The Drill Sargent...

Hey everyone! Well, I´ve made it through another week here in San Isidro. Good news for all. :)

This week was AWESOME!! On Friday, I attended a youth camp for all of the new youth group members. Their youth group here is ROCKIN´!! Everyone is SO motivated and energetic - I LOVE it!! And the leadership skills that these kids have are mind-blowing. I was constantly surprised all weekend with what they could do! But I think the funniest thing that happened was Saturday morning. The camp started on Friday morning at 8 AM in the high school in my town. Kids came from all over; there were multiple towns involved in the camp. Anyway, we had team-building, leadership, communication, etc. activities and presentations for the whole day and at night, the kids put on skits and then we had a dance. It was SO fun!! And after the dance, we sat in a huge circle and reflected on the activities of the day and what went well and what didn´t. It was really good, but we didn´t end up getting to bed until 2 in the morning! So some of the kids decided not to sleep at all, because we had to get up the next day at 4 AM!! So the next day comes and we all get up. Everyone had to take their bucket baths then (that´s a HOOT...taking 3 minutes in 60 degree weather to pour ice cold water over your already freezing body in the dark!!). I opted to wait until after the first session - aerobics. So while everyone else was showering, I just kind of hung out and talked to people, eagerly awaiting the aerobics. Well, it was time to start at 5:30, so we all lined up to start. And the military Sargent walks up to the front of everyone and says he´s going to lead us in "exercises". Uh huh. Just what I want to see at 5:30 AM. A Sargent from the military ready to kick our butts into shape!! :) So he has us start with 30 jumping jacks. But of course, there is 1 person that doesn´t do all of them. So we move to 50. Again, there is someone that doesn´t do all of them. So we start over and go to 75. Again, someone doesn´t do them. So I think at this point he realized he was dealing with a group of 50 kids and was never going to get a perfect record (meaning we would be doing jumping jacks for the next 2 hours straight), so he told us to do 30 again...perfectly. Thank god we were able to pull it together enough to finish! So then we move to push-ups. Uh huh. We start with 10. And not everyone does them. So we move to 20. Not everyone does them. At this point, I think he gave up and was like, "Ok. We´re moving onto aerobics." So it wasn´t so bad after all!! So we start aerobics (you know I LOVE those!) and we get to song number 2, when Jose Manuel, the director of the high school, asks me to come to the front and lead everyone. (The words, "Oh, here we go...Hey Benny! Someone asked Gullett to lead exercises! This is going to be some good stuff!!" just left my friend Katie´s lips.) :) So I jump up in front and just start going to town. We´re running all over the place, jumping up and down like crazy, turning around, etc. and I´m loving every minute of it!! And the kids start slowing down as time goes on, which of course just energizes me more!! So it got to the point when about 50% of the kids were no longer participating, so I decided it was probably time to cool down. So we did, I got down and joined them, and they were like, "Man!! My legs HURT!!" And I responded, "Good!! Then we did well!!" :) It was some good stuff!! Although I think it might be a bad sign that they think I´m harder than the drill Sargent... :)

Anyway, when I got home on Saturday afternoon, I just collapsed in my bed and slept for 15 hours! It was SOO nice!! Other than that, I´ve just been meeting people like crazy and exploring the area. Oh, and earlier in the week, I visited a tourist location called Cerro Verde (Green Hill). Oh my goodness. The view is BREATHTAKING from there! And that´s saying A LOT coming from me...I´m usually the "Yeah, I can see a photo" kind of girl when it comes to good views. But seriously...it´s AMAZING! If you want to come visit sometime, we´re going there for sure!! :)

And one last thing. Since I don´t get to the capital much, it´s probably better to send letters and packages to the following address until January (when I´ll get a PO Box...although the San Salvador address will still work; it will just take longer to get to me):

Michelle Gullett
Correos de Izalco
2 C Oriente BO Asuncion #2
Izalco, Sonsonate
El Salvador, C.A.

Well, I hope you´re all doing well!! I miss you!!

Oh and one last thing...I just found out recently that a friend´s husband committed suicide. So if you could think of her and send some positive energy, I know she´d appreciate it!!

Lots of love!