All Go-Go-Go

It has been very “go-go-go” these days, if you know what I mean. I have been so busy that i’ve hardly had time to blog. It’s especially hard because when i’m at home my host family really expects me to hang out with them. You can’t just go in your room and shut your door around here too often or you risk damaging the “confianza” you’ve spent weeks establishing. But it’s ok, I like hanging out with them for the most part. It just leaves little time for the blog. So... now that it is late and all the chambre (gossip), wrestling like middle schoolers, and giggles have run their course for the night... here i am left with what little time i have to Speed Blog before i get to sleep.

What’s happened in the last week?

Wednesday we had our first youth group meeting in our community. We had nearly 50 kids show up. Incredible turnout! Some communities only had 7 show up. SO... i had a great time leading activities with enthusiasm... it felt great being up in front of kids again. We talked about what kind of project we could do together for the community... and I was looking forward to our next meeting. Well We had our next meeting today.... unfortunately it didn’t really happen. We were all there at 3 today, the set time for the meeting. At about 3:20 the girls in my group decided to call it quits and go home because they weren’t really feeling like doing it today anyway. I kinda understood, I didnt really feel like doing it either... but I didnt just want to leave and not have the meeting because the kids weren’t there... Everyone knows that people always show up late around here. So I told them they could go home if they wanted, but I couldn’t do it. I stuck around. And sure enough, as soon as they left... all the kids we were waiting on showed up. At least I was there to tell them something about the meeting not happening. I ended up telling them that the other girls weren’t feeling too well so they had to go home. I hope that we didn’t lose our rapport with them... I stuck around and played soccer with them for about an hour. We still had a good time!

So I went on my immersion days from Thursday to Sunday. Due to lack of time for writing tonight and getting sleepy. I’m going to give you the low down in a quick choppier fashion than i normally write. But please don’t think that makes it seem like I’m not a dedicated and thoughtful blogger... because you better believe I am.

Thursday- At bus terminal to catch ride from San Vicente to La Union. Was traveling with fellow trainee Anna. Used nasty latrine bathroom on side of the road. Grossest. Thing. Ever. But did what i had to do. If can do biz in there... can do biz anywhere. Crazy cobrador (guy who collects bus fare) spoke english. Was sketchy. Asked Duffy the guy that was with us if he “had a lot of meat for the hamburgers here”... took me a sec to catch on to what he was talking about. Cobrador proceeded to tell Duffy to never sleep with a Salvadorian woman because his dick will turn into a rock and it will fall off. Quote unquote. What the hell? Who says that? I guess its not as shocking here as it would be in the Us. “Hello nice to meet you let’s talk about penises because I am macho” I do not like these sketchy bus people. Barf.

Stopped at burger king for lunch! Met up with PCV that took us to Nueva Esparta where we stayed the night and got to know other volunteers. These people volunteers sites we saw were awesome. Hope I am as lucky as they are. There we played pool at the local pool hall that shuts down whenever the gringos want to play so we had the place to ourselves. Ate yummy chili and spaghetti.

Friday- Woke up at 5 am to catch bus to Upire. Yes, a tad hungover. Sat on the rockiest bus ride i’ve ever taken on dirt road. Rocking. Swaying. It was so up and down it could be a ride at disneyworld. Bus didnt go all the way to the town because the road was too muddy. So we had to get off and walk the rest of the way. Wasn’t too bad. I had hiking shoes and a redbull. Went and had coffee at the house Anna was staying at. Her house was ridiculously nice. You join peace corps and u never would imagine you’d be staying at a house thats that frikin ritzy. Mine was not nice. I was a little jealous. I was more jealous of the mosquito net she had than the granite counter tops, beautiful tile, and flat screen TVs. I dont care how nasty and old my house is, i just want a net to keep the bugs and rats off me. I have never seen so many spiders in a house. I think I handle it well though. And there was a roosting hen with 10 baby chicks underneath her sitting next to the kitchen table as we ate our meals. I had many moments where i though “am i really here? doing this?” I slept fine there. It was freezing at night! I haven’t known what it feels like to be cold in so long. It was great! We gave a charla to the kindergarteners at his school about brushing their teeth. That was fun. Followed Brian around his town and mostly just sat and drank coffee at all the local families houses. Drank tons of bad instant coffee. Later sat in a meeting about his project that was hard to stay awake in. Finally crashed after that.

Saturday-slept in. Ate tamales for breakfast. I hate the tamales here. They are not like Mexico. They make me want to gag. They hardly put anything inside. usually its just all the fatty corn part. One of mine had fatty chicken parts in it. I watched the mom making my breakfast. She was holding a bottle over the stove fire and i asked her “what is that?” she says “pig fat.” I thought, ok nothing wrong with a little pig fat to cook the food. I’ve seen that before. Then she poors nearly half of the huge bottle in the saucepan... just to make some eggs. Disgusting. All of her meals tasted like the fattiest greasiest food i ever ate. I wonder how many pounds she put on me that weekend. The family was really sweet and nice though. She had clothes for sale in the room I slept in.... I bought 4 shirts from her. Altogether nice family. Nice town. Super evangelical though.

Went to Brians house. One of his rooms is all cement walls that he draws all over with sidewalk chalk. So i drew a big butterfly. It was fun! I hope i have cement walls like that at my house! Then i will beg all of you to ship me some chalk!

On the way home we got more Burger King. Funny how i never eat that crap at home but here it is such a wonderful treat. Any break from beans and tortillas is well appreciated. THe same creepo cobrador was on our bus on the way home. Haha.

Well tomorrow is another day at the training center. I should get to sleep. Buenas noches everyone. I miss you my loved ones!

Paz y amor.

P.S. please hold off on shipping packages. It takes so long to get here that you should wait til you get my permanent site address. Thanks to the few that already sent me stuff! Should get it any day now! :)