First Week of School

Well, it was a busy week! School has started, and while I do not have a classroom full of students, there seems to be plenty to be busy with. My focus is entirely on MAP testing, mostly helping teachers use the pile of data that it produces about their students. (The Measures of Academic Progress is a computer-based achievement test for grades 3 to 8. As students take it, the test selects questions based on their right, or wrong, answers. The result is an accurate indication of the kid's instructional level in Reading, Math, and Language Arts, as well as several strands within each area.) All the info is accessed by teachers shortly after the test is taken, but it can be daunting to get it and use it. That's where I come in! Grades 3 -5 start on Sept 9; that's when I will get really busy!

We continue to settle in comfortably. Little by little we are making the kitchen a functional place; we did bring some basics, but it is surprising how many little things it takes! Food storage is important, because even the smallest morsel of food is sure to bring a parade of ants. We have two kinds, very small and microscopic. The littlest ones only come around when the big ones (comparatively) are not there. We have the occasional BFR too, but I'm not sure where they come from. Outside, I hope!

It is the rainy season now, and it rains for a little while almost every day. Usually it is at night or late afternoon, but today it's a mid-day downpour. No thunder or lightning yet but when it does it's LOUD!
All of the plants that Sebastian the gardener put into our backyard will appreciate the soak. As far as I can tell, just about any stick you put into the ground will grow! All of the house plants New Englanders work so hard to grow are landscape plants here, and many grow into trees. I saw a trimmed hedge of gardenias yesterday, and huge multi-colored crotons are everywhere. We have some sort of citrus in the backyard, with bananas nearby as well. It's raining now; I'll take some pictures when it stops.

Stay tuned!

Orchids

Here are the orchids that now live on our patio. If anyone knows what they are, I would appreciate that information!

Update: the little yellow flowers are Oncidium sphacelatum

Update: this one is Epidendrum Cochleatum

The plants have grown onto the branches or pieces of wood that they were originally wired to.
The flowers themselves are small, so I have posted photos of the whole plant so that you can get a sense of the scale from the bricks. BTW, the $$ for these three was $20.

Update source: I posted these on Flickr and put them into a couple of orchid groups. Someone gave me the ID on these two (anon)

Up early, and it's Saturday....crap!
Oh well, it makes time to post some photos.

One of the field drips that the Welcoming Committee took us on was up into the mountains towards the west of San Salvador. They are all volcanoes, of course, but none active. I think there is one to the east that smokes from time to time. Anyway. At the lower altitudes, the fields were covered with corn or cane sugar. (the coca cola here is made with real cane sugar; I think if they used the high fructose corn syrup they feed the gringos, no one here would drink it)(more on coke later)

With a little more altitude, though, the main crop is coffee, coffee, coffee. It's everywhere! Coffee is grown on huge fincas (plantations) or in a patch of ground behind a little shack. I think the small ones get together in collaboratives to share the processing, and there is a lot to be done between the red bean on the tree and your mug. (pausing to sip).  Here's a link to a blog that will tell you about the process and the costs: The real cost of coffee

Eventually, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant call El Jardin de Celeste. We were surrounded by the garden; it was full of outrageously bright flowers, bougainvillea, bromeliads, orchids, and whatever these are.

The orchids, it turns out, are for sale, so now there are three of them on our shady patio columns. I bought the one hanging on the tree to the left of the door. I'll take a better photo when the sun comes up.

Then it was time for lunch. There were many choices, of course, so we went with the Plato Tipico,

chicken for Carol, meat for me. (meat - beef, usually grass fed). Also on the plato: rice, naturally, mashed red beans, avocado, and some fiery green sauce. It also came with amazing fresh tomato soup, which Carol had with just a dollop of crema. But I had Soup de Tortilla, which was really a meal by itself. Built on Carols tomato soup, there were fried tortillas, queso fresco (I think), crema on top, and lurking down on the bottom, a few slices of avocado. I googled recipes, and the closest I could find was this version:  Mexican Soupa de Tortilla  

After lunch we went on the the village of Ataco, usually a sleepy, kinda touristy little village, but today they were having a coffee festival of sorts, so there was lots of music, food stands, and, well, coffee! There were also a lot of colorful old weathered walls. 

Also some clothing (I took this for a neighbor, Scott Coulter) Indigo was once the basis for the entire Salvadoran economy, but it crashed when cheaper chemical dyes became available. (mid 19th century)

I'm not sure if this is local indigo or cheap chemical. I am hoping to find the real thing in something other than a tie dyed tee shirt.

