I am back home in the states now and all I can think about is El Salvador! I loved being there and it has been quite a shock being back home in real life! I will be honest, it is nice to have hot showers and a car to drive but I have noticed some changes in my habits.

I find myself ALWAYS wearing my chaos for fear I might catch something from walking around barefoot.

I can't sleep at night because my bed is to soft

I get scared that I am going to burn myself right before I get in the warm shower

I miss the chicken buses and the time it took to get places.

The first radio station I turn to is the Spanish station (even though I don't understand half of what they are saying)

I can't go anywhere without my backpack, water bottle, and something to eat during the day.

I hoard all the change I can find...Hey that's a bus ride home!!

I feel naked with out my bracelets

I have to think twice before I speak now or instinctively I will use what little Spanish I know instead of English.

It's been quite the adventure coming back to reality but I can tell you that I do not miss the dang bichos!! (bugs) One day I counted and I had 26 bug bites on just one of my legs (and that was below the knee)


Gross Huh?

It has been wonderful to get emails from my English student in El Salvador. Today I was wishing that my boys from CISNA had internet access because I want so badly to have a way to tell them how much I miss them. I made so many wonderful friends while I was there!

There is the Tin Lady who made her living selling tin pans she made.



My hippie friend Luis



Or who could forget Running Carlos?



Some times I wish I could have brought them all home with me. But then again I when I think about them I am imediately taken back to the day the tin lady would not stop throwing tin in my bag, or the day Luis was trying to talk me into the idea I would rather be a tree, and it is like they are here with me.

Memories from CISNA

The boys at CISNA are a ton of fun also. I love how as soon as we walk in the gates they come running yelling “Tia, Tia, Tia!!!” It is sometimes pretty frustrating to not be able to speak with them and tell them how much I care about them but at the same time it is great just to be there with them and have fun kicking the futbul around (which always turns into keep away from “Devora”. That’s me for those of you who do not understand English spoken with the crazy thick accent) I love it when they come to me with a new bracelet they have made for me or when they try to teach me English. It is fun to play with these boys who have spent their lives up to that point on the streets begging for money or stealing to eat. There are a few boys at CISNA who do have parents and are there because their parents can’t afford to keep them at home. They send them to CISNA so they can at least be fed. It is pretty hard on those boys. I will always remember the day I really got to know Edwardo. (one of the boys who has parents.) It was my second time there and I was still pretty timid around the boys and with my Spanish. I would mostly just sit there and smile. I came over to another volunteer who spoke Spanish and who was sitting with one of the boys. I looked down at his arm and remembered hearing about this boy before I came that day. He and his two younger brothers Henry and Diego are there because their parents could not afford to keep them. This is really hard for Edwardo and yet it doesn’t seem to phase the two younger boys. Just the day before he carved his parents initials into his arm because he was so upset about it that day. The other volunteer was called away leaving Edwardo and I alone together. He seemed rather down that day and he put his head down in the volunteer’s back pack that she had left behind for him to hold and started to cry. There really was much I could do because I couldn’t speak to him and he didn’t want to talk anyway. I will always remember the day I met Edwardo and held him while he cried about missing his parents.

The CISNA boys are such a trip though. Now that I am comfortable with them and they feel the same with me, Edwardo will come and do my hair or bite me on the neck (which is really weird) or Henry will come and poke me until I chase him around. One day I chased him and he ran up a tree that was kind on slanted and once he got to the top he was to scared to come down. Or there is oscar or Juan who will sit with me all day and follow me where ever I go and are so patient as I try to learn Spanish. I love being with those boys.

Special needs

Today in the special ed room. Hollan and I finished the preparations for painting that we had begun the day before. It got to the point where it was only a one person job and Hollan was that one person. This left me with a ton of free time on my hands. I have never considered myself….how can I put this the best. I guess the best way would to say that I do not have much experience with mental disabilities and so have not thought myself to be very good with people who suffer from them. But over the last few days my mind has started to be opened and as I find myself interacting with these children I can’t help but fall madly in love with theirs smiles and laughs and warm greetings. I sat today and played with tonito. I am not quite sure what his disability is but I had the best time with him. This is going to sound weird but he would reach out his hand and touch mine and I would pull it away and gasp! We did this over and over and that is because when I did that he would laugh and laugh and laugh. I wish I had a recording of his laugh. It was one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard. I bet I could bottle it up and sell it as liquid happiness and make a fortune! I love making these kids smile. It is so amazing to me how they lay in their cribs all day and most of them have no ability to move because of their cerebral palsy and yet they are so optimistic and excited about life. You can see in their eyes how much they love to be touched and talked to and visited. Every time I walk in the door they are always smiling and happy and I know that they were that way before I came in.

I love the little boys at the orphanages where we work. This last week we have been focusing on painting murals on the barren walls of the preschool and special Ed rooms. These rooms are rather dull and drab and have very old wallpaper as a boarder falling off the walls. We started on the preschool room which is actually a big room with a ton of beds, a few cribs, and no toys. As we began cleaning the walls the curious preschoolers would come in and question what we gringos were doing and why all of the beds were in the middle of the room. They were so excited to help and we discovered that, Christopher, a 6 year old there has an amazing talent. He can sing like it is nobody’s business. I have a video of him singing his heart out as we finished the mural of a barnyard in the preschool. The mural turned out wonderful and we are all pretty proud of ourselves. I am especially proud of the pig because that was that first thing I have ever drawn in my life and it looks really good.

