On Wednesday, I wasn’t feeling well so I didn’t go to my praxis site. I felt better by lunch time so I ate lunch with everyone and then went to Spanish class. During our class we did a little presentation and I thought I did well on it. But, at the end, he read our grades out loud again and I only got a B which was one of the lowest in the class. I was really disappointed because I thought I sounded better than the other two girls who did my same part. Whatever.

Allison and I went for a run after class then we ate dinner. We went to our Wednesday reflection and pigged out on Trena Treats. Like I said, I am getting fat here haha.


I returned to my praxis site on Thursday morning. Olivia and I went back to the dentist office. Dra. Orantes’s first patient was a 9-year-old boy. He had one tooth that was completely decayed so she had to extract it. Before she did the actual extraction, she cleaned his teeth, used a fluoride protective solution and filled a cavity on a different tooth. The extraction was very interesting and she did it all so smoothly. Olivia said the dentist at the other clinic would just yank and yank in an unorganized fashion until it popped out. We have seen her work with other children and every one of them as cried; this little boy didn’t make a peep. He was so cute and innocent haha.

Our next patient was a 3-year-old little girl. She was adorable. She was probably one of the cutest little kids I have ever seen. She was all smiles until the dentist opened her mouth. I do not think I have ever heard someone scream so loud. It did not help that the dentist filled her cavity with no pain medication, but I also think she was just scared. After the little girl, her 18-year-old brother got his teeth cleaned and the dentist gave him a referral to an orthodontist.

The last patient was a 6 year-old boy with a tooth that was decayed much worse than the first boy. Dra. Orantes explained to his mother that she was going to have to extract the tooth. The mom asked her like 100 questions, got angry and then turned to the boy and said, “They want to pull your teeth out.” Okay, you do not say that to your 6-year-old son. So, of course, the boy started crying and running away. The dentist could not do it that day now because the boy was too scared. Dra. Orantes was really frustrated and was telling us that during that whole conversation she was trying to be discreet so the little boy didn’t know what she was going to do. I would have been angry at that mom too.

Dra. Orantes left around 10 am again so we went to the physical therapy area again. There was an old man there, who Jackeline told us, was the first soccer coach in El Salvador. I guess he is famous around the country. We assisted him with his exercises and he counted in English, instead of Spanish haha. He was so much fun to talk to and work with. I am glad that we got to meet him.

We had to leave our praxis a little early because our Spanish professors were taking us on a field trip that afternoon. We left at 12:30 on our bus, with a pizza lunch to-go. The pizza was homemade and amazing. We drove about 2 hours to the “Museo de Café” (Coffee museum). We took a tour of a huge coffee plant. Ironically, the gourmet coffee that they harvest there is all sold to Starbucks! They sell it to Starbucks, unroasted, at $1.60 a pound. I think Starbucks sells it for around $12 a pound! WOW. My Spanish professor told us that around 80% (If I am remembering correctly) of the coffee that Starbucks sells and brews is from El Salvador; that is so interesting! We saw all the different areas and there were so many that I don’t really remember what each area did. When they store the coffee beans they still have a thin layer of coating that is a golden-peanut color. They call it “gold coffee”. You can easily pull off the covering and the actual bean inside is a light green color. So when they send the coffee to Starbucks, they send the green beans. I remember seeing in one Starbucks store, a display of the stages of making coffee and it looked just like what we saw. The most interesting part was touring the tasting room. The official taste-tester showed us how he did it all. He has been one of the official international coffee testers for years. I guess he travels to judge coffee at international competitions haha. First, they place just the coffee grounds in a cup to smell the aroma. Next, they add hot water and smell the aroma again. He does this thing called “breaking the cup”, with a spoon. The coffee grounds originally settle at the top, he smells it, then breaks the cup by pushing down the grounds, and then smells again. Finally, he tastes it, except he does not swallow the coffee. He slurps a small bit into his mouth, moves it around and then spits it out in this big urn shaped thing. He did that a few times with each cup. The whole process was really interesting to watch. I got some great photos of the factory too!

When we returned to the Casas we went down the street for pupusa night with the becarios. And that’s about it…Adios!