Birthdays, Swimming pools, and watermelon jack-o-lanterns

So not long after my last post, I recieved the new that my grandfather passed away in the states. So I was able to forward vacation days and fly to New Orleans to be with my family for 6 days. Although it was under sad circumstances, it was still really nice to see everyone and be in a comfort zone with them for a little while. Its shocking how different things are in the United States in comparison to El Salvador. I can´t begin to explain it.
After being home with my family, coming back was tough, I´ll admit. It was a good week though in my community because we had just started to use the new basketball court. I play basketball much better that I do softball, or soccer, the sports most often played here, so I was pretty excited about the popularity of the basketball court. Plus, its a smaller social space than the soccer field so its a really great place to go just to talk to people, meet people, and hang out.
I went to a rodeo that week, too. It was quite an interesting day. I didn´t know the word for rodeo in spanish and it wasnt in the dictionary so I didn´t even know what I was going to see... and I wasn´t able to meet up with the person I went to meet up with... and my phone was dead... so I saw a rodeo by myself, haha. Some of you whom I´ve talked to know some more interesting details of that story!
I met several times with a lot of women who are interested in learning a trade and forming a cooperative. We have talked about a lot of ideas and I think we will end up forming a few smaller groups so they can do what they are interested in.... for example, some want to embroider and make bags, tablecloths, etc. others want to start a bakery, and others want to make jewelry and artesania. This will be a continuous project for me so we´ll see what happens. I also went with a group of women from the communitu to San Salvador for a women´s march for the international day of the woman. We left really early in the morning, but our bus got a flat tire.... then we walked up a huge hill, and eventually we made it to San Salvador and marched in the march. It was really cool that so many women went and wanted to celebrate and stand up for their rights. The organization that paid for the bus also gave each women money for lunch, so thankfully a lot of women were able to go because of that.
So my birthday is in October, so several of my friends and I net up in San Salvador for one night and had cake and champagne and celebrated my birthday as well as some other october birthdays. It was super fun and great to see the other volunteers. For my actual birthday I was in my site, but one of my volunteer friends came to visit me for a few days. It was nice to be able to show where I live to someone! I was so surprised and excited because a few of my girlfriends that live in my community threw me a birthday party! It was a surprise and they blindfolded me and we had a cake and they made sandwiches for everyone, we danced, etc. Parties are expensive, so I was so grateful and it made me feel really loved! The next day I went to the birthday party for a little boy, and that night a friend of mine invited me over to have cake at her house for her birthday.... so I had a lot of birthday cake in the span of a few days....
The next week I had a general assembly in my community, with the help of someone from the Peace Corps office, to explain to the community who I am, what is Peace Corps, the environmental education program, what I can and can´t do for the community, etc. I was nervous to speak so much in front of a lot of people in spanish, but I think I did a good job and it was a success.
The next weekend I went to Molineros, my old host community during training, to celebrate the birthdays of the grandmother and the little girl in that family.... more birthdays! So we went on a trip to some swimming pools and it was lovely! The little girl , Sindy, got quite a lot of use out of the mermaid doll I gave her for her birthday at the swimming pools. They swim in shorts and tshirts, so I´ve got a rockin shirt-shorts tan. That night we had more birthday cake! It was SO nice to visit my other host community and spend time with them.
The NEXT week, this week, actually yesterday.... I went with Catherine, the other volunteer who is still finishing up her time at my site, and a group of kids, on an excursion to some swimming pools in Suchitoto. They are right next to the lake, so its a really pretty place. We spent the entire day there and we all had an awesome time. However, I got bit several times by some bug called a Conga, and the welts are huge and they itch like crazy..... I guess bug bites are old news....
SO yesterday was halloween, and even though they don´t celebrate halloween here, Catherine had a little halloween party at her house with the family she lives with. We did bobbing for apples, pin the nose on the witch, and we carved jack -o- lanterns out of watermelons. We also did face painting so the kids all looked like monsters, skeletons, animals, etc. It was hilarious.
So TODAY at five o clock in the morning my host sister woke me up and asked me if I wanted to see them kill a pig. So they got the pig and tied it up so it was hanging with its back legs in the air. Then they cut a hole in its neck where the artery is I guess and let it bleed out.... they kept the blood... they said were going to eat it.... hmmmm...... Im not sure about that. Ok so then I went to the pasture to bring the cows with my host sister, but when I got back the pig was relatively hairless. They were throwing boiling water on it and shaving off the hair. When it was completely shaved they cut off strips of skin and fat off the outside. The whole process took a really long time so I missed the rest of the chopping up of the meat while I was bathing. Too bad... I guess we´re having pork for lunch!