2 years would be a long time!

(So after my first 2 weeks here I´ve decided that 2 years on a mission would be VERY LONG. Way to go missionaries, you are amazing. )

Hola! I’m not going to have time to address everything I said I would… but this is what I’ve got so far….

It’s been 2 weeks and I’ve lost the unconquerable - “I’m an adventurer who loves cold showers and sleeping on cot’s , I should go sign up for Survivor ” – attitude that dominated my first blog. My hand aches from the hours of pick hammering rock – I can hardly unscrew the lid on my water bottle, it feels like red ants are marching through hot sauce that somebody has thrown all over my shoulders (I’m sunburned), I’m frustrated with the language, ( Spanish is going fine… but the students like to speak English around the house and that is NO BUENO!) and I’m surprised I haven’t lost one of my organs during the continual bouts of explosive diarrhea (Having diarrhea in a house where the toilets usually don´t flush can create some major contention.) Sometimes I just want to take a nice warm shower, curl into a ball in my comfy bed and hibernate in my air-conditioned bedroom at home (Instead of taking a freezing shower and then sweating to death on the cot here in El Salvador).

To quote my dad, “This too will pass.” Alo-vera and peptobesmol are my best friends. My body will recover – it always does. I’m determined to get this Spanish speaking dilemma resolved. I’m going to be reading a whole bunch of books in Spanish, have 24 hour English fasts and I’ll continue to speak with any native that I get the opportunity to speak with. Puedo hacer eso!

I do not at all regret my decision to have come. My whole life I’ve known that I have been blessed beyond reason…. But this is the first time that I have been able to witness firsthand the magnitude of my blessings. I’ve seen 90 year old tooth-less women living in tin shacks, amputees without legs begging on the side of the highway, and hundreds of other people who have endured life void of the “luxuries” that we take for granite every day. The heart wrenching poverty and slime of this third world country overwhelms me with gratitude for my wonderful, wonderful life. I now have the opportunity to repay humanity (and Christ) for my innumerable multitude of blessings I’ve been given by trying to give back to the world.

This is my favorite picture of all the pictures I have taken so far. The names of these ladies are Rosa and Mercedes. I met them while they were waiting in line for their eye examination. I asked Rosa ( the lady in pink) how she was and she informed me that she was sick. She told me that she could not see, hear, and that she had a pain in her heart. Still, she was an incredibly sweet and upbright lady to talk to. You can see her kindess eminating through her smile. When we did the eye examination on Mercedes she couldn’t even count the number of fingers placed right in front of her face. I don’t know that she has ever owned a pair of glasses.

About 6 months ago there was a terrible earth quake that destroyed the crops and almost all of the homes of san – Vicente. Hundreds of people died. These people were simple farmers… after the earth quake they lost everything. They didn’t even have a shack to call their own. We’ve been working with a company called habitat to rebuild 50 of the homes so that they can move onwards with their lives.

5 hour bus ride with no air conditioning. 6 hours of digging without any shade. 90 degrees and humid. It. Was. HOT!!!!!

My grandparents owned a cabin on the shore in California so I’ve spent many years developing an intense appreciation of the ocean and its sublime beauty. But the water is Northern California is FREEZING, though it never stopped me from getting in, I’ve always craved plunging through the warm waters of a tropical shore. I was even willing to let my future fiancé (whoever he is) buy my ring at claires so we could save money for our honeymoon and go somewhere tropical and exotic. That said, you can understand how I was absolutely ecstatic to finally submerge myself in the balmy waves. Seriously, I almost cried.

A big reason why ¨You should be jealous.

I got sunburned... of course.

Estoy Aqui!

