For Jose

I'd like to dedicate most of what will appear in this blog to Jose Gomez. He is a symbol for the reasons why I keep El Salvador so close to my heart and my memories and why El Salvador has forever changed the way I see the world. Without Jose, most of what I experienced and learned would be a lost.

During my musings I'll try to organize my thoughts and share what impacted me the most throughout my 9 months living in El Salvador. But I can almost guarantee, like any writer, events will jump forward themselves, asking to be told out of order.

I do remember that when I left home for my year abroad someone told me to keep a blog, for those interested in reading what I might encounter. Well, here it is, 18 months later. Please forgive my tardiness.

I'll leave you with this: Jose's first lesson to me was all about Salvadoran slang and how to say things in Spanish that were completely useless. But he taught me how to laugh in another language and communicate with people without knowing exactly what they were saying. We shared a 4 hour bus ride together to visit some communities my 2nd weekend in El Salvador and he patiently worked with me on my vocabulary. At the end of the of the trip I knew I was living in the middle of something that was forever going to change me. I just didn't know how much. I invite you to share it with me as I look back and try to make sense of it all.

-Stephanie