Another weekend ends with fun and great memories. At the end of last weekend, we had made new friends who treated us to papusas in San Salvador, which is the thing to do in San Salv on a Sunday night. And they were delicious! I love how papusas are so simple, rica, and cheap! As this weekend comes to an end, I have a better attitude all around and place for some of my stressors and the beginnings of new friendships with several children in the community…oh and a full belly of Wendy’s. Ok so I don’t splurge on fast food like the average American, but I definitely enjoyed the Frosty that we had! YUM. I also read Kayla’s blog the other day after I posted mine, and really appreciated some of the “likes” she noted about the farm. One of them being that this place feels like home…and it really does. You know the feeling…when you have been gone for a few hours or few days and pull up to your home and it’s a sigh of relief. It just feels natural and comfortable. I love that about this place.
This week was full of kids who kept visiting us in the afternoons. A little girl who lives a few houses away, Karla, came to chat with us the other day. I ended up talking to her as Kayla was sleeping; about my computer, her family, playing games, and how she wanted to come see the gringas. Ale (the 14 year old we played futbol with one of the first days here) has also been visiting us in the afternoons. He brings 2 of his friends with him who do not speak to us, or anyone really, but they love to play. The three boys along with Sivia’s son, Ember, play with the basketballs. The other day Ember was pegging basketballs at Ale yelling, “Piensa Rapido” over and over. “Think fast” translates in Spanish as well. Love this!
Kayla has entertained the boys with games on her Ipod and movies, and they have entertained us with games I have never heard of before which includes marbles on the deck while throwing them into another person’s marble? Most likely the rules change depending on who you ask/who you play with! Ale is known for making up his own rules which I learned from Checkers! Besides Ale’s rules I learned from him that if he doesn’t want to go to school he just doesn’t go (hmm…not good). Sidenote; kids in grades k-9 attend school M-F from 7:30-12ish… and that Ale goes to bed at 7pm and is up at 5:30 or 6am. Why you ask, because at 14 he likes that. He also came by at 7:30 one morning and asked if we were gone. Um no we were sleeping. It was Saturday! When we told him we got up at 9am he was surprised.WOW these are some major cultural differences. The women who work away from home leave home around 6am to walk the 45min or so to catch a bus to Usulutan; where they work for 10 hours or so to make the same long trip home; all to make $5 per day. When Leonel pointed this out to us one day on our drive to Santa Elena I found it very disheartening.
One of my favorite nighttime activities is our workouts. Kayla and I have found several different ways to entertain ourselves while working out in the heat on our beautiful porch. For a while I thought that Chevo, Max and Leonel might think it is strange that we get our workouts on at 8pm when most of the people here are in bed, but they are accustomed to it and often ask if we are hacemos ejercicios most nights. Our exercises consist of awesome aerobics style videos like Insanity (where the workout reflects the name), the worst zumba DVD ever made (so your legs do not get exercised but your stomach does from laughing), and some kick ass trisets sent via email by my trainer. We have a lot of fun every time we do one of them and usually end up super hungry by the time we are ready for bed.
Saturday afternoon we made plans with ourselves to go to a futbol game played nearby. When we got there, we found out it was cancelled so we walked back home and ran into Leonel walking along the road inviting people over to the house on Sunday. We decided to walk with him and ran into a teenager, Carolina. She has been practicing her English and had asked us a few weeks back if we could help her. Since we had been out of town the past few weekends, it did not happen so when we saw her on the road we set up a time on Sunday morning. She was really sweet. She kept checking out our clothes and hair and complimenting us. On Sunday morning she came over and we spent a couple of hours talking to her and helping her practice her English until lunch was ready. It was a great experience. Carolina was so excited and grateful, which was nice. I was happy to be a part of it all. She even returned later in the day to bring us cashews that she roasted herself as a thank you. Sweet! Poor thing burned herself too.
In the afternoon Leonel hosted about 25 kids from 4-12 years in age and had activities for them to help them learn in a fun way. He created 3 stations, 1 with stories, 1 with arts and crafts, and 1 where he conducted a puppet show of the Good Samaritan and talked about important historical figures in El Salvador’s history like Romero. Kayla and I were in charge of the arts and crafts which was sooo fun! We colored and made clay figurines. I think at times we enjoyed it more than the kids! Overall I really loved meeting the kids and some really took to us which is nice. I am really trying to remember names and use them but it’s so hard because we often meet 50 new people in a day. But one little girl saw me walk past this morning and when I said “Adios” she yelled “Hola Nicole”. It made my day! The boys even wanted us to play futbol with them after but instead we went to Usulutan for dinner with Leonel at Wendy’s!
Last notes…nature has gotten crazier. The good news is I sleep better the louder it is now, but all the animals seemed crazy last night and the moon is not full yet. The mosquitos have also gotten worse and I am covered 24/7 in bugspray…maybe they like it now? And tonight is the finale of my guilty pleasure The Bachelor! (I know… but I just can’t help loving it!) I have been watching clips on Youtube and am excited to see who he picks! I love trashy TV on the internet.
Love to all,
Nicoley
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