Friday, April 24, 2009

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
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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!!
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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)
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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.
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I took this when I had been there 1 year
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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!
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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.
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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
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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
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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!
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Lounging in a hand made hammock... one of the luxiouries of El Salvador! :)
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5 comments:

The boondocks said...

It's crazy to think how long i have been home as well and yet here I am loving in my mission and Haven't seen anyone except those here in this ward. How sad is that?

MOMster said...

I didn't know you served a mission in El Salvador. That's awesome! I can imagine all the amazing experiences you had while there. Those are memories to treasure for the rest of your life, for sure!

Lyndsie Miles said...

I had no idea you went to El Salvador on your mission... boy am I out of touch?

It looks like you had such an amazing time! You can post memories anytime!

Tanya Smith said...

That was so neat. Thanks for sharing!

Torman said...

Awesome how fun to read and look through that post!!! It seems like yesterday We were all at your farewell I remember you had a huge pack of toothbrushes one a month and One for just in case. :)