christmas in El Salvador

schmitterschrier

As with many things El Salvadors Christmas is different in some ways from the American Christmas. We are working very hard with the girls to not evaluate and compare the two place, to only accept that each has it`s own beauty. Sounds simple yet is a very difficult task for all of us. Acceptance of the here and now.
Christmas EVE DAY WE TOOK THE BUS IN FROM San pedro to El Salvador. The bus rides are always an adventure. There is a reason why they call these buses the chicken buses. The women next to me had a chicken on her lap that she was taking to her parents house for christmas dinner. IT`S LEGS WERE TIED AND IT`S rear was in a bolsa (bag)it was amazing quiet on the ride. Other`s had huge bags of oranges, etol (corn) and many other products. The drivers are wicked. They drive at such high speeds that I`m sure we`ll go airborn off a cliff. Evidently the buses are privately owned which means each person owns their own. THEY HAVE USUALLY TWO OTHER PEOPLE WORKING WITH THEM, ONE TO COLLECT THE FARES(HE must have an amazing memory as people enter and exit and you pay after you are on and hopefully seated and the bus is moving.) The other man ushers the people and their belongings onto the bus. WHEN YOU ARE READY TO EXIT YOU STAND UP WHILE THE BUS IS IN HIGH SPEED MOTION AND THEY WILL STOP. Since the buses are privately owned the owner (driver and other two men keep the bus amazingly clean. it helps them that whenever a person is finshed with their trash they toss it out the window. At night they wash the whole bus inside and out. The chicken and other animal make it a neccessity I think. We usually sit with one of the locals and here the story of their life and share ours. THE OTHER DAY A FAMILY WITH A 6 MONTH OLD BABY WERE SITTING IN FRONT OF ME. We were playing peaka boo with her. The parents handed her to me and for the next hour Vienna, Treava and I entertained her while the parents sat and enjoyed watching.
So for Christmas we arrive here in San Salvador and spent the day shopping for last minute things. Then we went and took a siesta because Christmas night goes on into the weewee hours here. Then at 5 we began our progressive dinner and vists. We visited with Marcela's mom`s mother and step father. She lived in Alaska for a year during the civil war her. she told us stories of her life. THEN WE WENT TO lAURA`S BROTHER HOUSE WHERE WE PLAYED SOCCER AND SET OFF A TON OF FIREWORKS. Next was Fatima`s house where we sung Karoke christmas song. I was so excited when I recieved an excellent rating for SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN. I guess all the suzuki training has paid off. THEN AT MIDNIGHT they (each family lights off their own) brought out the big fireworks and for the next hour the sky was decorated with beautiful flowers and colors. Marcela is a was amazing with her zest and lack of fear. Next came a Christmas toast with a different virtue on the bottom of each glass. we each had to speak on this virtue and how we will use it in our life in the year to come. Then came a huge feast at 1 AM. It include chicken, the head and feet icluded. A delicacy here are the eggs that are indentro (inside) the chicken when killed. Their are many differnt salsas for the chicken and many other local foods. Chris says they are delicous. The rest of us aren`t brave enough to try. Dinner was followed with dessert of delicious flans and local dulces. Next was more Karoke and by this time we were exhausted. We went to bed at about 3 yet understand the rest retired at 6 am.
CHRISTMAS DAY WE WENT TO THE BEACH FOR SOME OF THE MOST AMAZING BODY SURFING i`VE EVER EXPERIENCED. i CAN GET A 100 -200 foot ride out of most waves. Noelle and Vienna have gotten really good at body surfing and love it as much as I do. Treava discovered a local tradition of throwing a ball out into the waves and trying to catch it. We all love the beach here. The trip to the beach was great for the girls as it made Christmas seem like Hawaii as Christmas has been hard for them. They have really been homesick these last couple days. So if you get a chance either e-mail them or comment here as i`m sure it would brighten their days.

