I was pretty pleased with myself for handling my driving duties so well. It was that sort of pleasure that appears after doing something difficult when you know you don’t have to do it again. But now, here I am, driving through Usulutan again, this time with three of the girls on the trip in [...]
Archive for March, 2008
In Which I Pretend to Be a Salvadoran Cowboy
Posted in travel on March 26, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Driving Sister Elena
Posted in travel on March 25, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The theme of my trip was pushing boundaries. So much of the experience was uncomfortable–not knowing the language, shyness around the Salvadorans, uncertainty about my role as a faculty guide–but I knew, despite my discomfort, that pushing through the hard parts would be more rewarding and allow me to come out on the other side [...]
Landscape of Conflict
Posted in travel on March 15, 2008 | 4 Comments »
As I watched the scenery from the back of the cattle truck, bouncing into the others in the truck with me as the road became rough, I thought how familiar yet strange the landscape looked. In one moment it reminded me of California, with rolling hills covered with dry, golden grass, and small groves of [...]
Still Working
Posted in travel on March 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
When we first visited the worksites, one of the men from the community at Hacienda said that we would probably not work past 10 o’clock. I thought this was a wildly pessimistic view. Sure, most of the students have not done a lot of physical labor recently, but I have been training seriously for bike [...]
At Work in El Salvador
Posted in travel on March 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
There were three work sites for us: the chapel site at San Pedro, another chapel site at Hacienda, and the field-clearing about two blocks away. I really wanted to do something hard, for some reason, and swinging a pick around sounded nice and hard, so I volunteered to go to one of the chapel sites. [...]
El Salvador Overview
Posted in Uncategorized on March 11, 2008 | 3 Comments »
My plan is to write several posts about my experiences in El Salvador, focusing on what the trip meant to me and what sorts of things I learned and took away with me when I left. First, though, I think it makes sense to give a sort of overview of the trip to give my [...]
I’m Back
Posted in cycling on March 9, 2008 | 9 Comments »
I returned from El Salvador early this morning, and I will have a lot to say about the trip, but I need to meditate on some of the details of this emotional trip a little longer before I’m ready to post anything coherent. I did keep a journal while I was there, even after some [...]
