For the Moms

Ever have a day when you just want to lock yourself in the bathroom and scream? I did just that today... twice. Thank goodness there is always a tomorrow!

What to blog about when the camera is broken? Take a trip down memory lane!!

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon BYU television while I was aimless flipping channels late at night waiting for Andy to come home from work. I ended up watching The Errand of Angels. Granted... it is one of the cheesier movies in the "mormon movie genre", the acting isn't that great and the plot is severely lacking, but nevertheless I found myself crying in parts. Just because it brought me back to my days in El Salvador. I've been home almost 6 years now... can you believe it?!? 6 years?!?! Yet I still think about the people there everyday.
I met people who live in the most extreme poverty imaginable and yet they are a hundred times happier than so many people I've met here who have everything they want. They are hard workers and don't complain, nor do they look for a handout from anyone else. They just do what it takes to survive. I think a lot of people in our country could learn from them.
These are just a few random pictures I pulled out to take me back...

It was this little boy's 2nd birthday so we brought him a cupcake, he was so excited, he'd never had chocolate before


I used the story of this family as part of my senior capstone project about single moms in El Salvador. She is a single mom of 6 kids, the father of the kids is married and has nothing to do with them. We're standing in front of their well that they use to manually draw water several times a day for all their needs. I loved this family!!


We were defrosting our freezer (we had the type where you have to take an ice pick and get it all out) and I took the opportunity to make a snow man in the 5 minutes before it all melted!! (it is HOT there year round)


Making tortillas... yep I can make them by hand. This is how almost everyone cooks, outside over a fire. It is VERY rare for people to have an indoor kitchen.


I took this when I had been there 1 year


Yes... that is me wearing a silly apron and plucking a chicken. I know how to prepare a chicken from the time it is running around to the time it's on your plate!


My favorite little boy in all of El Salvador, Diego, I even named my car after him. And if Andy and I weren't so white we'd name a kid after him.


I climbed this stupid hill about 4 times a day it the blazing sun. we didn't have a car, we didn't even have a bike, we walked EVERYWHERE


Here I'm washing clothes for a lady that just had a baby, those are two of her sons. They wash everything by hand either in rivers or with that thing I'm standing by called a pila


Teaching a little boy how to make tortillas... the boys there don't know how to do anything in the kitchen cause that is "woman's work". So I took it upon myself to teach them!


Lounging in a hand made hammock... one of the luxiouries of El Salvador! :)