Sorry It’s taken me so long to get started on my blog! I’ve been figuring out this whole blogging process, but now that I’ve kind of got it, I’m quite addicted. I’ve got way too many thoughts in my head – blogging is a good way to release them.
Surprisingly I was able to navigate the airport, by myself, without a single problem(Those of you who know me and my history with flights can appreciate what a miracle that was) well I guess I did have a couple of problems on the plane, the large couple I sat next to did not have a good sense of humor about my over active bladder… but it was still an incredibly enjoyable flight. I stared out the window as the plane flew over Central America. The sinking sun burned a vibrant red against the billowing clouds. Later, large bolts of lightning exploded right in front of my face blinding the night with spasmodic flashes of brilliant light. I’ve never even seen anything more beautiful. It was as though I was drifting through a dream – a sensation I’ve experienced frequently since coming here.
After arriving at the house where we will be living for the next four months I was given a tour of the place. The house is dirty (something I can totally handle), broken down, and yet absolutely beautiful. I have to take cold showers (when the showers work), sleep on a cot, use a pillow that feels like a bunch of rolled up socks, brush my teeth with a water bottle ( all the water here is contaminated) and throw away the toilet paper after I’m done using it (toilets don’t flush ) … but I LOVE it all! I am SO THRILLED to be here!
I no longer have to worry about ridiculous professors, updating my facebook status, continually checking my cell phone, dating a bunch of idiots, straightening my hair or any other kind of issue / complication that has consumed my attention for the past many years. Finally, I have time to escape the frenzied blur of my over-demanding schedule. It’s wonderful to be concentrating on someone besides myself, because it’s not about me anymore, it’s about the people I’m serving.
Speaking Spanish is going surprisingly well; I was even able to comment in Sunday school and relief society without getting too nervous about it. So far the only time I really have a hard time understanding the people is when they try to speak to me in English (most of them don’t speak very well)…but that’s ok because I’m going to be teaching them English this summer. The first class starts tomorrow. I am so excited!
That’s it for now. I’ll update the trip in about a week, look forward to hearing about:
- Giving eye examinations to children in need of glasses
- Building houses for flood victims
- My first English class
- The CRAZY thrill of managing the buses here
- Multi stake dances
- THE BEACH!!!!!
- Feeling like a super model (I’m going to have a very big head when I get back, the boys LOVE American jgjBlondes)
- The differences between American and Salvadorian prices.
- And other insights from my utterly profound opinion.
- Hasta Entonces…. Adios!
To the left is the house we´re staying at.
Below are the ¨servants quarters¨
The last picture is the view from my window.

Marathon

I´d like to thank everyone who donated money for service in El Salvador through my marathon. You are all the reason I finnished that dang 26.2 mile run. Allow me to explain my reasoning for calling it a ¨dang marathon.¨

Being addicted to my ipod I have seriously forgotten how to run with out music blasting in my ear. For about 5 months my head phones didn´t have a single problem. Then without any foreshadowing whatsoever, they stopped working... on the first mile of the marathon!!!!! I was so upset when this happened I could have hurt someone (fortunately I restrained this violent impulse). ¨Great,¨ I thought. ¨How in the world am I supposed to finnish this now?¨ For me Music = Motivation. Running with out motivation = hobbling in apathetic misery. You can see my problem.

Screw this. I´m just running a half marathon!¨...But then I remebered all the pledges that had been donated. I vacillitated in my decision to finnish the marathon or just call it quits for a couple of miles before finally deciding (with reluctant determination) that I was just going to have to endure to the end - to the very end. My reputation was on the line, too many people knew about it. It was either cross the finnish line or leave the country (OK I guess that was the plan anyways.)

Intinally my goal had been not just to finnish the marathon but to finnish with a decent time. That goal changed. ¨I´ll cross the finnish line, but I´m taking my sweet time about it,¨ I concluded bitterly. I certainly did take my time. I tried talked to people next to me (though they didn´t always seem to apreciate the company, for some reason they were concentrating on just running), I dipped my head in the river 2 of 3 times (A cop watched me do this and informed me that if I was thirsty they had water just a 1/2 mile down the road. ¨No, I just wanted to get my head wet,¨ I informed him. ¨Oh, ¨He looked at me like I was a deranged hobo,¨Are you ok?¨) I stopped at every drinking station, and paraded down the street dramatically as I acknowledged the crowds on the side who werecheering the runners on.

Granted, I was running slowly, but just the same I was AMAZED at the people I saw running next to me! There were moms with chunky layers of cellulite dripping out of their miniskirts, men with pot-bellies bulging out of their muscle tees, and frail looking 85 year old cancer patients.... these runners were PASSING ME UP! It was incredibly inspiring (in a self-loathing kind of way.)

The ultra marathons I´ve run in the past helped me significantly. At mile 17, when everyone was complaining that they had 9 more miles to go, I thought 9 miles that´s nothing! 9 miles is so much better than 34 more miles.

Eventually I did finnish. It ended up taking 4 hours and 10 mins. Although I had taken the run easy I still felt nauseated and weak upon finnishing. I could hardly walk back to the car. I was actually baffled by my exhaustion. When I ran my ultra marathons I felt slightly drained at mile 25, but not at all exhausted. How in the world had I gone on and ran an additional marathon then, when I could hardly even walk to the car after the running the salt lake event?
The answer to that question is in the power of the mind. In the past I had told my self that I had to make it for 50 miles. Knowing this, I didn´t break down until about mile 45. My knowledge of the task I had ahead of me altered my normal physical capacity. If I have to run a 13 miler I´d break down at mile 10. A marathon, mile 23. A 50 miler mile 45. 100 miler… Ok I´m breaking down just thinking about that. But seriously we are capable of so much, we don´t break down until we tell ourselves to. The only reason that marathons are so hard is because people believe that they are.