Host Family
It’s Thursday night and we head into San Vicente tomorrow, so I’m going to try to write something for my brief internet opportunity. Today we spent here in San Isidro with our family and the Spanish teacher. Class was good, but I’m at a point where my ability to speak has gone backwards. I now have more verbs and grammar, but that means instead of talking, I’m constantly thinking about a better way to say what I mean. I know that we are both improving, but it’ll never feel fast enough.
We did have a very nice conversation with our “madre” today…. Actually she is more of our abuelita. Anyway, we were helping her take the dried maize off the cob to eventually make the masa for the tortillas, it’s a good job to have conversations… it takes time, but not so much concentration. We talked to her about the crops they grow in the area (the standard is a field of maize and beans, with maybe some tomatoes), the prices of food they need to buy (like onions, potatoes, ect…), as well as water supply. It was good, we understood most of her answers, and our questions made sense to her. Progress will be counted in these small steps.
The family we live with is fairly large. We still have not understood all of the relationships (mainly due to our Spanish, and it is complicated), but for the most part it consists of a grandmother and grandfather, two daughters (who spend most of their time working with the grandmother, so we know them very well), 3 sons (they live in the family compound, but we don’t see them as much, just their kids), then all of the grandchildren (roughly 15 or more). It is really a great time playing with all of the younger kids! At least two more sons have gone to the states, one is in Maryland, the other (if I understood correctly) they have not heard from, so don’t know if he made it our not. Neither of the daughters has a husband that lives with her, we know that one went to the states as well, not sure about the other. Lots of families here in El Salvador are dealing with that. I think that at least some of the kids actually have both parents in the states and are living with an aunt, but they say she is their mother, and this is part of the confusion.
When you talk to the principals at the schools they talk about the many students who have both parents in the states, and they only stay until the ninth grade, and then take off themselves if they have save the money. It makes for a very different society.
This week we made a trip to San Salvador to learn our way around (safely). It was pretty typical, surreal with malls and dominos pizza. It will mostly be a place to avoid except for fairly cheap first run movies (English with Spanish subtitals). Evidently though, most volunteers end up going there about once a month or so. Mainly to work and talk with various NGO’s or GO’s, so I’m sure we will go there occasionally.
This Sunday, instead of attending church (yes, we have to do that here), we will be climbing a volcano with most of the other volunteers. It is supposed to take about 5 hours to climb up, and three hours to climb down. Should be a good days work, I’m looking forward to seeing how all of the other volunteers fair. Hasta luego!
We did have a very nice conversation with our “madre” today…. Actually she is more of our abuelita. Anyway, we were helping her take the dried maize off the cob to eventually make the masa for the tortillas, it’s a good job to have conversations… it takes time, but not so much concentration. We talked to her about the crops they grow in the area (the standard is a field of maize and beans, with maybe some tomatoes), the prices of food they need to buy (like onions, potatoes, ect…), as well as water supply. It was good, we understood most of her answers, and our questions made sense to her. Progress will be counted in these small steps.
The family we live with is fairly large. We still have not understood all of the relationships (mainly due to our Spanish, and it is complicated), but for the most part it consists of a grandmother and grandfather, two daughters (who spend most of their time working with the grandmother, so we know them very well), 3 sons (they live in the family compound, but we don’t see them as much, just their kids), then all of the grandchildren (roughly 15 or more). It is really a great time playing with all of the younger kids! At least two more sons have gone to the states, one is in Maryland, the other (if I understood correctly) they have not heard from, so don’t know if he made it our not. Neither of the daughters has a husband that lives with her, we know that one went to the states as well, not sure about the other. Lots of families here in El Salvador are dealing with that. I think that at least some of the kids actually have both parents in the states and are living with an aunt, but they say she is their mother, and this is part of the confusion.
When you talk to the principals at the schools they talk about the many students who have both parents in the states, and they only stay until the ninth grade, and then take off themselves if they have save the money. It makes for a very different society.
This week we made a trip to San Salvador to learn our way around (safely). It was pretty typical, surreal with malls and dominos pizza. It will mostly be a place to avoid except for fairly cheap first run movies (English with Spanish subtitals). Evidently though, most volunteers end up going there about once a month or so. Mainly to work and talk with various NGO’s or GO’s, so I’m sure we will go there occasionally.
This Sunday, instead of attending church (yes, we have to do that here), we will be climbing a volcano with most of the other volunteers. It is supposed to take about 5 hours to climb up, and three hours to climb down. Should be a good days work, I’m looking forward to seeing how all of the other volunteers fair. Hasta luego!
posted by Jon & Katie | 12:03 PM
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