are we green yet?

so that was some excursion to san salvador this past week. i felt like all i did was spend money. food, more food, reading material, etc. it definitely put my finances in the red. but everything was a-ok with my health....no cavities, parasites, amoebas, problemas. so i was really happy about that.

wednesday night megan, sara e. and i went to see an inconvienent truth, which, surprisingly was playing here in el salvador. let´s just say that i left the theater even more determined to teach the little punks at my school about their fate if they don´t shape up and quit throwing their trash all over the goddamned place. it made me want to ask the woman on the bus to give me her plastic bottle before she throws it out the window and then tell her exactly why i want it. but i have to say, as well, that i´m glad i´m here in the peace corps trying to do something about this environmental problem. i was a little sad when al gore was talking about how back when he first brought all that information to congress about the future of the earth should nothing be done about the pollution we cast into the air every day, and nobody gave a damn. it´s kind of like that here...you get all your stuff together with facts and pictures and whatever, and the people here really don´t care. however, i don´t think it´s because they truly don´t care (like those congressmen didn´t), it´s just because they don´t really understand how to think about something in the future like that. but you know what, i don´t care if they don´t care....i´m gonna get at least some of them to care. even if i have to use their religious beliefs to do it (god created the earth, you guys shit all over god´s creation....etc.) i never thought i would want to bring religion into the whole picture, but when you have people saying that they are sick because god made them sick (they believe no other factors were involved), how do you explain environmental problems? plus, a lot of people are only thinking in terms of day to day.....they don´t think about the future at all. it´s just about where they´re gonna get their food the next day. so in terms of that, our work down here is extremely difficult. but i´m trying and i will continue to try no matter how many people scoff at the idea of protecting the environment.

so how are you all doing with the whole going green thing? let me just say this....it isn´t a joke. really, it´s not. down here you can see what happens with deforestation...it´s sad. the total loss of tons of animal species is just one of the big things down here. and PLEASE only buy shade-grown coffee, because there are some cafetales here that are trying out the no-shade coffee, which means cutting down the shade trees which are the homes of tons of birds native to this area. loss of one type of animal can really set nature into a tailspin. it seems like in the states it´s hard to see the day to day effects of small things as opposed to here. one thing down here that really REALLY irks me are the buses. they blow dark black smoke every time the driver turns one on. and for a minute i think - don´t these assholes care about this? i mean, these buses go directly through the terminal and blow that smoke onto all the people, as well as the fruits and vegetables that they´re selling. but then i think...where did these buses come from? the united states, that´s where. they´re all reformed school buses that the united states sold to el salvador (and sells all over latin america). the united states, in trying to comply with the clean air regulations there, says ¨oh, this school bus is too old, it doesn´t pass emissions tests.¨ so it makes the school get a new bus. but instead of junking the bus altogether, it just sells the bus to latin america. air pollution doesn´t have borders. just because the states is complying with clean air regulations in the united states, doesn´t mean it´s helping control air pollution in the WORLD. they´re just redistributing it, making it some other country´s problem. some other POOR country´s problem.

anyway, thanksgiving sure was interesting. the minute we were picked up by the husband, martin, in the family that was hosting us for thanksgiving dinner, i felt like i had bought a ticket to the states and had landed in suburban boston or something. stacy (martin´s wife) is a legal attaché for the department of justice and works in the embassy in san salvador. their house had every amenity that i had almost forgotten existed....washing machine and dryer, couches(!), bathroom...no a for real bathroom, not what i have that kind of resembles a bathroom, kitchen with everything indoors including sink and refridgerator.....you name it. they were lacking nothing. it was a GREAT dinner....we had beef instead of turkey (i wasn´t complaining), the most awesome potatoes, something called ¨carrot souflee,¨ only it tasted more like sweet potatoes and was soooooo good, pumpkin pie AND cheesecake (made by one of the guests, fernando, who was hilarious and works for the department of homeland security?). i had mucho, mucho wine and cerveza and just had a great time for un ratito forgetting what it´s like to live in el campo, el salvador. i have to admit, i am used to living here....when i moved into my house i thought - hey, this isn´t really THAT different than living back in the states. but when i returned to apaneca after my week-long excursion in san salvador and martin & stacy´s house, i realized that, yeah, it IS a lot different. i have no hot water, my kitchen consists of a wooden table and a three-burner gas stove (with the gas tank next to the table), and i have absolutely no heat.

