I Was Just Sleeping... And Wish Me Luck

From 10-17

This morning I was sleeping and my phone rang at 6:30. I heard it but I was not about to get out of bed to answer it... Who the heck calls you at 6:30 in the morning? Ummm, well Salvadorians do apparently. They wake up so early around here that they think nothing of it. So when my phone rang again at 7:30 i decided to get out of bed and answer it... It was my community guide, Ariel. He asked me what I was doing and I said I was sleeping of course... He said oh well are you sick? No... I was just sleeping. Where I come from it is perfectly normal to be sleeping at 6 and 7 in the morning. He said "Oh well I was worried about you because you didn´t answer, so I´m here at your house." What!? I roll my eyes. Perfect example of cultural differences right there. So I had to get dressed and go outside and I was a little cranky, still in my morning mode and a little irked that I missed my coffee and raisin bran for a much less healthy breakfast of pupusas and sweet bread. Eh, so I let it go. Just gotta go with the flow around here. They were really just concerned about me. I explained I was not at all sick and that it´s normal for me to wake up at 8 or so. I hope that the next time this happens they will remember that. I dont think I will ever be able to wake up at 4 and 5 am like they do. No way.

Last night I went to eat pupusas at my neighbor Alicia´s house. She opens her house to sell them every weekend, which I was super excited to find out about because I love me a pupusa dinner. I had heard that Alicia´s daughter had left for the U.S. earlier that day so when I showed up and asked her how she was doing she said she was sad naturally. SHe started explaining how her daughter, who is a 17 year old beauty, has this boyfriend in the US that sent money to some guy that lives in San Salvador that neither of them know and he is supposedly driving her to the border where she will cross illegally. Sounds scary and dangerous. Which is exactly why Alicia burst into tears as she told me about it and so I hugged her. And there she was, the fattest sweetest Salvadoran woman crying into my chest because she´s so short... and we stood there for a long time before she let go. It was really a strange moment... one that I will remember. I hope that her daughter Mayra makes it there safely.

There are two guys from San Miguel staying at Don Chepito´s house tonight. They are walking vendors and they spend 3 days at a time walking all around the country selling stuff that they carry on their backs. They carry tons of brooms, hammocks, folded up bulky matresses and other household goods. It´s A LOT to be carrying around all day. What a tough way to make a living. Why don´t they just park themselves in a good spot in the city where there is lots of foot traffic and the people can come to them. Everyone goes to the city to buy that stuff anyway. And you get better prices there. And more options. People sell that stuff in the street all over the place in the city. I don´t get it.

I went to a soccer game for the first time in my community yesterday. It was nice... except for all the girls I was chatting with left and then I felt awkward sitting there watching the game by myself when there were mostly just men around. My neighbor friend said she and her friends would come to the game. But when I didnt see her there halfway through I decided to take off. As soon as I got to the gate of the field there I saw them. I was like "HEYYYY! There you guys are! Why didn´t yall come down where I was sitting?" I knew they could see me down there sitting by myself from where they were. My friend said "Tengo pena" to go down there. Which is like, I am too shy and embarrassed to have the guts to show my face there. I´m like ugh. Pena is a serious problem for women around here. It keeps them from saying what they want, doing what they want and just living their lives and having new experiences. El Salvador is very much a man´s world. Anyway, we watched the rest of the game from above outside the fence... it was nice and there was a beautiful sunset in front of the view of the volcano.

10-18

Tomorrow it is going to happen. My Asamblea General in which I present myself to the community and tell them what I am here to do. YIKES! I get myself all worked up about stuff like this. It really won´t be that big of a deal. I´m just going to give a speech basically. Nothing too exciting. I wanted to plan something awesome and fantastic, but it never came to me. I did decide to do a dance with some of the girls... but we haven´t had enough time to practice and i´m afraid that part is falling through. That´s allright... anyway tomorrow when it´s over I will feel much more relaxed about things. It should go just fine. But there should also be a ton of people because the school principal set it up to where the parents need to come and turn in their uniforms the same day and it´s rather clever. She´s kind of trapping them here for my assembly. So yea... should be a couple hundred people... and I¨m going to give a speech in spanish in front of them all. WOW! Not at all intimidating. haha. Wish me luck.