This week was a fun week, we were able to spoil the girls in the house a little. On Monday they had a holiday from school so we went to CISNA in the morning and came home at about 2:30. We all walked to the pupuseria and had a few pupusas. The girls had fun getting out of the house and doing something different & of course they enjoyed the pupusas, almost as much as I did :)
On Wednesday we were able to take the girls to the movie theatre which was fun because most of them had never been to see a movie before. They were all excited.
On Thursday, at the detention center in CISNA they celebrated Family Day so many of the girls had family come to visit them. We helped decorate and watched the presentation they had prepared for them. Then we just hung out with the girls for the rest of the afternoon.
Another Christian organization that we have run into a few times down here is Hannah´s Hands. They are doing some medical work. One of the American ladies working with them lives here and invited all of the interns over for dinner tonight. She´s cooking an American meal for us so that is pretty exciting!
We don´t have a lot planned for this weekend. Interns are starting to leave now at different times so it is kind of sad. Laurel left on Thursday morning, Cramer leaves on Sunday and Lauren leaves on Wednesday. YPO is making a trip down here next week so we will probably be helping with them.
Overall it was a good week but I´m pretty tired right now so I think I´m going to try and get a nap in before dinner! Thanks for your prayers everyone!
love,
Sam
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Dia Deportiva and Weekend
On Friday we had Dia Deportiva (sports day) at the boys orphanage at CISNA. We started at 8:30am and had relay races, basketball and soccer tournaments and a water balloon fight. We also had ice cream and prizes. All of the interns helped out with it but the guys did all of the planning and they did a great job with it! The kids really enjoyed it I think and it was fun to be able to spend some time doing something different. The boys in the orphanage are so sweet and a lot of fun. You can tell they really crave attention and a ¨motherly¨type of love.
Yesterday we were going to spend all day on the beach but since it was raining we had to change our plans. We spent a little time downtown San Salvador just driving and walking around. It was really eye opening to actually see the city and how the people live and act. We also went to a touristy market place to shop for a little while before coming back for a nap. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Tucson. Today we went to church with the girls in the house, right up the street. It was fun going with them, but I was holding baby Jefferson (the youngest baby in the promise house) during it and he peed all over me during the service so that wasn´t too fun haha...oh well.
I am exactly half way done now, 3 weeks from today I will be flying home. Kinda crazy how time flies...although part of me feels like I have been here forever. Back to a regular schedule tomorrow. Love you guys! And happy father´s day to all you dads!! (especially mine :) )
Yesterday we were going to spend all day on the beach but since it was raining we had to change our plans. We spent a little time downtown San Salvador just driving and walking around. It was really eye opening to actually see the city and how the people live and act. We also went to a touristy market place to shop for a little while before coming back for a nap. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Tucson. Today we went to church with the girls in the house, right up the street. It was fun going with them, but I was holding baby Jefferson (the youngest baby in the promise house) during it and he peed all over me during the service so that wasn´t too fun haha...oh well.
I am exactly half way done now, 3 weeks from today I will be flying home. Kinda crazy how time flies...although part of me feels like I have been here forever. Back to a regular schedule tomorrow. Love you guys! And happy father´s day to all you dads!! (especially mine :) )
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Quick Update
Hi! Everything is still going well. It´s the end of the week so I´m pretty tired but looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I have been spending more time at CISNA in the girls detention center and am now only going to CIPI on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I´m really enjoying getting to know the girls at CISNA. One of the girls there is named Ana and she is so sweet. I really can´t believe that she would ever do anything wrong! I had a few really good talks with her this week. We talked about Jesus and she told me that she had accepted him as a her Savior previously while in the detention center. This morning she was able to go before the judge to see if she could go free or had to continue serving her sentence. I am really hoping that he allows her to return to her family even though I will miss her so much! At least I know that as sisters in Christ, we will see each other again someday!
Tomorrow we are all organizing and helping with sports day at the boys orphanage. It should be a lot of fun. We´ll play games and have some competition and ice cream!
Oh and just a fun fact...I killed my first cuca (cockroach) last night at 3 am when I got up to go to the bathroom. I was pretty proud of myself! haha.
Thanks all and please continue to pray!
Love,
Sam
Tomorrow we are all organizing and helping with sports day at the boys orphanage. It should be a lot of fun. We´ll play games and have some competition and ice cream!
Oh and just a fun fact...I killed my first cuca (cockroach) last night at 3 am when I got up to go to the bathroom. I was pretty proud of myself! haha.
Thanks all and please continue to pray!
