All in a day

Just a day down here can bring forth such a sensitized mess of emotions. Take a few days ago, maybe a week ago in El Salvador. At this point of our travels we`ve lost a bit of our awed souls, just wanton for home and familiarity and a bit ashamed to admit the lessening of the drop-jaw wonder. We`ve decided to hunker down at the beach again, our consistent refuge from constant travel and unrelenting heat. The beach is an awesome rocky surf beach with long point breaks, big swells and strong currents that amaze but don`t dazzle much for the non-surfer. We stay in a tranquilo place but decide to book up to Guatemala after 2 days.

I awaken in the raw morning light with a hardening of the belly, strong and stiff with one side poking way higher than the other, and then there comes this rolling wave like a bitty bowling ball being released with ease from the hand. It`s wild, it`s weird, it commands every bit of my attention and I just lay there on my back, hands spread wide across my tightening skin and for the first time really feel the growing life, the strength of our baby. I could just lie here like this for hours, smiling, oozing joy. It`s taken me so long to internalize, to accept that this gift is real. Matthew wakes, joining my hands, feeling the earth moving, thumping, kitty-flopping through my belly.

Later that day we grab a bus, and then another to make the 35km journey back to the capital - San Salvador. At home, this might take 20 min, but here 2 hours. But we`ve grown accustomed and the sun is not so hot today, so we sink back for the bumpy ride, space out at the mountainside, sway to the Latin music, and gaze out the window. The bus grumbles up the hills and then comes to a stop. We spot 2 police vehicles, guys with guns, a woman in a white medical coat. I look and immediately wish I had not. A severed, dirt-mucked head of a young man lies on the side of the road. Yes, I said head, nothing else, no accident. My body stiffens, I want to scream, to cry, to get out of here now! I look around the bus, others look shaken, but as we move along they gain their composure, continue their conversations, and I just continue to tremble with this stifling reality of a life so different, so harsh. Or is it just so blatantly in my face here? This was showy El Salvador gang violence, where they leave a reap of their execution for the media to take hold of and shock the world, the onlookers.

Eventually, we roll into town, weary through the vendor thick streets selling watches, plastic bowls, American clothes, baseball caps, tortillas, tamales, mangoes, nike shoes, plumbing parts, live turkeys and chickens, 12 inch thick, smelly, unrefrigerated cheese - really anything you could think of is here. It is like the annual state fair melted with the grandest of flea markets, all packed full of people, lively sounds, pungent smells. And here we are on a decorated school bus, weaving our way through the maze. And later, that day end up in the biggest mega-mall I`ve seen in Central America, snacking on a bloomin onion, later buying apple danishes.

Like I said, all in a day.