My Fun Life_archives

So. Monday night. English class. We were one class away from the last class, where diplomas are awarded, etc. And I gave the students a test to see how much (or little) they’d learned in the last 8 weeks. The test took them about an hour to complete, because I made them answer everything in complete sentences and there were multiple parts to the test. The class is usually 2 hours long, so as they were finishing, they were asking if we were going to do anything else. "Como no", I replied, which is, "Of course!" We heard some rumblings in the sky and some students asked if we were going to leave. I said, "Whatever you want to do." That was the WRONG answer!!

We decided to stay and sure enough, within about 15 minutes, BUCKETS of water started pouring down - onto the aluminum roof, making it impossible to hear ANYTHING. Additionally, there were leaks EVERYWHERE so everyone started huddling together to stay dry. We kind of hung out for about 30 minutes, hoping we could wait it out, but instead of the rain stopping, the electricity went out - in the ENTIRE town. So now, we were all under this loud weeping aluminum roof not able to see. I had my trusty little LCD light on my keychain (THANKS SYLVIA) that lit 2 feet in front of us. And, I was the only one who brought an umbrella in the off chance it might rain. So, 20 people in pitch blackness with water raining down and no umbrellas. We dispersed, most people just dealing with it and running home. I was left with 2 women that lived relatively close to me, so we huddled together under my umbrella and started walking, with me "lighting" the way. There was SO much water; we were constantly avoiding the rivers that were created. Finally, we reached the first woman’s house. She had to cross a stream to get inside. Then, I walked woman #2 to her house (away from mine), and she too had to cross a stream to get inside. I was like, "Oh, here we go." So I walked back towards my house, fully expecting to encounter a stream of my own. I didn’t.

What awaited me was a freaking LAKE that I needed to wade through to get home. At that moment, the lightning when crazy, and lit up the town as if were daytime for about 20 seconds and I was shocked, again, to see that it wasn’t even a lake. It was a freaking white water rapid! Now, I’m known for always falling out or off of adventurous things, so this didn’t look to appealing to me. But, I looked in all directions and all I saw was rain and pitch blackness. What were my options? NO ONE else was anywhere to be seen. So, in I went. The water came up to my calves (luckily I was wearing flip flops and rolled my pants up) and was running with a mad current. Because it’s normal here to just throw trash anywhere, I got the added pleasure of having all kinds of trash run into me with the water. I was SO grossed out and just thought, "Ok, I only have to go like 2 blocks in this."

I felt like Elaine from the Seinfeld episode where she has to go across town with the huge box and poster and can’t damage the poster because it’s a gift. I had all the English exams in my bag, holding it RIGHT under the top of the umbrella, trying to balance myself as I waded through what became the knee-deep water that was trying to pull me in with all its might. Mud, rocks, and trash, all the while, bumping into my legs.

I FINALLY (I have no idea how) managed to get inside my house, which, like all the others had no electricity. And then I had the pleasure of going outside, again, to go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and wash my face. (And, on the way out, I ran into my frog friends that have found shelter and adventure in my house.) I guess this means the rainy season has officially begun... :)

If you want to see what else I`ve been up to, click here.

Posted by Michelle at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (13)

Welcome to entry number one here in developingwords.org! For those of you that just stumbled upon this webpage, let me explain (1) who I am and (2) why you should continue coming back to this page!

WHO I AM
My name is Michelle and I am currently serving as a youth development Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador. I grew up in the midwest (Iowa, Ohio, and Illinois), went to college at The Ohio State University, and then ended up designing databases for companies (mainly my marketing firm) and taking wedding photographs. And I loved all of it! But, each day, I felt that there was something missing; something more that I needed to do. So, after two and a half years, I decided to apply for the Peace Corps and here I am.

WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT THIS PAGE ALL THE TIME
From your perspective, you should continue visiting to laugh it up, allowing you to relieve stress, enjoy life more, and live longer. (Ok...I might be stretching just a little...) From my perspective, you should come visit so that the projects I’m working on get more funding! (Each time you visit, we receive money for our projects.) Those two reasons should be reason enough, right? :) I will try to post updates at least once a week, but there will probably be a few times when it stretches to once every 2 weeks. (Internet access is...well...harder to get here sometimes.)

Just to show you that you WILL end up laughing a bit, I’m going to include some stories that have happened in the past. This should give you a taste of what is to come...