Love,
Sam
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Painting & Volcano Climb
We painted all day on Friday. The downstairs of the promise house is now sky blue. Doesn´t exactly match but it´s the color that the girls wanted and they really like it so that´s good. The girls that were home during the day helped us with the painting and they really enjoyed doing that. Miguel, one of the kids here, is 4 and was home from Kinder that day because his teacher was sick. (Lucky us haha) He thought it would be a good idea to dump a whole water bottle into our bucket of paint, so the paint was a little more watery than it should have been but it still worked out fine. For lunch we bought the girls pizza and soda and they were excited about that. For dinner we had pupusas again!
On Saturday we woke up and left around 815am. They wanted to take us to this volcano that is about two hours away. They said it would be fun. What we did was drive up a huge mountain and then took an ¨excursion¨at 11am. The excursion was a four hour hike/climb. No, not four miles, FOUR HOURS! We had to climb down a ton of stairs in the woods into this valley type thing and there you could see the volcano. When I saw it I thought to myself, there is absolutely no way we can climb that and survive. There is really no trail, just a bunch of rocks. But we climbed it anyway. It was probably the most tiring thing I have ever done. There were a few times when I just wanted to quit, but quitting isn´t really an option because you have to get down somehow. We finally made it to the top, where we ate our lunch and took a short break. Really short, like ten minutes. Oh and there are also no bathrooms on this little trail, that is a problem. haha. The way down wasn´t as difficult but it was ten times more scary. It was so slippery and rocks were falling everywhere. Seriously I have no idea who thought this was a fun thing to do. I had to have my hand held then entire way down. I´m pretty positive that I would have been seriously injured if I didn´t have help! After we made it down the volcano, we still had to climb up all those stairs. Most intense work out of my life BY FAR!
Even though it wasn´t my idea of fun, at all, and I would never ever do it again if I have a choice, I feel like it was a good experience and I learned a lot about myself and God while doing it. On the way, about half way, I was just getting real tired and frustrated. Cramer, one of the interns was by me at this point and he just told me that he felt like it was a perfect picture of the ¨narrow road¨that the Bible talks about. It isn´t always easy, in fact some parts seem impossible, but in the end the reward is great. That was my lesson on the way up. On the way down I learned that sometimes you can´t do things on your own and you need to rely on a strong leader, someone who you know will lead you down the right path and ¨hold your hand¨ when you are unsure or scared. It could also be a picture of Christ and how he paves the way for us and knows all of our weaknesses.
Needless to say, I´m pretty sore today but I did survive! I can´t wait to show you guys pictures of this volcano. Actually while I was climbing it I thought to myself ¨there are so many people from home who would never in a million years believe that I was doing something this intense right now.¨ haha. I mean, I never really thought I could or would do it. So all in all it was a good experience but it definitely doesn´t fall under the ¨fun¨category, not for me! Next week, I´m voting for the beach again!
On Saturday we woke up and left around 815am. They wanted to take us to this volcano that is about two hours away. They said it would be fun. What we did was drive up a huge mountain and then took an ¨excursion¨at 11am. The excursion was a four hour hike/climb. No, not four miles, FOUR HOURS! We had to climb down a ton of stairs in the woods into this valley type thing and there you could see the volcano. When I saw it I thought to myself, there is absolutely no way we can climb that and survive. There is really no trail, just a bunch of rocks. But we climbed it anyway. It was probably the most tiring thing I have ever done. There were a few times when I just wanted to quit, but quitting isn´t really an option because you have to get down somehow. We finally made it to the top, where we ate our lunch and took a short break. Really short, like ten minutes. Oh and there are also no bathrooms on this little trail, that is a problem. haha. The way down wasn´t as difficult but it was ten times more scary. It was so slippery and rocks were falling everywhere. Seriously I have no idea who thought this was a fun thing to do. I had to have my hand held then entire way down. I´m pretty positive that I would have been seriously injured if I didn´t have help! After we made it down the volcano, we still had to climb up all those stairs. Most intense work out of my life BY FAR!
Even though it wasn´t my idea of fun, at all, and I would never ever do it again if I have a choice, I feel like it was a good experience and I learned a lot about myself and God while doing it. On the way, about half way, I was just getting real tired and frustrated. Cramer, one of the interns was by me at this point and he just told me that he felt like it was a perfect picture of the ¨narrow road¨that the Bible talks about. It isn´t always easy, in fact some parts seem impossible, but in the end the reward is great. That was my lesson on the way up. On the way down I learned that sometimes you can´t do things on your own and you need to rely on a strong leader, someone who you know will lead you down the right path and ¨hold your hand¨ when you are unsure or scared. It could also be a picture of Christ and how he paves the way for us and knows all of our weaknesses.
