peanutbutter ants

at the casa we eat a lot of peanutbutter. if we make it to saturday with even a trace of peanutbutter still in the jar, it is quite an accomplsihment. side note:salvadorans hate peanutbutter so my two salvadoran house mates are not a threat to the pb supply. anyway, we have ants in out kitchen, little bitty ones that crawl all over the walls in little lines-looks like they´re playing follow the leader. on my first night in el salvador, i decided i wanted a spoonful of peanutbutter (which is perfectly acceptable in my house), so i went looking for the pb but i couldnt find it in the cabinet which is where we keep it at home. someone told me to check the fridge (el refri) but it wasnt in there so out of routine i opened the freezer (el conngelador) and there it was. i thought nothing of it and took a generous spoonful of pb and was contenta.

well, about two weeks later a housemate mentioned that juan (our cc, which is essentially an ra but way more present) had been wondering since we arrived how the pb got from the freezer to the fridge and who had eaten some of it. i confessed thinking i had done something wrong, broken some unspoken peanutbutter rule, and all my housemates started laughing. they already had heard the story...upon opening the peanutbutter jar after it was in the cabineta on the morning of our arrival, juan had found it crawling with little ants. they are the size of one rainbow sprinkle/jimmie, and he panicked. in order to kill the ants he had put it in the freezer and would later scrape off the top layer. but i beat him to it! so to make sure you get this, i ate peanutbutter ants without knowing it! super-crujiente! (super crunchy!)

one of my salvadoran housemates, deysi, thinks this story is absolutely hilarious, which it is, and i have not heard the end of it! first it was how much extra protein i got with ants in the pb, then if ants get in anything like they did in our honey she will put it in my direction. and last night i made a beautiful lemon poppyseed bread with lemon glaze and deysi loved it. when she found out i made it she replied that i must like it so much because the seeds look like ants! i think i may never live this down! maybe i should do like the salvadorans do and not eat any more peanutbutter...

long overdue

hello all!

my apologies that this is only my third blog post. life here is tiring. i dont have my laptop but even if i did we dont have internet where i live, so i have to be very intentional about my time, especially when i use the internet. these are merely excuses though...

life is beautiful here. two weekends ago i went to this giant crater lake for the day and the water was so clear you could see your feet. this past weekend we stayed at our praxis sites (the communities were in on mondays and wednesday) which was a really wonderful experience. this is such a minor part of the experience, but after having to pee into a hole, i really appreciate the indoor plumbing where i live. i took a bucket shower, which is pretty much what it sounds like lol!

im not very homesick which is good i guess, but sometimes i miss home and all of you so much! im trying to be very present to my experience here so i apologize for the lack of communication.

i went to mass at my placement this past weekend, and the homily alone was about 45 minutes! a lot of kids stared at me. you just kind of have to get used to the fact that people stare and it feels uncomfortable. machismo is a new experience....

i love the house i live in and i love the people i live with. we all get along so well and bring such unique and wonderful persectives to the community. the kids at my praxis site are such a gift. children have been a significant part of my experience thus far. the kids who live in my neighborhood have really taken a liking to me and we play together when i decide to put off my homework. the kids in my english class on wednesday know the beatles song hello hello and i get such a kick out of hearing them sing it.

classes are great. im taking an amazing philosophy class in which im learning all about life. (PULSE friends, everything comes back to PULSE, even in el sal), my sociology class is interesting and all in spanish taught by antonio canas who worked with the UN for a bit, im also taking liberation theology, and a history class on el sal´s civil war. the speaker in history on friday was so interesting, and some of his speech was pretty challenging. while this is a very beautiful country, theres also a lot of sadness that lingers from all that happened in the past. his story included some pretty graphic rape stories of young women in his community by the military. that was tough to sit with, and right after his speech we rushed off to our placement sites for the weekend. as i played with the young girls at my praxis, one is 15 another 12 and others younger still, and i just felt a huge sadness. i thought, if they had been born 15 years earlier, they might have experienced such ugliness in life. they seem so innocent and so willing to let me get to know them, its heart breaking to anticipate the struggles they will experience as young women in a society that is worse than the US in dealing with auto esteema of the women here.

