I’m here!  And eat your hearts out, Marylanders: it’s 90-some degrees and sunny.  Stepped out of the airport and it was a far cry from what I left this morning when I stepped into BWI:

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So far, Lucy (the other woman I came with, from Kentucky) and I have 1) moved into the house where we’re staying for the week, 2) met the missionary who lives there for this year, 3) met the missionary who owns the house and used to live there, 4) met Rick, our Salvadoran adoption facilitator (who took us to the grocery store and then brought us back “home”), and 5) ordered dinner delivered … from Pizza Hut of all places.  I have everyone’s solemn word that we’ll eat culturally-authentic food from now on, though.

Tomorrow, I’m scheduled to work at one of the government-run orphanages, “Centro Infantil de Protección Immediata” (Center for the Immediate Protection of Children) or CIPI for short.  It’s a place kids are brought when they’re taken from abusive or neglectful  homes while the government child-welfare agency figures out what to do with them.  A lot of them just get stuck there.  It’s also a place for teen mothers to come have and raise their babies when they fear abuse at home.  And it’s a place where handicapped or special-needs kids are brought when their families can’t take care of them.

So yes I’ll be diving right in.  Probably by myself, since Lucy has to be somewhere adoption-related (she’s the director of our agency).  I’ll report back tomorrow night!  (Hopefully with pictures; I just need to make sure that it’s ok to post photos of the kids as long as I don’t identify them personally in them.)

Thanks for your support and prayers!  I’m really glad to be here!  Fairly sure tomorrow’s going to be emotionally tough, though.