Agostinas

Well, the first week of August is wrapping up, and with that my vacation. Pretty much the whole country had off this week, and I used the time to visit my boyfriend for a couple of days and then my friend Meredith at the beach where she lives. Yes, lives. She is in the Peace Corps, but she lucked out and got to live in a beachside mansion with a pool and some pretty sweet cooking equipment, so a bunch of us headed over there for a good time. Although her house is huge and nice, her community jokes that the people who built it were drunk, because there are some pretty important oversights. The stairwell floats in midair without surrounding walls or railings, making us all afraid we would fall off, especially in wet sandals after a few drinks. And there are no lights in the bathroom, lots of leaky spots when it rains, etc.

Mer thinks the Salvadorans, newly rich from American money, saw a picture of a nice house in a magazine and tried to reproduce it without really knowing how. Given what I know about remesa (remittance) Salvadorans, I wouldn't be surprised. In general, I would never complain about a house like hers, but I was happy to get home after a week, clean my house, wash my clothes and get my life back in order.

Both of those trips also involved long bus rides, and the ride back from my boyfriend's site contains a good stretch down a steep mountain. I started to feel nauseous during that and, 8 hours later, threw up upon arriving to my house. Buses here drive crazily and roads are really rocky, so bus sickness is common. Another added cost of vacation, I suppose.

School starts again tomorrow, as does a visit from the previous volunteer in my site. Back to the grind.

Here are some pictures from last week when we made atol (that corn drink) with the Peace Corps trainee.
Even the boys helped shuck...Once more with Dana, the trainee who made me nostalgic for last SeptemberStraining boiled corn juice

That's all for now. Paz y amor! And DC, I read about your "heat wave." Enjoy your little taste of my life, only now imagine it without air conditioning.