well I thought I finally had the picture thing figured out, but apparently not, so use your imagination to figure out what picture goes with which caption. Next time I should use the preview button.

Surviving or Thriving

Sorry it has taken so long for me to post another entry. Things are going great, we have a ton of projects going. I am most involved in Bálsamo. As such, that is what I am going to talk about. So as I have mentioned before we are doing square foot gardens in this community. This week we had an overnight trip so we could get more work done as it is about 3 hours away. I don’t have pictures from the first day, but there are some from the second.

The second day started with making pupusas at 6 am.



Next was walking with the girls to school and meeting with a teacher to plan our health fair.


Carrying food to the slackers who slept in.


Now comes the garden-
Dig down

Gather rocks


Lay down newspaper or cardboard.


Mix sand, dirt, and dried leaves. Much of the mixing takes place with your hands.


Get super dirty: )

(just a note, I was a lot dirtier the day before. Also, it always looks like I have intense tan lines and then I wash my feet)

Hang out with the family for a little while


Next Meysi guided us to some other houses to help with gardens. We are BFF!


Later we jumped in the river to cool off and played with some kids in there.


Then we hung out with some kids while waiting for our ride. They were running on Salvadorian time.



Last, ride home in the back of a truck.


Everything else here is going really well! I wish I had time to write more!

BA

Time is flying here. Work is hard but great! I have some awesome pictures to put up but sadly they are all from fun things that I have done and not really any from the projects. But I promise I will put some more projects ones up soon.
Just a little info on how projects are progressing and new projects initiated:
Balsamo: We are still working in the 4 casaríos. I am the project lead for this, meaning I am kind of in charge of it. So we work in a rural communities and right now we are starting to help them build square-foot gardens. The people in these communities have trouble getting fruits and vegetables, especially during the dry season and these little family gardens will provide them with many needed nutrients throughout the entire year. We have been interviewing families to see what they eat, their major health concerns, and what grows in their soil. This past week we had our first garden demonstration. The people were really excited to start their own gardens!
We travel in style to get to San Lucas (where the casaríos are) as you can see from the picture of us in the back of the truck. It was cold and rainy that day. Well not just rainy, it poured! Another picture from Balsamo is with a little girl Macy. Here family lives in one of the communities and from our very first step on their soil she has been our friend: )
FUDEM: We have continued to give visual acuity tests as a preliminary for getting glasses or being referred to go get surgery. It is an amazing organization that we are working with. They reach so many people and everyone in the country knows who they are. We are very privileged to be able to help them out. I was able to go on a glasses campaign where they take the people glasses that they have received prescriptions for. It was amazing to see the joy in peoples faces as they got glasses for the first time and could now see.
English Classes: I attended English classes for the first time to help out and it was so much fun. The people there are so grateful that we are teaching them and they are trilled to learn.
Habitat: The houses are going up and we are working hard to help them reach their goal.
Hospital: We are doing a signage project in Hospital Bloom, the children's hospital. The signs are all wrong and haven't been updated since 83. We also are starting to volunteer there. I played with children in the oncology department.
CIPI: CIPI is an orphanage where we go and teach dance, art, and empowerment classes to young boys and teenage girls. I helped with the dance classes and absolutely loved it. We taught these girls, many of whom have been taken out of really bad situations, modern dance and many loved it. You could see that it made them feel beautiful and I loved that for them. The boys are full of energy but I love it. They are so much fun to play with.
We are also working with Microcredit, English Conversation Classes, and more. It has been great and I am learning a lot about who I am, what I want to do, and how to better help others.

As far as fun adventures, the last three Saturdays consisted of Ruta de Los Flores, El Pital, and El Imposible.
Ruta de Los Flores is a drive from one town to the next where they have artesanias and cute colonial style towns. It was really fun but at the time we were being hit by a hurricane so there was a lot of rain.
El Pital is the highest point in El Salvador and looks out over a valley. The greenery and clouds are beautiful. The clouds here move really fast, it is extraordinary.
El Imposible is the most awesome, exhilarating, and beautiful hike I have ever been on. From the high points you could see all the way out to the ocean. We hiked through the forest, there were huge trees and bamboo and all kinds of plants, even wild orchids. We also hiked down a river going on natural slides, jumping off cliffs, and repelling down waterfalls. It was amazing. I wish I had a whole length video of everything I did, it was like I was on planet earth.

I will add some pictures at the bottom. Hopefully you can figure out what everything is. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Oh and here everyone says Ba all the time, it means okay but it is said a ton. I have been trying to incorporate in into my vocab and on Saturday I said it for the first time with out thinking about it. Goal accomplished!

This is San Vicente were we are working with Habitat. The people who we are building home for had their homes destroyed and lost everything during Hurricane Ida which was coupled with landslides as you can see on the volcano.


They are using molds for the houses in this area. This is the start of the first house.


People everywhere make pupusas- It is like a tortilla filled with whatever you want. The traditional kinds are filled with cheese, cheese and beans, or pork.


Everyone here is pumped for the World Cup. It is all over the papers and everyone is talking about it, even though El Salvador doesn’t have a team going.



We ride in style. We ride in buses of every sort- the bus, coaster, and micro. We take rides in the back of trucks- usually standing up holding onto a bar structure. Some days we take taxis, but they aren’t as fun. This is us on the way back from a church activity crammed in the back of a truck while it was raining!



We went to a young adult dance at a church building. It was a lot of fun and we learned some new moves!



