muchas cosas

well, it´s been a couple of weeks and much has been going on. i just got back from a week of training in both san vicente and san andres followed by a night of salsa dancing (where i didn´t so much dance the salsa as i did laugh and basically just move around and try and fit in) in san salvador on friday night. during the san vicente part of training, i was able to visit my family in molineros. during the san vicente training, we had went to language and SPA grant training. then we had like three days of technical training in san andres where the escuela naciónal de agronomía is located. i got some really good training in both language and technical sessions and the school in san andres was beautiful. anyway, before that was earth day and i did some stuff with the kids at school which was really cool. today i went to ataco and they were having a coffee festival in the park and i got to try more of the local coffee. i also ended up eating the best yucca of my life and took some pictures of other things. i know this is a super random post, but my brain is still trying to sort out the past couple of weeks. i´ll post some pictures for you to look at and meanwhile, i´ll try to organize my thoughts so i can write a more insightful post later. sound good? bueno!

adios for now!

- dayana (in her school uniform) and sindy

- sindy, dayana and me

ana, sindy and dayana (and el nino...this ceramic replica of jesus as a child. sindy brought this over from mama rosa´s house and was carrying one of the arms in her hand. then every time someone else took it she´d say ¨la mano!¨ meaning, we´d forgotten to take the arm too.)

me, sindy and dayana

los viejos (old men)....i haven´t exactly solved this mystery yet, but when i was at my family´s house in molineros on sunday night, ana kept telling me that the viejos were coming over to dance. and this is what ¨the viejos¨ are...a bunch of guys, and a kid, wearing crazy masks. and they brought a little four-member band too. they danced for like 5 minutes and then left. good times, huh!

- more of los viejos...check out ¨the diablo¨ on the far right

- the band of los viejos

- this is at one of the coffee vendors at the festival de café in ataco. they set up these four dishes of café to show the process of taking the bean from the tree to the final product we use in coffee machines. the first is after it´s dried and taken out of the pegarmino, which is what it grows inside. the second is after it´s taken out of the cascara (shell). the third is after it´s dried again. and the fourth is the final product - the polvo.



- this is one of the coffee vendors at the festival de café in ataco. i really want one of those cool coffee bags that show the crop year and everything and the name of the beneficio. all of the coffee at the festival was grown and processed right here in ataco or nearby.

- this really cool band played at the festival de café.

- another photo of the band

- this is what most places to get yucca or pasteles looks like. the black barrel is where they cook the yucca and they basically just have plastic table and chairs set up for you to sit at and eat, right on the street.

- me in the parque having a good ´ol time!