I love little kids

Mark and I work in the nursery and I love asking the little kids questions and hearing their answers. I got my inspiration for doing this from the movie made in the 70's by the church called "From the Mouth of Babes." The following was my conversation with 3 yr old Eli.

"Eli who is Jesus?"

"(thinking for a second) um I think he is a prophet!" He says this very excited and proud of himself.

"Good job Eli! And what does he do?"

"He teaches the little kids things"

"What does he teach you?"

"He teaches me Spanish and French, that's what the prophets teach"

"Oh, what sorts of words has he taught you"

"Well I actually make up most of my words because I can't hear him very well because he's in the sky. But, the one word I have learned from him is vamanos ya. That means come on yeah."

I had to hold back my laughing because he was so serious and matter fact about all of this.

City Deals

So I've been getting these e-mails from city deals but never looked at them. Then they sent me one for Lazer Assault for a 25$ gift certificate only costing 8$. Seeing as we love lazer tag there I bought 4 passes that value 100$ for only 32$. Sorry if this sounds like some sale pitch because it's not. Just thought I'd share the wealth with others. There's a ton of restaurants or activities with like 50% off. here's the link if you want to look at it. It's only in Utah :(

http://www.citydeals.com/?ref=CDUMTIyNDIy

Civil War

It's crazy that when I say "civil war" in El Salvador I mean during my lifetime. The war here was from 1980-1991. The war resulted because of the extremes in economic situations here. There are a few very wealthy families that have governed El Salvador since El Salvador really began. They kept getting richer and richer while the poor got more and more poverty stricken. The poor started protesting against it in the 80's but the government feeling threatened began killing. They started killing the protesters and even the arch bishop here in El Salvador for speaking out against violence. The protesters then escaped to the mountains and formed their own guerrila army. The government then forced all the boys to go into the military and begin killing the poor civilians. If they refused then they themselves were killed. Our guide told us that he was forced to join the army on the side of the government but after he found out he was forced to kill innocent poor people he escaped into the mountains and joined the other side. The war went on for 10 years turning into a blood bath for the poor ill-equipped rebel army called the FMLN. The pictures taken are off the weaponry and the main hideout of the rebels. They told us they'd searched the place for mines placed but I'm not sure I believe that so we didn't leave the trail much.

The saddest part of the war was the massacre of Mozote. The battalion of the government went down to the remote village of Mozote and separated the men, women, and children into three different houses. The men were all murdered and their bodies burned, the women were raped and murdered, the girls 10-14 were taken up on the hill and used as "toys" for the men until they killed them before leaving, and the little children and babies were used as bayonet practice. One woman escaped when she was at the end of the line to be killed and a guard looked the other way. She told the story of what happened. It wasn't until just recently that the U.S (who was involved in the war and trained the soldiers that did the massacre) or the Salvadoranian government even recognized what happened. The memorial there is of the children and you can still see their blood stains on the bricks. It was quite a humbling experience to be there and to see something so sad that happened during my lifetime. The soldiers said that they did it to make a point to the rebels that this is what would happen to them if they continued.

Hostels

This was the hostel we stayed when we went and toured the civil war sights (1980-1991). I always thought I was one of those rugged people who loved traveling so much that it didn't matter where they stayed......wrong. After staying in so many hostels like this I decided I am a luxurious traveler-I wouldn't even say luxurious necessairly more a bathroom with a toilet seat, sheets that have been washed, and a safe environment. The lady told us we had the special "suit." Just look for yourself and tell me how special it looks.

This was the door right next to our room????? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
See how our door closes-a rebarb, see how much space is under the door for anything to get it-gross!
It is all cement. Those blankets on the bed had not been washed in a couple years and I think they'd wrapped the blankets around a tree because there were little sticks coming out of it all over the place.

All done with murals

So we finished our last mural yesterday, hip hip Hoooray! I decided I love painting it is so relaxing and fun. When I graduate I want to take those community classes and learn all the tricks. I feel like they turned out pretty dang good though, especially for us being novices! It was so cute because in each room that we painting we would have an audience of workers, nuns, and 5-6 kids just sitting there watching -no pressure right.

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.