Everyday in this spectacular city has been so completely and totally mind-blowing; it’s nearly impossible to put into words. However, I am going to do my utmost to describe our time in this gorgeous country. No blogs have been put up in awhile due to exhaustion and basically no desire to do anything technology related whatsoever. So here’s a brief summary of yesterday:

            We woke up bright and early with the sun and got ready for a day of work. After a lovely breakfast, prepared by amazing cooks, we loaded up into the truck and set off for a school in dire need of painting. When we arrived we were greeted by smiling faces and curious students. We immediately set to work, scraping off old paint and sweeping up the areas around our site, at the same time practicing our Spanish with them. While sweat dripped from our faces and we painted vigorously, a travesty occurred. It just so happened that one of the crews for a different wall was painting with oil-based paint and it caused quite a bit of commotion. By that time it was near lunch so we decided to take a break and reconvene later.

            After yet another delicious lunch of stuffed squash and rice, we set out once again, but this time we split up. One half of the group returned to the school with the oil paint travesty, and the other half that I was in, traveled to an alternate school out in the country side. From what I hear, the oil-based paint disaster wasn’t actually all that much of a disaster at all and that group managed to finish the job most satisfactorily.

            Meanwhile, in my group, we had been painting the entranceway to the school a brilliant blue, pure as the lapis lazuli stone blue was originally made from. That’s a true fact right there. You learn something new every day, huh? Anyways, while we were painting, we befriended a small child aged around six, named Jason. He was most eager to help out with the painting process and painted a good portion of the trees around us. He, Aubreigh, and I had a small tussle with the paint and all came away grinning and bright blue. Despite the minor distractions we managed to get the job done well and came away from the experience feeling as we though we had helped out this community. When we got home we were utterly exhausted and many of us simply went to bed, though there were a few rambunctious students who stayed up to play some cards.

            The day after service was a R&R day and we spent the day sleeping, reading, and basically lazing around. It was a good day. At the end of that day though we had the nice experience of meeting with the ex-Mayor of Suchitoto,  now Governor, Javier Martinez, and having a wonderful dinner with him. After dinner he told a few of us stories about his days in the war. The stories really hit a chord within him, and us and we triggered an hour-long discussion about the politics and reasons behind the war with one simple question. He said that his views on America were less than good for a while there, but from meeting the people who came to help with the war, such as Sister Peggy; he came to an important realization. “The American government is not the same as the American people”. This really made me think. For a man to be able to understand this even after all of the things that he had been through, was an amazing accomplishment and I am happy and honored to have been granted the privilege of meeting this amazing man.

            Today we went on a lovely hike on a loop up Guazapa Mountain range and Volcano and learned the history of the incampments, including a hospital, trenches, homes and schools scattering the side of the mountain. That was an overly good experience and we are all very tired and ready to go to bed. So this is Colin Levy, signing off, ready to start yet another adventure tomorrow.   We are heading off to the capital city, San Salvador to here more about the civil war, then to La Costa del Sol!  (Coast of the Sun) 

Adios! Hasta luego!

-Colin Levy