On Friday we had our public health class in the morning. We talked about primary health care and what the healthcare system here provides to its population. Afterwards, the program leaders brought us lunch at the UCA. We ate in one of the shaded seating areas outside. We had these awesome chicken-salad-like sandwiches with pears, cookies and passion fruit juice (the best kind of juice that our cooks make). We then hopped on our bus to go to Las Palmas. It is a very marginalized community with over 6000 people in an extremely small area. The leaders of the local church gave us a tour and explained how they were trying to better the community.

After Las Palmas we took a tour of the big private hospital. There is such a huge difference between the private sector and public. That hospital was fancier than most American hospitals that I have been in! Everything was top of the line and some of the amenities were even over doing it.

We returned to the Casas for a break between our tour and salsa dancing lessons. The salsa dancing lessons were at an actual dance studio with an instructor. We had a great time and I learned so much! We then got back on the bus and drove to dinner. We ate at this beautiful restaurant overlooking the whole city. It was like a 30-minute drive up the mountain but the view was amazing. The food was amazing too! We had fresh vegetables, chicken, rice and this awesome pineapple juice. There was a live band so we all danced some more salsa. When we returned to the houses, which wasn’t until 11:30 or so, and a group of us wanted to go out again. We took a taxi to the Multiplaza. It is basically a huge mall but at night there are a lot of clubs and bars. Hannah’s cousin (who is from here in San Salvador) told us to go to a place called Envy. We kept walking to find it but we entered some other club because the bouncer called us over. He let us in without paying the ten-dollar cover charge. It was fancy and all high-tech with plasma televisions and crazy lights. Everyone was dressed so nice and we all looked scrubby. Most of the men had their skin-tight dress pants or white jeans on with a suit coat, tie and expensive shirt. The girls were all wearing expensive risqué dresses with the highest heels. We were all so out of place. We danced for most of the time because the DJ started playing American music as soon as we walked in. As always, everyone was starring at us and it probably did not help that we were screaming the words to the American songs. One man approached my friend Stacey and pulled a flower, made from a napkin, out of his jacket. It was hilarious and probably the highlight of my night. The majority of the crowd was older. There were a lot of couples that looked about 25 to 30 years old. Then there were many single men, they all looked over 30, just watching the girls. We were probably the youngest people there. I wish that we would have gone to Envy because it probably would have been a younger crowd. We had a great time, despite the harassment from the Latino men haha.

At 9 am on Saturday we left for our weekend trip to Ataco. When we arrived at the house that we would be staying in, we were all amazed. It was so beautiful and it was huge! We even had hot showers! The land surrounding the house was amazing too. After exploring our mansion, we went into town for lunch. We walked through this store and out in the back there was seating for their café. The cooks had us come right into the kitchen and they served us buffet style. I ate this chicken vegetable soup and it was great. The flavor was so unique, I loved it. After lunch, we finally got to shop for local crafts. We went to about 5 different artesian stores. I bought jewelry, handmade crosses, and bags. I have a lot of gifts to give out when I return. I had so much fun seeing the locally made crafts and buying way too much stuff haha. We eventually made our way back to the house and we decided to go horseback riding. We each had a guide walking alongside the horse so we did not really do too much. They took us up the mountain a little more so we took some great photos of the surrounding area.

We all cooked dinner together and made these awesome brownies. I took my first hot shower in three weeks and it was beyond amazing! My roommates and I went to bed early because we were tired and we had comfortable beds. The next morning we went on a hike downhill to an area where we could swim. We thought it would be just a creek but it was actually a pool. The water was not chlorinated or clean but it was still a pool. They even had a slide and diving board haha.

After our hike we made our way to the bus and began our 2 hour ride home. We stopped at two more shops on the way and I, of course, bought more gifts. When we got back to town a small group of us went to the artesian fair in town. The vendors would not leave us alone. “Come in! Come in! Look at this and that and that!” I was getting extremely frustrated because if you even went close to their stand they would get right in your face with their products. Anyways, they had some great crafts but you had to bargain the price. They would start out high and unless you were an idiot, you had to fight with them.

Since it was the Fourth of July, we all went out to eat pupusas as a small celebration. We went to “the best pupusaria” in town and it was packed. We could not even sit together. The pupusas were great and better than the other ones that I have had. After dinner, we went to the Mexican restaurant for drinks. These two boys from Notre Dame met us there. They are doing a program through their school and they are here for 8 weeks. The program sends pairs of students to different third world countries. They were the only pair in El Salvador and they were working with an NGO project called Pounds of Love. They travel the countryside with a doctor and nurse giving check-ups to children and checking their weight. The program returns to the same areas to re-weigh the children and to encourage healthy eating habits. Both of the boys were pre-med and super nice. They are probably coming with us this next weekend for our trip to El Mozote.


