Today we went to San Salvador to pick up Kathy from the hotel. She got into El Salvador late last night and stayed the night at a hotel so we wouldn’t have to drive to pick her up after dark. Raul stopped by the house a little around 7:15am to pick up Idalia and I. Raul lives in the canton of El Tablón and his family owns the big trucks that we use to haul fertilizer to the communities. He drove to the Pastoral House today to drive the pickup to San Salvador so we could pick up Kathy. Since no one else at the Pastoral House can drive Raul drives us. We dropped of Blanca and Cecilia in Santiago de María on the way. They needed to pay the bill for the electricity and pick up some things as well.
As we drove to San Salvador I watched the scenery passing us by. I love looking around at what’s going on outside. We passed a field of cotton on the way and several fields of what looked like sugar cane. As we reached lower elevations it began to get warm inside the car. I felt myself drifting off to sleep. Before I knew it we were at the hotel by the airport. It’s just a Quality Inn hotel but it looks really nice, especially in comparison to the homes in much of the country. We pulled up and out popped Kathy. Yay! We got her suitcases loaded and were back on the road again.
The drive back was around two hours and I once again managed to fall asleep in the truck. We picked up Blanca and Cecilia in Santiago de María and went on to Berlín. Kathy had lots of unpacking to do and she’d brought some gifties as well! I got the waterproof band-aids I’d asked her to bring back as well as two tubes of special Vaseline chap stick to help with my sunburned lips. Woo hoo! My peanut butter got confiscated at the Des Moines airport so no peanut butter for me. But it went to the food pantry so it’s okay. I think I can survive without it.
For the Pastoral House she brought down brushes to clean the car battery, good scissors for the office, bunny ears for Easter, fabric from Denise, and some quality shoes for the ladies. The shoes were the biggest gift and a huge hit! The ladies had mentioned something about wanting Kathy to bring back shoes from the US. The shoes available in the area aren’t the best quality and the really good shoes are very expensive. Plus the shoes here seem to fall apart really fast. So this was incredibly helpful for the ladies. Unlike living in a big city, the roads here aren’t the greatest. People have to walk in the cantons, the fields, and along rocky roads in whatever shoes they can afford. They often have foot issues and sore feet. Hopefully these shoes, which are Chacos and designed for lots of walking, will not only help their feet but also last a long time.
My breakfast mango
The Easter Bunny!
Pretty fabric
Trying on the new shoes
They look great!
She came home to lots of work
There was discussion today about whether or not Chelita (the chicken) could start sleeping outside. Kathy asked me about it and I told her Aminta and Cecilia told me she still needed to be inside. Kathy asked Blanca who said she could sleep outside. I wanted to get her a guacal (plastic tub) to turn it upside down and cut out door so she’d have a place to sleep at night. Plus it would shelter her from the rain. But Cecilia said Chelita would be fine and that she’d be able to find shelter among the plants when it rained and during the night. I realize this all seems kind of silly. She’s a chicken and I know all other chickens in El Salvador sleep outside. But I was worried about her. She’s a city chicken. And she’s very spoiled.
6:00pm came and Chelita started cheeping. This is her signal to me that she’s ready to come inside for the night. She seemed distressed when I didn’t go outside and get her. She stood on the ledge near the dining room and cheeped at me. I knew she wanted to come inside but I told her she needed to learn to sleep outside. The next thing I knew she had flown/jumped/fallen off the ledge onto the ground by the dining room. So I picked her up and put her back in the grass. Not 5 minutes later I watched as she flew off the ledge into the dining room landing on a chair. I guess she really wanted to come inside for the night. Cecilia told me to put her in her room. So she gets to sleep inside for one more night. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her tomorrow. She can’t sleep inside forever.
The bird lady
Chelita thinks she belongs inside
But chickens do not belong at the table
1 comment:
Chelita is a pretty spoiled chicken. I guess she knows when her bed time is though. Glad that Kathy is back. That mango looks really tasty.
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