Estoy aqui!

After a relatively long day in airports and such, I arrived Thursday to the classicly hot and humid country of El Salvador. Its beautiful here; the people, the countryside and even the noise is growing on me. Its nice to back and almost feels like home.... almost.

Its been slightly crazy finding a place to live, theres lots of options but the trick is finding a good fit. When I arrived I stayed the first few days with a guy from Zacamil (a small town a few hours from San Salvador) who was housesitting in San Salvador. However there were a few problems. One being, it was a 40 minute busride with one transfer to get to the Church. Bussing with a Salvadoran is fine but bussing on my own wouldn´t fly. Thankfully, God has provided another opportunity. I am now staying at a different house which is within walking distance of the church, the school and the youth house. Praise God! I feel very much at home there and am able to cook my own food which is a huge blessing. Also, thanks to my wonderful mom I have a huge gluten free stash from Canada! Its nice to not eat beans, rice and tortillas every meal. This morning I had granola and yogurt and morning before was crepes with nutella, delicioso!

Today was my first day at school (seems like a funny thing to say). I helped with 2 classes in the morning, a grade 6 class and a grade 1 class. Mostly I just watched, however during the grade 1 class one of the niños pooped his pants. The teacher had to help him so I ended up taking over. I had the class shouting out colors and objects around the classroom in English. It was very exciting.

Thanks so much for your prayers, they are very much appreciated. I am finding this a completely different experience than when I was here previously. Being the only Canadian, being away from my parents, having trouble communicating and for the first time living away from home Im having trouble adjusting. The language has become such a barrier. It is hard work everyday trying to understand even the basics of what everyone is saying. Im trying to learn as fast as I can and am trying out new words everyday. I cant believe how much I can understand and how much I can say. By the end of the day however, my brain is just fried. I guess I need to remember you can´t learn a language in a day.

I have the found the first few days really tough. The second night here, I experienced the first homesickness Ive felt in years and ended up crying myself to sleep. Where I was staying the first few nights was not the easiest place for me to be either. So there´s lots Im working through but God is good. He is reminding me that I am not really on an adventure, I am not here for myself and I am not here because it is easy. I am here to learn, I am here to serve, I am here to love the people around me and to grow more like Christ. I thank God for his blessings and I thank him for sufferings, for how else do we learn?