Passover

On Thursday I experienced my first Passover with my fellow PCVs. I loved it! What's better than spending an afternoon drinking wine, eating great matza ball soup, and singing "Let my people go!"

I want to congratulate Hilary and Noah for pulling off the most legit Passover the likes of rural El Salvador has ever seen. Hilary was sick too, but lead the seder like a champ. They also get bonus points for including their host family and a JICA volunteer who lives in the area. The seder was in Spanish, English and Hebrew. I thoroughly enjoyed everything from Kadesh to Nirtza. Thank you!

Has campo life turned me into a lightweight, or is Manischewitz really strong wine?

They had to get all the matza sent from the USA. That's dedication!

Maror, zroa, karpaz, beitza, jaroset

Urjatz! Mario washing his hands at the pila. 

Karpas. I'm really feeling the wine at this point. 

Hilary hiding the matza. Mario and Noah looking like statues. 

It wouldn't be a N&H production if it wasn't absolutely perfect! Hebrew and Spanish booklet so we can follow along. The book has all the seder steps with the prayers, when to drink, and what it all means. 

Before we started singing, Hilary referenced this part in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I quickly realized that I knew how to sing "Let my people go!" but I had nooo idea how the rest of the song goes. We tried our best.

The JICA volunteer and their host mom. She LOVES Manischewitz!

The traditional food. 

Delicious matza ball soup!

Everything else I ate. Amazing. 

I didn't have time to toast the cocos for organic macaroons, so I made "local" kosher for Passover meringues. Have you ever tried to whip egg whites with a fork? Lemme tell ya, it takes about an hour.  And when I was baking them the gas went out. Oi ve!

I found the matza! I win! I'm so happy we did this!

Bleh

I'm sick again for the second time in four weeks. This time it's a stomach infection. Very gross. I won't get into it.

I managed to pull off my first community-wide English class on Saturday. It went well. I hope to get a core group of very dedicated students. Maybe there will be more students next week, maybe not. I'm kinda sick of teaching English, so I honestly wouldn't mind if the whole thing just falls apart.

We're starting Semana Santa and the place is shutting down. No one wants to work during Semana Santa. They think it's crazy that most Americans have work and school this week. I have a meeting tomorrow with some women interested in starting a women's group, but other than that I'm wide open. Luckily, my community has a tendency to throw meetings at me, so I'm not that worried.

And if not, that's ok too. I have clothes to wash and seder with PCVs on Thursday. I'm actually super excited for seder. I feel too integrated into the Salvadoran culture now- nothings new or exciting. Spanish and tamales and hora salvadorena are pretty typical now. I find myself feeling "bleh" and I think a good seder will shake up this funk.

I'm going all in, full kosher on this seder. I'm even making these organic, homemade toasted coconut macaroons. (I add organic in there just because technically everything's organic that grows in my yard.) The internet tells me that macaroons are a good Passover desert because they don't use flour. They sound yummy to me.

I hate being sick. Sickness has a very poignant way of reminding me that I live in a developing nation. Oi ve.