Livin la vida Salvadoreña

For lunch today my grandma put an entire cooked chicken on my plate. No way can I eat an entire chicken in one sitting, along with a huge bowl of soup, two pieces of bread, cole slaw and flan. Seriously. I can´t do it. I tried my best. Then I had to take off for a meeting with a small business owner in my pueblo. It was interesting. Eva has a hot dog/hamburger/sandwich stand on the side of her house. She´s open every night and makes about 40 dollars profit a week. Tasty stuff she sells.

Yesterday was the best day I´ve had since I got here. I had some fun! I slept in, hung out at the casa, then later went to San Vicente with Ceci, my host sister. I needed to go to the bank to pay her rent. It was so great hanging out with a non-gringo for the day. We went to eat at Pollo Campero... best food I´ve had since I got here! I was so happy. They are like a KFC that serves pizza. I filled up on my favorite food- CHICKEN WINGS!!!- and took a pizza home for dinner. Fridays are buy one get one free pizza days. We got so much food, and it only cost us 11 dollars!! And i was so happy that i got to have to tasty meals in one day! A nice break from beans tortillas and pupusas.

When we got back I saw some parades in the town for the fiestas. Later I hung out at the family pupuseria where I ate my pizza... I think it´s funny when I find myself there eating American type foods as opposed to the pupusas everyone else eats. Then I went to the park and contemplated whether or not I had enough guts to ride the sketchy old ferris wheel that spins 100 mph. I couldn´t do it! Then my friends and I went to the first dance of the fiestas. Apparently there are many more dances to come. Theres another one tonight, but i´m still tired from last night! It was so fun to dance! I only danced with my friends and people that I know. The guys that came up and asked me to dance, I turned them all down. They play a lot of kumbia, reggaeton, and electronic music. It was in the casa comunal and felt very much like a high school dance. They even had a crowning of a queen. The music was so loud it hurt my ears. I stayed until the end though, with my host family. The other PC trainees bailed earlier than me... but I didn´t, I was having a blast.It was surprisingly clean. People were dancing nasty, and the guys i danced with didn´t even touch me. I like that!! Maybe it´s also because it´s so hot here and everyone was dirrping with sweat, it would be gross to touch someone else all sweaty. It went until midnight.

When we went home I hung out with Ceci, Elmer, and Oscar for a while. Ceci is so great. We started talking about my job and why I´m here, and what I can do here. Which led to us talking about how many of the people here just can´t wait to leave and get to the U.S. Including her. She actually had a plan to go 4 years ago. She had her money all saved up and was ready to go when she suddenly got very sice right before the day she was set to leave. Her mom convinced her it was a sign that she was not supposed to go. And so she stayed. She really regrets it. Most of her family is already there living in Virginia and Maryland, and she misses them a ton. If she leaves though, then her poor 70 year old mom will be so lonely. I don´t blame her for wanting to go. She has so much she wants for her life and her future, and she knows she is not going to be able to make those things happen for her here. She told me it costs $7000 to pay the guides to help get you there. Wow that´s a lot of money! You only pay half up front. Then when you get to the U.S. you send the rest of the money to your family to pay it off. If you don´t pay it off they will out you to the immigration police, or they might do even worse things to you. Do you think they even kill? I dunno.... Anyway, she says she is going to try to apply for a visa to go legally for the fourth and last time. If she doesn´t get it... she says she´ll go for it. Eek!

Tomorrow I am going to go to the rodeo and watch some bullriding with Jamie. Fun!

Another thing for the wish list- some kind of small fan. Like one of those hand held accordian ones, or even better- a battery operated hand held fan! It is hot as hell here. You just sweat all the time.

i love my grandma Mirian. She is the sweetest little old lady. I can´t understand most of what she says, but she loves me anyway. When I had a cold last week, she was taking care of me. She was rubbing alcohol and this menthol icy hot stuff all over my throat. It didnt´really help, but it was nice that she was trying to take care of me, and I enjoyed letting her.

One of my friends was hanging out at my fam´s pupuseria with me the other night. We were sitting in these cheap plastic chairs, and all of sudden the back legs on her chair slowly started to bend. She went down a little, and then came back up and straightened the legs. Next thing we know the legs bent completely and she was falling backward in the chair and was laying on the floor! Pobrecita! I would have been embarrassed... but it was seriously the best laugh I´ve had in a while. We were warned about the cheap chinese plastic chairs.

That´s all for now. Paz y Amor.