Transportation in El Salvador

I don't think I've dedicated the time to really explain one of the craziest things about El Salvador...transportation! This post is designed to tell a couple crazy stories and help you understand how we get around. The transportation goes from the biggest to the littlestThis is the bigger buses. They come from the United States and are basically the buses 15-20 years old that couldn't be fixed enough to pass emissions so they send them here. All over the bus are signs about Jesus and then wierd cartoon characters and American artists.
Every time I sit down I look to see if my name is written in the back of the seat from elementary school. The driver on the buses makes $12 a day and the money collector makes $8. Apparently that is doing good here!
This little beauty is called "el microbus." Because we live up in the mountains they have the smaller buses up here. These are basically a normal van crafted to fit as many people as possible.

Normally this vans with regular seating would fit 8 people...here in El Salvy with seats facing both ways and people standing up they fit 16 people and I don't know how we did it but I counted 21 the other day!!!!! In all the buses there is the driver and the money collector boy. The money collector boy hangs out the door yelling at people as they pass by and telling the driver when they need to stop by either wistleing or by saying visa visa. Then as soon as your first leg is on the bus the driver says "dale" and the bus starts. They do this to save time and to transport as many people as possible in one day. This scared me SO bad the first time because I just about fell. It's crazy to me how these old people and little kids do it without blinking an eye. They're half hanging out the bus and it's shooting down the hill. Typical price is 20-25cents.

A step down from the micro is this truck that's fitted with a tarp and a couple roughly constructed seats. They have these in more remote locations. We took this to get down to Mozote for a tourist site.

Riding on the buses is always a fun event! Here they really do understand the concept of fast food because at every stop a group of sellers starts running for the bus so that they can be the one to sell their goods. The come plowing through the isles even when the bus is packed full selling

PARTY NUTS, cut up mango with chili and salt, PUPUSAS, fried elote, WATER IN BAGS, coke, CANDY, gum, COCONUT WATER, newpapers, TOOTHBRUSHES, key chains, BAGS OF FRUIT, flashlights, RANDOM CREMES. The list goes on and on!

Sometimes they don't get off by the time the bus starts moving and they are either forced to jump off(which is what the little kids do) or they are forced to stay on and ride it out.

This is what happens if you're one of the later stops along the bus route. We had to stay standing up for 45 min! before getting a seat. Imagine the people selling the things pushing in through us with baskets on their heads!

The other weekend we totaled 14 hrs on a bus

These were the people we saw

• An old man in his 90's got on the bus and with no teeth played the harmonica. I'm not sure the song even really existed I think it was some harmonica he found on the street and thought "Hey I can make money with this!" He then walked around hunched over asking for money.
• A man got on the bus and stood in front for 10 minutes talking about a creme that he made. He had this little bottle of it and was trying to sell it. Funny thing is Mark almost bought some of it.
• A man got on the bus and handed each person a sucker that had a whistle at the bottom. Then he stood in front and did a sales pitch for 15 min!!!! I have no idea how he had enough material to talk about a sucker. In the process of it he bartered himself down from 80 cents a sucker to 2x25 cents. He described in a lot of detail every part of the sucker. Then he walked down the isle looking each person in the eye before he took the sucker back
• A preacher got on the bus and prayed for us and I thought he ended his prayer about 20 times before he actually did it. He was on there walking the isle yelling for 30 minutes. He then told us we needed to pay him tithing or we wouldn't have safe passage and if we did the windows of heaven would be opened.
• A man came down the isle selling 4 toothbrushes for a dollar. I looked at Mark and his eyes were wide open as he contemplated how much a single toothbrush costs in the states
• The normal array of food venders got on the bus all throughout the trip
• A blind man got on the bus and after groping a girl on accident took a little megaphone and yelled at the people saying it's our duty to give him money and prayed for us all
• A man with a bright orange Boise State shirt got on the bus

I could go on and on about the buses and crazy experiences!

5 down!!

The superhero pictures show them not finished but we have finished them now

I don't think the lighting does the superheros justice I'll take another pic later.

