Lesson 3: How to Give Thanks

Well, I know it's been a while, but the Blog is back, and here's my Thanksgiving update!


Last year's volcano adventure in Nicaragua is pretty hard to top, so I did something completely different this year, while still adding another country to my travel list.
A group of teachers from my school rented a beach house in El Salvador for a few days, and when I say "beach house" I don't mean "Hey, let's pack our stuff and walk a few blocks to the boardwalk and the sand and the sea and dodge all the other people." This was more like, "look out the back of the house - there's the Pacific!"
It was pretty epic. I had very few expectations before we got there, so I was pretty excited about the large house and great view. It was about an hour drive from the bus station in San Salvador to the house, and once we were there, there wasn't a whole lot we could get to, so we basically stayed at the house for three days. I took advantage of the circumstances by not wearing shoes basically the whole time we were there.

Our days were filled with lounging around the house, reading, napping, chilling on the beach, and of course the beach essentials like wave surfing and sand castle constructing.

Hi, I don't think we've met before - you must be The Pacific

We also built some pretty sweet beach bonfires in the evenings.
Throw in some fun games and general great times and it was an awesome weekend!

Yes that's the beach, our backyard.

BUT WAIT - being Thanksgiving, we tried our best to do a nice meal with some of the Turkey Day Essentials. The bus ride didn't allow us to bring all our food materials with us, so we did what we could at a grocery store outside of San Salvador. It was late when we got to the house on Thursday, so we did our big meal on Friday for lunch (can anyone say "non-traditional"??)
The kitchen consisted of a small gas stove with no oven and some malfunctioning plumbing, which amounted in a swampy floor and burners that took hours to heat up, so we conjured up some mashed potatoes and corn and beans and stuffing and a giant carved turkey roast that looked and tasted like pieces of chicken... oh, wait...it was pieces of chicken...We were impressed with how good everything was in spite of the conditions.
So as our weekend went on, we progressed in our attitudes gradually. We started out thinking, "Whoa, this places is awesome - and look at the beach!" then by the second day it was more like "An oven would be helpful, but the beach is awesome! Also, why aren't there any doors?". By the third day it turned into "I wish I didn't have to dodge puddles from the broken plumbing and the leaking toilet, but the beach is still great!". Until finally on the day we left, "The beach is great, but I need to get back to functioning civilization".
Speaking of leaving... as we were piling back into the SUVs to go back to the bus station, one of them wouldn't start. After an hour of trying to fix it and not succeeding, we decided that we'd have to leave with one group and some people would have to stay behind until the car was ready, which ended up meaning staying for another night. It was an interesting moment to decided who should go and who should stay. Four people ended up staying, some because they spoke Spanish, others because they could more easily get a substitute for their class the next day, and others because they weren't ready for the vacation to end. I was in the group that made it (barely) to the bus station on time and got back to Tegucigalpa on Sunday night.
So, in the spirit of the season, I am thankful for a chance to get away and relax (and read some good books!). Also, for friends with a go-with-the-flow attitude. And I'm thankful for the beach, which was awesome. And given the circumstances, I have become more thankful for functioning pipes and an oven. And doors.

More blog posts to come! (and I mean it this time!)