The Ref Didn’t See It:

Back in El Salvador once again; the blazing sun, the crazy drivers, the beautiful landscape— I love it. Having been on this trip a couple times before I knew what to expect coming here, but as my mom has said multiple times this trip, “once again I was wrong” (that’s why I’m writing it down— doesn’t happen very often😁). I too was wrong with my expectations and it has left me a little bit uncomfortable with how comfortable we are. 

First off, we aren’t staying at the usual hotel we set up camp at and the rooms are fairly nice with A/C and nice looking bathrooms. Another thing that’s different this year is the food— almost completely different than in the past. Before coming here I went out for dinner with my parents and while we were ordering we all decided we were going to have a salad because we don’t eat many green leaves while we’re here. Well, I think every day we’ve seen lettuce whether it be on the chicken sandwiches, the garden salads, or on the double decker breakfast sandwiches which was very entertaining watching Ashlynn attempt to get her mouth around. Lastly, the biggest thing for me has been not standing in the back of the pickups when travelling around this year, something I had grown to love on my trips here. Instead we adventure around in an air conditioned van. That being said, I don’t think it’s a bad thing we’re more comfortable while we’re here, it’s just not as I had expected. 

Building houses is always my favourite part of this trip. Dripping sweat, hard work, and a lot of chugging water— what’s not to love? Yea, I understand some people think I’m a little bit weird for it, but I just love how the houses fit together like a puzzle. I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment seeing the house come together and my soul dances in joy every time I see the shelter sticker put on the house at completion. This year, however, it was different (another unexpected surprise). My favourite part of this trip so far has been this afternoon when we played soccer and hung out with the community. I’m not one for running so when it comes to soccer the sport has never appealed to me. Playing today was completely different than any soccer I had ever played before and I was grinning the whole time. I wasn’t very good, I think I can say this with certainty, the El Salvadorians were significantly better than the Canadians, but I did score a goal in the game. It may or may have not been when my dad tackled the goalie and left a net wide open for me, but the ref didn’t see it so it counted 😁. 

After the game we had some fun doing pull ups on the soccer nets and I was able to show off some of my calisthenics moves which then led to one of the locals about my age challenging me to a push up competition. Ashlynn decided she’d join in on it. With everyone crowded around while we laid on our stomaches in the middle of the soccer field they started counting as we pushed ourselves up off the ground signalling the start of our competition. Now Ashlynn claims she got more, but in my version of this story, after about 2 reps she dropped out of the running. My challenger put up a valiant effort, but eventually he ran out of steam and I became victorious. Wooooohooooo!! (We won’t talk about how many times he outplayed me in the soccer game moments before though) After we finished we stood up, shook hands, and hugged. 

We’re here to build houses, 

we’re here to build hope, 

we’re here to make a difference, 

but what many don’t realize is the difference that going on a trip like this will make in your own life. 

Silas