Thinkin Aloud.

A friend is one before whom I can think aloud.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's been a good week since last Monday. Tuesday I was told to attend an important meeting, and walking into it I wasn't even sure what it was about. I discovered that it's my job to form a committee of youth to collaborate with the old guys that are on the ADESCO (city council) and together we are to plan lots of activities for other youth in the community. In the meeting we planned out activities for the whole year- including educational lectures and vocational workshops for every month and other recreational activities. So, there will be lots of work for me :) A busy Peace Corps Amy is a less crazy Amy.

I went to Jamie's site last week and got to see her new house she is living in. Ay Dios Mio. Lucky lady. The house is awesome, big, central, and has the most beautiful tile floors I have seen in the entire country. And it has a bar. I am bien jealous. Will I ever move? I have no idea. I have made the Pro/Con list... there are a lot of pros to just staying where I am. I may be discovering the Pros outweigh the Cons. PROS: safety and security, help with house cleaning, rides from Chepito, purified water delivered, and the ability to have quality alone time almost whenever I want it, because it's kinda far from all my friends. CONS: I have host parents and I often feel like highschool again telling them about all my comings and goings. (but ya know, it's nice to be part of a family here, and they care about me), and I have to live with things they store in my house which means they come in a lot. I am very territorial of my personal space. But these are things I can get used to. At times they may irk me more than others... but don't you think the pros are greater?

Marinita, my host mom, is learning things about me. Por ejemplo, that I am not a morning person. I often prefer to be left alone, not talked to until after I have my coffee. I once told her this is how am. I explained that growing up my mom often would not talk to me in the morning. And yesterday I spent several hours sitting next to Marinita on the bus- her talking like normal, and I wasn't responding much. And she said "Oh yea, i forgot- you are enojada in the morning." LoL... made me laugh.

Friday I went to San Sal and bought stuff to make shampoo with my women here. I think we'll be doing it next week. Hope it turns out ok! I got the chance to see a different way of making it at Jamie's school when I went last week. She is making it with the kids there. So that was helpful.

Yesterday I went on an excursion with my community to Playa El Cuco. It was.... interesting. They brought a bus into town and filled it up... everyone paid $4 round trip. The beach we went to is only 2 hours away... but we stopped on the way there so people could buy some Pollo Campero to take with them. Salvos are CrAzY about their pollo campero.... really junky fried chicken is what it is. Everytime I eat it I feel terrible after. The line was crazy for this fried chicken... out the door. It took an hour for everyone to get through the line, get there pollo, and then we were on our way again. El Cuco is the beach that all the salvos like to go to. I'm not sure why they like this one so much more than the others. It's kinda ghetto. We rented a room for $15 where we could change and put out stuff. Pretty pricey considering how dumpy it was.

I swam a little, but spent most of my time reading in the shade. I like to swim at the beach... but I get tired of getting knocked down by the waves. The waves here can be really strong. So I like to just get wet to cool off, and get out and go have a beer in the shade somewhere. When I'm dry and hot again, i'll take another dip. All the people on the trip with me were so burnt because they spend all their time in the water. They were so shocked I wasn't burnt.... like they were disappointed I wasn't. They wanted to see how lobstery red the gringa gets, I dunno. Sorry, I wear sunscreen. My favorite part of the day was paying $1 to get a ride on a little boat out far past the waves. Seeing the coastline, it was gorgeous.

The trip wore me out. And this week is going to wear me out even more. Not a whole lot of time to rest. You see tomorrow is Jamie's birthday and she called to see if I want to leave for San Sal today to celebrate her birthday with other friends. I was feeling kinda bad about the idea of leaving my site because I am leaving Thursday- Saturday... but you know what- that's for work. And Jamie has been the best friend to me since I got here. She's has always been the kind of friend that listens and just lets me think out loud to her... So i'm gonna go and celebrate it with her. And if people here have a problem with that... Well, they will get over it. Friends are important. And birthdays only come once a year.

It's hot hot hot hot! I have to sleep with my fan on at night now just to be able to fall asleep. Thank god for my fan. But the power is out right now so I am sitting here sweating.

My head is too itchy lately. Please don't be lice. When I've looked at the kids hair at school... a lot of times I swear I can see lice eggs speckled all over them. It makes me paranoid.

I watched a movie on my ipod last night that I downloaded on iTunes. Reese Witherspoon... "How Do You Know?" It was pretty terrible. I am such a sucker for chick flicks. What's my deal? All the ones I've seen lately are sooo bad. Can anyone fill me on the best movies that have come out since last July when I left... I want to know what the good ones are. What have I missed out on?

Ok... Gonna get my shit together and go to school for a while before I take off to celebrate my friend in the capital.

Paz y Amor.