el canadianos

Our last stop in El Cuco and our last night in El Salvador was met with intense amusement. We stumbled upon a run down little hotel and found a family of Canadians who'd been living there for the past few weeks on holiday.

The family, desperate for english communication I believe, immediately scooped us up and rendered us kin. Grandma C was a gardener by trade, in fact, she possesses a legal license to harvest 8 pounds of marijuana (Canada rocks more and more every single day) and Grandpa C was recently retired and absolutely in love with El Salvador.

At sunset the women grabbed me for their nightly ritual. They would go down to the ocean as the sun was setting and round up a bunch of El Salvadorian children and go for a swim in the crashing waves.

How could I resist? So we all rushed into the surf, children, grandparents, adults, three countries together under one vast ocean, laughing, screaming, splashing....it was glorious. In fact, at one point after being pummeled by some waves I stood up and yelled This Is Glorious! To which Grandma C grasped me in a warm wet hug and said yes, child. yes.

And it was. Children riding on our shoulders, waves crashing, forgetting for a while that home is on the horizon, responsibilities, things that weigh on my heart. For a few moments, all was truly free.

It should more often be this way.