Caliente y Fresco.

August 10th, 2010

How does waking up at 5:00AM sound? Pretty miserable, right? Trust me...it is.

 Luckily I had the smiling faces of Kaylie and Katelyn to perk me up. We met Wes and Johnny at FBCW and took a shuttle to the airport. It was hard saying goodbye to my family, especially when my mom starting losing her cool. The prospect of the journey I was about to take eased any feelings of remorse at leaving home for the first time in my life. Airport security and all that jazz was pretty standard, nothing interesting there. The flight was a little over three hours long. I sat next to a woman named Lorena Cardona. She was curious as to why a "beautiful American girl" like myself was traveling to El Salvy. I explained our situation and what Global Year was all about. When asked about her travels she explained to me she was a native of El Salvy and was traveling back for the first time in five years because of the death of her grandmother. You see Lorena is a chef who travels all around the world searching and exploring the culinary arts of different cultures, and her grandmother inspired her to begin that. It astounds me that I could get to know a strange woman in the span of a three hour flight better than I know some of my high school teachers. Only in the walk with God, eh?

Arriving in El Salvador was breathtaking. Mountains covered in green trees and houses of all sorts of shapes and sizes nestled in the rolling hills. There's just something raw and unnervingly beautiful about El Salvador that sets your heart on fire. My first meal consisted of fried chicken and french fries (go figure). Our house has eight bathrooms. Eight. Ocho. Twice the amount in my home in Kennesaw. It's a gorgeous home and our hosts are nothing but gracious and kind. Kaylie and I set up our room and have already shared more silly moments together than I care to count...even if she does stay up all night Skyping her boyfriend. ;)

The view from the bedroom balcony.

August 11, 2010

Today we visited our school and church for the first time. Iglesia Bautista Miramonte (Miramonte Baptist Church). The teachers and administrators were amazing and their love for the students and school oozes out of them by the bucketful. Our translator/tourguide is Jorge. His adoration of people and God and overall aura of amusement and joy makes him one of the most incredible people I've ever met. He has a habit of calling things "hot and fresh" which is where caliente y fresco comes from. While talking to the English teachers I volunteered to work with the advanced students. There is a possibility I could work with deaf students also and learn a little bit of sign language. How. Epic. Is. That?

That afternoon Jorge took us to a market and two malls. Wes and I battled in giant plastic balls on water.

That night we attended church for the first time. Everyone is so genuinely excited and happy that we've come. That's the thing that I've already fallen in love with about the El Salvadorian people- when they smile, they're truely happy to see you. No false pretenses, nothing fake. It's refreshing. Having a translator explain the entire service was interesting, and it just makes me more motivated to learn the language and be able to worship freely. I look forward to the day when I can worship God in English and Spanish. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be able to praise Him in all of the world's languages.
  Until then...

All for His Glory,
 Taylor