speaking of which....it was a record 4.5 celsius on tuesday here in apaneca....that translates to about 40 degrees in fahrenheit. now, all of you living in the colds of ohio where it is snowing and what-not might say ¨40 ain´t that cold.¨ well, when you have HEAT, no, it´s really not that cold. but we don´t have heat here...save for the people that have their wood-burning cooking stoves (no, not like wood stoves in the states....these are all open air, which means all that smoke blows around the house and into the lungs of whoever is living in the house). in other words, if it´s 40 outside....not including the almighty wind chill.....it´s about 45 or less indoors. and that´s COLD!!!! seriously, all around the country it was freezing - even in san salvador - and lots of people lost their vegetable gardens/crops because it is really unheard of to get that cold here in el sal. it was much warmer today, but i can´t seem to shake the chill that seems to be in the air. everyone´s wearing their sweaters and jackets and winter hats and i really wish i had some toasty warm long johns. do any of you knit? because i´d love a nice long scarf. or gloves. i´m just sayin' is all.....

so this week is gonna be FUN in apaneca. tomorrow is a parade for the fiesta de patronales. then wednesday and thursday are the big fiestas....bailes (dances) and good times all around. everyone seems to think i should dance at the baile, but i have to admit, i might have to have a few glasses of wine in secret before i dance in any baile. seriously, me? dance? should be hilarious if it happens.

so it looks like the leftist candidate in ecuador´s presidential race, rafael correa, is gonna win. great news for the left!! but this is what is just plain hilarious to me....this from bbc news: mr. correa is close to venezuela's anti-american president hugo chavez and has called u.s. president george w. bush a "dimwit". hee hee. i love how these leftist latin american candidates don´t really try and impress anyone with clever name-calling. they just go all out and call a spade a spade. and i think it´s funny. it´s definitely how it is down here. i´ve had people just out and tell me ¨ud. estaba gordita la primera vez vino aqui.¨ (you were fat when you first got here). i mean, i´m not gonna argue with that at all. but it kind of takes you aback for a second...did niña magdalena REALLY just say that? and you know, you do ponder this later. this kind of directness MAKES you think about what they said. i wonder what george bush thinks when he hears these statements. ¨seriously? did rafael correa just call me a dimwit?¨ because, we all know how the press and other political candidates here in the u.s. like to tip-toe around stating the obvious. why not take a cue from latin america? just go out and call bush an idiot....to his face in one of those press conferences. what could possibly be his response? probably something along the lines of ¨i know you are but what am i.¨ ugh.

well, i´m gonna say adios for now. my fingers are cold from typing with the wind blowing through the internet place. so with that being said, adios from my cold mountain town.....

feliz día de pavo

ewww, i’m sick again. i’m pretty sure i got sick when i went down to guaymango last week....i drank some horchata that was kind of sketchy. i started feeling a bit sick that day and then by saturday i was done for. it feels like all kinds of creatures are growing in my stomach right now. but i’m going into the office this week for my one year medical evaluation, so i’m sure whatever i have will get taken care of then. so that’s good. let’s see, what else has been going on. this past week courtney came to visit me and then megan came up on saturday. i made sopa de pollo for the first time, with antonio´s help (which, if you understand this culture, is unheard of....a salvadoran guy helping cook anything...) and it was sooooo good. there was a fiesta here in apaneca all weekend....it’s like the month of fiestas because the last week in november is the fiesta de patronales here. the patron saint of apaneca is san andrés apostal....i don’t know if i ever wrote that down or not.

