with a youth named Juan (pictured with me below) from the community of Yancolo in Morazan to be a "Promoter" of the youth work in Morazan. For the rest of the year, we will work together to coordinate, support, and strengthen the formation and work of the youth in the communities (where-as I was working for the first half of the year alone in coordination of Morazan). I am really excited about this--some of our goals are visiting each of the communities each month to support them, working to create and strengthen the vision and feeling of a Youth Association in Morazan, strengthening the process of formation (about themes of importance to youth and Biblical), giving extra support to the newly-organized communities, and generating new and fresh ideas and activities.The other thing that happened in June was that we officially asked permission of one of the families in Morazan if I can live with them a little more and have their home as my "home base". Coincidentally, this is the home of Juan, the new Promotor, from Yancolo. Yancolo is located in more or less the center of all the 13 communities with whom I work. As I think I have expressed before, all of the communities are pretty removed as far as distance from the town and road, but this one is not too bad as far as that goes. Juan and his wife Reina have a house located at the center
of Yancolo (by the soccer field, the chapel, the road) and live with their 2 children (Rita, age 5, and Adrian, age 2---pictured above), the mom of Reina (Vivianna), and the neice of Reina (Roxanna). And Now, Me! Throughout my initial 5 months of my work in Morazan (February through June) this was definitely one of the families with which I built a close relationship of confidence, sharing, and friendship. Thoughout the last 3 or 4 months, I had had a change of attitude about locating a place in Morazan. Instead of looking for the best location (as far as quality, availability, access--though these are really important too), I began to be conscious of where I had a really good connection, feeling, or "call" to live. In sharing life with people, that is the most important factor. That was a really good change of course, I think, because it has produced an arrangement that is and will be beautiful. we eat together "as a family" as opposed to them fixing my meal first and apart. There is a lot of "life" in the house with the 2 little kids, Rita and Adrian, whom I love having around. Also, Juan and Reina are relatively young (24 and 26, I think) so there are moments when I feel like I am living with 2 adults in charge of a household, but there are other moments when the 3 of us can hang out as friends.Regarding about how frequently I will stay in the house of Juan and Reina in Yancolo: It is close enough to 2 other communities that when I am visiting them, I can walk back to the house. But still there are 9 other communities that are sufficiently far away that it is too far to walk and no buses pass after a certain hour. Thus, for example, when I have a meeting/workshop in one of those 9, I will continue to the pattern I have maintained until now of staying the night with a family in that community. Someone suggested that it might be "by design" that I hadn't found a very permanent place. I enjoy the experience of passing the nights in the communities with the families. I have returned 4 or 5 times to some of them (once a month), so I am building relationships, confidence, and friendships with them--so every month is even better and better. So, I will be staying with Juan and Reina a limited number of nights each month--when I am in Yancolo or the 2 closest communities, and also when I have a day or afternoon off. I have a box and a table the house where I can leave some of my stuff that I don't need to take with me when I travel to other communities or that I want to leave in Morazan when I come back to San Salvador. This is helpful because a lot of times I walk a lot and my backpack can get heavy between materials for the meetings and personal stuff like clothes and soap. Also, I have washed my clothes and let them dry at the house so that I don't have to bring 16 shirts when I am there for 16 days.
