Escapades in El Salvador, Day Uno: Gonna Fly Now

Ed. note...So I hadn't really determined 100% if I was going to blog/journal about my experiences in El Salvador this time but took my notebook with me as a just-in-case kind of thing. While there, I decided to start writing down experiences from each day just as a way in which to decompress and reflect on experiences for the day. So, with great trepidation, feel free to take a gander inside my experiences in El Salvador. There will be more pictures for days to follow than there are for Day 1. Be forewarned; the trip will start out fairly normal but experiences will get a little more bizarre and out of the ordinary as we travel on! Without further adieu, let's dig in!

Members of our team for future reference:

• Matt and Kalynn Marrs - Father/Daughter; Matt is the former pastor at Northland Baptist.
• Kendell and Madi Hall - Father/Daughter
• Liz and Selah Tilden - Mother/Daughter; Liz and Selah are former members at Northland who met up in ATL from their new home in Texas.
• Perri and Daniel Miller - siblings
• Leah Booth
• And Me

It's finally time for me to take my long-awaited third trip to El Salvador. This means that I have something more exciting and cool to write about than just the idiosyncrasies and mundane aspects of my life inside a fabric covered box. :) So, let's start!

To give you a solid gauge for what my level of excitement was for this trip, I really couldn't sleep at all the night before the trip. So with the attempt for bed beginning at 10:00 am followed by the inevitable wake-up call beginning at 3:30, there's not much excitement there. Even less excitement when you factor in me lazily crawling out of bed and heading towards the shower. So after all of the boring getting ready-type stuff, it was time to head for the airport at 4:00. I was actually the final one to arrive since I ended up being 15 minutes late. Bethany came in with me and said goodbye and everything which caught me a little grief all in fun for "us keeping the magic alive" instead of her just dumping me out on the curb. After checking our bags and all taking parts and pieces of the craft bag since it was overweight, we headed to the gates and had our tickets printed out by the workers there. I hit the jackpot and got an exit row seat for leg one of our flight.

A little under two hours later, we touched down in ATL and realized that we were five terminals away from where we needed to be. We hopped on the tram and immediately had our first weird moment of the trip as we met a mission team bound for Honduras. While making small talk with them, the "vocalist" of that team insisted upon doing pull-ups while explaining their trip. When that team exited the train, Matt began busting out his own pull-up workout and before Kendell began breaking out his own pole-related workout in mocking joy. That's all I'll say here. Once the tram arrived, the race was on as we ran to the gate in order to make our flight. We made it in time and boarded our flight with six of us getting to sit in the same exit row which made for a nice trip. I'm guessing that this means I'm going to get the shaft on seats for the trip home. So, after a long-term nap session aided by Garth Brooks with a short break for airplane food, we touched down in El Salvador.

Once landing and finding Liz's mistakenly claimed luggage, we went through customs and heading outside to meet our ride. I was really excited to get the opportunity to reunite with the Blantons, our interpreter Walter, and Antonio and Milena. We loaded up in the van and headed towards Remar with a short stop at Pollo Campreste in Usulutan for our first meal in El Salvador. After that, we headed toward San Miguel to Remar. Upon arriving, I was stoked to learn that a few of my favorite kids were still around the orphanage. After a funfilled afternoon of playing, we loaded them up and heading to Pizza Hut at the mall in San Miguel. Another awesome reunion would follow as I got to see Milton and Elena again. After a fun evening which included the staff singing to one of the kids, Elias, for his birthday, we headed back to Remar for a short debrief session and a nice sweaty bunk bed. Cool note that I neglected to mention. I got to see a scorpion today! And heard the women all scream their hearts out as a result of it. Tired now, must sleep.