Busy, busy abeja

This blog is going to be a bit more straightforward than others. I may have included a story or two, but I decided because as of lately I have actually been SUPER busy (get the title, abeja is bee in Spanish), I am just going to list the things I have been up to since my last post. 

Questions, comments, and concerns can be directed to my secretary/intern/therapist/cuddle buddy (my cat, Tigre, he is highly paid in cat food).

Aug 25^th-Hiked the hour and half to visit Sarah’s community (now a Returned PCV), for her seamstress who has been “making” me a dress since June. It was not ready, she promised the next week, which to this day, is still not ready…but it was a good hike.

Aug 26^th-This was Sunday, I wrote nothing in my agenda/journal, therefore I probably did laundry for 2 hours, laid in the hammock for a good hour or two, read, bathed, ate, etc.

Aug 27-28^th-GAD meeting! The committee I am apart of with 5 other PCV’s met at Lago de Coatepeque (Crater Lake) for a meeting. We discussed the youth camp and finalized a lot of details that made me feel better. We also may or may not have made delicious guacamole, salsa, (I splurge and bought the exported $3.75 “hint of lime” Tortilla chips, photo shown before), and had a few beers. Don’t you wish your committee meetings involved that? Unless yours involves bagels and air conditioning…I am VERY jealous of you.

Aug 29^th-Padres de Familia meeting (basically PTO…it was 3-4 hours…very boring). I realized my camera somehow is broken. Had a major freak out, but found a “Kodak” believe it or not place in Ahuachapan that could maybe fix it.

Aug 30^th-My host sister returned home after being in San Sal for a month (I hadn’t seen her since I returned from the US), we celebrated her 20^th birthday at home in style, bought a small cake with fresas (strawberries) and a HUGE 3 liter bottle of Coke. Yea, REAL COKE, not the fake awful Salva cola. Yum!

Aug 31-Sept 1^st-My good friend Lindsey (RPCV) came to visit. She lives in San Sal, works for Habitat for Humanity and missed campo life. I don’t get too many visitors because I live so far from other PCV’s, so it was a treat, we did nails, I made a homemade tomato sauce with spinach spaghetti (bought in San Sal). We visited a family and had panes rellenos and cake for the woman’s eneita (granddaughter) birthday. I also had a paper-bead class and 7 women showed up! I showed them examples and gave them a few magazines each to start out cutting, rolling up the paper into tiny beads. They really got the hang of it and some have already started making jewelry to sell!

 (Learning about HIV virus affects the body)

Sept 3^rd-Celebrated Independence Day in the school, no one told me what time to be at the school, so I happen to show up when it finished, there was a table of honor too I was supposed to sit at. NO ONE TOLD ME. I had to listen the entire day of everyone saying, “So why were you late? Did you go to the celebration?”. It was not fun.

Sept 4th-Six baby puppies are born next door! I hold one or two every day for an hour...

Sept 5^th-Traveled to Ahuachapan to try to take out money for the camp (the grant was for over $2,000), but forgot the one piece of documentation I needed (I brought every other documentation I owned of course). Also found out my broken camera would be $125 to get it fixed, he told me up to 30 days, when originally it was only 2 weeks. Still waiting on it….and crossing my fingers. :-)

Sept 6^th-Go to Ahuachapan AGAIN. Buy last minute materials. Money transfers to the hostel we are staying at for the youth camp in full. No issues. Gracias a Dios. I stuff over $600 in my bra to pay for private transport (they do not take credit cards of course). No one robbed me!

 (Pati, Erika, Norma and some random PCV)

Sept 7^th-9^th-El Campamento de Juventud! Youth Camp in Suchitoto. I brought 3 girls (one was my host sister Erika), and everyone seemed to have a blast.

·          (Chauti Flauti dance!)

Most of these kids never really leave their communities, so it’s a unique experience, especially to meet other youth their age from all over the country.

·         There were 7 PCV’s, a co-ed camp with 24 kids from 6 different places.

·         Sessions included information and games on HIV/AIDS education, professional panel, a quick walking trip to the plaza by the church, tie dying t-shirts, movie night, games, and gender awareness sessions.

 (Tie Dye!)

Sept 10^th-Went to a art type of fair in a pueblo over from mine (Guaymango) with a friend from my community with World Vision (nonprofit). Lots of cool jewelry and crafty stuff. I bought this beautiful coffee bean, turquoise necklance with little pieces of rock and wood. J

Sept 11^th-Visited a Teacher training to present making small purses with chip bags in their schools with youth, then went to Ahuachapan to buy food (yogurt, apples, etc). I then luckily saw some people from my community and did not need to pay the $0.90 bus fare to get home; I then proceeded to eat the fruit in chili and salt in a plastic bag on the way and spilling red chili sauce all over myself in the back of a pick-up. Typical. Whew.

 (Group shot! Loca style!)

This weekend is El Salvador’s Independence Day, so there will be parades, dances, etc in the pueblo both Friday and Saturday. I am really excited to see what all the fuss is about, but apparently it’s pretty cool. Next week, Wednesday a few of volunteers including myself are heading to San Vicente to participate the closing of the training center, I have volunteered to give a speech in Spanish to all of the families who have hosted PCV’s over the years during training and all the PC staff. I am not really sure what I was thinking, but I will let you know how it goes. Also, September 19^th is when I will complete one year IN SITE (aka in La Loma). I pay buy cake for my teachers and I just as an excuse to eat cake and have soda.

Life is too short to NOT eat cake, right?