Down with expectations

Yesterday, I went to a Salvadoran wedding and today I went to a birthday party. Both those things sound pretty awesome, but, as is often the case with events completely out of one's own culture, they were less fun in real life. I also went to a two hour missionary meeting yesterday. I thought that would be horrible, but it was actually fun. Go figure.

Don't get me wrong, there were good things about the wedding and party. Yesterday's bride was a sweet girl and a friend of mine in the community, and she was beautiful and the food was good. Although it would have been better without the dead bugs in my rice and Fresca. The wedding also entailed sitting through an hour of Mass (never fun) and sitting bored at a table afterwards because you don't feel like dancing although creepy old men keep asking you to. And of course there was no alcohol in sight to make the awkwardness go away. So I left as early as possible without being rude.

Then came the missionary meeting, which I had already said I would not attend due to the wedding. But when I got home early from the wedding, to my house which is unfortunately right next door to the church, I was roped into going. Background: a missionary group has taken over our Saturday youth group meetings this month, focusing them entirely on Catholocism and making them even more awkward for me. The worst part, I thought beforehand, is that instead of just tuning out of the Bible talk, I would actually have to participate in the missionary meetings because they had filled them with games and activities. I had horrible visions of being called on to explain what God means to me, why social liberals are going to hell, etc. But fortunately I just had to clap along to some religious songs, play some nonreligious games and explain why drugs are bad. There was a group that had to explain why abortion is bad. Luckily I was not assigned to it. Then we had soda and sweet bread. I got a piece with another dead bug attached. Is this some kind of a cruel joke?

That brings us to the birthday party today. It was for Suzanne, the previous volunteer who is here visiting, and a lot of other kids who were born in August. A lot of it was just sitting around waiting for things to happen...for the people to show up with the food, for things to be served, for the dancing to start or stop, etc. Those were the awkward patches, but most of the guests were members of my host family, so at least I knew everyone and it was fun overall.

Replacing a volunteer is hard when, as in my community, that volunteer is constantly praised and the new volunteer (me) is frequently compared to the previous one. But having Suzanne here has been nice because she's made me realize I'm not a horrible person for hating dances or not being able to spend a whole day with Salvadorans without getting bored or annoyed. Because it turns out so many of our problems and frustrations are the same.

Here are some wedding pictures:I didn't catch the kiss, my camera's shutter speed is too unreliable...this is just before. The bride's name is Alba and the girl is Carlos.
The first dance, complete with confetti

And here are some birthday photos...Suzanne and the kids, one of whom is a piñata.
Mmm cake.

Paz y amor!