Blogtober

Día del . . . in this case Niño. They have Día del everything here: student, teacher, nurse, secretary, etc. We have those days in the States too, but here each one is vigorously celebrated, usually during school hours (there aren´t too many to begin with) and with or without a parade.

some great neighbors at the town´s kindergarten celebration of Día del Niño

a friendly bat hanging from our ceiling

an ant carrying a watermelon seed, wishing it were a baby Jesus candy

traditional dress meets modern drink

traditional campo (countryside) dress

cachiporristas (baton twirlers) on parade

In September, Bruce went to a two-day training session up in the western mountains with all of the Youth Development Volunteers. They shared ideas and advice and learned a few new tricks.  You can see Jesus in the background of this picture.

After the training, Peace Corps transported everyone back to San Salvador where all the other volunteers either stayed the night or walked to the western bus terminal . . . thus allowing Bruce the strange luxury of being driven to the eastern bus terminal in a large and empty tour bus.

baby Jesus candy

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*There are several new chapters to the blog, so keep scrolling down!

*We celebrated El Día del Árbol (Arbor Day) with some third graders. We were saddened by the deforestation in The Lorax (with puppets!) and Fern Gully: The Last Rain Forest. However, we decorated some pro-environment signs to cheer ourselves up.

*We´re becoming more familiar with San Salvador. We´re not there too often (yay! we´ve been healthy), but we did find ourselves in the capital two consecutive weekends:

The first time we went for a meeting, but took in a few sights as well. We went to the zoo (unfortunately, many of the animals have been dying recently). We braved the city center for the first time and saw the national palace and the cathedral (Romero is buried in the basement). We went to to "Irish" pub that doesn´t have Irish beer. However, by far the deepest experience was our time at Centro Monsignor Romero at La UCA (Universidad de Centroamérica). The museum covers several topics from around the Civil War era, including the murders of Rutilio Grande (1977) and Oscar Romero (1980), but was itself the site of the brutal 1989 murder of 6 Jesuit priests and 2 women.

The following weekend we went to the Embassy for the Swearing-In of the new Environmental Education and Youth Development Peace Corps Volunteers. The Vice President of El Salvador, Salvador Sanchez Cerén gave a speech. The Charge D'Affairs (interim ambassador) Robert Blau--himself a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, spoke of how great it is that the United States and FMLN (for the first time the ruling party, they were guerilla fighters in the Civil War, 1980-1992) are no longer enemies, but instead are working together for the good of the country. Members from our training group were in charge of the post-ceremony, discotheque-filled night.

*All year long, a goal of the Eco clubs has been to raise money for an excursion to a national park. The school year ends soon. It´s crunch time. The kids were very enthusiastic about raising funds with a dance show. For three or four weeks, we were meeting (and often) to practice our moves--notably those of a Michael Jackson medley (Thriller, Beat It, Dangerous, Smooth Criminal). In the end, it all fell apart and the show was cancelled. Basically, the kids in charge of the dance moves were too rebellious and the dancers too shy. We raised money by raffling off a basket that Kelly and the kids filled with donated items from the pueblo´s store owners.

*We had a radio interview (our first!) to promote the Youth Festival.

*Bruce started a project in which he is co-teaching with the pueblo´s English teachers to share some tips.

*Kelly is working with the Catholic priest (a devoted and experienced conservationist) and the almost-NGO on an ecological stoves project.

*The school year will be over by mid-November. We´re planning new projects for the school vacation and the new year.

*El Salvador lost to Mexico 4-1 on Saturday (soccer, of course). El Salvador is now officially out of the running for a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. However, on the same day, the U.S. qualified with a win over Honduras.

*We´ve recently seen a large, very fast iguana on the roof. At first we thought it was a cat.

*The cute neighbor kids you´ll recall from earlier postings suggested we celebrate Bruce´s birthday with cake and a piñata. It´s on.

*Hope everyone back home is well and enjoying those sweet autumnal colors for us.

*Go Phillies!