EXITO

My first youth group meeting was an exito (SUCCESS)!!! I have to admit, going into it, I was a little nervous. I just really wanted things to go well with it. And so I got there at 1, SUPER early for the meeting that was to start at 2. I spent time arranging chairs and putting up paper on the wall we would use for our brainstorming. I put out the sign-in sheet and the cookies and Coke I bought for them. And then 2:00 came and no one was there. I shouldn't have been so surprised, after all this is El Salvador where people are always on la hora salvadorena... and I'm not always right on time to everything but the fact that these kids were so late really pissed me off. It made me feel like it wasn't important to them- but to me it's all that I had been working on for days and I didn't want to feel like I was wasting my time.

So I sat there laying down on a concrete ledge by the entrance of the school and FINALLY at 2:30 on the dot up walked a huge group of kids. Half an hour late really isn't too bad for El Salvador. And now I know to schedule my meetings for half an hour before I actually want them to start. I had about 25 salvo teeny boppers, not a bad turnout. I don't want my group to be bigger than I can handle. We played a few games and then talked about what kind of stuff they want to do with the group. A lot of kids want to do art and dance activities. On Wednesday we are meeting to cleanup the old clinic building so that we can have a place to do our activities. It is my hope to make it wonderful and pretty- a place the kids will want to come hang out at. Tomorrow I have to go to San Vicente and buy a bunch of cleaning supplies. I am ready for some physical labor!!!

I went to visit Milton at the hospital in downtown San Salvador on Friday. He is doing all right. He was SO happy to see me walk in with Marinita and Chepito. He was all loopy on drugs the whole time I sat there and talked to him. They don't let him walk around, has to stay in the bed. I brought him a little toy car and showed him my new soccer ball I got at the mall... which he then punched as hard as he could and it went flying across the room, bringing the nurses to give me very dirty looks. The Children's hospital was a very sad place. I have never been in a hospital outside of the U.S.... it was very old and dirty and smelly... not the kind of place that you think anyone would be able to get well in. But Milton is resilient- he's pulling through. We are hoping he can come home around Christmas.

I spent the entire morning with Marinita before we went to the hospital. She invited herself to go to the mall with me- I needed to find some shoes I can run in. Being at the mall with that woman took a lot of paciencia on my part! She was scared to get on the escalator, pointed at everything we walked by and said what it was... por ejemplo "Here they sell clothes... Look there is a TV... Look there is Santa Claus..." and she felt like she had to stop every 50 steps and ask someone for directions. It was interesting. I can go easy on her, I know she doesn't get out much. I just never thought I'd ever even be at the mall with my host mom. And we went to the food court to get food- and of course she went straight to the only place in the entire food court that had pupusas! It was odd to her that I wanted to eat something other than pupusas. I guess because I jump at the opportunity for pupusas when I'm in my site... but that's because there aren't too many options for good food out here... but at the food court, I went for subway :)

Que mas? Thursday night I had Roxana, Milton's 16 year old sister, hanging out with me in my house. I like it when she visits me and I can get to know her better. Well, I was explaining to her what a blog was and pulled mine up to show her how it works, and she saw the Milton & Me entry and his picture and I told her all the good things I wrote about him in there.... and then came the water works. She feels so bad for her little brother, and partly responsible for what happened to him, because she's often put in charge of looking after him, as the oldest child. I handed her some kleenex and sat with her.... people around here don't talk about their feelings much. I don't know if it's because they don't know how to express them, or because they like to just pretend to be happy all the time... But I'm glad that I could be there for her. If she had been bawling and talking about it to anyone else, I'm not sure they would have even acknowledged her feelings. That's something I've learned- I can't communicate with Salvos like I do Americans. Whenever I get sentimental or start sharing feelings most of them just get a little weird.
I played in the Peace Corps soccer game on Saturday against JICA- the Japanese Peace Corps. The girls team kicked ass... and I was the goalie :) I like being goalie! We dominated those Japanese girls, they never even came close to trying to score on us. So I really did just stand there at the goal the whole time cheering my girls on... Worked on my tan... haha!

I was lucky enough to have some time to swing on down to the beach this weekend to get a little more sun! It's SO close! Another beautiful thing about El Salvador, the beach we went to was less than an hour away! And I can go there in December!!! The water wasn't even cold at all.... Wow.... This is where I live?

This coming weekend is my village's annual rodeo, and I am excited that some of my best girl friends will be coming here for it! My town will be very interested in my gringa friends I am sure.

It has been days since I blogged and I may have lost my flow a little... but there's the update for ya! Now it's time to descansar en la hamaca.

Paz y Amor.

P.S. Apparently there was an earthquake here today... I didnt even feel it! I was 45 min from home when it happened and how is it that they felt it here and I didn't feel it there? Esther felt it out in the department over! I'm a little bummed I missed it. I want to know what an earthquake feels like. And I heard that they said on the news it was a 5.5. I don't know if I believe it.

P.P.S. 5 months ago today I arrived in El Salvador... that sounds like quite a big chunk of time doesn't it?? But how it flew. Still alive! Going strong :)