Our space mural is finished. The volunteers put more stars than I would have liked but considering it's for the kids the more lights and colors the better it holds their attention

Us starting on the Winnie the Pooh mural

I've already shown a picture of this one but I wanted to include it in the set because it shows all the ones we've done. We've finished the sand now

The other side of the space one. For all those astronomers out there I know that my space mural is by no means correct. If I could go back and switch it I would-not because the kids would now any difference. So I was painting this room and being very detailed on the green saturn and they roll a kid in and I asked if he was blind and they're like yeah he is. Then the next kid is rolled in and he's blind too! I promtly said why in the heck am I painting in this room if they're all blind!!! They started laughing and told me there are two in the room that aren't blind.

More murals

I don't remember the last time I've done my hair-poor Mark

Our space mural with Maria Antonia painting. I'm so horrible I have them all help then as soon as they leave I go in and fix it! Hey at least they don't know I do it and they come back thinking they did some pretty good painting.

This one would definately be finished by now but I'm waiting for the kids to be all back from school but at the same time not have people sleeping in the room because this is something I can let them do without panicking too much

Murals

We've been trying to think of a project we could do to help the kids here even after we've left. We chose to target our project on the kids who don't ever receive attention because quite frankly some of them are quite intimidating. These are the kids who spend most of the day in their rooms locked in cages, due to their lack of interaction and overall sense of fear that comes with being disabled they are usually screaming or hurting themselves. After some research and prayer we found information on the benefits of art stimulation on the disabled, apparently it not only affects them mentally and psychologically but physically as well. We've started on our first building (5 rooms) and we have them base painted and with the drawings put on the wall.

Mark tracing one of the drawings we found

Me painting the boat on the sea mural we're doing. I have to admit I'm a bit obsessive over the details with the murals because I want everything to be perfect. BUT Mark has reminded me of our experience this past Christmas when we had a timed ginger bread house competition and we lost because I was so obsessive with all the details and we ended up not finishing the house. Hence forth I have to remind myself that this is not the sistine chapel and I can delegate to other people and trust them.

We've gotten pretty for with this one we still need to finish the sand, bottom creatures, and the sea weed coming up. I think it'll be pretty cool and I'm proud of us especially since this is my first time with anything like this.

scary/ funny story

Before I start my story let me explain something.
I am the biggest scaredy cat alive.
Every night I make Mark check the doors are locked
and then I have to go look myself.
If I ever here a noise then I won't be able to sleep for hours.
If it's dark outside I won't go outside unless someone's with me.
I cannot watch scary movies or I'll have nightmares for a week.
Sometimes when we pray I have to sneak a peak and make sure no one has come in the room.
Now having said that I can tell my story, I just wanted everyone to understand that so they can understand what I went through.
Mark and I were sitting on our bed playing games and I was closest to the door. Mark then started telling me how he was a little freaked out earlier by some random girl who went to the catholic mass who was wandering around and just stood there looking at Mark.
I of course was a little freaked out by this when all of the sudden
I see someone small standing in our bedroom doorway!!
I immediatley scream and continue to scream for 5 seconds untill I register who it was.
Mark screamed also-just not as long:)
No one ever comes to the house so to see someone there and especially in our bedroom without
warning freaked me out and I think my heart stopped.
She (maria) told us that we needed to change our clothes (we were still in dress clothes beecause it was Sunday) and get down the hill to celebrate her birthday with the nuns.
We went down the hill only to find out
1. it wasn't her birthday
2. the nuns knew nothing about what Maria was talking about.
Maria is considered the enforcer here and is always reminding us when we need to be done with
activities and is always getting after the kids.
Some of the time the things she says makes no sense...this was one of those times.

Maria is the one on the top

Who doesn't love sidewalk chalk!

Some of the volunteers from the other group in San Salvador came up to spend the day with us. It was so nice to have help around that could spend one on one time with the kids. Most the time I'm running from person to person telling them how beautiful their drawing is as they are all calling out my name. I think a lot of them ended up having more chalk on them than the actual sidewalk!

What greets us every day

Life here is full of simple pleasures. The smallest things that would go unnoticed in our lives are the highlight of the people here. Each day they wait for us at the bottom of the hill and cheer as they see us appear. How often do people cheer when you walk into the room? It's crazy thinking we're over half-way with our stay here.







This is Maria's smile. She is in her 50's or 60's but is the spunkiest lady ever. Every time I see her I sing "Maria maria you remind me of a west side story"-santana. She then shakes her finger at my like she's scolding me then laughs.