oh, here is my new mailing address….after the first of the year i´ll have an apartado postal, but for the time being, you can just send things to the post office´s general address in apaneca and just put my name at the top. here´s the address:

avenida 15 de abril y 3° calle oriente
barrio santiago
apaneca, ahuachapán
el salvador
america central

anyway, lately, apaneca has been living up to it’s nahuat meaning – river of wind. jeez, i feel like i’m standing atop the tallest building in the world it’s so windy. which makes it coooooold. my house is cold too because it’s all drafty – none of the windows or doors in houses in el salvador have any kind of sealing or anything. the windows are just glass slats and so air gets in with no problem. so my house is really chilly. i have a corner of sun on my patio that i can go out and sit under in the morning. but then it moves behind the roof of the second floor of the building i’m in so that’s that. if you remember my entry from last thanksgiving, i was on my site visit and i was miserable because i was unprepared for the cold in apaneca. i´m not miserable now because i have all the appropriate clothing....but it´s still cold!

i can’t wait to eat thanksgiving dinner! we (me, courtney, mark and my other friend sara e.) are eating dinner on thursday at the home of someone who works for the u.s. embassy in san salvador. they said we could use the embassy pool earlier in the day and then we eat dinner later. i’m looking forward to that and i hope, hope, hope they have pumpkin pie! with cool whip of course. but whatever they have will be great, i’m sure. i told my friend eric this the other day, but did you know that the u.s. embassy in san salvador is apparently one of the biggest in the world? here are some other el salvador stats…..el salvador has the 4th largest number of people that emigrate to the states. and apparently, according to newsweek magazine international, the people of el salvador are the second happiest people in the world. but el salvador is also the #1 most dangerous latin american country in the world….including colombia!? what?

not much else to report. maybe i’ll tell a story about the area...well, it’s a legend actually. but anyways, it’s actually kind of cool. it goes like this.....

so there are two lagunas above apaneca which i’ve told you about before: laguna las ninfas and laguna verde. well, in-between the two is a giant “hoyo” or hole that is super deep. when you are crossing the ridge between laguna las ninfas to laguna verde, you pass over this hoyo and at the bottom are some milpas – corn/bean crops that farmers have planted – taking advantage of one of the only flat spots in the area. anyway, legend has it that way back when, some guatemalans came to this area and were passing by the lagunas and at the time, the hoyo was filled with water.....just like the other two lagunas. when they got to the spot where the hoyo is, one man took the water out of the hoyo for their trip back to guatemala. he put the water in a bottle and put it in his shirt pocket and they continued on towards guatemala. then, when they got near where the city of ahuachapán is located, the man tripped over a rock and the bottle fell out of his pocket, spilling the water on the ground. and that is how laguna el espino (which is near ahuachapán....and looks totally out of place) came to be. when you’re standing on the ridge between the two lagunas, and overlooking the hoyo, you can look out across the vista and see laguna el espino in the distance.

so that’s the legend about el hoyo and laguna el espino. so here are some more miscellaneous pictures. good times!

also, here is a great article about el salvador if you´d like some reading!



the street looking to the right of my house (my house is behind the green door on the right side of the photo)


the street looking to the left

me and courtney trying to get some sun in the corner of my patio

antonio helping cut the chicken for the sopa de pollo

the sopa cooking

antonio chilling in the hamaca while we all waited for the sopa to cook

megan, me and courtney at the fiesta on saturday

graduación...this is carolina, escorted by her brother at the graduación for kinder and 6th grade last thursday

ever (with his kindergarten degree) and his escort

little heydi, she´s getting big (she´s ever´s sister)

jimena and her escort, fernando

the graduating kindergarten kids

lupita, cristian and francisco...they´re siblings. poor kids, their dad was killed a couple years ago when he was driving a bus. some dude got on and shot him.....the kids still talk about their dad like he´s still around.

