Oh how the time flies...

I'm gonna toot my horn here a little, because 60 days is impressive. I'm 60% done with the first 1/8th of my service. 

Woo!

Whooooa, technology

Sorry guys, I just realized that I have a ton of post comments that I never responded to! The Blogger app doesn't have this function so I only see comments when I go to a cyber cafe. And I hate these cyber cafes because I still don't know how to use a Spanish keyboard very well.

Anways, thank you for the comments and keep reading! It's really encouraging to know that people aren't forgetting me.

Things my host mom has tried to wash for me

-mosquito net

-bedroom floor 

-shoes

-freshly tie-dyed tshirt 

-raincoat

-backpack  

My host mom is crazy. 

Gallina, it's what's for dinner

If you've been following my blog at all you know that my mortal enemy here in El Salvador is the rooster. We have four gallos (guy-ohs) and they start cawcawing every morning at 4am without fail. 

This guy in particular is TERRIBLE. 

He's loud. He's annoying. And tonight, he's dinner!

My host mom is making sopa de gallina india. People believe that roosters and chickens are healthier to eat if they wonder around the compound eating your garbage. Garbage you know is better than chemicals you don't! On some level I'm on board with this. But I'm also a little grossed out to eat this guy. 

The bright side is that he can't wake me up if he's dinner! Tomorrow's going to be a good morning. 

Community service with a kick!

One of the training requirements we've been working on is the community service project. Now the idea is that you gather up a group of youth, help them elect a board, vote on a service project, carry it out successfully, then reflect. 

Right. Well, we tried to do things the official PC way and it didn't work out. San Antonio doesn't have a casa comunal or school, so it's hard to get kids together. Then of course it downpours every time we try to plan something and no one shows up. 

So we switched it up and turned our Zumba group into our service project. We asked them what else they wanted to learn, like self defense. Because groupthink is inevitable here, everyone picked the first suggestion of self defense. It was a lot of fun! Kai did kungfu or something for like 12 years, so he had a variety of punches and kicks for us to teach. 

Hay-yaaaah!

Practicing our punches. 

Everyone was laughing and having a good time. I hope they learned something too! 

Drumroll please!

Tuesday was the day! The BIG day! We finally found out where our homes will be for the next 2 years!

I'll be living in Morazan, El Salvador!

I'm very happy with my placement, and I think I'll learn a lot from my canton! There's an artisanal jewelry-making youth group I'll get to advise for marketing and sustainability. The ADESCO is functioning and they've completed projects recently. And get this- there's a NGO in Osicala that works on technical knowledge with adults. One of the things they teach is PIZZA MAKING! It's a match made in heaven. 

I'll be in Morazan. El Salvador has "states" too, but here they're called departments. Morazan is my department. 

We're clustered in three eastern departments: San Miguel, Morazan, La Union.  Frank's the only one all alone in La Union. Nice knowin ya! (Just kidding, we always have some kind of in service training to meet up at.) 

Morazan crew! 

San Antonio. Can't wait to visit Kai in San Miguel. He'll be in a fishing town and he has to take a boat to get to his house!

The next few weeks are going to fly now that we have something real to look forward to. I'll keep you all updated here with new info and pics!

Arts and crafts

Wednesday September 18, 4pm

I've never been very crafty. I lack the spacial reasoning necessary for scrapbooking, dexterity for crocheting, and patience for everything else. I started a magazine mosaic of a sunset once. I think it's still half finished in my bedroom at home. I also did time in a creative art class in grade school, but that's about the extent of my artsy ways. 

This week was craft week. It's like shark week, except it's a lot less exciting and you can't make a drinking game out of it (Peace Corps' rules, not mine). 

I think I've done more crafts here than I ever did in the US. It was fun! 

Rachel teaching me how to make friendship bracelets. I've never made one in my life! With all the new friends I'm making I figured nows a good time to learn. 

Anil workshop. Anil (not sure I'm spelling that right) is natural indigo. They used in the Mayans times. 

Kai's host mom (left blue shirt) is a pro and she sells tshirts, jewelry, skirts and dress of tie dye in the town. 

Kai, Mario and Angelica squishing the dye. 

Me and Maria, squishing away. And I shall call him squishy! 

Angelica's awesome shirt 

I call it "When the planets align..."

We're so darn unique.

We also had a candle making workshop, but I decided not to go last minute for multiple reasons. Mainly because my stomach was recovering from being so explosive, and I didn't want to take the bus alone in the dark. The candles were beautiful though, I really regret not going! 

Instead I bought a bunch of candles from the local artisan group, NuCu. I'm going to write something cheesy about bringing light to the world and give them to my future community guides. 

Flowers IN the candles! I bet Pier 1 is hawking the same thing for $15 a pop.