I notice the family’s flower garden. Everything is blooming, from small banana trees to red roses. In the midst of poverty, there is still tremendous beauty here.

Getting off campus and out of the city is a good idea . It’s easy to stay at home every weekend. We have lots of friends in the compound, and the shared swimming pool is right outside our door. But we came here to see the country of El Salvador, so we don’t want to miss an opportunity to do so.

We try to go to a local department store on Saturday evening to buy some clothes. Delta lost James’s luggage on the trip down here, and we are still working on replacing his wardrobe. Because we are walking around campus so much, James has lost about ten pounds. Now his new clothes don’t fit either. What we didn’t know was that the local department store was having its big annual sale. We had to leave because we couldn’t find a parking place in the garage. Salvadorans evidently don’t miss a sale.

The last adventure for the weekend is church. It took some very helpful members of the school staff to find an Episcopal Church for us. Turns out the church is Anglican. It's familiar and foreign at the same time. The church is made of cinder block, and the windows are all wide open. We sing and pray in Spanish, which is difficult because we don’t speak the language (yet.) We use an English/Spanish prayer book. When we look lost, the minister yells back to us, "We’re on page 148!" Everyone is welcoming and encouraging. The sign on the church wall says "Dios te amo," which translates "God loves you." These words I can understand in any language.

Ants

2005-08-18T19:29:00.000-06:00

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

2005-08-15T18:21:00.000-06:00

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

2005-08-11T19:45:00.000-06:00

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

2005-08-07T10:47:00.000-06:00

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

2005-08-06T10:47:00.000-06:00

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

2005-08-02T15:04:00.000-06:00

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.

The Beach

2005-07-31T08:50:00.000-06:00

We went to the Atami Beach Club yesterday. It's a perk for the faculty - the school provides a membership. The beach is about 30-40 minutes away. It takes longer to get home because it's all uphill. The picture is Susan and Maggie sipping from their first coconut.

The club has two swimming pools and a water slide (a big hit with Mags and Will - 6 rides for $1.00). You rent a cabana - a thatched roof hut with a table and two benches. They set up four woven hammocks for you (not Pawley's Island hammocks, but still very nice.) And then you just enjoy the breeze.

The club itself is on a cliff. The sand is black - crushed volcanic rock. The beach is rough but perfect for surfing. The surprise was the tidal pools - big concrete pools built on the shore's edge. So you can safely swim in salt water right next to the raging sea. It's worth every step of the long climb back up to the beach club.

Note to my mother - we saw one fishing boat, probably a shrimp boat. But we also saw men on floats out in the ocean shrimping. When I say float, I mean inner-tube! We waved to them. What a way to catch shrimp!

James is out right now trying to find the Episcopal Church. Once we master the route and find out the schedule, we'll try services in Spanish. I'll let you know how it goes.

Maggie's photos

2005-07-29T15:49:00.000-06:00

We have no idea what this flower is, but the gardens around the houses are full of all kinds of blooms.
Maggie poses in front of more neighborhood flora.

Will looks pretty comfortable pool side. Large coconut trees are on the other side of the pool.

Progress

2005-07-29T15:25:00.000-06:00

Today we got internet and cable t.v. for our little house. The dining room table is now our office as well. We are headed out to shop again (always an adventure). It's amazing how little you can fit into eight suitcases (really only seven if you count the one that didn't arrive), and how much you need to run a house. Tupperwear, tinfoil and a colander are big on our list today.

Tomorrow we take our first trip to the beach. After a stressful week of meetings, language barriers and big rain storms, we look forward to a day of lounging in a beach cabana. Maggie can't wait for her beach-side hammock. Will just wants out of the school compound (complejo).

The highlight of the week for James and Susan was discovering the faculty lunch room. We're not exactly sure what we're eating, but it is hot, cheap ($1.50) and home cooked.

Off to fight the afternoon traffic. Salvadorans drivers make NASCAR drivers look tame.

We are here!

2005-07-28T08:50:00.000-06:00

The Dunlaps have safely arrived in El Salvador! Unfortunately, James's entire wardrobe did not successfully complete the trip. He is taking out his frustrations by driving like a wild man. The baggage search continues, along with tons of paperwork to make us official. In the meantime, Maggie and Will sit by the swimming pool waiting for school to start.

We are also anxiously awaiting the ripening of the bananas on the banana tree in our back yard. Life in the tropics is not too bad!

Off to teacher orientation - will write again soon. Susan

Testing uno, dos, tres...

2005-07-27T21:34:00.000-06:00

This is a test post. This is only a test. If this had been an actual post, I would have written something interesting. We now return you to your regular programming.