Home Sweet Home

Hey All

just wanted to write a quick post to let you know that thomas and I have arrived safely home and are re-adjusting to our lives here

Personally I have found it a bit challenging at times
I always experience a greater "culture shock" coming back into North America
I continue to struggle with questions of consumption, inequality, lifestyle, and so forth.

Please continue to keep thomas and I in your prayers
while we are, in theory, finished our trip we are still feeling effects of it (and will continue to for the next while)

Peace to you all as we enter into this Christmas season
I pray that it can be a time of joy and wonder as we await our saviour's birth.

Thank you again.

In His name,
Emily and Thomas

on our way home....

so we are now in the salvador airport.
on (can you believe it) free internet!

our bags our checked and we are ready to board......as it appears we are the only ones boarding.....or atleast the only ones an hour early.

we said goodbye to david and suzannah....and the dear kittens!

we had a busy sunday with packing, shopping, two churches, and all the little things that needed to get done before leaving......like getting all the music that we want from david and suzannah´s computers!

we said our goodbyes to the church in the morning (emmanuel bautista) and then later in the evening to ruta 3 16

it was really an amazing experience to be a part of and observe and be so welcomed into two very amazing communities.


it is so hopeful to see God`s spirit moving so powerfully among this new generation of Christ followers/seekers.

now for real signing out until we reach home

que dios le bendiga!
tom and emiliy

signing off...

Bienvenidos a La Republica de Guatemala.

we are back safe and sound from Guatemala.
Here we are riding on the bus just after passing through the border (where i sort of got into an argument with these two guys who run the washroom- they made the Salvadoran man in front of us pay 1 Quetzal to use the washroom and then told us it was 2 Quetzales. So i said "2! but you just told that guy it was one! Why is it two for us and one for him?...because we're gringos right?"
tom just said "em...it's ok...just pay it...it's ok"
i eventually gave in and paid the 2 Qs.
hahah. oh brother)


Here I am at the bus depot after we RUSHED to make a bus, missed it by 10 minutes, and then had to wait and hour and a half for the next one!
this was how i felt at the time- I had thomas document it for me.


it's hard to believe that this is our last day here in El Salvador!
and it is a full one
this morning we will go to Emmanuel Baptist Church for the last time, then we'll go downtown for a few last minute gifts we want to pick up, then it's home to pack up all our stuff (we are coming home with double the amount we came down with!) after which we'll go out to church with Ashley and Elvis again.

and tomorrow our flight is at 8:00 in the morning...which means it will be an early day for sure!

i need to get going on some things
but i wanted to let you know that we had a good trip to Guatemala
we didn't end up getting to Lake Atitlan which was disappointing- but it was just way too hectic. too much to do and not enough days
we will just have to come back again : )


here are a few random photos of us from around Antigua.




right now one of the kittens had managed to climb up on the couch and is snuggled up beside me
they are a bit crazy now.
they cry all the time and have started to pee
yikes!

today we are taking two to church to give away to their owners
it will be sad to see them leave
but they are a bit crazy- having 5 of them in the one house can get overwhelming!

(for suzannah's birthday we mad them little party hats! hahahah)


well,
I don't excpect to have time to write again before we leave tomorrow.
I may or may not get to post once we get home (to let you know that all is well)

but until then
thank you again for interest in our trip, and for following along with us.

peace to you all
this is thomas and Emily
signing out.

McInternet.....sick.

we made it!

9 and a half hours after leaving the house...an hour and a half wait after missing our bus by just TEN MINUTES...two taxis and two buses later...after watching bad spanish music videos and cheesy mexian movies for over 6 hours...we are finally in Antigua.

it's exhausting just talking about it.

but we are so glad to be here
and are excited to go eat some real food (we have eaten a lot of fried plantains and animal crackers today)
hopefully vegetables

tom has a hello kitty bandain on his finger right now.
and he is INSISTING that i admit that we are in the nicest McDonalds right now
He's excited
i am just ashamed!

peace to you all
off we go to explore Antigua...

Guatemala here we come.

it's 6:59 am and I am up, dressed, and ready to go adventuring!

I will have to wait another hour though, as tom is trying to sleep in a bit in order to fend of getting sick.
Both of us have not been feeling great lately.
Yesterday I felt nauseous for a lot of the day, but so far this morning I am doing well.

We were planning to head off to Guatemala yesterday, but plans changed and we will go this morning (wednesday) instead.
One less day at lake Atitlan- but at least we will be feeling well enough to enjoy it.

Yesterday turned out to be full of blessings right here in San Salvador
In the morning tom and I did odd jobs here at the Nacho residence
We are in the process of making them curtains because they have two HUGE sets of windows and during the really hot summer here the sun beats in and it's impossible for them to use the room.
Now, with the beautiful blue curtains in place, there is a soft blue light and it almost feels like we are under the sea!

Tom worked hard in the morning on taking out a broken doorknob and replacing it with a new one- now the room i sleep in had a door that can close which is wonderful news!

In the afternoon tom and I got to go with some friends here (Marty's sister Ashley and her husband Elvis- here are a few photos of them)

to Ashley's orchestra practice. She plays the flute for a symphonic orchestra here in San Salvador and the practice was great! A little bit of West Side Story and some hungarian dances came alive in the basement of the San Salvador school of the arts.
On the 20th they are performinag at the president's house! We wish we were still here for that.