I am afraid that I going to forget everything that has happened here. There have been so many good experiences but at the end of the day I can’t muster up the energy to write them down in my Journal. There are so many things about this place that I love. I love the beautiful trees and mountains, I love the pupusarias on every corner, I love the tired old people who sit on the same street every day with the same expression selling the same bracelets or candies, or whatever you need really. Mostly I love all of the different kinds of people I meet every day. I am now sitting listening to our 30 something year old friend Carlos talk to another volunteer out on the patio. He is quite the character. He is a communist who LOVES Mic Jagger and The Who. He says he lived in San Francisco for years but he doesn’t speak a word of English. …..well except for the English he’s learned from listening to the Beatles. He says he did drugs in San Francisco, which is rather apparent by his jittery movements and comments. He has a crush on me and is constantly asking me if I have a boyfriend or to take weird pictures or if he can see my “bootiful, bootiful” hair because I often have it up in a ponytail. He comes over every night to play us his favorite oldies and in the morning he stops by to pick up anyone who would like to go running. He is quite the experience in himself.

Happy Birthday to one of the greatest men I know!

Today is the birthday of a very special man. My Dad is.....well to put it simply, Amazing! I am so grateful for the blessing of being taught and loved by this man as I grew up. My father has gone through some very hard experiences in his life as he grew up in a broken home in Las Vegas Nevada, and I am so impressed at the great man he has become. Among his strengths listed is being a great father. Through out my life I have always been close to my father and I have learned so much from him. I have learned to always do my best and then go the extra mile. I learned that we serve because we love people and if they need help we give it. I have watched my father love people regardless of who they were and what they had done to him and I have tried, not always succeeding, to model my life after his example. My father has taught me about the gospel and the blessings that come from living my life as close to the savior that I can. I could go on and on about who he is and how wonderful he is. He has tried his best to teach me so many things. I am definitely a slow learner and have a long way to go before I can hope to have some of the qualities my father has.

Out of all of my daddy's accomplishments his greatest is that I have never doubted and always known that he loves me (and the rest of his children) more then anything else in his life. I am so grateful for a father who knows that I am imperfect and still loves me. Many times I have felt very humbled by my mistakes and imperfections and I am so grateful that I have always been able to return to my father's loving and open arms, and then hear how much he loves me and always will. I think that I have learned more about my Heavenly Father's love through my earthly fathers example then any other experience.

Daddy thank you so much for teaching and loving me and helping me become who I am today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

EFY

Dear Sister,
Well I just got back from two of the most amazing weeks of my life! Being an EFY Counselor at Southern Virginia University was definitely a wonderful experience! I learned so much! I got there pretty anxious and nervous about the great trust the parents of these children were placing in me, as they dropped their precious teenagers off Monday morning expecting me to send them home spiritually fed and full of wonderful life changing experiences. Me, the girl who can't even make a straight face for a picture was supposed to do that.

I thought back on my experiences as a participant at EFY and became very excited for the weeks to begin. Sunday night I got the names of my girls and I was told who my co-counselors would be. I was originally in a three some but Monday morning a counselor who had been stranded at the airport for two days showed up and I was reassigned to him! When I got the list of names for the girls who would soon be my shadows for the next week I was amazed by how I instantly fell in love with them and I had never even met them!


Week one was amazing! Windows of heaven was so unified and excited to learn about the gospel. I was floored by how much these 16-18 year old girls looked up to me and listened to every word I said and were always watching. They opened up to me and shared things that I was amazed to hear them Sharing. It was one of the most amazing things Wednesday night when during my devotional I asked about the promptings they had been receiving that week from the spirit and for the next 20 minutes I got nonstop experiences and heart felt testimonies. I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the hand that heavenly father has in our lives. I kept telling the girls that Heavenly Father puts people in our lives for a purpose and to answer our prayers and it was am amazing testimony to me as I watched these girls lift and rally around each other to get through the VERY tough things that were going on in their lives!



The boys that week were daring too. I was amazed by how strong they were in the gospel and how willing and eager they were to honor their priesthood and the sanctity of womanhood.



My Co-counselor and I had so much fun with these kids and we really learned to love them like they were family. It was great to be able to watch them learn and grow and to send them home with a knowledge that their Heavenly Father knew who they were and loved them very much!



The second week I met with my new co-counselor (they change every week) and was so excited to repeat week 1 again. Boy was I in for an awakening! It proved to be the most taxing and difficult week I had had in a while. It was actually full of learning and growth, for which I am very grateful. About half of my girls the second week had trouble realizing why there were rules at EFY and the other half had never been and were not getting the wonderful EFY experience that every one raved about. I couldn't help but feel that it was primarily my fault because I let myself get to caught up in being the police of the operation.



They were beautiful girls and it was wonderful to get to Thursday and hear their sweet testimonies and how they had grown that week because it wasn't as apparent as the week before. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father knew that I am not perfect and created ways for the girls who needed help I could not give to receive that help.



As for the boys of the second week they were wonderful young men who were definitely growing and learning in the gospel. It was great to hear the ones who I could tell the first day did not have the rock solid testimony of who they were bare testimony that they had felt the spirit that week and knew that Heavenly Father was their father and "that Joesph Smith saw whatever he said he saw."



The "Fishers" taught me so much about the power of prayer and faith as I found myself on my knees at every opportunity pleading with the lord to help me find some way to get through to his precious children and show them how much I loved them!

It ended up being a wonderful experience. One that I have walked away from with many new friends and treasuring with my most precious memories.