Monday was my first day at the local clinic. It is only a 5-minute walk from our house to the entrance. The clinic is large and they have a lot of specialists. They have three dentists, two physical therapists, a pharmacy, an eye doctor, radiology, and an ear, nose and throat doctor. My friend Olivia does not speak Spanish and she is a pre-dental student so I went with her to the dentist area. I was able to translate for her and we saw some cool things. We observed two root canals, a filling and a cleaning. The dentist was fairly sterile; she used gloves and a mask but she only rinsed off the tools before using them on the next patient. The equipment was old but it worked well and Olivia said everything was so much better than the other clinic she had been at the past week. The dentist area closed at 10:30 so we went over by Claire in physical therapy. We observed the physical therapist with two patients and she explained to us their injuries. She said that most of the patients could not pay as much as the appointments cost, so the clinic, and the NGO’s that run it, pay the remaining balance. We all liked the physical therapist, Jackeline, a lot and we talked to her for 45 minutes after her patients left. Her husband and father currently live in the US. Her dad has been gone 9 years but he flies back every year to stay for 3 months because he has permanent residency in the States. Her husband has been gone 7 years and Jackeline has not seen him since! She said that they talk on the phone everyday for hours. Right now, she is awaiting her permanent residency card from the US so that her daughter, her mother and she can move there too. Her mother already received hers and Jackeline is expecting to receive hers in November.

We usually give English lessons to the clinic staff but we did not prepare anything for Monday.

After the clinic, we returned to the Casas for lunch and then Spanish class. During our break in Spanish class we went to Mister Donut again haha. After the break we had an exam that none of us really knew about. It was not difficult though. He allowed us to use our notes and our reading book. After class, Allison and I went for a jog then we prepared dinner. Monday nights are the night that I signed up to help make dinner. All we have to do is warm up the food that the cooks already made and then wash dishes afterwards. Monday nights are also our cleaning parties and then after that is Avisos , which is like announcements.


On Tuesday, Olivia and I returned to the dentist office for some more observations. We saw the dentist do a small filling, cleaning and then two crowns. The crowns were interesting and the dentist taught us about them as she was doing it. The dentist was done at 10 so we went over by Claire in physical therapy again. We observed two different patients and then we chatted with Jackeline again. At 11:30, we taught our first English class. Most of the staff that we had spoken to said they just really wanted to have conversations so they are forced to speak in English. We split into two groups and Claire and I talked with the two physical therapists and two social workers. First, we talked about our childhood and vacations, and then we had the four of them discuss the same. They all did really well and we helped them along the way with proper pronunciation and verb usage. Next, we had them talk about their houses and next-door neighbors. They had a hard time remembering and understanding the word “next-door neighbor”; it is somewhat weird when you think about it haha.

It was Katie’s birthday so we had a surprise cake for her at lunch. I left a little early for Spanish class so that I could go on my computer. I saw that Holland beat Uruguay and I was so excited! I cannot believe that they are going to be in the final! THAT’S SO EXCITING!

During class, our teacher took us out for ice cream for Katie’s birthday, more desserts, oh god! I seriously thought that I was going to lose weight here but I have gained weight. Every meal is 90% carbs: tortillas, tons of rice and we usually have some kind of dessert! I need to work out so much when I get home!

After class, we went on the internet for a bit then went home for dinner. That evening, a medical school intern came to talk to us about her experiences. She has a scholarship through the Casas so she agreed to talk to us twice (she spoke to us last Wednesday at reflection night too). She spoke about the gang presence in the hospitals, the violence and the disturbing diseases she witnesses. She also talked about the unwritten rules that the interns have to follow so they do not get in trouble. For example, if you are on duty to watch the emergency room door and someone comes in with a level 1 injury, it is your fault, and you have to buy everyone dinner as punishment. She described how all of the head doctors are men and all the women have to dress nice, smell nice and look good every day. She also mentioned that if you were an ugly doctor, the men would give you the ugly jobs. You can really see the machismo here. If she is asked out for drinks after work or for the weekend, she has to say yes or there will be a punishment. Her stories were very interesting and I enjoyed hearing her speak.


I will be home in about 9 days. That is so strange! The time has gone so fast!