The New El Salvador Adventures, Episode I: Fly Like An Eagle

In an attempt to better chronicle my time in El Salvador this time, I decided to journal each and every day about my experiences there.  Hopefully this shall be el beneficio for those amigas y amigos y ninos y ninas that were not present there with me.  There will be a new entry each day this week that chronicles the corresponding day from the previous week.  And thus, it begins!!!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

 Our El Salvadorian adventure began bright and dirty early on Saturday morning.  While it's no 4:00 am or whatever like last time, 8:30 was still a bit early for a flight that didn't leave until 11:10 am.  Only mildly excessive in our eyes (Sorry Joe, LOL.)  I will say that it was nice to spend some extended time together like that prior to our flight leaving.  Once we touched down in Dallas, TX, it was definitely munch time so we all went our separate ways and ate.  I personally joined a group of nueve for an excursion to to Blue Mesa Taco Bar.  After that we headed to our terminal where we were greeted by the pleasing sight of 20+ atomic green t-shirts.  At this moment, we all decided that we owed our leaders a big thank you that we weren't made to sport matching t-shirts while traveling as that does nothing but make you stick out.  Once in the air, we were pleased to find a nice in flight meal (ed note, i.e. eatable) consisting of turkey sandwich, Fritos, and a Twix bar.  Also, free in-flight movie is always good even if the comic highlight of Journey 2 is Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson popping his pecs in dramatic fashion.  Yay for questionable movie greenlighting!

We touched down in El Salvador a little after 6:00, hightailed it off the plane, and right into a lengthy customs line.  I know it's surprising, but we all managed to survive the customs line without succumbing to boredom.  Following the purchase of our visas and our bag pickups, we headed to the last part of our customs experience, the dreaded game of Red light, Green light.  This random procedure decided whether you get flagged for additional screening.  Basically you push a button, green light you're good, red light you're bad and your bag gets checked.  We all survived and headed outside to meet up with our old friends/translators Milton and Walter, as well as a new amigo (probably should use Spanish), Jacob.  Once loaded up, we "hit them mountains" and headed to Usulutan.

Once we headed into town, we stopped at one of the most popular eating establishments in town, Wendy's (Yes, you heard/read that right, Americanos)!  We were psyched to see the other members of our team who had spent the previous week in El Salvador waiting for us there.  After partaking in an awesome Frosty Float with orange soda, we headed to our home away from home, Hotel Campo Real.  Myself and my roomies, Jason, Luke, and Steven, checked into our "luxury" hotel suite.  We then met as a team and discussed our expectations, thoughts, dreams, motivations, etc. for the week together before hitting the proverbial hay for the night.  Big day of ministry starts tomorrow with church in the morning.  That's iglesia for my Spanish speaking friends.  :)