Last night we had dinner at a local campo (like countryside) house with a past becaria student. We were at her parents' house and they have 11 kids! I like about 9 of them were there. It was a typical campo house, very wide open with a few small rooms and lots of people and animals. We all received hugs and some kisses haha. Christina, the past becaria student, had lots of ice-breaker games planned for all of us. They were so much fun. First we all stood in a circle, said our name and then had to say the name of everyone that went before us. If you forgot one of the names (there were like 25 of us) then you had to pick from the hat of punishments which was basically embarrassing things you had to do. Next we played a game where someone would say "everyone who is...." (i.e. wearing a red shirt, wearing sandals, etc.) then you had to run around and find a new seat. And believe me, that room was so small and we were all crashing into each other. Since the World Cup is big here, the next two games involved soccer. The first one, we all sat in a circle and had to pass a small soccer ball around the circle with our feet. And the final game was outside and we all had to shout little phrases as fast and loudly as we could. One group said "pass the ball", another said "kick out the ref" and the final group said something else...I can't remember. It was really fun, loud and crazy. Our final game was "find someone who.." and then you walked around the room finding someone who fit the description on the game paper. FINALLY, we sat down to get some food. One of the sons, Michael, spoke to us all about his experiences. He is currently studying medicine in Cuba through a scholarship program from the Cuban government. He taught us a lot of valuable information about Cuba's health care system, El Salvador's system and how they compare. He was very nice and intelligent. Eventually the whole thing turned into a discussion about Cuba's government and how poorly the United States talks about it and most of what the US says are lies. It was an extremely long conversation and a lot of the family spoke. The food was from a restaurant near the Casas and I didn't really like it at all so I only took a few bites. BUT our Casa cooks made a lot of cookies so I ate a ton of those and some hot chocolate. After the food the family put on a little concert for us. Christina sarcastically introduced them saying stuff like "the famous...the one and only...here for the greatest concert in the world..." haha she was extremely enthusiastic, loud, funny and really great. They were all really good guitar players and singers. Everyone started dancing and it was really fun.  We didn't leave until 11:30 at night!

Today we woke up to take a tour of the national cathedral. It was so cool. The upper level is where Oscar Romero was murdered and where most of the rich Salvadorans attend mass. It was very fancy and much nicer than I thought it would be. The lower level is where the poorer population attend mass because that is where Oscar Romero's tomb is located. His tomb was a little creepy but a very peaceful area. On the way out we went to the front of the cathedral to take photos from the outside. There was a homeless in the middle of the busy street taking a shit. It was probably the most disgusting thing that I have ever seen. Diarrhea and all...EWWW! After he was finished he proceeded to sit on the ground and crawl while scratching his butt along the road...just like how dogs scratch their butt sometimes. SO GROSS!





Anyways....After this we meet with a woman named Guadalupe who had survived the war in the rural area. She was a very nice older Salvadoran woman with a lot to tell. We meet her at a local monument. It was a large wall of the names of the people that were murdered or disappeared in the war.

After meeting Guadalupe we drove up to the top of the San Salvador volcano. We ate lunch at this BEAUTIFUL cafe. The seating was all outside under huge orange trees and there were all different levels. The view was amazing. You could see like the whole country.The food was great and I drank fresh squeezed orange juice from oranges right on their land. After lunch we drove further up the mountain/volcano to a lookout point and the top of the crater. The drive was fun...there were little kids selling fresh raspberries and other fruits along the road. One little boy tried to race our vans. The roads were very windy and there were coffee bean trees everywhere. I felt like I was in the rain forest. The one lookout point looked over all of San Salvador. The city is HUGE! I have so many great pictures that I want to put up but I cant fit too many on here. The volcano crater was a little higher up so we hiked there on some, obviously man made, stairs. It was pretty steep. The crater was so deep and large. Because we are in the rainy season everything is super lush green. Otherwise its pretty dusty and brown I guess.

I will type some more later. (once again...i didn't proofread sorry) Adios!