EL SAlvador

Dear Legions of Loyal Readers,

A quick scroll through my blog of late shows that my focus has been 2 things: various beasts and food. While this is a pretty accurate depiction of what is going on in my head 99% of the time, I've wantonly neglected updating you all on what I've actually been up to down here in salvo-land.

Project-wise, it's been business as usual. Tricia, Mike and I continue our work with the HIV youth group, and in the past 2 months had the kiddos travel to our respective schools and educate their peers on HIV/AIDS prevention. I was very impressed with the amount they know about HIV and their confidence and maturity in replicating the activities with their classmates. Now I'm in the process of recruiting 2 teachers to take the helm on the project when I leave so that the project isn't dead in the water.

students replicating an HIV prevention charla!

Last weekend Tricia, Mike, Jamie, Tyler and I brought students from our schools to a town called Alegria for a "bro" camp. Basically, we spent 2 nights in Alegria, which is a really cool, pretty town on the top of an extinct volcano, doing things such as sex education, gender equality activities, hiking to the nearby crater lake, and having race days and soccer tournaments. Camps are such a great mini project down here because they give us the opportunity to work together (and nothing is better than being able to pass the baton or just spend 15 minutes bitching in English with another PCV when you're at risk of bludgeoning one of your jovenes with a day-old tortilla), but it's also a great way to take campo kids who maybe have never left the community to another part of the country, teach them some new stuff, and let them make new friends. This was the last camp I'll get a chance to do in Peace Corps, and it was by far the smoothest, most enjoyable one, so I was really happy with it.

Last week we ALSO got our formal invitation to our COS (close of service) conference. My training group, which consists of myself, Tricia, Jamie, Tyler, Andrew, and Kara, will be eligible to finish our time as PCVs starting August 14...2.5 short short months away. On the one hand, the time has dragged by at a snails pace and I can't believe the amount of experiences, activities, and both torturous and wonderful moments that have been packed into these 2 years. On the other hand, time has FLOWN by and I feel like I got here just a few short months ago, fresh out of college and ready for some real world experience. I promise to write a more introspective, end of service blog post sometime soon, but I just wanted to let all of you who have been waiting to start your "Elsa is back in the US" countdowns for some time now that the end is in sight!!

Anywho, here are some pics from the BRO camp...enjoy! Also, if you want to see more pictures from these activities, click on this link: pics