I Remember El Salvador

I remember El Salvador

I remember the happiness

I remember the escape from the average american life

I remember the warm humid air as soon I walked out of the sliding doors of the airport

I remember the joy my family felt when me and mami arrived

I remember the screams my cousins would let out when they saw us and the constricting hugs

that made me feel like my bones were going to crack and my eyes were going to pop out

I remember the feeling of home even when it was not all my family and my dad couldn’t travel

with us

I remember the long and dreadful drive to El Sapote where my mom’s side of the family lived

just outside the city Dolores

I remember the mountains and the zig zag roads that make you nauseous

I remember learning that there are 23 active volcanoes in this tiny country

I remember the smell of gasoline as we drove passed some cities I can’t remember the names of

I remember the hike to get to my grandmas house the up and down and then again the up and

down

I remember sitting on the steps with my grandpa eating tortillas and hard cheese

I remember being greeted by the guard dogs

I remember Centavo who was one of the dogs and Snoopy who is alive and quite frankly my

favorite

I remember the pupusas that tasted oh so good

I remember only liking pupusas de frijol con queso when I was younger

I remember the mamones and jocotes that I would devour in bulk

I remember eating the jocotes with salt and lemon. They were my favorite when they were in

season

I remember my mom making me try tacos de lengua which is cow tongue and spitting it out

I remember the vanilla ice cream from Saritas that I loved

I remember the horchata de morro which was my favorite drink

I remember running barefoot even when my mom would yell at me not to

I remember climbing trees and hanging upside down because why the hell not

I remember having black coffee for breakfast with tortillas, eggs, and beans

I remember my grandma's parrot that said the foulest things and only let my grandma touch him

I remember the cows that didn’t seem to care that we were there unless we wore red

I remember my grandma’s two horses one brown and one white

I remember going out to dinner as a big group at the restaurant on the side of the mountain called El Cutuco and dancing with my mom feeling absolutely care free

I remember going to Titihuapa and getting a sea urchin stuck to my foot and then sitting on a

rock for the rest of the time we were there

I remember the drives the kids would get in the trunk bed and we would stand and feel the air

brushing past us

I remember going to my Tia Marinas house in Dolores and playing with the kids that lived

around there

I remember playing in the big garden my tia had in the middle of the house

I remember my cousins talking about the iguana that lives on the roof of her house

I remember pretending I was an explorer in a big unknown jungle

I remember sitting outside the porton with my friends who would ask questions about snow and

winter

I remember the lady who had a store across the street who would give me free chips because she thought I was a cute kid

I remember the fair and the ferris wheel that spun way too fast to be considered safe. It's amazing I’m still alive

I remember the fountain in front of the church. I would stare at the blue water for what felt like

hours

I remember being forced to go and spend two hours in church

I remember the heat in there because all they had were some shitty fans to keep it cool

I remember spending the night at my Tia Marinas house because we didn’t feel like making the

walk to my grandmas house

I remember trying to sleep and feeling something crawling on my leg

I remember the sharp sting

I remember trying to wake up my aunt and her coming over to check but in her mind I was just

being my overdramatic self

I remember the fear when I thought there was a snake on me when I saw the light flicker to

something on my leg

I remember jumping six feet in the air the foul creature going into my pillow

I remember my aunt throwing the pillow on the ground

I remember the wait what felt like minutes were seconds when out popped a scorpion

I remember my aunt brutally murdering the creature

I remember going to bed and my tongue was very numb

I remember thinking I was going to die and still went to bed even young I had the mindset if its

my time its my time to go

I remember going horseback riding with my cousins and going to where my grandma has all the

cows

I remember the bus ride to Sensunte and being packed like sardines

I remember the stench of BO

I remember going to Sensuntepeque and going into the market full of people and buying a baby

rooster

I remember giving that rooster a bath

I remember breaking the cartilage in my ear because I slipped on the water and landed on a stone step

I remember my mom taking me to the dentist there because its cheaper and having them rip out

one of my baby teeth because I refused to let anyone touch it

I remember the pain of the numbing injection they put in my gum

I remember the yank and feeling extreme cooling pain immediately after

I remember getting ice cream after because that was the doctors recommendation for the pain

I remember going to my Tia Irmas house which I thought was beautiful

I remember watching my Disney princess movies with my cousins who thought they were girly

and childish but secretly loved me bringing them everytime we visited

I remember playing cops and robbers with all my older cousins

I remember being caught first always if I was a robber and being tied up

I remember the heat

I remember my cousin Cece braiding my hair to keep it from sticking to my neck

I mean el calor es diferente

I remember wanting to rip my skin off and stand in nothing

I remember swaying on the hammock and feeling nothing but heat moving

I remember the sweat dripping down my back and face

I remember no a/c because we were in el campo

I remember the out house that we had to use and held my breath as long as I could as to not smell all the smells

I remember showering in the stone shower and dunking water over my head and loving the cool

feeling I got from the fresh spring water I hated going in and hated getting out

I remember kidnapping chicks and running from the hens like my ass was on fire

I remember waking up to the rooster bright and early when everything was still wet with fresh

dew and it was still foggy

I remember seeing frogs everywhere and hearing their croaks

I remember seeing a big bull frog with a scar on it eye and knew not to mess with it

I remember a gnat shoving its putrid body into my ear and proceed to have a dance party in there

I remember having to sleep under a net because otherwise you would get devoured by

mosquitoes

I remember the scary stories my cousins would tell at night about ghost and aliens that left me

quivering in fear

I remember going to the beach on the last days we were going to be there

I remember the gray sand and the warm water

I remember looking for seashells and finding pretty pink ones

I remember getting sunburned from spending all day at the beach

I remember the preparations we made to leave

I remember the long drive back to the airport that now felt so short

I remember making quesadillas which are not cheese and tortillas it is bread

I remember making cheese and trying to help but got told to just get out of the way

I remember the sadness when we would leave

I remember the tears everyone shed and hugs that felt like we would never see each other again

I remember the walk to security and feeling a pain in my chest everytime

I remember we almost always got back to the US at night and would spend hours at customs

I remember seeing my dad again and my Tia Ochi

I remember telling them all the things we did in El Salvador while eating the quesadillas we

brought back

I remember El Salvador