wendy and her escort (whose suit totally did not fit him, but was adorable)

this is abby, one of my peace corps friends.....this was out at nate´s site in la unión

me and abby trying to cut the calabeza to eat later....didn´t really work out as we had planned

courtney with her mini burrito

courtney and abby

nate

nate blowing out his birthday candle on a cake that one of the families in his town got for him

slowing down

life´s just started getting a little slower in the savior, at least for me. i´m sure salvadorans consider their daily rounds with the trapeador, un ratitos standing in their front doors staring at everyone who walks by and multiple trips to the lady making pasteles as exciting. but for me, well, it´s not. i´m not complaining, though. i´m glad school´s out for now....it´s giving me a little time to organize myself and get some projects ready for next year. and you know, at least i live in a pueblo - a cool pueblo at that. i can leave my house for a bit during the day, even if it IS just to pretend i have something important to do, just to walk through and around town and back to my portón verde.

that´s not to say that there are a lot of fun things coming up (which i´ve already told you about). it´s just that with going to the school almost every day my day was pretty busy - not like stock market busy - but busy because i was interacting with people and working on a charla or an activity or something every day. but now that school´s out, i wander around my house, stare at the plants on my patio trying to watch them grow, read books and resist the urge to stand in my front door like the rest of the people in town do. also, i´m really in dire need of some plastic chairs. why in god´s name would i need PLASTIC chairs? because they´re the thing to have here and they´re the most comfortable sitting arrangement here outside of the old crusty sofas that a lot of people have. i never in my life thought i´d want plastic chairs either, believe me. but all i have to sit on right now is a bed and two wooden chairs, and those chairs are uncomfortable as all hell. plus i don´t want to drag them inside and outside every day. i´m going hamaca hunting this weekend. wish me luck!

i did walk down to the hostal today to chat with niña teresita´s family. she wasn´t there, but the rest of the gang was and marilin´s mom was so happy to see me. i must have talked to her for an hour and a half and she kept saying she missed me. which is surprising because i never really talked to her that much when i was living there. and now that i´m gone it´s like i was their favorite resident of all time.

so why don´t i talk for un ratito about the elections? that was some day of elections, huh? how does it feel having all those democrats trounce out the GOP? i got not one, but two phone calls from antonio the morning after the elections to tell me the democrats ¨won¨ (the first phone call) and that in ohio, the democrats ¨won¨ (the second phone call). antonio has a television, with CNN español, and knew i didn´t have any access to anything tuesday so he was nice enough to be my link to the rest of the world (like when detroyes beat the a´s in the ALCS). later that day on wednesday i trekked to the cyber cafe to check the internets and oh my god, could i have been bombarded more with articles and analyses and what-nots? i have to admit, i was glad not to be around for all the hoopla: the ads, the flyers, the door-to-door did you vote workers, the phone calls, etc. and you know, i´m beginning to think that my leaving the united states is a good thing for everyone. i leave, the tigers have not only a winning record, but go to the damn world series. i leave, election day isn´t a day to be shrouded in black (as it was on election day 2004). what´s next? are people going to wise up and stop driving their humungous SUV´s and take this whole global warming thing seriously? are CEO´s of giant corporations going to start working honestly? will a hollywood marriage actually last longer than 5 minutes? will the end of a hollywood marriage cease to be ¨news¨ on the major news websites? i mean, it seems only good things can happen now that i´ve left the states, right?!

meanwhile, did you all see that ortega won the presidency in nicaragua!? now if only the rest of central america could wise up and go with the left so that the poor people at least have a chance. i´m not saying ortega´s gonna solve all the poor´s problems, but i have to say i do think the poor have more of a chance with ortega in office. the right ain´t doing shit for the people down here.

i found out the other day that the mayor of apaneca only has a second-grade education. yes, you read that right. the MAYOR of apaneca only finished the second grade. hell, the president of el salvador only has a high school education. antonio told me he had a friend that worked in the mayor´s office (in apaneca) the first year that the mayor got elected in 1994. apparently, this friend had to help the mayor sign documents because he couldn´t do it himself. yes, again, you read that right. the mayor couldn´t read or even sign his own name. and he was elected mayor. and has been elected mayor every 3 years since. there are diputados (el salvador´s version of representatives) that only have 6th grade educations. and they´re making laws! how is this possible you ask? this is a developing country and it´s not the united states. corruption is a major factor. poor people are threatened to vote for certain candidates or they´ll lose their $3 a day jobs cutting coffee or working in the fincas. family history of voting a certain way plays a part. and in 1994, when the mayor of apaneca was first elected, el salvador was just coming off the horrible war. the left did not come out looking good especially on this side of the country where the military massacres weren´t happening every day like they were in the east (which is more heavily fmln than here on my end). it was easy to overlook what was really going on when it wasn´t happening in their backyards....especially when at that time the only source of information was the newspaper and scant newschannels which i´m sure weren´t reporting the full stories. but i wasn´t there, so all i can do is base my opinions on what people have told me or things that i have read.

