I am living in the home of Connie Rodriguez, along with Erica (the housekeeper) and her daughter Michell, though I'm not sure if they LIVE here or if they are just here during the day or what. I THINK they live here. They're all very nice ladies! Connie is so gracious for opening her home to two strangers from Washington.
Connie, Erica, Michell, Lacey and I all went to the market shortly after arriving. I needed a few articles of clothing (a couple of lighter shirts that are nice enough to work in the school and a bra, since I keep soaking through all my clothes due to the extreme heat and humidity here).
As far as I can tell, Michell, Erica's 10-year-old daughter, is the only one here who speaks a little English, and even then, she only knows how to pronounce a few written words and how to say colors and some fruits. On the way back from the market, Michell and I were talking a little bit, and she asked me, "Podemos ser amigas?" which means, "can we be friends?" It was very sweet! I responded, "Por supuesto!" "Of course!" And we smiled. Yay warm fuzzy feelings!
When we got back to the house, Michell showed Lacey and I her book of Fairies. It's an awesome book!!! It highlights famous fairies such as those from Sleeping Beauty, the Snow Queen, Tinkerbell, etc. It also has lift up flaps and things that describes how to find fairies, enemies of fairies, where fairies live, what they do, what they eat and wear, etc. I imagine that such a thick, dense, beautifully illustrated book like that would cost at least $25 in the U.S. We asked her if she could read it and she said no. We tried to help her translate part of it. Lacey looked up the word "fairy" in Spanish, and we found out that it is "hada." So Michell brought her book over and we sat together and looked at the book for a while and I translated a few stories the best of my ability. Then, she asked me if I liked to draw. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I grew up drawing everything all the time and that I wanted to be a cartoonist or illustrator before I wanted to be a teacher. Of course I love to draw! So we went to the table in the garden and she showed me her school book where she had drawn and colored patterns of different shapes in graph paper for class. There were a couple pages of pears, different kids of flowers, butterflies, crosses, pine trees, etc. She's quite the little artist! She also showed me a couple sketches she had free-handed of Frankie Stein and the Dracula chick from the Monster High series. Since my little cousin Maliah likes Monster High, I immediately recognized the characters and said so to Michell. She's a very good artist! I went and grabbed my own sketchbook from my room and then she and I sat down together and drew pictures until lunch. I drew a picture of Michell as she drew a picture of a pug dog. It was great fun! She also showed me the pet turtles, who live in a big enclosure at the back of the house. It gets lots of sun, but there are lots of roof tiles and things to hide under for shade, and there are big pans of water for them, too.
So far, except for a few words with Lacey and my written communications here and on Facebook, today has been entirely in Spanish. It's sometimes difficult when I don't understand every spoken word, but I think it's best when I admit that I don't understand and ask for clarification instead of just nodding, smiling, and pretending I know what's going on. Everyone here is really good about speaking slowly and being patient when I don't understand. Michell even wrote something down for me when I didn't understand a question she was asking. It's nice. :) I bet this is how a lot of exchange students and/or immigrants feel when they come to the United States! New language, new culture.... it can all be a bit confusing! Why, just tonight, Connie took Lacey and me to see a procession of the Cross, which is a Catholic celebration that commemorates the passion of the Christ as he went to the cross to die for us. We watched the procession go by, and then we walked along behind it for a bit and as we walked, two older men approached us and started talking with us. Older people are sometimes hard to understand because they might slur their words a bit more or talk differently because of their aging mouths or something. I have a hard time understanding older folks and small children even in English, let alone in Spanish! At any rate, we chatted for a while. One man had lived in Washington and worked for Bill Gates for a while (so he said), and he also visited Lousiana, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New York! Another man, Ernesto (he was very hard to understand!!!), said he had a granddaughter who lived in Canada with her family and came to visit in El Salvador. There was some joke about that that I didn't get, but I smiled anyway. He said my name was easy to remember because it's like the singer "Britney Spears" who has drug and alcohol problems. I feel like everyone here connects my name to Britney Spears; it's a little embarrassing and annoying, since I really don't want anything to do with her anymore. I digress. He made some joke about his name being like "Ernesto" and "Molesto" (Molestar means to bother). Very chatty old guys. It was fun, albeit a little frustrating having to concentrate so hard to make sure I understand what's going on.
Anyway, I'm off to bed! Tomorrow's another hot day!
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