Ok, I´m still alive!!

Ok. I´m still alive. I just checked my email and realized that I´ve received a lot of questions relating to why I haven´t posted anything in a while. Sorry. I´ve been busy!! So...here are some of the highlights from the last 3 weeks!!











I´m not good enough??
2 married volunteers in Sonsonate (the big city in my state) needed to finish a world map mural in one of the schools where they worked. Carmen, the wife, found out that she had a meeting in the capitol, so Tom asked me if I would be willing to be the "writer" for the country names and oceans. I was like, "OK. I can do that." And he said, "Well, how is your writing? Is it good?" And I was like, "It´s...normal..." And he said, "Maybe we should look at a little sample." and handed me a pen and paper. Carmen was like, "You´re making her AUDITION for this job??" I was laughing so hard...someone just like me!! Anyway, I passed. So the next day, we spent about 5 hours adding another coat in some countries, outlining the countries, and writing in all of the country names. Tom told me what each country was (in Spanish), and I wrote the names in. And the most memorable moment was when Tom picked up the can of blue paint and started painting over the names of the oceans because my font wasn´t good enough!!!

Ok...I´m leaving part of the story out...When we got to the oceans, he said, "Ok. The font needs to be bigger for the oceans." So we used a bigger marker and I wrote each in all caps. I told him that I didn´t like how it looked as we took a break for lunch and that my writing was much better when it was smaller. As we ate lunch, he said, "You know, I think it would look better smaller too." Anyway, I like leaving that part out when I´m talking to people that know him. It´s way funnier when they think he just went off on my work. :)







Baptist Event
A couple of weeks ago, about 10 Americans visited my site with an organization called Compassion International. These people were making sure the the church they supported was using the funds correctly and were meeting new kids that were going to be "sponsored" (basically receive money for schooling, supplies, etc.). It was crazy to realize that all of those commercials that we see on television for helping out needy kids were for the kids that I work with everyday. Anyway...it was a big eye opener and something I´ve thought about a lot since.











Just TRY it!!
When I was growing up, my friends used to always make fun of my cooking. Now, I still will proclaim that I can cook. However, a recent event led me back into all of those fun childhood memories...I decided I was really missing deviled eggs. I never really loved them in the states, but one day I started thinking about them and decided I just had to make some. So, after contacting various people to find out how to actually MAKE them, I went to the grocery store and purchased the necessary ingredients. I was thinking, "This will be great! I´ll make deviled eggs for this upcoming party at my house with the leaders of the Ministry of Education!" For some reason, I decided I would try out the recipe with a small number of eggs before going big-time, so one random afternoon, I hard boiled six eggs. Long story short...oh man. They were TERRIBLE. The mixture of the insides of the eggs with the mayonnaise and mustard was...well...interesting. And none of the white parts would stand up the way they´re supposed to. It looked like a plate full of regurgitated something. I don´t even know what to call it. And my friend was visiting, who had never had deviled eggs, and I was like, "Hey, do you want to try these? I love them!" And he took one look at the plate and was like, "I like you and don´t want to offend you, but that plate is the most disgusting looking thing I´ve ever seen. There is NO way I´m eating ANYTHING off that plate!" I was like, "Come on...it looks worse than it is..." Anyway, THAT memory will stick with me for awhile...











Music Lessons
This is SUPER exciting. I am teaching the band director how to write music and relationships between notes, etc. and he is teaching me how to play the trumpet!! During our first class, I played a full scale and was SOOOOOOO excited!! I almost sent an update the next day to everyone about it, until I realized that that was all I had to say. But anyway, I´m PSYCHED about this!! When I go back to the states, I´ll play a little something for all of you. (Ok....it will probably be something like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...but it´s SOMETHING!!) :)













A site visit...
After six months in my site, I finally decided to visit someone else in my group. I spent one night and the next day with fellow volunteer Rachel. We talked with people in her community, she gave me a tour, I sampled the pupusas in her site (I still contend my site has the best in the country), and we played cards. As we were waiting for the bus to take me away the next day, we had the following conversation:

Rachel: I think you should hang out with us when my family comes.

Michelle: Why?

Rachel: Because you remind me of my mom.

Michelle: Why?

Rachel: Because she LOVES playing cards and so do you and she´s really competitive. Competitive tot he point when we don´t want to play with her anymore. And then she lays this guilt trip on us about how she does all this stuff for us and how she only asks for one thing...for us to play cards with her...and then we play and have to deal again with how competitive she is.

Michelle: Yep. I think we would get along just fine. :)








Student Government
So, the director of the school told me that he thought it might be a good idea for me to work a bit with the student government. So I went to the first meeting. And OH MY GOODNESS. At the end of the meeting, I was like, "I´m the new advisor for this organization." I mean, I didn´t say that, but I was sure thinking it. Here is what happened:

President: Welcome. We need to do 2 things during this meeting. We need to elect representatives for the CDE and we need to elect the new directiva (leadership) of student government. Do you all want to have campaigns or do you want to decide here?

[They decided to decide in the meeting.]

President: Ok. We´ll start with the student government leadership. Raise your hand if you want to be on the leadership team.

[No one raises a hand.]

President: Ok. We´ll go around the room. [to person #1] Who do you think would be good?

[Person #1 chooses someone. Selected person declines. This continues for about 1/4 of the room.]

Michelle: Can you explain what student government is and what each position does?

President: Student government is the organization that represents students. The president runs the meetings. The vice president runs the meetings when the president isn´t available. The secretary records what happens at meetings. The treasurer keeps track of the money, because we have money. And the other person is an alternate.

["Nominations" continue...finally people start accepting. 5 people accept.]

President: Ok. We have 5 people. Nominations are closed.

Michelle: Why? We can write more names on the board if people have interest.

[No one else raises their hand for interest.]

President: Person #1, who do you want to vote for?

Person #1: Alex.

[President makes a mark next to Alex´s name.]

Michelle: What position are we voting for??

President: President. Person #2, who do you want to vote for?

Person #2: Alex.

[President makes a mark next to Alex´s name.]

Michelle: Let´s do a secret vote.

[Voting goes...blah blah blah...Alex wins...President writes "president" next to Alex´s name, "vice president next to the person´s name who received the 2nd highest number of votes, "secretary" next to 3rd, etc.]

Michelle: What happens if someone who gets secretary doesn´t want to be secretary?

President: Then that person can choose another person to replace him/her.

[And the meeting continues in this manner for about another hour.]

Let´s just say we have already had a meeting in my house with the leadership group and we are now in the process of writing a constitution. :)











Parent Meeting
About every 3 months, there is a parent meeting in the school when the director talks about stuff that´s going on. For the first meeting of the year, about 600 parents showed up. So the director reviewed the budget for the year, talked about projects, and elections were held for alternates on the school board. Then the director gave a brief overview of me and why I´m here again and asked me to explain what projects I´m working on. I talked about English and Internet. After about 5 minutes of explaining the English project, I said, "Do you understand what I´m saying?" And like 5 people shouted, "Yes!" with much energy. And I was like, "PUCHIKA!! I´ve been here for 6 months and 5 out of 600 of you understand me!! Well, after the meeting these 5 people can explain to the rest of you what I´m talking about!!" :) Everyone was DYING laughing. Guess I need my regular reminder of how far I have to go with the Spanish...

Ok. I think this has been quite long enough...I´m sure there will be plenty of new good stories soon... :)

Miss ya!!
M