Holding it down in La Chorrera

Started the morning out with two hours of hand washing my laundry. Always an exciting experience. I try to keep up daily, but when I have a busy week I tend to fall behind. All caught up now though...finally. I just have to cross my fingers that the rain doesn't come. The last thing I want is moldy clothes. So far so good. And, because it's hot, when there's sun, everything dries quickly.

Last Thursday was my general assembly. I invited one hundred twenty households and twenty people showed up. Pretty typical. The number of attendees to beat was six though. One of the new volunteers had only six people show up to her general assembly in May. It went well though. Everyone had a lot to say and my boss came to help out too; he's a salvadoran and a good mediator for these types of events. Plus, people always take me more seriously when there's an official peace corps person present. My ADESCO wants to hold another general assembly soon to discuss community issues, so hopefully more people will show up to that. We have a meeting (the directiva --the ADESCO cabinet --and I) this Tuesday, so hopefully that will get going.

On Friday morning, I went with the director of education, Doctor Rafael, to the high school (instituto) in Santa Rosa to give a health talk on HIV and AIDS. It went well. He has tons of health resources for working with youth; I hope to start some health work in the community soon, maybe begin with the tercer ciclo (grades 7-9) at the school. Who I really want to target are some of the older kids who aren't in school, but I haven't come up with a strategy for that yet. If I invite these kids to come to a health talk, no one will show up. I'm currently trying to build relationships with the youth in the community in order to gain their confindence and trust, but it's not so easy. They don't want advice from me yet.

Okay, so something else I want to include in this blog is a short briefing of my pet situation. Technically I don't have any pets and probably won't get any even though lots of volunteers have them. Maybe a cat, but probably not. Anyway, I don't see the need because I've adopted all the neighbors pets. I have a few dogs and a cat. My first dog's name is Oso (Bear, who's sleeping on my floor right now) and he's a mix between a huskie and a chow chow; he's from San Salvador and is adorable. Then, there's Carnelo who is a big bad puppy who I have to keep away because he has no manners, and his brother Terrible who I love. They're both some sort of pit bull mix, also very cute. The cat who hangs out is named Pantera (panther); she's a black cat and is always hanging out in the house chasing the bats. I have a few other dogs around who don't come over, but head my protection team. Basically they attack foreigners, so I'm always safe. Their names are Sombra (Shade) and Esquipi (basically Skippy with a pheonetic spanish spelling) and they're the older dogs of the bunch. I love my animals and always feel protected.

Oh yeah, there's one more dog. He's a shepard and he's older, but he's the biggest bad ass in the neighborhood. He doesn't live with one of the neighbors like the other dogs, he lives farther away and I can't seem to find anyone who remembers his name, but he's cool too, very greedy when it comes to food though. He walks me to and from school most days and none of the agressive dogs every bother me when he's around. He usually comes over at night when he's hungry. Okay, that wraps up the dog discussion.

The last experience I want to share today is my second quincinera experience. The first one I went to was during training in San Vicente and it was pretty mild except for the 90-count chicken slaughter the night before. This was was a bit more grandiose...sort of. I was invited to go by my neighbor Jenny, my sixteen year old best friend who lives next door. We all piled up into the back of pick up yesterday afternoon with all the food (for about 300 people) and headed out. About fifteen people from my community went. So we were all sitting in the pick up holding the large buckets of food when the rain started. Mind you we're all dressed up in full make-up. The kid next to me told me it was okay because "we have the tarp." In the wind and rain we managed to pull the tarp over us and the food and hold it down for the rest of the trip while the wind continued to smack the tarp into my face for thiry more minutes. I mean, it was pretty hilarious. We were all laughing at the chaos.

So, we finally get there and get inside this big hall where the most tacky pink and white wedding decor awaits. Then the rain really starts to pour at which point we realize that there are many holes in the roof and the water is pouring in, on top of us. So I just sat there eating until water was up to my ankles and then decided to find a drier location. Anway, the rain finally subsided and we headed outside where there was a night club set up. Salvos definitely love LOUD music. I danced with Jenny for awhile and then fought off some drunk salvadorans who tried to speak English to me which was a complete and udder failure. Anyway, I actually ended up running into another volunteer who lived there (in the pueblo where the quincinera was held) and talked with him for a bit.

Meanwhile everyone from La Chorrera had left and we were stranded. Perfect. Jenny finally found us a ride around 10:30 from her uncle and we headed home with her grandmother and all the empty food containers. All and all it was pretty fun, but kind of exhausting.

This week I don't have a whole lot planned, just the normal school week plus my ADESCO meeting Tuesday which will hopefully got better than last time. Most of the country is off of school and traveling around this week. It's a holiday week and the big patron saints festivals in San Salvador. Every community had their own patron saint festival every year at different times, but this week is big because it's San Salvador's. My school is in session this week however because they're moving the vacation to the end of the month so they can enjoy Santa Rosa's festival which starts on the eighteenth. Aside from the work week, this weekend I'm off to the beach again (lucky me), to El Cuco in the department of San Miguel. A bunch of volunteers are going down for a friend's birthday. Should be lots of fun. I can't wait!