Needless to say, I´m pretty sore today but I did survive! I can´t wait to show you guys pictures of this volcano. Actually while I was climbing it I thought to myself ¨there are so many people from home who would never in a million years believe that I was doing something this intense right now.¨ haha. I mean, I never really thought I could or would do it. So all in all it was a good experience but it definitely doesn´t fall under the ¨fun¨category, not for me! Next week, I´m voting for the beach again!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Feeling good enough to eat pupusas!!
I found out what the cause of my sickness was, so here is the story. At CISNA they have a water cooler and I asked them a few times if the water was purified or not and they assured me that it was so obviously I took their word for it. I drank a TON of that water because I was really worried about being dehydrated and all that. Over the weekend I started to feel better (since I wasn´t at the center drinking that water) and then on Monday and Tuesday I felt sick again. Finally on Tuesday, I mentioned that my water tasted a little funny and two of the guy interns told me that they had seen them refill that water cooler in the faucet outside and carry it back to the center. So basically I had been drinking unpurified water this whole time and that is why my stomach was so angry with me.
It was good to know the cause so that I don´t have to be afraid to eat the food anymore. I still won´t eat the frijoles in the house though. Haha. Yesterday I felt a ton better so for dinner I ate pupusas, which are amazing! I am definitely going to miss those when I come home!
Tomorrow we are taking the day off from the centers and we are going to paint the living room in the house. It really needs it so I´m excited to do that for the girls. They are really happy about it.
Can´t believe I´ve almost been here for two weeks!
It was good to know the cause so that I don´t have to be afraid to eat the food anymore. I still won´t eat the frijoles in the house though. Haha. Yesterday I felt a ton better so for dinner I ate pupusas, which are amazing! I am definitely going to miss those when I come home!
Tomorrow we are taking the day off from the centers and we are going to paint the living room in the house. It really needs it so I´m excited to do that for the girls. They are really happy about it.
Can´t believe I´ve almost been here for two weeks!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Ester
They set up internet in our house today but it is really slow and just randomly shuts down. Thought I´d give it a try anyways. Today I spent the morning at CISNA again. Their schedule has changed a bit so some of the girls we were working with have to go to class now so we´re left with three of the girls who can´t read in Spanish. Instead of trying to teach them English, we are starting with the basics and teaching them the alphabet and basic words and sounds in Spanish. Two of the girls are 12 and one is 17. They are the ¨provenciales¨which means they are awaiting their sentence from the judge. Today I spent a lot of time working with and talking to Ester, who is twelve. She told me that her mom came to visit her yesterday and that in a month and 15 days she goes before the judge to find out if she can go home or not. I asked her what she was in there for and she said that her and her friend were stealing things. It just breaks my heart to hear their stories. I know that what she did was wrong and there are consequences but it is so hard to look at a 12 year old girl as a criminal. I told her that I would pray for her and that the judge would allow her to go home to her mother. Please keep her in your prayers!
Thanks for responding to me! It means a lot to hear from home! And all of your prayers keep me going everyday...love you guys!
Thanks for responding to me! It means a lot to hear from home! And all of your prayers keep me going everyday...love you guys!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
A Doctor´s visit & the Beach
Well so much for staying healthy! I got pretty sick on Friday morning...my stomach decided that it did not like this food. AT ALL! I ended up having to go to the clinic in San Salvador and seeing a doctor there. Even though I was sick and miserable, it was pretty cool to see the health care system here. For some reason, I was pushed right to the front of the line and saw a doctor almost immediately...probably because I´m blonde haha. I also had to speak Spanish to the doctor and everything, I was a little afraid I would accidently mess up my words and tell him to amputate my leg or something but it all went well! But yeah I got some medicine and I´m not 100% yet, but almost, keep praying though!
Even though I was sick, I was definitely not going to miss out on the trip to the beach!! So I went of course and ended up sleeping in a hammock for the majority of the time, but it was wonderful! So relaxing. The beach was so beautiful. All of the sand is black, I love it! Hopefully we get to go back before I leave!
Tomorrow I start week two in the centers! Thanks for all of your support and feedback, it means so much to me!
Oh and for a cucaracha (cockroach) update...there were two in our room today...can´t find either of them, just great! haha
LOVE YA!
Even though I was sick, I was definitely not going to miss out on the trip to the beach!! So I went of course and ended up sleeping in a hammock for the majority of the time, but it was wonderful! So relaxing. The beach was so beautiful. All of the sand is black, I love it! Hopefully we get to go back before I leave!
Tomorrow I start week two in the centers! Thanks for all of your support and feedback, it means so much to me!
Oh and for a cucaracha (cockroach) update...there were two in our room today...can´t find either of them, just great! haha
LOVE YA!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Update!!
