I just got back from a fantastic weekend of leisure and dance...who could ask for more?? But, I have a ¨recuerdo¨from the weekend...a stomach full of amoebas and a bacterial infection. Yummm...I´m sure you all wanted to know that!! :) But, thankfully, I had come to the capitol on my way home to see a friend, and it was easy to see a doctor and get meds. So, I´m on the way to recovery. I´m ready to be back in Usulutan after 6 days gone!! That´s so much time!!
But, there´s much to do, and hopefully I´ll be able to jump right back in full swing.

While I was in the mountains teaching dance, I had to phone signal. It´s times like those when you realize the people that truly care about you. I was so touched because when I finally got signal after 3 days, I had missed 30 something calls and had a ton of messages from poeple in my community. They were all worried...okay, so that made me feel bad that they were worried, but also good that they cared!! I´m trully blessed by my ¨family¨salvadorena.

Since I´ve been gone, I can´t think of more details going on right now, so I´ll save it for later when I´m in the middle of some projects or something. But, so you know, I saw all of the lights of San Salvador last night from a high plane, and it was amazing, the view. It was hard to imagine the danger that exists down below. Although I´ve never been in danger, thank God, I know it exists and I know of many stories. Please continue to pray, not for me necesarily, but for the evil at work to be scattered...for the people who live in poverty...for the kids raped...for the safety of Salvadorans. I truly love these people and this place, even though it´s easy to despise many things. Everyday I´m confronted with new faces, new beauties, new lessons, new adventures. Although challenging, it´s worth it.

Hey! Well, this week´s been fabulously rainy! I seriously love it because I´m wearing a jacket right now, and plus it´s a nice change of pace because we haven´t had electricity or water for 4 days after a big storm that passed through. After 6:30 p.m. I have to stay in my house, and we just chat or sing or listen to the rain, or just go to bed. I like the relaxation...and the cold!! :) Also, get to hike to the water source to bathe and wash clothes. That´s always a fun experience.

Chatted with the mayor this week, and hopefully we´ll be getting uniforms and letrines very soon! Gracias a Dios! Also, I´ll be giving a dance workshop in a different state this weekend. I´m super pumped about this opportunity to dance and teach again. Hopefully my dance terms in Spanish will correlate and they´ll understand. But, I´m looking forward to a weekend of excitement! Also, I´ll be training 5 youth in my canton who can already dance well (cumbia and reggaton). I´ll be training them in different dances with the purpose that they can eventually teach. Hopefully, it will be a good job opp. for them in the near future. I´m very positive about this project, and know that the skill of dance, and the skill of teaching are very useful and can be a great financial source for these kids. Atleast I hope so!!! :)

Well, I´m missing all of my friends and family a ton, but also daily encouraged by the relationships I have here. I´m very blessed. Lots of love from ES!

¡¡Buenos Dias!! It´s crazy because I´m listening to Scratchtrack right now off of myspace, and realizing I don´t have a single cd of theirs...I´m a bad fan. Anyway, things are much better since my last blog. I´m really feeling established and connected with some of my girl friends, like we´re really friends...not that it´s forced. It´s a beautiful thing. Also, our Carrera de Cinta went off, but with a few hitches. It was a fundraiser for our softball team for uniforms (which, now we´re soliciting to the mayor for those uniforms...didn´t know I could do that before :}). Well, the way it works is there´s two posts with a lasso in the middle with little rings hanging with numbers. Horses and bicicles come from all over to run and try to stick a pencil\stick in one of those little holes to win a kiss and a gift from a ¨madrina.¨ So, we had 28 madrinas lined up to participate. Well, guess how many showed up?? 4...that´s right...FOUR!! So, this was a test of wit, no? I gathered all of the team members together and we all put our hands in to agree that if no more came, we´d all be madrinas. Well, no more came, so 15 of us ran down to the store and bought little $2 gifts to give, and ran back to start the Carrera an hour 1\2 late. Well, 9 horses competed, so that was good. But, then only 5 bicicles competed, even though there were tons there because they said there weren´t many madrinas and didn´t want to pay. So, I thought, what a disaster!!! But, really, it was fine. All of the food that we´d prepared sold, and also we had a dance afterward that rocked! So, we ended up with ganancia. It was a fun day, all in all. We woke up at 4:00 a.m. to prepare the corn on the cob and the fruits and sandwiches. That part was fun, all of us getting things ready together.

Bueno, also I have to tell of the crazy scary stories they got goin´on down here. Anyone heard of the Siguanaba? Well, for a community that´s super evangelical, it cracks me up how scared they are of mythical figures. The Siguanaba is this girl that supposedly didn´t take care of her son and husband way back when, so her father-in-law turned her into an ugly old woman, with breasts that hang to the floor and teeth like a warewolf and crazy hair. She roams in the bush, enticing young boys (and girls too) with beauty, and then turns into the ugly lady she is, and the person that sees her gets a fever and goes a bit crazy. One of my ¨aunts ¨here says she´s seen her and that she got a fever. Also, they say there´s a crying ghost, the Llorana or something like that, who roams the streets at night, crying and screaming. They´re afraid to walk alone at night for these things. Also, there´s a cart that goes at night without oxen or a person...just a cart by itself. They probably started out being folklore, but the people truly believe these things, and claim to have seen them or heard them. I told them I´m not scared, and they said that because I said that, one day when I´m alone outside or in the ¨monte¨, the Siguanaba´s going to get me. hahahaha Maybe she will!!