Feliz 2010!

Hola! I hope everyone has had an exceptional holiday season! Thank you so much to my amazing family and friends that sent down so much wonderful stuff! The Leggett familys´Salvadoran soccer balls have been a HUGE hit, and I´m looking forward to bringing the new children books to the school tomorrow. To those of you who kindly donated Hacky-sacks, I will post video soon if I can figure it out. The kids were all about it! I was suprised how patient they were as they tried to learn. They are ideal toys because the kids can take them with them anywhere. Muchísimas gracias a todos! Christmas was so much fun and it wouldn´t have been so special without dad and Jamie down here. Everyone fell in love with them, (particularly tall, blonde, Jamie! haha) and to this day my friends and family here are talking about how much they loved their visit. Now they´re just waiting for Mom!

To be honest, I felt a little bit down following all the excitement and entertainment of Christmas and New Years with Dad and Jamie. But now I´m shifting gears and getting ready for the new school year that starts tomorrow. The kids are really excited about getting back. When MC kids aren´t in school that usually means a lot more work to pick up as part of the family, working in the corn field, harvesting mango, perpetually sweeping dust out of the house, taking care of younger sibblings so they welcome the return to classes.

Oddly, it feels a lot like Fall in Pennsylvania here the past week or so. It´s sunny and beautiful, very windy, and brown fallen leaves crunch under your feet. The dust is a little out of control though. It´s hard to ever feel truely clean as a result but I´m getting over it. Mangoes tiernos are in great abundance. One of my favorite activities lately is hiking up into the hills with my clan of kids to knock down the the fruit from the trees, relax in the shade, and eat crunchy green mangoes with salt and hot sauce.

With the start of school comes the start of some of my projects that will finally get set into motion. For starters, we will have the Montecristo Girls Youth Group. Initially I had thought this up as a co-ed group but the more time I spend with the mixed crowd, I realize both teenage girls and boys are ten times quieter and embarrassed about talking about anything in front of the opposite sex. If the boys express interest in forming their own group, I will be more than happy to collaborate with them. For the younger kids, I will be offering weekly art classes at the school, after classes, open to anyone whose interested. Lastly, we will have our English class group which will be meeting twice a week in the morning. The English group will participate in a classroom exchange with my good friend, Señora Foster, a top-notch Spanish teacher from back in PA. We plan to match up kids for a penpal program and cultural exchange. It will be really cool; I can´t wait to get rolling with it!!!

In other news, today I am buying a bike here in the big town. I was hesitant to buy a $70 bike on my meager Peace Corp pay, however, the more I think about it, the more I realize how incredibly practical and multi-functional this investment will be. Now I will be able to ride my bike to Ciudad Dolores (about 45 mins-1 hr), leave it at the mayor´s office, and take a microbus into Sensuntepeque where I come for internet and all my shopping needs. This means I will no longer be locked into leaving in the morning at 6:30 and coming back at 1:00 because I won´t need to take the bus! There are quite a few other people who have bikes, so who knows, maybe we could get a bike club rolling in the future. (Mom, I know you could help me with that!) Lastly, I´ve been wanting to get more excercise in lately so in conclusion, this purchase is completely and totally justified. Right?

On that note, I´m going to get on my way. Next time I´m in I will post pictures from the holidays, all I have with me now are a few from our last mango outing. Hope you are all well and excited for the new year!