Hey all
Just thought I´d take a minute to go into a little more detail now that I have some time. Everything is going great. It took me a few days to adjust to the complete change of lifestyle. I, like most Americans, am completely spoiled and I´m realizing that more and more every day that I am here. I have so many things that I could do without and I never really realized that until now.
Here is my schedule that I have for the weekdays:
5:30ish - wake up, cold shower (which is actually QUITE refreshing since I wake up sweating!), get ready
7:20ish - get picked up by Hermano Jorge. Lauren, Laurel, Hermana Idalia, KT and Teddy (guy interns) all go to CISNA. Teddy does sports with the boys, KT teaches the boys English and myself and all the other girls go to the girls detention center and work with the girls who are awaiting their sentence. We do a Bible lesson and then teach English
11:30ish - Lunch
1:30ish - Laurel and I go to CIPI to work with some of the girl orphans. We usually do arts and crafts, a game or something like that. Yesterday we were able to work with the kids with special needs in the center which was amazing and incredibly sad at the same time.
4:45ish - arrive back at the Promise House.
Last night all the interns started to have intern devotions. We are going to do them every other night. It is so nice to actually have a BIble study IN ENGLISH!! And its also great to just relax and unwind with the rest of the group who can understand our joys and frustrations of the day. God brought a great group down here and I´m so thankful to have these people here with me. They´re great!
Please continue to pray for us as we are here. So far we´ve remained healthy so that is a huge praise! On Saturday we have the day off so we are going to La Playa!! (beach) It will be nice to relax and see the beautiful beach of El Salvador!
Im so thankful for all of the support and prayers I have from home. It helps more than you know! Love and miss you guys a ton and will gladly go to Starbucks with anyone when I return ahah Im having withdrawls :)
Oh and Happy Birthday MOM!! love you!
-Sam
Just thought I´d take a minute to go into a little more detail now that I have some time. Everything is going great. It took me a few days to adjust to the complete change of lifestyle. I, like most Americans, am completely spoiled and I´m realizing that more and more every day that I am here. I have so many things that I could do without and I never really realized that until now.
Here is my schedule that I have for the weekdays:
5:30ish - wake up, cold shower (which is actually QUITE refreshing since I wake up sweating!), get ready
7:20ish - get picked up by Hermano Jorge. Lauren, Laurel, Hermana Idalia, KT and Teddy (guy interns) all go to CISNA. Teddy does sports with the boys, KT teaches the boys English and myself and all the other girls go to the girls detention center and work with the girls who are awaiting their sentence. We do a Bible lesson and then teach English
11:30ish - Lunch
1:30ish - Laurel and I go to CIPI to work with some of the girl orphans. We usually do arts and crafts, a game or something like that. Yesterday we were able to work with the kids with special needs in the center which was amazing and incredibly sad at the same time.
4:45ish - arrive back at the Promise House.
Last night all the interns started to have intern devotions. We are going to do them every other night. It is so nice to actually have a BIble study IN ENGLISH!! And its also great to just relax and unwind with the rest of the group who can understand our joys and frustrations of the day. God brought a great group down here and I´m so thankful to have these people here with me. They´re great!
Please continue to pray for us as we are here. So far we´ve remained healthy so that is a huge praise! On Saturday we have the day off so we are going to La Playa!! (beach) It will be nice to relax and see the beautiful beach of El Salvador!
Im so thankful for all of the support and prayers I have from home. It helps more than you know! Love and miss you guys a ton and will gladly go to Starbucks with anyone when I return ahah Im having withdrawls :)
Oh and Happy Birthday MOM!! love you!
-Sam
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Safe and Sound!
I made it safe and sound to El Salvador. (thanks so much for all of your prayers and thoughts!) Sunday I arrived at the airport and was picked up by Hermano Jorge (The driver) Laurel and Lauren (the other girl interns). We arrived at the Promise house which is where we are staying with the girls and their babies. It is so fun meeting all of them and I already love them all!! It is never quiet though!! We also wake up very early. About 5am or something. For dinner we had frijoles (beans) and tortillas. Guess í´ll have to get used to the frijoles because they pretty much make them for every meal. Yesterday we went to work with the girls in the detention center. It was a holiday for them because of the inauguration of the new president here. Today I started the actual schedule. We go to CISNA in the morning to work with the girls in the detention center and then to CIPI in the afternoon to work with some of the orphans. They love the crafts and are so much fun to talk to! The rest of the guy interns arrived yesterday so now all of the interns are here. Three girls and 4 guys. All of them are wonderful and I´m excited to work with all of them these next few weeks. Thanks again for all of your prayers! I miss you all so much!! I´ll try to write again soon, sorry this is short and choppy but I dont have a lot of time!!
love, Sam
love, Sam
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