First stop, San Salvador, El Salvador.
It's been a week so far on the World Race and I don't even know where to begin. Feels like a day, feels like a year.
Here's a bit of a summary on what my team and I have been up to:
-Manual labor: We have been helping to initiate the start of a church in a beach town called La Playa de San Diego. This has taken most of our time since being in San Salvador. It's about an hour from the city so to get there, we pile in the back of a couple pick up trucks and take a ride. Then our day is filled with various strenuous activities, such as machete-ing corn stalks to clear fields, shoveling dirt, removing stones and trash, etc. etc. And I thought my teen years were hard. Middle school had nothing on this work. I've never been so hot and dirty before in my entire life. The work was hard but the pay off was definitely better. The gratitude these people have for our little time of help blessed me beyond belief. How they could be so thankful for us I'll never know but I am so thankful for them, more than I could ever imagine.
-Our Host: We are staying at the home of Pastor Oscar while he is with another team in San Vicente. While he is away we are under the protection and hospitality of Juan Carlos. We are incredibly lucky to have such a kind and wonderful person staying with us, taking care of us, and helping us with our work. And a big plus, he's hilarious!
-Language barriers: Who would have thought that the 3 years of Spanish in high school and 1 year in college would fail me so miserably being in a Spanish speaking country? Now I know what a 2 year old feels like because I have so much to communicate but I'm sure it's all coming out as gibberish. But everyone in this country has been so accommodating. I can understand about 80-90% of what's being said and can speak maybe 10% in response. We are very fortunate to have people who speak English and are patient with us. Although it can be frustrating at times, we're getting better and life makes a little more sense each and every day. And it definitely leaves us with lots of laughs.
It may be too early to say, but I have fallen in love with this country. The people, the culture, the work, has been incredible. I've been beyond blessed to be here and I can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store if this first one has already been so amazing.
¡Que Pelado!
PS. Pictures could not upload to the blog on my internet situation… Go here instead!! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.657497513104.2116093.55303870&type=1
