Part of our group waiting outside the San Salvador Airport for our bus.
Our bus!
A couple of horses a few houses away from the house I stayed in, spotted on the way to work one morning.
This is the front door of our house in Ciudad Romero, along with the family bike. You can almost make out the hammock just inside the door, which is where Raul and/or Elisabeta (our hosts) would sleep at night.
This is Josh and Emily eating dinner in front of the TV in the "living room" of our house (which consisted of the above-mentioned hammock, and the table, tv and large green refrigerator pictured here) with a group of neighborhood girls.
This is Josh and some little relatives of our host family, drawing with pens and crayons we left for the kids. This was Sunday night, our first night in Ciudad Romero.
Elisabeta (18 years old) and Raul (20 years old), our hosts, with me and Josh. Because of our communal lack of knowldge of Spanish, Josh and Emily and I never figured out if Raul and Elisabeta are actually a married a couple, or merely living together, but we finally decided that they weren't brother and sister...! Elisabeta's father and uncle are both currently living in the States, and the house we stayed in was once Elisabeta's uncle's house. I managed to speak with them enough to find out that both Elisabeta and Raul will be taking a trip to Atlanta this April! They seemed very excited.
A few pigs meandering down the dry river bed at dusk.
This is a herd of cows being led down to the Lempa River in Ciudad Romero.
Part of our group after a hike through a beautiful forest, with the Lempa River in the background. Who's who, from left to right:
Back row: Shana, Josh, Ari, Aviva
This is my little friend Marlos, helping us shovel dirt into wheelbarrows, which then got wheeled inside the Commodore (community restaurant) which was being constructed simultaneously, to raise the level of the dirt floor. The work at the Commodore was the most physically tasking, but the kids insisted on working by our sides, and often could work for longer periods of time than us!
This is Josh and some of our little friends doing more shoveling of dirt at the Commodore.
This is the construction crew working on the Commodore. You can tell how for they got in only a few days by comparing this picture to the above one, because it is relatively the same view of the same building, only a day or two later!
This is me and a bunch of kids at the other work site, the tree nursery. The kids and Emily and I are packing little plastic bags with earth that has been sifted.
A cute little boy I befriended at the tree nursery site.
This is Jenny and Karina, two adorable and energetic little girls, at the party on Thursday night, our last night in the village. The fiesta was hosted by Karina's family. Jenny was fairly shy, but Karina was quite the flirt; she came up and started to tickle me as soon as I arrived at the party, before she even knew my name!
More beautiful children! This was taken on our tour of Ciudad Romero, at the all-village childcare center.
This is the heartthrob of Ciudad Romero... at least according to all of the girls on our trip! Elmer is his name, and coolness is his game. He was the sweetest, most loving kid. There is something about him that when you look into his eyes, you *know* he will do something amazing with his life, there is so much capacity for love and creativity. I snapped this shot from the bus as we were leaving from Ciudad Romero on Friday morning. He was standing near the bus with a friend of his to see us off, and when we took off down the road, we could see him start to turn away, and his friend reached out to hug him, and they walked away down the road in the opposite direction from us with their arms around each other.
This is the famous Chencho, director of La Coordinadora, and an incredibly inspirational leader. In this picture, he also happens to be very wet and muddy from a trek through the banks of the Lempa River! His smile is genuinely infectious, as is his spirit.
Chencho in action! This was the last day of the conference in San Salvador, when Chencho was speaking about the Theology of Peace. As you can see in the foreground, we were all given headphones for the conference, since some of the audience was Salvadorian, and some was American, and likewise with the speakers. When someone was speaking in Spanish, the Americans wore their headphones, and vice versa, so that we could hear a translated version of what was being said, broadcast from the back of the room where a bilingual woman was translating throughout the whole conference.
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Front row: Emily, Ben Isaac, Stephanie, AJ
