"Oh, El Salvador."

Today, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of talking about what we've been doing, I wanted to take a minute to talk about what it's like living here!

In some ways, El Salvador isn't SO different from the States. In a lot of other ways.....

Well, the climate is different. It's always warm, and there are really only two seasons. Right now we're in wet season, which means exactly what you'd think. It doesn't rain 24/7 though, just at least once a day, and it makes for some really beautiful scenery.

It also means different food! Banana, coconut, papaya, mango, avocado, nance, citrus, and almond trees are all easily accessible just at our camp, and elsewhere there are lots of other plants that we definitely don't have in Missouri too!

Warm climate also means really big bugs, though :(

Speaking of food, our groceries are a little different here.

These are our eggs. Yes, in the pantry. Apparently, if you don't wash eggs--as most North American grocers do--they're perfectly well-preserved at room temperature.

We couldn't find bananas at the grocery store, so we bought them off a street vendor. A whole bunch for $1! And so cutely small! 

Even though our whole milk is 3% at home, I'd never actually seen it on a label before!

This is a traditional dessert called tres leches. I just wanted to show it to you because it's delicious.

And this is our water. All the North Americans have these because the water contains different flora and really messes with our guts...plus, we live on a volcanic lake, which as you might imagine has some additional sketchy chemicals in it.

Then there are just the random fun tidbits. There are a lot of things about our culture that we totally take for granted until we see something different.

Like what having extra letters in the alphabet does to parking garage signage! (This is an Ñ, pronounced "ny" as opposed to just "n")

El Salvador, fortunately for us, uses US currency. FYI, this is where all of the US's unwanted gold dollars are being used. I don't think I've ever seen a $1 bill here.

I guess they don't technically have the FBI, so.......movie piracy is a totally normal thing. You can buy DVDs for $1 on the street, right next to the bananas.

Okay, but what about religion? Isn't that the whole reason we're here?
As with anything, the religious culture of an entire people is complex. But the short of it is that El Salvador maintains strong roots in Catholicism (their main man is Archbishop Oscar Romero, a Salvadoran Catholic priest who ended up a martyr) and is therefore very open to spiritual topics, a stark contrast from the increasingly-rational North American culture. Protestantism, specifically Pentecostalism, is very much on the rise. But the coolest thing to me is that God uses this spiritually-open culture to move in big ways. Here's a classic example:

Yesterday, I went to a birthday party for the daughter of a King's Castle worker at her secular school. We brought 3 students from the Castle's School of Missions, who dressed as clowns and danced to Christian songs and prayed over the birthday girl. My friend Jorge is pictured here preaching the gospel to all those 4-year-olds as they eat their cupcakes...and the teachers didn't do a darn thing to stop any of this, even participated themselves! This is what happens at all the school programs Castle does--something that would NEVER fly in the States. Can you imagine? It's SO COOL!

Of course, this is all just a tiny glimpse of life in El Salvador. It doesn't take into account the influence of the language, the politics, the social norms, the fashion, the economics. But to experience all of that, I guess you'll just have to come down here yourself! Consider this an invitation :)

God bless you! (Dios te bendiga!)
💕Matthew and Brittany