Earthquake!!

I know this is getting be a bit incessant but I have so much to say so here I go...

Wow time flies and moves so slowly when you are in rural El Salvador. Yesterday we met with the Mayor again and spent time on the Wi-Fi in his office. I am completely amazed they have wi-fi out here in the country. We came back to the farm for lunch and the remainder of the day. About 4pm a guy gets out of a truck, enters the property, and starts walking towards the house. I looked at Kayla and asked if he was a gringo. We all were staring at him and he commented to Chevo that he was here to see the Gringas. Chon as the locals call him; is a peace corps volunteer. Sean as we call him came to meet us after we stopped by his home on Saturday. He is a really cool guy. I am bummed his volunteer time ends next week. He was a wealth of info and would be a fun person to hang out with. He actually told us all of our activities for the day and week thus far. Apparently word travels fast around here. We were cracking up that he knew all about us and apparently all the people he ran across since he returned from his weekend getaway told him his “3 friends” were here and wanted to see him. He was so confused. It is so funny as the only gringos in a town we are automatically friends! He gave us travel tips and names of the best beaches to try out!

What did we learn from Sean? (we learned A LOT from him, here are the highlights)

• The people in Santa Clara are very friendly
• We will have a lot of time to watch movies, read,  write papers etc
• March and April are the hottest months of the year
• We live in the nicest house in the town and are very lucky
• Bats don’t like white plastic bags… so I hung some ALL over our room.

So the nights here are very scary. Daytime is fine and beautiful, but nighttime gets scary. I think its because of the darkness (which I am not typically afraid of) and the nighttime creatures. Every animal on this farm and in this town is nocturnal. The dogs fight all night, roosters crow, cats meow, need I go on? Also bats and spiders (big, hairy ones which will remain unnamed in honor of Felicia’s fear) appear at night. 2 of these spiders actually appeared last night. Even Kayla freaked out, briefly, which is not a good sign! She typically is pretty chill with all the elements of nature but not these big spiders. So I pretended to be very brave and went in search of the one in our room which I decided to name “A-hole” That name was refuted because it might anger him, so now I just call him son and the big one in the bathroom is Father. I felt really brave though. I figure since I almost cry over bats the least I can do is try to save us from spiders! Nighttime in Santa Clara has brought back my power of prayer. While religion is not something I take lightly, I also have been one to question what exactly I believe and why. Some aspects of religion are difficult to understand when you have the science based, fact needing brain as I do. I believe in a higher power and will continue to do so. I must say that I pray so much here when I get nervous at night! I figure there is no better time than now to re-explore my faith, especially among people with such strong religious beliefs.

Today we went around with the promotoras (community health workers/promoters) and spoke with 15 families about their health and nutrition. It was a great day! (another mini-book for another time!) So now to the reason I decided to write and post this blog immediately…we had an EARTHQUAKE! Everyone is fine. I was in the shower and thought someone was knocking on the door b/c the door and walls were vibrating (the shower is a separate building structure) twice! I have never felt one before but it was small and I had no idea that it was an earthquake. Oopsie! There has been plenty of excitement for one day. Time to sleep.

Nicoley

PS so you know how I have been raving about the delicious food, I finally got the name of the cheese I LOVE…morolique. Buy it, try it, love it!