Crossing Cultures

Trip to Morazán – Part Two – Guerilla Military Camp

Crossing Cultures, Family, History of El Salvador, Life in El Salvador, Places to Visit in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids -

The kids really enjoyed our trip to Morazán department last week, and I think one of the highlights for them was the opportunity to explore the miliary encampment of the guerilla troops. Morazán is very moutainous, with craggy hills and valleys perfect for guerilla warfare. One of the campsites of the rebel troops has been restored and preserved by the local community in Perquín. Many artifacts have been found around the area and brought to the site of this military camp to show what life was like for the guerilla troops during the Salvadoran civil war. It was really interesting to see. Growing up in Maryland, and then living in Pennsylvania, I have visited battlegrounds and military campsites in places like Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Antietam, and Fort McHenry. But this was very […]

Trip to Morazán – Part One – Museum of the Revolution

Crossing Cultures, History of El Salvador, Holidays, Justice, Life in El Salvador, Places to Visit in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids -

This past week we spent two days in the department of Morazán, up in the far eastern corner of El Salvador on the border with Honduras. We’ve never been to this part of the country before, and it was nice to get away and out of the city for a little while. It was about three hours of driving from San Salvador before we arrived…with winding roads the whole way! The department of Morazán is not only beautiful, but it is also filled with lots of history as it was a place where many guerillas and guerilla supporters lived during the Salvadoran civil war in the 80s and early 90s. We visited some of the historic sites, as well as explored some of the natural beauty of the region. I’ve broken […]

A Day In The Life Of

Crossing Cultures, History of El Salvador, Kids at Risk, Life in El Salvador, Uncategorized -

Since I am the “mom” portion of the Snyder mission team, a typical day in my life usually includes driving kids to school, packing lunches, making dinner, taking kids to dentist appointments…all the usual stuff. Sometimes I get a little jealous because a day in the life of Jon is anything but “usual”, “typical”, or “boring.” Recently, he had a “non-boring” day. He attended a presidential event, and then got to go to a Salvadoran national team soccer game. The presidential event was hosted, obviously, by the President and First Lady of El Salvador. It was a special event to commerate the lives of the children of El Salvador who disappeared during the civil war. Many children were “adopted” illegally, or kidnapped during the war. Some died during that conflict […]

Bienvenido Obama

Crossing Cultures, Holidays, Life in El Salvador, Urban Ministry -

This sign says “Welcome, President Obama.” Huge billboards, roadside signs, and posters saying the same are hung from trees and telephone poles are all over San Salvador this week. The big news in El Salvador right now is the arrival of President Obama and the First Lady. They will be here on Tuesday and Wednesday and it is a nationwide event. Both of our kids’ schools are closed for the duration of the presidential visit and many streets will be closed making it viritually impossible to get around certain areas of the city. Many businesses and government offices will be shut down as well. Our friends who work at the U.S. Embassy will be working long hours, and hundreds of extra security workers will be swarming the city. To escape the chaos, […]

A Note about Saint Patrick…

Crossing Cultures, Holidays, Life in El Salvador, Thinking About God, Third Culture Kids -

Celebrating American holidays in El Salvador are always a little different to say the least. Today is one of those days as it is St. Patrick’s Day. The kids did get to wear green to school since they go to bi-lingual schools, and Tori attends the International School. Their schools try to incorporate other holidays around the world. It was funny this morning trying to explain the “wearing of the green” to my co-workers at our staff meeting. At first they thought I was talking about Earth Day and we all had a good laugh! But I did get an opportunity to share a little history about St. Patrick and who he was. I don’t know if you know the history, so I’ll share what I shared with them. When […]

The Ripple Effect

Crossing Cultures, Life in El Salvador, Natural Disasters, Thinking About God -

As I am sure everyone is aware, yesterday there was a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami off the coast of Japan. The destruction and suffering is horrific and historic…a disaster on an unbelievable scale. Yesterday, we had our own little ripple of the disaster here in El Salvador. The tsunami that was spawned by the earthquake travelled thousands of miles around the world, carried by the Pacific Ocean. The effects were felt in Hawaii, the West Coast of the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Honduras, and even here in our little nation of El Salvador. The beach towns were cleared and schools along the coasts were closed for the day. When all was said and done, we only had a slight raise in our wave level. A slight little surge […]

A Little History

Crossing Cultures, Family, History of El Salvador, Justice, Life in El Salvador, Places to Visit in El Salvador -

Well, my parents are gone now. They left yesterday. We had a great time with them and it was very sad around my house last night. This is the part I hate about being a missionary…sigh. Anyway, as I said in my last post, we got to do lots of fun stuff while they were here. One of the things I really enjoyed was getting a little more of El Salvador’s history. On Monday we toured the National Cathedral, including a visit to Oscar Romero’s grave, and also the National Palace. I have included some pictures below but I’m warning you that they are horrible pictures! I think I had the wrong setting, or the flash off or something. I’m a pretty bad photographer so I hope you can still […]

Happy Birthday Tori!

Crossing Cultures, Family, Holidays, Life in El Salvador, Third Culture Kids -

This past Friday, February 4th, our (not-so-little-anymore) girl turned six years old! I know every parent says this, but it’s so hard for me to believe that our Victoria is six now! When I first held Tori back on February 4th, 2005 I remember just feeling overwhelmed and overjoyed with all the possibilities this little life held! What would be her favorite color? Would she like school? Would she make friends? So many things crossed my mind on my first night of being a mom. But it never crossed my mind that she would grow up in Central America…that she’d be bilingual by the age of six…or that she’d have hardly any American friends. And I definitely did not expect her to request pupusas (a popular dish in El Salvador) over […]

A Pair of Ducks

Crossing Cultures, Family, Third Culture Kids, Training, Transitions -

My life can be described as a pair of ducks…uh, that is, a paradox. We had a lesson about this way back in our cross-cultural training last fall.  To illustrate the great paradox of a life lived in two worlds, our teacher brought in two ducks. The “yuck” duck, and the “yeah” duck. These ducks were borrowed from our kids’ classes were they were learning about this ever-present “pair of ducks” which was an appopriate way to teach them about paradoxes. Since then our family has often referred to the “yuck” and “yeah” ducks when talking about our cross-cultural experiences. Right now we are right in between that pair of ducks as we re-enter our daily routine in El Salvador. The “yeah duck” is that we are back to our house […]

Home For The Holidays????

Crossing Cultures, Discovery, Family, Holidays, Third Culture Kids, Transitions -

I realize that my blogging has been a bit scarce lately as we have been spending the holidays in the States visiting family and getting a little vacation from El Salvador. We spent a week and a half in the Baltimore area with my family, and we are now beginning to wrap up a week and a half in Pittsburgh visiting friends and family here. This whole experience of being “home” has been a very strange one for our family. This is the first time we have been back to the States since we moved to El Salvador and I know that we will need to get used to living among worlds, but it’s been strange nonetheless. A few little observations of “reverse culture shock” have been noticed. For one thing, […]

Search

Categories

Mini Cart 0

Your cart is empty.