Back in El Salvador

2-1/2 months back in the states, Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday celebrations, multiple company banquets and a trip to CO for a New Years celebration and then we were saying our goodbyes and boarding the plane that would take us back to El Salvador for another year.

El Salvador in January is glorious, an endless succession of bright, clear blue-sky days in the 80’s with refreshingly cool nights in the 60’s. We arrived on a Thursday and indulged in El Salvador’s favorite food, pupusas, Friday night and then again Saturday night.

After settling in over the weekend, sweeping the dusty floors and cleaning up the cobwebs, Kendall and I head to Suchitoto to work on our Spanish. Beatrice and Norma are excellent teachers and patiently correct our poor accents and atrocious grammar while torturing us with ever more complicated verb forms. When my head is so full of conjugations and tenses and participles that bits of Spanish verbs start leaking out of my ears, Beatrice takes mercy on me and we chat (in Spanish of course). She tells me about a family in her community who has been orphaned by the gangs, the corruption of the Catholic church in El Salvador, how Islam has been brought into El Salvador by the president’s grandmother. Then we discuss favorite holiday foods, “pan con pollo” for her and pumpkin pie for me and compare holiday traditions in the US and El Salvador. The biggest difference we find is Salvadorians fascination with “bombas”, firecrackers that sound like grenades going off.

Every day after Spanish school, Kendall and I find a different spot to try out for lunch. On Monday, as we are walking, we spot a few “gringos” ordering lunch. We say hello and ask where they are from. We discover that we have multiple mutual friends and decide to join them for lunch. By the time we have eaten lunch together we are friends. They invite us to join them in their adventures for the rest of the day and Kendall decides to spend the afternoon with them. They explore a waterfall, get lost in the city, drink coffee at Cafe 1,200 on Boqueron volcano and then are kind enough to return Kendall to CICS in time to get some sleep before Tuesdays day of Spanish classes.

Saturday morning Mel and I and Amy and Liam along with Kendall, head into Apopa to purchase some supplies for the coming school year. After fighting through the normal Apopa traffic, we set off into “Plaza Mundo” a modern mall complete with numerous restaurants, clothing stores and much more.

As always, we have a very enjoyable time, as shopping is one of my favorite pastimes. Going from store to store to store looking for the things we need, finally finding what we are looking for, then waiting while the store sends someone to the far reaches of the mall to retrieve it from inventory is almost as fun as a visit to the dentist. Of course, the children behave perfectly as all 1 and 3 year olds do. Their legs don’t get tired, they dont’ beg for ice-cream at 10 AM in the morning and they don’t scream whenever their mom is out of sight for a few minutes. And they certainly don’t cry because they are so hungry, then eat 3 bites and decide they are full. Instacart, when are you coming to El Salvador?

The following Tuesday, the rest of the staff arrives and our little CICS family begins to feel more complete. Edwin Glick (ES) is senior staff this year. He is again embracing the responsibility of taking care of Miguel and Deris and caring for the CICS grounds, animals and vehicles. Tall, broad shouldered and blond, Edwin looks like a “gringo” but speaks Spanish as if he has lived in El Salvador his entire life, which he has.

Kendall Stoltzfus (WV) is teaching the older boys – Miguel, Jairo and possibly Joel. Kendall, dark-haired with a Latino style haircut, looks like he could belong here in El Salvador. His brain is working overtime, stretching and bulging with a deluge of Spanish and ASL. All the learning doesn’t seem to affect his enthusiasm and he is already talking about the things he wants to do and places he wants to see here in El Salvador.

Ranita Eby (PA) is teaching the younger students. The oldest of the staff group this year, she brings a quiet competence and added maturity. Although Spanish is new to her, she has been signing since she was a baby and is quite comfortable in ASL. Her students include Deris, Antony and Gabriela, an enthusiastic, intelligent and high-energy group.

Mariela Lemus (ES) is here to keep the house functioning properly, cleaning, washing and helping wherever she can. She is darker skinned than the rest of the group, the youngest of the staff at just 18 and speaks only a few words of English. None of that seems to affect her exuberant spirit and I often hear her patiently teaching proper Spanish pronunciation to the other staff then splitting with laughter at their (our) butchered rr’s, mis-placed emphasis and much too hard d’s.

Leticia Miller (OR) agreed to come at the last minute and take on the no easy task of cooking for our hungry group of staff and students. She has an uncanny ability to roll her rr’s like a native and when she figures out the rest of the sounds, she will be chattering away in Spanish. Even the hard work of cooking beans over an open fire does not sap her energy and in the evenings after supper, games of “futbol” or kick-the-can provide evening entertainment.

This week school begins and we are once again introduced to the 5 reasons for being here in El Salvador.

1. Miguel – A lanky 14 year old, stronger than his slender frame indicates, does not enjoy school work but loves to have a good time, a magician with a “futbol”, loves animals and is looking forward to taking care of a calf and some chickens this year.
2. Jairo – 14 years old like Miguel but quiet and a bit shy, quite good at his schoolwork when he cares to apply himself, prefers painting or drawing rather than hard work.
3. Deris – 11 years old, small in body but not in spirit, fiercely competitive and loves to learn, determined to keep up with the older boys at sports, riding bikes and general “coolness”. Enjoys games like Uno, connect-4 and memory and is always strategizing for an edge.
4. Antony – 11 years old, super friendly and loves people, helps his mom by going to the neighbors and selling snacks and trinkets, his expertise is not in sports and physical activity but in story-telling, soft-hearted and eager to please, always has a story to tell – if you don’t get it the first time, don’t worry, he’ll tell you again.
5. Gabriela – 11 years old, petite with dainty features, small size doesn’t stop her from outplaying some of the boys at futbol, very intelligent, explains things to the others when they don’t “get it” as quickly as she does, sweet natured and never causes trouble.

We are looking forward to an incredible year here in El Salvador in 2022. We expect lots of learning to happen, good relationships to be formed, an abundance of fun times and some hard times. We also anticipate quite a few visitors to CICS this year, so we are eagerly looking forward to that as well.

Grace and Peace,

Keith Yoder for CICS