i went to a hiphop class once when i was here and the teacher told us to be ¨mas sexy ¨ and it was weird. and for those of you who know me well, i dont do mas sexy. the teacher is pablo.


what else? i wash my clothes by hand, im living a simple lifestyle. no tv, movies for class sometimes, little internet use (mostly my own choice), very little meat, and cold showers. i have pretty much gotten used to the frigid showers which feel really good if you wait until the afternoon to bathe. my clothes are getting stretched out already. underwear is expanding from handwashing which is probably a good thing since we eat so much amazing food.

anyone ever seen beautiful salvadoran art of an artist named llort? i went to his museum and workshop and bought a few things.

i cant think of too much else to say for the time being, when i get back i would love to tell you all more details. it will take time. i can already anticipate that coming back will be difficult.

next weekend we leave for the campo for a week (the country).

much love and ill try to blog again soon!
kathleen

mis primeras dias en el salvador (my first days in el salvador)

hola tod@s!

i am currently in a nice little internet cafe near to where i live. i am living in one of the three houses my program has, and it is called casa silvia, after an influential woman who was murdered during the war and is a martyr here. i am still learning more about her story (olivia i know you know a lot about her because of oti!). my house is the medium sized one and i love it! i am in a large room with two other roommates, and a noisy bird that wakes us up in the morning lives outside our window. we are still in orientation (it lasts for over a week!) and yesterday we visited 2 of the placements where students in my program will be working, tepecoyo (which is my placement!) and los sitios, after which we walked for maybe ten minutes to a river with a small waterfall and played in there for quite a while. it was such a beautiful experience.

i have already eaten pupusas on 2 different occasions (which are corn tortillas with yummy stuff inside like beans and cheese). today for instance (our free day) i had one pupusa which is super filling and a can of peach nectar for $1! you wouldnt believe how inexpensive things are! on the one hand it is nice for us to not have to spend a lot, but in the other it is sad to look at the broader implications about the economy here.

also since ive been here i visited the UCA where 6 jesuits and their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered in 1989. this year marks the 20th anniversary of the murders (and the 10th anniv. of my program) so november will be an exciting month here with festivites and a reunion of many of the alums of the casa program. also the couple that directs the program is pregnant with their fourth child who is due in late october, what a semester to be here!

i went to mass yesterday at the UCA, and the mass was in spanish with Dean Brackley presiding (if you dont know who he is, look him up!) i love the other people in my program, everyone is really kind and open and willing to get to know one another, which has been really great.

i woke up early again this morning because of the fire and brimstone church cady corner from my house, so i went outside and read while lying in the hammock in our garden, it was so picturesque! the showers are cold but feel nice after being sweaty and the food is amazing. we have salvadoran women cooking our meals. lots of beans and rice, whole avacados, and amazing fruit. i can already feeling my clothes getting tighter...

the sites and sounds and smells here are so fascinating and wonderful. the nights are cool and the rain feels divine! on our second night here we went out for pupusas (refer to above for description) and it was a girl in our group's 21 bday so we had cake and the mariachi band sang her a bday song. afterwards we walked to a lookout area and saw the city lit up. because we were in the city we couldnt see many stars but the mountain in front of us was black as night and all the lights twinkling from the houses looked like stars. this is such a beautiful place, the buganvia flowers are gorgeous!

i am so happy to be here but every once in a while i think, "what have i gotten myslef into?!" but my dad has a great quote about how every great adventure starts with a bit of nervousness. ill let you know some more later.

brazos (hugs)
catalina (because "th" doesnt work here)

First Post!

Hello and welcome amigos y amigas,

Thanks for reading my blog! I will be in El Salvador in less than 48 hours!