"Provecho!"

The beach on a rare, sunny day

            That's what we always say at each meal. I know it's going to be hard to leave this program and not eat three meals a day with the same people. We are very sarcastic and joke around, but we don't complain about everything, all of which I love. This weekend was chill. I went running and played soccer on the beach with the girls and some guys who came up and wanted to play soccer with us. I got darker too, after a sunburn. Lucky we have an aloe vera plant next door so I used it up. One girl said it smells like chicken soup which I disagree with but I can't say it smells nice. Last we watched "Born into Brothels", a documentary about a photographer who teaches the children of prostitutes how to take pictures, and manages to send them to boarding schools but only two end up staying. It was relevant to our project in some ways. I came here being optimistic about non profit work, which I still am. However, there are so many outside factors that can pull kids away from the workshops we offer. Some of them have to work or take care of their parents, for example.
          Today I woke up for an early run on the beach, wchih is nice because there are less people out to give you weird looks that you are running for the sake of running. Also I probably look funny because of the head band I always wear. Whatevs! I need to get out! On that note, today we decided on an excursion we are taking in two weeks...the choices were A. Organic farm without electricity (and somehow they told us sawdust would be involved) or B. Beach town/whales mating/national park/islands with Galapagos species. BBBBB!!!! I feel like we are already doing organic living because our water shuts off and we are used to taking 2 minute showers.

Fake mexican food with a 'frutilla' yoghurt drink.
I'm just happy they had hot sauce.

           Today for class we went to the local grocery store to compare the products sold here to those back home. The products here are more fruity, and they don't really sell as much meat as I thought they would. They have tons of fruit drinks (some with oatmeal) and soda such as Inca Cola, which Erica said is like candy on crack. They have prices on the local things, but not on the imported stuff often times. None of the alcoholic beverages have price tags on them. Also, spaghetti here costs about 4 times as much because it's imported. Also, they sell huge 5 liter waters with pictures of babies on them that we have been drinking because we don't have matches to turn on the stove and boil water with. Also the water is from wells so I still wouldn't feel okay just boiling it.

Meat, plantains, green bean salad, and rice.
Why don't I just start a food blog?

         Also, for an exercise we talked with Jorge (from Monterrey, Mex) and Juan Carlos (from Puerto Rico) to talk about their favorite foods from home. Jorge liked goat, which is really popular. He also says he would eat dulce de leche in a tortilla. Weird. I might have to try that. They only have flour tortillas here....I have really come to appreciate corn tortillas. Juan Carlos likes mofongo, which is a mashed up plantain/meat dish that he says is really hard to make. My mouth watered just hearing them describe the bacalao (cod), pasteles (Puerto Rican tamale type things), and menudo. It was neat hearing what Jorge and I had in common because we put lime in our soups and remember eating chilaquiles for breakfast. Soon came lunch, and the most eventful part was that we saw a huge crowd of school kids run to the beach because there was a fight or something going on. Later that night there would be a huge crowd in the same spot to watch the surfers at dusk :)
        The workshop with the high schoolers was challenging. We had to brainstorm a lot and really dig through how to write a story and include twists and turns. Then we worked on making floorplans from observing the set of a spanish movie. After dinner I watched a little bit of the Greece/Ecuador soccer game in an attempt to get into it. Fail. Both sides seemed so apathetic and just kept passing the ball to each other. The last game I watched was Spain play in the world cup so I probably have too much to compare it to. I came to the apartment and the cleaning lady totally rearranged everything. She also hid the extension chord we have that lets me plug in the fan in our room and to charge my lap top. -___-!!! ugh. If I had left my clothes out she probably would have even folded them. The search continues.