So this is our awesome neighborhood guard Andres. He is so nice and funny. I needed to take pictures of Flat Stanley for Isabella so I tried to explain what it was to him and proceeded to ask him to take a picture with it. He laughed really hard and I don’t think he thought I was serious until I actually took the picture. It was a great time!



We are working hard and have been continuing in our Habitat, Balsamo, FUDEM, and English teaching projects. We also went with some orphans to the zoo. It was a lot of fun and they loved the attention. We have been meeting with the National Library, a Children’s Hospital, and others to establish more projects. My daily schedule usually starts with being out of the door at 6 and not getting home until after dinner at about 8 or later. It is hard work but it is rewarding seeing the joy in the Salvadorean’s faces. Thanks for your love and support and hope you have enjoyed some pictures of my time here.
Sorry the pictures are all out of order. I still can´t figure this thing out. Enjoy!

Week 1

So we aren´t supposed to look like tourists here, although we are the only gringos so it is pretty hard not to, but for this reason we aren´t supposed to pull out our cameras all the time. Also, it isn´t proper to do so with our partnerships. Therefore, sorry but for this time there will be words but no pictures.

We have begun working and are involved in some awesome projects:

FUDEM: We gave visual acuity tests in a rural outreach program. It was amazing how many people had sight problems and just lived with it. Many of them had cataracts or other problems as well. This organization gives the people an opportunity to get glasses or surgery for a very affordable price. So far, this has been my favorite project.

Habitat for Humanity: We are helping to build 50 houses in 45 days in San Viciente. Last November there was a hurricane which caused landslides. Many people lost everything they had. We are relocating and building a community for many families, and they are planning on expanding past the 50 houses.

Balsamo: We have just had a meeting with the organization, but we are going to be working in a community helping them learn how to build square foot gardens and adobe stoves, as well as teaching nutrition classes and drawing classes. The field is open to what we want to do and we will base it on what they want and need. We are going to visit the community Tuesday and then go from there.

English Classes: It is amazing how many people want the classes and need the skill to get jobs. We had to cap off our classes at 150 people.

We are working on establishing more partnerships and starting new projects. We will be working with an orphanage and with a hospital, as well as others.

If you want more info. about what we are doing you should check out our team blog:
http://help-elsalvador.blogspot.com/

I love working with the people here and trying to make even a small difference in someone´s life!

WOW

El Salvador has been amazing thus far! We haven´t actually started work but we have been meeting with partners and getting things up and running. We start actual work with the people on Monday! But hey, it is only my 2nd full day here. Here are some highlights (good or bad) of the first 2 days (they are in no particular order-

1. Getting stranded at the airport with no cell phone, hot, and having people yell ¨taxi, taxi¨ at me every 2 seconds. But it worked out well, my Country Director came and picked me up and now I know that I can deal with things in a positive way and I am more confident in my abilities to work through things and figure things out.

2. Eating at Estella´s or Mama´s. Estella is our wonderful cook who feeds us dinner Mon - Fri. It is authentic and very delicious. She has some cute granddaughters that we are able to play with and help with homework.

3. Going to the black sand beach.

4. Our competition to see who could get the grossest/ craziest thing at the fish market on the pier. It gave us a great opportunity to smell fabulous, talk to the people, and have fun. Oh did I mention that we had to get us home with us, which inluded carrying it all day and an hour bus ride home (I held mine out the window the whole way.)

5. Eating pupusas - they are delicious here!

There have been other great moments, but this is all I have time for now! My team is awesome and an´t wait to get started on the work!

1.5

It's a week and a half until I leave for El Salvador, so I figured I better figure this out before I go. I am excited and a little nervous. I have a lot to do before I leave.

This is a little about me and what I will be doing in El Salvador:

I am a sophomore at Brigham Young University majoring in Exercise Science and minoring in Nutrition and International Development. I am aspiring to be a Physician Assistant. With these areas of knowledge that I have been acquiring, I have been able to develop a skill set in which I can use to help others, especially those in the developing world. That is why I would like to share with you my exciting plans to work with HELP International and travel to El Salvador to work with the people to better their lives.

HELP International is a non-profit organization started in 1999. Since then, HELP has expanded their work across the globe. Empowering local community members by teaching self-sustainable skills that can be passed on to others. Currently HELP is working to help impoverished communities in six locations around the world—Belize, El Salvador, Fiji, India, Thailand, and Uganda. HELP (www.help-international.org) stands for Help Eliminate Poverty, which it strives to do through sustainable projects by motivated and enthusiastic volunteers. My role as a volunteer involves participating in a number of different projects that will empower the people of El Salvador to fight poverty and win. One of the first projects that I will be involved in is training people in maternal nutrition. Hopefully through this project we will be able to decrease childhood and maternal disease and mortality. I am confident that I can make a difference in the life of the El Salvadoran people.

El Salvador is a country in Latin America. Nearly 20% of the people live in extreme poverty. HELP International has been sending volunteers to El Salvador for the past few years.

The unique quality of HELP’s program is that volunteers participating in these projects have the opportunity to assess needs in country and develop their own new and innovative projects addressing those needs, so the opportunities for growth and development are endless. Projects in El Salvador include; adobe stove building, microfinance, square-plot gardens, micro-credit loaning organizations, English classes, public health and hygiene education, and orphanage work. All these projects are done collaboratively with current, locally operated NGOs in El Salvador. All projects taken on by HELP International require commitment from the community, thereby not only securing more sustainable projects, but also increasing the effectiveness of what work we are able to accomplish while our volunteers are present in the country.

Well that is all for now, hopefully I will figure this out soon.