Gettin stuff done

I've been pretty busy this week gettin' stuff done. Some things have really sucked, but I've also had some major break throughs.

I met with a representative from the microfinance institution I want to do a case study on for my master's. It's been a ridiculous process trying to pin down people and get a better sense of their involvement in my community. I'm working on it, though, and that's all that matters.

One of the ADESCOs I work with is making significant steps in planning a water project. I've been working with the treasurer and the president to explain the grant application, find out where we get land titles, and unite the directiva. We have an important meeting tomorrow, and we're expecting a strong turn out!

I taught my first official English class on Thursday. I've been negotiating with the local school for the past two weeks on how many hours I'll teach, which grades, how many students at a time... What it all came back to is that I can't/won't do the job that a Salvadoran can earn a salary for, therefore, I will NOT be the English teacher. I'm also not big on classroom management or children, so we decided on 1 hour outside of school time for 9th graders only. It's not the best situation, but I'm hoping to gain more confianza with the director and get to use the school on Saturdays to teach English for all ages. (The class went really well, btw! There are 14 students and they respond well to my kookiness!)

And this morning I cooked more comida tipica with the women's group. Today we made fish tortas (because of lent). I forgot to bring my camera, but I wanted to show you what Salvadoran tortas are. Just like how Salvadoran enchiladas are nothing like their Mexican counterpart, tortas are meat filled fried corn mash in the shape of falafel. They put them in a tomato soup broth with cabbage and guisquil. They were good! And they completely sold out, which is always a good thing.

Perhaps the most important task I've had this week is deciding where I'm going to order take out from when I spend the night in San Salvador waiting for my flight to AMERICA. PCES is making me use one of my hard earned, only-get-2-a-month vacation days while I'm in SanSal so I plan to use it wisely. I keep changing my mind between chinese, indian, greek and a platter of chicken wings. Either way, I'll be sure to have a Cadejo Roja on the side. I'm super excited to go to the US, even though I'm only spending 3 days in a city I've never been to before. But me, my parents and my hermanita are going to eat and shop our hearts out. (Big ticket items- deodorant and earplugs.) They're hoping for warm weather, I'm hoping for snow. I need a change from this 100+ degree weather!

I need to bring back this Salvadoran microbrew!