OK, the sun is up, the birds are too, and I need to make more coffee!

Enjoy the weekend!

Internet (and other things) At Home

Today was the last day of a week of meetings, team building, retreats, gettin' up early and wearing shoes and socks! But summer is over and now it's time to get to the real work of school; the kids start on Monday.

I've missed the blog for a few days because we lost our internet connection, but happily we are back on now. It went out at the beginning of the Salvadoran holiday of Augustino on August 1. Since the holiday goes to the 7th, I knew there was no way it would get fixed until yesterday. Enjoying new holidays and traditions is one of the pleasures of international living, but ya gotta be flexible.

Another of those pleasures is getting to know another cuisine. There is no shortage of US fast food places here (why do we export the worst?) but we don't eat at them in the US, why would be do that here? But we have eaten out in some interesting local places. The first was a papuseria up in the hills. That is, of course, where they sell papusas, which is probably the Salvadoran national food. It's a round, flat pastry that is stuffed with different things (meat, chicken, cheese) and then pan fried. But our main tutor for Salvadoran food will be Rosa, our amazing housekeeper. On her first day here she left us a pot full of rice and another pot full of cooked-up beans. I don't think it gets more Salvadoran than that!

More on food soon. Grace has just corralled a BFC, and I need to deal with that. Another pleasure of the tropics, I guess.

Today, the newcomer's Spanish class took a field trip! I was more of a cultural lesson than a language lesson, but any good language teacher would tell you that the two are intertwined. First, we went to downtown San Salvador, which is the older part of the city. Street vendors and markets were everywhere, and I will return to them for sure. But our first destination was the Bibliotheca Nationale, the home of a considerable collection of old and new Salvadoran literature. Digital, braille, and hard copies of many texts are available.  There was also a large painting of all the presidents of El Salvador:

That's Patrick and Hudak looking presidential; the brass plaque is a key to who is in the painting.

Then we went across the square to the Palacio National, which is the center of the government. They seem to have been on a hiatus, as it was mostly closed inside with no tours possible.

From there is was a short walk to the burial site of Msgr Oscar Romero, a pivotal figure in the fight for independence here. The tomb was somber, and clearly a site of some national importance and pride.

Even more important and heartfelt, however, was the place where he was killed. He lived and cared for a hospice center in San Salvador. He was an activist for the poor of El Salvador, and because of that, he was a target. While he was serving mass, a gunman fired a shot from a car in front of the church, through the open doors, all the way to the altar, where Msgr Romero had just lifted the chalice. One shot to the chest killed him.

More on Msgr Romero soon.  (There is a movie: "Romero" on Youtube)

Te rest of the day was taken up with opening a bank account and getting a debit card. And a quick swim in our pool before the thunderstorm. 

Only a few minutes to spare between meetings and Spanish lessons, but I did promise a few snaps of things so far, so here are two: our little house in the complejo, and the EA soccer field with the volcano in the background. Some view, eh?

It's Thursday morning, and the sun and I have been up for about an hour. Carol is still asleep, Grace is on the couch with me, and Helou is supervising from the dining room table. We are all comfortably at home.

We now live in a small, two story house, with two bedrooms and two baths upstairs, with a kitchen downstairs that overlooks a dining room/living room combination will a wall of jalousied windows that faces East. Outside there is a covered patio and a little yard. 

Grace and Helou have not lived at ground level since they were on the street, and now Grace has gone into full hunter mode as she stalks a bird hopping just outside the window.  She won't be allowed out though, there are unfriendly critters out there. Both cats made the trip well; she did her usual hide-out-in-a-tiny-space routine when we got here, but he spent his time exploring. Grace finally left her little nook (on top of the refrigerator), but is still on alert for noises, strangers, and, of course, birds.

It's Thursday afternoon now, and the day has been full of meetings, Spanish lessons, a big shopping trip to a hardware/housewares store, and now it's time for an icy glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Amazingly, the local Costco franchise carries our usual wine selection from Concha y Toro, a Chilean winery. 

We haven't done a big grocery shopping trip yet, that's in the plans for tomorrow. We really don't expect to be buying a lot of American stuff (it's more expensive) Salvadoran coffee will be just great and certainly local produce (Avocados 4/$1), mangos about the same. I did bring some shiracha, and I might buy Hellmans if I see it, but beyond that, local will be fine!

OK, no grocery shopping means dinner out, so we must explore.

Photos soon.

Stay tuned.