Dangerous, Dumb and Strangely Fun

Summer vacation ended two weeks ago so I’m spending a lot of time at the local school. It’s a big adjustment just to understand the schools structure. It seems really madcap at first. And although I still rarely know what’s going on, I can sense things are settling down. I started a big worm-composting project in the school. I made it into a competition so that each class has their own worm box, but between over-zealous kids, hungry chickens and demon ants, I’ll be surprised if any ones worms live. If we do manage to make compost, we’re going to start a small tree nursery in the school.

Dad, Mom and Trina are officially coming to visit in March. I’m incredibly excited, as is my community. We’re putting together a comprehensive Salvadorian culinary and beach experience for them. And now that they have their non-refundable plane tickets booked, I can confess I found my first proper tarantula in my house.

I got a cesta which is a colorful woven basket that the women here take to the market. It’s like the Mary Poppin’s bag. It holds an insane amount of stuff. I proudly strutted home with my new purchase and my family starts laughing so hard they’re crying. Apparently only old women carry cestas. Well, my feelings were kind of hurt and anyways I love my cesta. So I told them, “Okay. I am an old woman and no one will ever marry me and I will never have kids,” which is exactly what you say to someone here if you want to get them all riled up. In fact it is one of my favorite trouble-making guilty pleasures to walk around town and confess to random people that I don’t ever want to have kids. They practically start sputtering. I get a kick out of it. And no one has commented on the cesta since.

Also, I discovered an exciting new aspect of my community’s night life! We have these three-wheeled golf-cart like vehicles that serve as taxis. It’s all the rage for the kids in town to pay a quarter and pile into these things and speed around town screaming at the top of their lungs. It’s a lot like stuffing as many people as you can in a phone booth, except the phone booth is completely open and careening down an unpaved road. It always looks kind of dangerous and dumb to me. Then someone paid my quarter and I discovered it is dangerous and dumb, but also strangely fun. Not unlike the Peace Corp in general.