It’s now 6pm and I am taking advantage of some downtime to write. After this morning’s shopping we took our bus one state South to La Paz. The city we’re in is called Zacatecoluca, and our build site is near by. Upon arriving we were given our rooms, and once again quickly deposited our bags, before congregating for our Habitat for Humanity orientation. The presentation was extensive and packed a lot of information, including an introduction to the masons and the family who will be working with us, into an hour. We learnt that the average monthly income in El Salvador is $206.00 (USD), there is a huge housing deficit (largely due to a ridiculous number of natural disasters) and Habitat has been instrumental in finding solutions to this crisis.
Following the orientation, we had a cafeteria-style lunch during which we introduced ourselves to a group of university students who are following a similar schedule to ours. The group is from William and Mary College in Williamsburg, West Virginia, and speaks much more Spanish than we do (not surprising since we speak none). They will be working at a different build site, with a different family, but we’ll be sharing the hostel space. We also met our new translator Ronald, since Claudia has other responsibilities to see to, and the hostel overseer Juan Carlos.
In the afternoon both Juan Carlos and Ronald took us on a tour of the city. We got an intimate introduction to the city’s two churches, its main market streets and my favorite, some of the locals. The kids have the greatest reactions to us –it’s as though we were their favorite celebrities! Everyone stares at us (apparently El Salvadorans are shy?!) but the minute you say “hola” (hello) or “buenos días” (good day) their faces split into mile-wide grins. We roamed for about an hour and by the end we were all mucho caliente (very hot), which meant ice cream break for Loren, Vicki and Mary at the grocery store.
Some serious relaxing ensued at the hostel and was eventually broken by a clown, who was making balloon animals. Jane got a flower and I got a teddy bear while Albert tried (unsuccessfully) to learn how to make his own.
Our second meal at our new accommodations was delicious, as was the first. Both consisted of rice, meat and veggies –we had chicken for dinner with steamed broccoli, green beans and carrots. Hot sauce was readily available for those with hearty taste buds! Meals are pretty casual affaires: we sit at long tables and come and go as we please. The dining hall is quite warm despite being an “open concept” room and does not encourage lingering, particularly after copious amounts of hot sauce.
The evening ended after Juan Carlos picked a few mangos from the two trees in the courtyard for us to try. He explained (in Spanish) that they were two kinds Verde (green) and Madura (yellow), the green variety is sour and eaten with a little bit of salt sprinkled over top and is really refreshing, while the yellow is sweet and juicy.
It’s now 10pm and almost everyone has gone to bed. Tomorrow is going to be an early morning and we’re all excited and a little anxious about beginning our build. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
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