simple gifts

The other day Noelle, Vienna and I went for a run. I love running here. the air is so fresh the scenery is beautiful and always it is an adventure. on this particular journey I spied a beautiful spiked striped yellow orange and black caterpillar. as most of you can guess I stopped to pick it up and take it home for treava to play with and us all to watch it grow into some amazing butterfly. They have these giant blue ones and many other beautiful oness here. I found an old pepsi bottle (trash is easy to come by here) and scooped it inside. there was no lid so we continued on our way , me with my catipillar. as we entered town we ran into one of the girl`s friend who started screamming at me to drop the bottle. the catiplillar had crawled out and was on THE top heading for my hand. I asked why' Peligrosa Muy peligrosa, puedo picar and mucho dwella. dangerous, very dnagerous, it can bite you and you will hurt much. I told him no, no it is only a bebe mariposa baby butterfly. he strongly disagreeed and wanted to step on it and kill it. the police station was nearby and they over heard his screams of peligrosa. They came out and radipo agrabar quickly grabbed the catepillar from me. I told them it`s a beutiful baby butterfly and they told me no it wasn`t. I guess a lot of catepillars around here are very poisonous. The moral to this story as the police told me was to never pick up any animal in el salvador without first asking a local.
The next day Vienna arrived at school late and very excited. her and her dad had gotten a ride to the school with the police. they were on their way to go arrest someone. WE FIND THE POLICE ARE OFTEN WHERE WE ARE. the other night we went to a fund raiser at our local school. they have a tradition here of raising money by voting for princesses. each vote cost a penny and the person with the most votes wins. which means the family that is either the biggest or the richest wins. ALSO AT THESE DANCES THEY HAVE THE MOST INCREDIABLE SOUND SYSTEM that will blow you out of the room. THANK GOD YOU CAN GO OUTSIDE BUT USUALLY NOT FAR ENOUGH AWAY TO not BE BLASTED. the women vende sell pupusas, pastellies, tortillas and panellies. WE ARRIVED AND ABOUT 15 MINUTES LATER 6 POLICE ARRIVED. WE HEARD THEY HAD BEEN CALLED FOR OUR PROTECTION. WE ALL FIND IT KIND OF A JOKE AS IN OUR 4 MONTHS HERE WE HAVE NOT HAD ONE BAD EXPERIENCE WITH PEOPLE. they are kind, giving and very helpful. WE ARE MORE CAUTIOUS IN san salvador yet there we find the same.
I TEND TO BELIVE THAT IF YOU FOCUS ON THE GOOD IN PEOPLE AND LOOK FOR IT IN THEM THEN THE GOOD WILL SHINE THROUGH. That has definately worked for us here.
WE ARE REALLY ENJOYING PLAYING basketball, football, and hanging out and partaking in the local activites. CHRISTMAS IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER.
this is the first year Noelle and vienna qUESTION SANTA`S EXISTANCE. Here in el Salvador the focus is on the birth of Jesus and christmas eve at midnight when he was born is the focus. SINCE Noelle and Vienna no longer believe I told them it was their turn to experience the true joy of Christmas which is giving. They`ve choose one their friends family that has 6 kids and is extremely poor to give to. TREAVA IS BUSY BUYING FOR THE LITTLE ONES AND noelle and Vienna are busy making and buying for the older ones. They`ve elected to recieve less themselves and give to this family. We feel buying uniforms and school materials will be the most lasting gift we can give. AS those kids who can`t afford uniforms litterally come to school in rags. And even with uniforms a pecking order of whose is the nicest is established. We are also including books which are in short supply actually don`t exist for most elsalvadorian children. All work is copied from the board. They do not have any school books not even for reading.
If any of you have children books please send them. We just taught english and are trying to inspire people to read which is not an activity el salvadorians do. If we could get some good books to the teachers who just took my english class I`m sure they would read them to them as i read to them daily and stressed that reading is opening a world to children. One where they can access knowledge. and that for them Knowledge is power to improve their future. Books in english or spanish please. Maybe one of you would like to organize a fund raiser to send books. let us know. Merry christmas LISA

schmitterschrier

schmitterschrier
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`NOELLE`S WORLD

How amazing this experince has been so far, and the best is about to come.We have had an amazing time, helping the school in a small Canton (a canton is live a vilage. We tough English to 50 kids, and my mom tought to 40 teachers, and we used the multiple Ineligence program. We thought that the teachers would not particepat, but, it was no problem.We had the ceremonies were they got diplomas yesterday (thursday), and the minister of education came. I was supprised with how big of a "deal" it was. They decorated it very nicely, and had a ton of presents for us, for all the help we had given.

Everytime we go to sleep at someones house in San Salvador they want us to watch a movie about the war that happened here in El Salvador 15 or less years ago. After I watched it, i was very surprised with all the growth that has happen here. I had to think, and realize, that a lot of the the houses were destroyed,and some of their friends were killed right outside their door step. Then, here in San Pedro, where we are living, there was a huge earthquake 2 years later that destroyed their houses once again. Also, they do not have insurance like we do in the United Sates.

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas (we will be staying with marcela for christmas),

Noelle Schmitter-Schrier

Teaching english

wow!we are finally finished with teaching 50 kids age 8-16 to speak a little english we had a great class manely,but one student was a huge problim so the derector talked to him and we have never seen him again!!!!!!! we had a lot of fun teaching but it is really suprising to us that the teachers have so much more importence then the kids. They made cirtifactes for all the teachers and how hard would it have been to make 50 more but they still did not do it. For the most part we are having a lot of fun in el savodor but there are a cople things like the trash and how animals are treated that we really doooooooooo not like!!! we will be spending christmas in san salvodor with marselas familly and, after hope to meet the chays in guatemala. A cople weeks ago we went to the big water park galicia and it was really fun but what they call big is tinsy to us it was smaller then h2oh`s and it was the bigest in el savodor there wasone slide that was realyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy fun it was a tube and you went down on rafs then at the very end there is a huge drop off and you have no clue when its coming!!!!! Me and noelle had alot of fun with that and sometimes were so close behined echother we would go down the drop off togeter.It has been a real agustment to me how poor every one is and when ever we envite someone over most times they cant cause they have to work. A nother big one was ANIMALS they seiriously feed them once a month mabey a egg or something plus they hit them and dont love them at all that has been really hard to get used to for me!