on the flip side, as i told antonio, the president of the united states not only has a college education, but went to one of the most prestigious universities in the u.s. and he´s not so bright. so go figure. but still, second goddamned grade?

so expect more entries about boring things like my athlete´s foot (which is slowly going away, but only with the almightiest willpower i can muster not to scratch till my heart´s content). i guess i should say that life´s not really boring right now....it´s just a lot more slow.

i´m off to stand in my front door now and watch people walk by.

me and my sangre dulce

this is a totally boring post, but i think i have athlete´s foot or some such bullshit. i know i got something bacterial on my feet because when i was walking back from nate´s i walked through this river to get to the other side of the road. so now i´m in complete agony with itchy feet that won´t stop itching! oh my god. what next?

oh, i know. mosquitoes and ants. so on top of the athlete´s foot, i have a gazillion insect bites as well. everyone here tells me i have ¨sangre dulce¨ (sweet blood) and that´s why i get bit more often. and when these insects bite me it´s 10 times worse because my blood´s so tasty....so they feast for longer. is that true? i mean, outside of the vampire community, how can one tell the deliciousness of blood? are they putting me on? i think i did ask one of my volunteer friends and they told me that if you have a certain blood type, it´s more enticing to those of the insect crowd. but i honestly want to know if this is true? at first when the salvadorans were telling me this i thought they were joking. but then more people kept telling me. i mean, it all just sounds like hogwash to me. but to tell you the truth when i get mosquito, ant and other insect bites, i feel like i´m gonna die a slow death scratching and scratching and scratching. i´m O+ (sssshhhh, don´t tell anything with 6 legs this...por favor!) and i seem to get more bites like this on my feet and ankles and legs than anywhere else. and ugh! ugh! ugh! somebody shoot me!

oh tigers.....

i just love how the tigers like to set records....too bad they´re for things like most losses in a season and most errors in a world series. ugh. but here´s the upside - they made it to the world series, right? i watched all of the games and surprisingly didn´t find myself totally down in the dumps loss after loss. but you know, like my dad said, tony larussa hasn´t won a series - it was about time. and the cards had been devastated year after year of making it to the playoffs and world series and losing. so yes, the errors one after the other were pretty hard to believe and at one point, even comical. i mean, you know it´s bad when you´re thinking ¨i hope he doesn´t fall down¨ on a routine fly to left field. i mean, seriously, who does that? well, i do. one time during co-ed softball back in cleveland i had a fly ball coming to me and it was so simple, i had it in my sights...just had to move up a little bit. no problem. edging up to it....and bam! down i go. totally tripped over this slight incline in the field. my ex-boyfriend said it looked like a sniper took me out i went down so fast and clean. the ball landed next to my head, which i had slammed on the ground when i fell. i saw the ball out of the corner of my eye and i was like ¨d´oh!¨ oh well. at least it wasn´t a pattern or anything.

i just got back from an EXTREMELY long viaje to the department of la unión. some of us went out to my friend nate´s site to celebrate his birthday. his site is pretty much on the opposite end of the country as me....and a lot hotter. but it was nice to see open pastures and the laziness that comes with the real campo. i´m literally surrounded by forests, almost all of which are coffee and there´s not very much open space. and living in the pueblo...there´s never a lazy or dull moment. which believe me, can be soooo nice! so despite being a lot hotter than apaneca, i enjoyed seeing nate´s site and his community. although, somehow i feel like a huge failure in my site after visiting him and seeing all he´s accomplished. he´s a go-getter, has fantastic spanish and it´s hard sometimes to remember that we´re all different and we´re doing our own things, as well as having our own frustrations. but nate - damn that dude is pretty much the definition of what being in the peace corps is about. not that i don´t try or anything...it´s just, well, different.

