A la playa?

Saturday's youth group meeting was a laugh and a half.

Although the encargado, the guy in charge, did nothing to support our dance and actually threw a mini-fit against it, he decided he should get to decide where our profits go, and he wanted to...drumroll...donate it to the church.

This would be lovely if the church had helped us at all.

Even the adults who work with the group quickly jumped all over the encargado, saying that the people who did all the work for the dance should control the profits. And, of course, the others who worked on the dance had stayed away from the meeting to avoid the encargado's wrath. So it wasn't long before a dozen pairs of eyes were all fixed on me.

"Alia," they said, "what do you want to do with the money?"

"Well, I really think we should discuss it with the others who organized the dance," I said. "We could plan something like an excursion, maybe to the beach or something."

That clearly wasn't vague enough. You could almost hear them screaming "yaaaayyy" like the Flanders twins on "The Simpsons."

"We're going to the beeeeach!!!"

Of course, last time there was a beach trip, everyone got in trouble for drinking, so I might not want to have my name attached to this.

After the meeting, I hung out with a bunch of kids I really like from the group, and they explained that the encargado always wants to donate money to the church so the church council will think better of him.

A few days ago I was telling everyone that I didn't want to be another youth group encargado, that it was their group and I was just here to help them design projects and do enviro stuff. Now I'm at odds with the guy in charge and everyone seems to be backing me.

I've got a bad feeling about this.

I've got a great feeling about my friend Kali being here though. She's Salvadoran and we were friends and hallmates in college. Now she has a job down here and we can storm this country together! How randomly awesome is that?

Paz y amor.