We will try and update during out stint in Guatemala- but if we are not able to then we will post when we get back.

well, as i still have 40 minutes until i have to wake up tom i will put up a post about our beach trip this past weekend.

vamos a la playa!

Beach Bums

Welcome to beautiful Barra de Santiago!

I have pretty much determined that it is next to impossible to travel anywhere new in Latin America and not get lost.
this trip was no exception
After a solid 3 and a half or four hours of driving (to a place only 2 hours away) we finally arrived at our weekend destination:
Capricho Guest House.

I had found this place on the internet and none of us knew anything about it, but it turned out to be...well.....an adventure (like everything else)
The guest house is in a GREAT location. Suzannah said it is all about paying for the location over the accomidation.
Capricho had beautiful guest rooms (here below)

unfortunately they were all full and so the 6 of us had to use the "rustic" cabin as they so eloquently put it.
The cabin was rustic all right!

it looked exciting from the outside...
but the inside was a bit of a different story

looks can be deceiving
but please, don't be deceived
this is a photo of the most uncomfortable beds I have ever slept on.

let's take a closer look shall we....

yes
you are very correct
those ARE rust stains all over the bottom of the mattress
and yes
you CAN feel almost every single spring when you lie down on the lumpy mattress.


ok
so i am not trying to make this sound like the worst thing i have ever gone through
but it was pretty brutal
it was so hot the night we stayed and the electricity went out for 5 hours in the evening so there was no fan to cool us off
eventually it came back on- it was a God send.
i made it through the night, waking up every few hours and praying that it would be light soon so i could get up and stop worrying about a cockroach (Which i had found just before going to bed) pitter-pattering across me!

Tom, Beto, and suzannah (for part of the night) slept outside in hammocks
tom had a great sleep - comfy, breezy, and cockroach free- out under the stars and palm trees


I also woke up in the morning with a HUGE lip from a mosquito bite.
very attractive.


But enough about the sleeping.
onto the really important stuff:

Boogie boarding!


and surfing!




Unfortunately I have run out of time
I need to go wake tom up so we can head off to Guatemala
we'll tell you more about our beach shenanigans when we are back.

peace.

A Blustery San Salvador Evening

As i sit here on David and Suzannah's "couch" (which is what tom pulls on the floor each night to sleep on...and is made out of the same material as bus seats...and has no back...so is more like a bed than a couch really)...as I sit here I can hear the wind howling outside our windows
it almost sounds as if there like is a tropical storm about to hit...

Suzannah reassured us, however, that this is totally normal

Once the rains stop the wind begins.

Tom and I didn't really research the weather before we came on this trip (word to the wise: ALWAYS research the climate before going on a vacation!)

We arrived here in the rainiest month of the year: October.
I had heard it was the coldest month (which is true) and I was all about going down when it wasn't over 30 degrees and scorching hot. (El Salvador gets ridiculously hot)

I didn't realize then, however, that with the cool air came the abundant rains.

When we first arrived I am pretty sure it rained every day
if not multiple times during the day

(I am not sure if you can tell how rainy it is in this picture- let me assure you. it is VERY rainy.)

sometimes it was only for the afternoon, but frequently it was just like a vancouver day!
I was sick during this time though, so we were pretty much house ridden anyways.

As i began to feel better the weather cleared up as well.

Sunny days dawned upon us morning after morning
and the warm sun felt perfect to our soggy bodies.

Along with this beautiful sun however, comes the winds
Apparently every year after the rainy season there are incredibl winds.
Suzannah remembers thinking the house would be blown away once because the winds were so strong.
The one unfortunate thing about the wind is the creaky doors in the house
They are very good at keeping one awake into the night, or waking one up at the oddest hours.
Thankfully a shirt or towel stuffed under the door does the trick quite nicely to keep it in place.

This past weekend tom and I, David and Suzannah, and two young adults from the church, Beto and Cleo, went to the beach!
FINALLY.

I am looking forward to putting some photos up here but they are still on our camera at the moment.
here's a sneak peak:

1. Tom, Suzannah, David, and I are all burned- to different degrees. but none the less there is a lot of aloe vera consumption going on in the house right now.

2. Tom is a surfer dude

3. I can officially boogie on a board

4. Ants can find food anywhere- even in a bag tied to the ceiling rafters.

5. It is impossible to go anywhere new in Central America without getting lost.

So much to tell
and the end of our trip is quickly approaching!

This week tom and I are planning to head off to Guatemala to visit famous (and beautiful) lake Atitlan (below).



the plan is to leave tuesday morning and return some time on the weekend.
The only possible defect is that tom has caught a cold and has an ear and sinus infection right now.
And my tummy has been quite upset all day long.
We are hoping these are only minor setbacks and that we can proceed with the trip as planned.
please keep our health in your prayers and our safety on this trip.

We will try and keep you updated but we may not be near any good internet spots so we may not get to post for a while
but keep checking just incase.

once again,
thanks for your support, prayers, and love on this trip
it's nice to know you are following along with us.

peace to you all.

back to the wind.


(here is a photo of us at Suzannah's birthday lunch)