so moving on. literally, moving on, or in i should say. i moved last weekend into a house. finalmente! i´m really glad because i have more room and i can do work there as well has have kids groups there. it´s so super fine! i remember saying that i would never move again after i moved out of my last apartment in cleveland. well, there i was doing the whole boxes thing again in el salvador.

meanwhile, the fucking post office LOST a package from my mom that had my much needed new pants in it. i gave away a bunch of clothes that were too big for me and was waiting, waiting, waiting for some new ones from my mom (i won´t even get into how shopping for pants here is completely ridiculous). well wouldn´t you know it, that package never came. ever. i´ve received other packages and letters. but the one with my birthday stuff is lost and my pants are probably being worn by some salvadoran somewhere. jerks! i might be changing my address to apaneca because they moved to a new location and i can get a post office box right here. so if you want to send me anything, hold off until i know for sure if i´m changing my address. mmmkay?

i´m ready for school to end. really ready. it´s basically over - this last week they have exams and then it´s off until january. like i said, i´m ready. although i did a charla the other week about butterflies with the first graders....their life cycle, what kinds of butterflies live in el salvador, etc. and after the lesson i took them out to the bosque by the cancha to look for butterflies. i wanted them to look at the colors and how they flew and everything. and this one little girl saw one and was like ¨look, there´s one! it´s putting it´s eggs on the leaf!¨ (that´s the first step in the life cycle of the butterfly...the female butterfly lays its eggs on a leaf.) and it just made me laugh and i was happy because i knew that at least one kid got something from that charla.

i´m posting some pictures i´ve been wanting to post for a while. there´s lots...so bear with me. but they´re cool. but i do want to point out something and maybe you can see why it can be frustrating around here sometimes. below are pictures of bessy´s last day at the school, the independence day parades (two...one for the surrounding communities around apaneca and one for apaneca itself), and then for dia de los niños. all of these occurred within two months, as well as another fiesta for parvularia that i wasn´t present for because i was in guatemala. coming up this next week is graduación for parvularia and 6th grade and another end-of-the-year celebration.

fiestas might sound like fun, and they are, but they can get a little annoying. one for every damn thing that happens around here. and they totally take away from the kids´ education. they practice their routines during school time. not to mention the fact that whoever is selected to be part of a routine for a parade, their mom/dad have to buy material to have a dress or outfit made for the event. and explain me this? mirna had a meeting with the kids in 6th grade the other day and their parents to discuss the outfits they would wear for graduación...buying the material, what color shirts, what color dresses, etc. but here´s the thing...only 1 girl (ONE!!!!) and 2 boys (maybe two, maybe even only one as well) are going onto 7th grade next year. what.the.fuck? why in god´s name are they gonna spend all this money to celebrate the fact that they´re going to become either part of the ¨work force¨ here or become mothers at age 13 or 14 after ¨graduación?¨ i don´t get it. i really don´t. yet, there i´ll be with my camera in hand. ugh.

BESSY´S LAST DAY - SEPTEMBER 1st

the kindergarten kids (not all of them) put on a little dance show for bessy



lileana (first grade) and her little brother fernando (in kinder)...they´re like a little dance duo...they sing and dance together.

jorge (first grade) and his little brother abel (supposedly in kinder but never comes to school)...these kids are soooo cute...and i love their family. their mom, niña milagro, is so nice. there are two older brothers in 3rd and 6th grade that are equally cute!

these little punks made my week of teaching kindergarten HELL! jaime, omar, marlon & fernando....ugh. but they are still adorable.


elba, bessy, mirna and i at the end of bessy´s last day....super sad!