SEPTEMBER 2005: INTRODUCTION TO IZALCO
So, during one of my visits to the ice cream shop in Izalco (my municipality), I met about 10 students from one of the schools. We all got along really well, so they invited me to a presentation the following Saturday in the center of town (right in front of the mayor’s office), where they were going to perform a dance. I guess every Saturday this month, they’re having presentations by 2 schools in the center of town, to celebrate their Independence. So I went. And the presentation was pretty cool because they had matching bands, dancers, and speakers. So, after the bands marched in and a couple of people spoke, it started raining. So HUNDREDS of onlookers ran for cover. Half ended up under one of two tents and the other half went under the overhang of the mayor’s office. The presentation was suspended for about 5 minutes while volunteers moved the two tents together in front of the stage (the front of the mayor’s office). So I moved to be under the tent with the other community members so we could watch the presentations. I was thinking, "Well, I did bring my umbrella in case this happened...too bad it’s in my backpack in my host family’s car!" Anyway, the tent offered enough cover for us. But about halfway through the event, I noticed that people were moving away from the front so I looked up and saw that all of this water was gathering in the fabric, causing a big bulge to form and water to come in to where we were standing. I was fine where I was standing, but it was causing people on the perimeter to be pushed into the rain. I looked around and realized that I was at least a foot to a foot and a half taller than most of the people there and I could probably reach the top of the tent. So I decided to help out. At the same moment I decided to fix this, another guy, close to my height, got the same idea and stood right where I was going to stand. He wasn’t quite tall enough, though, to reach the top of the tent, so he just tried pushing on the big bulge, which did absolutely nothing to fix the problem. So I walked over to the area, faced him, reached up to the top of the tent and started pulling while he pushed on the big bulge. At this point, everyone was really happy we were fixing this, so we were the center of attention for these hundreds of people. (Again, there was a slight pause in the program so people could resume standing under the tent.) I tried pulling lightly at first, but I couldn’t move anything, so I just yanked the fabric with all of my force and ...WHOOSH! Like FIVE TO TEN GALLONS of water just gets DUMPED on me!! And the crowd goes CRAZY!! Screaming, yelling, clapping, laughing, pointing, etc. Everything you can possibly imagine when a crowd goes crazy. And I just start laughing (I mean, after the total shock wore off!). And I couldn’t stop. And the crowd was right there with me - laughing their butts off. So I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "Well, it’s fixed! And by the way...I’ll be living here for 2 years. My name is Michelle." Nice intro. So now I’m the giant gringa with a few water problems. Buy hey...at least I know they’ll remember me, right?

OCTOBER 2005: THE SEARCH FOR UNDIES
I'm telling ya. This country is crazy when it comes to underwear sales. I mean, seriously. Does anyone really buy underwear without trying it on first?? I guess I'm sending these questions out to the women reading this, because you guys probably settle for the fruit of the loom package stuff. But girls buy underwear separately. And we look for lots of things. Comfort. Color. Fit. Style. Style is very important. Although I guess it is tied to comfort...for me at least. Anyway, I don't want to be spending money on stuff like that without trying it on first. And that's totally normal! I'm not talking trying on stuff totally naked. Seriously. That's disgusting. But trying on stuff OVER the underwear for the day? Completely normal. Well...in El Salvador...apparently, it's not so normal. During the last 5 days, I've visited every major mall in the city, every store I could find that sells underwear, selected a few pairs to try on, and watched EVERY salesperson look at me like I'm crazy and respond, "You want to TRY THESE ON? No. You're only allowed to try on bras." WHAT is that all about?? Maybe if I was like a size 4 or something, I would be fine with that. But since I'm already a giant here, I think I want to make sure stuff fits! Who wants to go home and find out that their new purchase acts more like a thong than the comfortable coverage they were looking for?? Not me. So I've been working off the pair I wore in on Saturday. I'm sure that sounds terrible to some of you clean freaks, but it wasn't so bad. I mean, I was having my period and all, so it's not like anything was actually TOUCHING the underwear I was wearing...just the pad was touching it. So I was using more of like....an underwear "holder" and the pads changed frequently. Anyway, today I decided, that's it. I've come to the limit of how long I can wear one pair of underwear. So Marie and I visited quite a number of stands in the market. And I ended up buying a package of 12 pairs varying from medium to extra large. It was $5 for the package, so I guess when you get to the point of being sick of wearing something, you're willing to buy what you haven't tried on. Anyway. I guess you know enough about my underwear situation now.

...AND MY FRIEND MATT´S RESPONSE...
Wow. And I am only going to say this once, but the whole underwear thing: You were the POSTER CHILD for why you CAN'T try on panties before you buy them.

You have inadvertently led me to the SINGLE example in the history of mankind of "why guys are cleaner than women." Trying on undies, then not buying them is like wiping someone else's butt! No way dude! Buy them in a sterile package, know that no one has intentionally or inadvertently . . . dirtied them (especially important for men with the hygiene skills of a three year old), then put them back for an unsuspecting customer to buy and wear! Nope, I want to know that no one else's body odor, body hair, PAD!!!, or body ANYTHING has ever touched my undies.

Just one man's opinion. By the way, I do hope you are enjoying your new skivvies!

Hope to see you back soon!
M

Posted by Michelle at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (8)