The post below did not upload any of the images and charts...I'm still trying to figure out how to save the images as pictures to make their upload easier

If you are ever on the phone with me and you can hear a toddler this is her Traditional 15 year old b-day party. The cake was awesome.
Neighbor girls at the b-day party

picture time

Kids trying to hide near my house
My Gringa loves to relax...shes much bigger now.

April?

Crap where did April go? Well at least it came and went with little to no drama. I am still an exercise instructor which is beyond funny. I have really gotten to know the other women in the group particularly, Fatima, a 19 year old women in my canton. She rocks. We often spend extra time after class talking about the female body and feminism. (This is where my dad hangs his head in shame and wonders where he as gone wrong). She is annoyed at her lack of opportunity as a woman in El Salvador. I don’t blame her. She is the oldest of three daughters and her parents are relatively poor with no relatives in the states to send money home. She lives in a 2 room house with a dirt floor and shoddy roof. She graduated from high school which is a rarity in my canton, but has no means of income to attend the university. She is the first person I have encountered to understand the need for women to be financially independent. She’s totally on the ball about getting a job so she can make the choices in her life and not to have marry out of necessity. She has borrowed my, “our body ourselves” so thanks mom for sending it.
This month the ministry of education paid for 40 kids + 5 adults to visit Tin Marine, kid’s hands on museum in the capital. It was a riot. First of all most of the kids had never been to the capital and a few had never been outside of the pueblo. On our way to the museum we crossed the riot limpa which is a major river only 40 mins away from the canton. All the kids ran to one side for the bus to see the dam and river. For most it was their first time being on a major bridge, thus the passage was filled with screams, as with our first major highway overpass. That when it really hit me, these kids nor their parent ever leave their sites. When they do, it’s a MAJOR event. I must be so weird to them leaving every few weeks or so to visit friends, go to doctors apt, and celebrate us holidays. I am super grateful in my freedom of movement; I have the luxury of money to travel as I see fit. (Or at least my mom and dad do) I can’t even imagine what my life would be if I were to be stuck in Novi for the rest of my living days. Hellish. Maybe I would be happy not knowing what I was missing out on.
Anyways back to the hands on museum, it was awesome, truly awesome. They had a 757 kids could play on, and I couldn’t get them out of the pilots cockpit. We also got to play in a gravity room, a lot like the mystery spot places in the states. The kids had the time of their lives. Unfortunately a lot of parents wouldn’t let their children attend without parental supervision because there is a growing mistrust between the teachers and the parents. Oh well that’s a different post all together.
Joe has informed me he found the CD for my video camera so as soon as that is here I will be able to upload more movies on to my blog. So people like Jodi and Aunt Noreen will have more things to do while they pretend to be working.

crap

so i wrote an update for the blog and forgot to post! Sorry my bad, I promise its comming soon!

Ok so I’m not writing twice a month as promised. But I’m trying. I have so much free time on my hands it’s hard to force myself to write anything down. So I started to keep a paper of all the funny things I should write about in my blog.
I’ll start with the bad stuff to get it out of the way. My wallet was stolen from me on a bus last week. The saddest part is they now have a beautiful coach wallet purse. Maybe one day when I get money again I’ll be able to buy a new one.
So early in March my dog was spayed! She was in heat the last month of February and it was torture watching my dog getting violated over and over again. Luckily most of the dogs weren’t tall enough to insert their Wong into her Wang. She’s a big dog. (As I write this I keep typing god in place of dog). On top of her getting violated daily, there was a pack of dogs outside my house at all times. I couldn’t leave to shower without fighting to keep them out of the house! It was horrible. Just horrible. So it was time to get her spayed. Another volunteer is dating a vet who lives in the nearest big city so I took Gringa to him to have the operation. Mine you the operation took place a metal table in the back of a store. Very rustic! But I was confidant in his skills. Well everything went well and Gringa was back to normal the following days.

On Monday March 17th, normally a festive day for the Irish, while my family was already on their way to getting good and drunk, Gringa came running up to me with something hanging from her stitches. It was part of her intestines. Her stitches had opened up and things were starting to fall out of the opening. There is a large amount of blood and the poor dog was trying to bite off the things which were hanging out of the open cavity. My neighbors quickly helped me tie a towel around her stomach and get her into a pickup and on our way back to the vet. On the almost hour ride in the back of a pick up she vomited blood and what looked to be parts to her stomach. It was disgusting. The whole time I wanted someone to kill me dog. It was just too painful to watch. As soon as we got her to the vet he started surgery to see if she had done any permanent damage go her organs. About 2 hours later, after a major melt down on my part, she was out of surgery and the vet managed to save her life! This time she was going to be stuck in my house for a full month recuperating. I can not believe I was able to keep my cool long enough to get my dog to a vet while I was holding in her intestines with a towel. I am scarred for life. I will never be the same and I will always be haunted with the memories of the tragic St. Patrick’s Day in 2008.
Easter was uneventful. I had plans to go to the beach but scraped them when my dog tried to die on me earlier in the week. However I did pick up on some great local customs. They have these eggs which are drained and then filled with confetti. Their only purpose is to be broken on someone’s head in order to create a mess! How cool is that. They were sold in bags of 6 and usually could be bought 2 bags for a quarter. I bought two dollars worth! They are awesome! Hands down the one tradition I’ll bring back from El Salvador. Since I had no plans for Easter I decided to have a major water balloon fight. Most of the kids had never played with them before and were enthralled with the idea if having a water fight. (My community has only had water for the past two years. Having leftover water to play is a strange concept for the kids.) So I waiting for a day when the water was falling for the tap so I could make the balloons, then we played the next day. It was crazy, total mayhem. Water everywhere kids scream, my dog barking, eggs breaking into explosions of confetti. Never have I ever had a better Easter celebration. Too bad it was on Good Friday…..no ones counting right?

So you are reading the blog of a proud new exercise instructor! That’s right I teach aerobics every morning to a small group of women for an hour. It’s hilarious. I have no idea what I’m doing. But when all else fails, we march! It has become my favorite part of the day. First of all it gets me up the same time every morning which has done wonders to my energy level and has given me a normal sleeping schedule. It has also allowed me to build new friendships with more women in my community. Last week during a class we were stretching, and I had just commented on how strong the sun was this particular morning, when a Rod Steward Song, “forever young” started to play.
The first lyrics are:
May the good lord be with down every road you roam,
And may Sunshine and happiness surround when you’re far from home.
May you grow to be proud dignified and true
And do onto others as you’d have done to you.

I could help but laugh. I felt the lyrics so fitting of the moment and my current state of being. So translated the lyrics for the women in my group and they too felt it to be very appropriate. One young woman then said how I was so lucky to be able to leave my home to have another experience in another county and learn about their culture. I was blown away. Most people here in my community are never able to understand why I would want to abandon my life of comfort to spend two years trying to help out their community. I was so happy she was able to understand some of my reasoning’s behind joining the Peace Corps without ever having to explain myself first.

So I’m going to leave you all with the rest of the lyrics to Forever Young as food for thought

Be courageous and be brave
And in my heart you’ll always stay
Forever young
May good fortune be with and may your guiding light be strong
Build a stairway to heaven with a prince or a vagabond
And may you never love in vain
And in my heart you’ll always remain
Forever Young
And when you finally fly ways I’ll be hoping I’ve served you well
For a wisdom of a lifetime no one can ever tell
But whatever road you chose I’ll be behind you win or lose
Forever Young

This is a girl in my canton
My new hair cut, its super short, everybody keeps telling me not to worry it will grow.