MY BIRTHDAY

the teachers and i (and antonio who´s taking the picture) at the pupuseria

elba and the new kindergarten teacher, maria laura


APANECA - INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE FOR SURROUNDING CANTONES AND CASERIOS (including san jorge)

the singing of the national anthem.....dude, that´s a long song...i think it outdoes free bird.

ingrid...one of the girls in kindergarten dressed in a traditional dress

the ¨chiparristas¨ that were selected for the parade from san jorge....i don´t think any girl in el salvador has not been a chiparrista once in her life.

lupita (in kindergarten)



one of the families from san jorge, with their two daughters rosalva and maria (in the traditional dress). their grandmother (!!!) is on the right.

APANECA - INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE FOR APANECA, SEPTEMBER 15th

these are pics from apaneca´s independence day parade. there were two schools that were in the parade, the catholic school, san andres and the public school, san francisco menendez. there were girls and boys dressed up as representatives from the other four countries that participate in the central american alliance - costa rica, guatemala, honduras and nicaragua. the flag for el salvador has five volcanoes on it that represent the five countries and the volcanic rich soil that makes up the land here.

hee hee....these are the ¨important people¨ from apaneca. the woman in the white pantsuit is the mother of new kindergarten teacher at my school (maria laura...maria laura is also elba´s cousin, making the woman above elba´s aunt....this past year, i´ve come to learn that elba and pedro´s family make up a LOT of apaneca); the guy in the suit next to maria laura´s mom is that creepy licenciado guy (in charge of overseeing the schools in this area) that comes to the school all the time and gives me a kiss on the cheek every time he sees me...INCLUDING this day! he came over to where i was standing and was like ¨buenas dias laurita!¨ what-ever; the guy with the cowboy hat is the mayor of apaneca. he wears this outfit to every major function and people think he looks like some famous ranchero singer; the guy in the gray shirt is pedro, elba´s (not) husband who works for the mayor as a deputy; the guy in the white shirt and tie is the director of the casa de cultura here in apaneca. they were all at the front of the parade.

san andres school....all the teachers from san andres wore oscar romero t-shirts in the parade which i thought was really cool.

san andres´s band

el salvador

guatemala

honduras

nicaragua

costa rica

kids from san andres

the kids from san francisco menendez (the public school)

the die-hard chipparistas

















the end of the parade was in front of the mercado and park

the back of the unfinished catholic church and the end of the parade.......but wait......

....no, it´s not over! there´s this huge group of people in apaneca that are totally against the ARENA mayor....they say he´s corrupt and bringing shame to the pueblo. they´re not politically-affiliated, but all share one thing: a desire to get the mayor, oscar guzman, out of office. those who are part of this group hang black flags by their houses and even got t-shirts made with sayings like ¨unidad por la dignidad de apaneca¨ and things like that. they hang banners up in front of their houses. and during the independence day parade, they marched at the end of the parade, and even at one intersection, they stood at the end of the street, directly in front of where the mayor and that group of people in the photo above were going. it was great! they have what are called manifestaciones, which is basically a parade and they shout things in megaphones about how the mayor is corrupt and everything and everyone wears black. and here´s another funny tidbit....pedro obviously works for the mayor, but his mom is totally against the mayor and is part of this group. and it´s hilarious because she´s STRONGLY against the mayor and always has these huge banners in front of her house and then pedro has to walk over there and see that.

one of the streets in apaneca, just before another storm moved in

the still unfinished catholic church...slowly getting rebuilt

another street in apaneca

and another



FIESTA for DIA DE LOS NIÑOS - OCTOBER



yes......more dancing!

lileana and fernando doing another show, this time dressed as campesinos

piñatas





erick...one of the coolest kids in the first grade

punk fifth and sixth graders

norma ¨the dancer¨ all the girls want to be like her, and all the boys well.....she´s only in fourth grade and i hope to god she stays away from boys at least until she´s 16.

WORK!

here´s just a couple pictures from the butterfly lesson i did with the 2nd graders

after the charla i had the kids all take a piece of paper which was one step in the life cycle of a butterfly and each kid had to stand where they thought their part was. it was really funny and of course, some kids took charge and directed where other kids should go...but they LOVED it and it was fun.

three girls in second grade...we were out looking for butterflies behind the school.