YLA El Salvador Mission Trip Day 6 & 7

Thurs.. Aug. 11 (Clearing ground space for gardens/farming in la Anemona & Trip to Suchitoto)

9:00- 12:00- The kids finally got there taste of manual labor in El Salvador, clearing land of grass and routes with the community of Anemona to prepare it for gardening.  It was pretty hot with the sun blazing down but I have to say it was kinda of awesome working hard and seeing a field covered in grass and weeds transformed into a field ready for tilling and farming.

2:00-7:00- Suchitoto walking tour- learned about the history of the town (and old colonial city) and the architecture and visited some artisan  shops, including a workshop for crafts made with indigo (anil is Spanish).

Now were headed back to San Salvador, where we will hopefully have some delicious papusas for dinner.

Fri. Aug 12- Day at the beach (El Zonte) and trip to the Ministry of Health

So I’m writing this Thursday night so everything I say is what I suspect will happen but knowing El Salvador there is likely to be a few changes.  I want to write about Friday now because I am uncertain when the next time is that I will have internet access and I wouldn’t want to keep you all handing since I am coming to the end of my time in El Salvador before I head to Guatemala for medical Spanish language lessons on Saturday.

So, the plan for tomorrow is that the group (YLA and mentors minus me) will head to El Zonte, a fabulous beach, for a day of reflection and probably a bit of fun.  I am headed off to the Ministry of Health of El Salvador with the one of the lawyers that works with Cristosal to present my Nurse Practitioner credentials (several license with apostille) to try and obtain an El Salvadorian nursing license (should be an interesting experience).  If all goes well, the hope is that I will be done by the afternoon and can head to the beach with Noah (the director of Cristosal) to join the rest of the group.  Then I will join the group for reflection time and fun in the sun (maybe some surfing) and come Saturday, the group will head to the airport, where they will leave me and then hopefully I will get an opportunity to check out some possible living options for when I come back in September prior to catching a bus to Guatemala city at 1:00pm

Well, that’s about it for now; I’m pretty sure I will most likely sign off from blog updates until I return to El Salvador in Sep. (most likely around 9/20).  I will post my pictures when I get back to the US (in about a week), which you can check out on the picasa stream and please feel free to make any comments you wish.  I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little bit more about El Salvador over this last week, I know I did.

Paz y Amor, Erika