98 Degrees and Rising

Remember the band "98 Degrees."  Oh man.  Anyway, it was 100 degrees yesterday.  Hello, summer!
I finished week one of summer school session 2-3.  For the duration of sessions two and three (six weeks) I have two different classes going on.  One is totally online - entrepreneurial communication.  Each week I read about 150 pages of journal articles, listen to a narrated powerpoint lecture (10 minutes), answer 5-7 questions about the readings, most those answers on the discussion board, respond to two people's posts, do a case study (apply something I learned this week to an entrepreneur).  The final project is to conduct a phone interview with two social entrepreneurs and make a presentation with my findings.  For the other class (communication consulting) we met this week Tuesday-Thursday in person, then it'll be online for four weeks, and it'll wrap up with Tuesday-Thursday in person on the sixth week.  It's basically the same weekly concept.  The final project is consulting for a make believe company.
I don't know if anyone else feels this way (I realize I'm neurotic when it comes to school work and scheduling), but when I get a syllabus I want to get everything done right away.  I would rather have a couple of weeks of insanity and then several weeks of relaxation instead of a few months of a steady flow of relative insanity.  What about you?  Needless to say, the first free weeks of a new term are usually pretty chaotic for me.
My parents have been in El Salvador this week.  I'm so jealous!  They get home tomorrow.  Can't wait to hear all about it.  Also, Jim and Amanda get home from New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania tomorrow.  Is it wrong of me to have a bit of a pity party over the fact that I've been studying and going to school the whole time my family has been traveling the world?  My life is lame.  Guess I need to work at coming to terms with the fact that my life is going to be less than fun for the next 10.5 months.  I can do that for 10.5 months, right?

El Salvador

My brothers and sisters in El Salvador have been on my heart and mind lately.  For those of you who don't know, I've been there three times (summer 2007, summer 2008, spring 2009).  I'm aching to go back again.  Let me share about my time there through some pictures.

With Fernando.  He goes to the church we work with.  He'll take you on in thumb wrestling any day!

At the beach with Leigha and Kelsey our first year.  I didn't get to experience it, but one time when my parents were there they saw wild horses frolicking through the water.  How awesome is that!

With Kenny, the son of one of our translators.  It's been so cool to watch him grow over the years.  I can only imagine how big he is now!

Marari and Fernando cheesing it up!

Taking a break while inviting people to church

The girls (Elise, Charli, Leigha, me, Kelsey) with Jimmy (one of our translators).

At dinner with Nory (Walter's wife/Kenny's mom) and my dad.   What an  meaningful experience to get to go to El Salvador with both of my parents.

Learning a new game.  I'm guessing I probably lost.

Taken on the drive from our hotel to the church.

Whenever I went over spring break there was a quincenera going on at the hotel on our first night.  If you look toward the bottom left there are a bunch of guys in white suits and girls with white parasols.

Tarah and me with the Fiesta Pooch - the mascot for Central American Pizza Hut. 

At our hotel with Mrs. Bayer, Tarah, me, Kelsey, Charli, and Micah.

With Karen after Sunday School.  One of my favorite memories is whenever she sang a solo at church.  Beautiful!

With Karena

Being silly after Sunday School

The whole fam: Nory, Walter, baby Edgar and Kenny

With Jacob (translator) while hanging at a school.  Interesting fact: In El Salvador the public school require uniforms which is the opposite of the States.

Hanging out in preschool at an all girls school.

We spent the week painting the court yard for a school, and at the end we all signed the back of a basketball goal.

All the schools in El Salvador are painted blue and white.

Karena surprised me with a present on my last night.  Note the sunburn: obviously we'd gone to the beach already.

The church has a mission where they go each week and have a Backyard Bible School type thing.  We even had a pinata this day!

Going to the orphanage was quite possibly the most heart-wrenching thing I've ever done.  When we were leaving one of the kids asked for me to take them with me.  

Taking pictures is just about the coolest thing ever to all the little kids.  Also, at this point I had the underneath part of my hair dyed pink.  The girls LOVED it!  They were so confused as to how I could have "rosa" hair.

Your heart has officially been melted.

Those kids wore me out!

Craft time at the mission!