Listening

Sometimes the Sisters don´t listen to me. This is very frustrating and I think is the reason my shower still isn´t fixed after 3 weeks. (some sort of wiring problem between the light and the shower - I can´t use both at the same time or the lights in my room turn off along with the lights in the kitchen, the dining room, and the work room of the house. Yea, weird. So I´ve been showering by candle light.) Here is my most recent example of them not listening to me.

I am asking a clarification question on what has already been said.
Me: So the teachers want to change the schedule of classes for next year?
Sister: No, this year is over.
Me: Right, so they want to change the schedule for next year.
Sister: Yes.

sigh.

Working Door

I never did say what happened with the door to my room, but it`s all fixed now. Swings open and closed without effort and the doorknob locks and unlocks just like it`s supposed to. :) Good times.

Empanada

The other day I went about my merry way with the Interna´s doing their chores when one of the Interna´s - Eva - approached me while eating an Empanada. She offered me a bite and I took one. Quite tasty. Basically, it was cream inside a corn mixture wrapped in a banana leaf. Must have been cooked in a stove, it was good.

When I told Eva I liked it, she offered to bring me some from her home. I said that would be fabulous, so a few days later her mom brought Soli and I 3 Empanadas each. These, however, were a bit different. They were filled with cream on the inside of a corn mixture, but then they were fried in oil (I think deep fried is more accurate) and rolled in sugar. Oh my aching arteries (and waistline)! I ate one. That was enough. At least they are small. All I could think of was a deep fried Twinkie and how the oil squishes out of the empanada just like it would on a twinkie. Yeah. Dripping with oil.

So, I read a little about empanadas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empanada#El_Salvador
Not surprisingly, the term in El Salvador can be used to mean appetizer or dessert, and they have changed what used to be similiar to a pasty from the UP (nice, healthy, meaty meal) into a sweet heart attack machine.

I learned early on in my stay here that a quesadilla here is very sweet as well. Nothing like the cheese filled tortillas I´m used to in the States. But then, they do love their sweets here.

Goodbye Play

The students put on a play in honor of Solidea leaving. They did this Thursday morning and the play, while overly long and poorly put together, also had nothing to do with Solidea leaving and was incredibly creepy. They actually acted out a play on CD. You can listen to some tracks at http://store.mercadocristiano.com/obmubpaclpe.html . I recommend track #3, imagine listening to these voices echoing off gymnasiasm walls - very disturbing. A nice thought, but really disturbing. While watching the play, I leaned over to Solidea and said, ¨I think they want you to leave.¨;)

Dancing

Solidea is leaving very soon - next Wednesday! I am so very sad! On the plus side, the Interna´s wanted to put together a couple dances for her so I´m helping choregraph one and I get to dance as well. We´ve been dancing for the last hour or so and those girls are a hoot! We should dance everynight! (which we have been for the last week)

Since the second song is a mix of songs, there are 2 Michael Jackson songs, so I did the choreography for those since what the girls initially put together was terrible. As an example of one of the moves they used for the Thriller song, think of Tim Allen´s movie Galaxy Quest and how the aliens walked - that was a good chunk of their choreography. No worries, I have changed all that. The best part is teaching the moves to the girls. I borrowed a lot of the moves directly from the MJ videos and didn´t realize the girls have never done any moves like that before. Very funny to watch them try! Teaching them was a challenge, so I simplified most of the moves, but even walking to the beat has proven to be a challenge!

I can´t wait until Tuesday when we perform these for Solidea. Solidea will have her camera so there will be video (I told her to ¨be prepared¨ for Tuesday night, but it´s still a ¨secret.¨ Yeah, she already knows).

Licuado

Fabulous! I like very much. Basically smoothies, but simpler. Take a fruit, add water or milk, a little bit of vanilla flavoring, put it all in a blender and blend! They like to add sugar here too, but I usually have it without, because it´s not necessary, but they sure do like their sugar here! Licuados, I love them. My favorites are bananas and milk. It´s so simple! This will come home with me. Now if we only had coconut vendors at home, fresh coconut milk from coconuts recently knocked off the tree is right there with Licuados!

When the Washing Machine stops working. . .

. . . your clothes smell really bad.

Soli and I put our clothes in the washing machine yesterday. Then we turned it on. When it finished, our clothes smelled terrible! Really, really, bad. It seems it didn´t actually clean our clothes, but took the worst smelling, added a smell enhancer, then spread it around to all the other clothes in the machine. Ugh!

So we left the clothes in the machine, added more soap, and turned the machine back on. The second time they smelled clean, which is definitely preferable. I think I´ll wash my clothes more frequently by hand so we can avoid the use of the slowly deteriorating washing machine.