It was a long flight down to El Salvador next to the crying baby in the middle seat – not that I’m complaining. The mother was nice; I just wasn’t in any mood to be sitting there. Thankfully, though, I was able to sleep most of the way.
I got down there, swung through customs and then grabbed my luggage (the last off the stupid carrousel) on my way to the taxi stand. I love the shuttle - $3 instead of $20…badass. After all that fun, I finally found my way to the hostel. I’m glad I got there early, ‘cause by night time it was packed. Anyway, at this point I was feeling introverted ‘cause I had just spent the last two weeks with people but I still had to be nice. Though, I really didn’t go out when they did. Oops.
So, soon enough is was Thursday and time to head back to the Santo. Don Justo was confused and instead of my ride getting there at 9am, he got there close to 11:30ish. All good. I should note at this time that the new town driver is a nice guy and not too bad of a driver – way less scary then the previous one.
Anyway, we were driving along when he told me that it had been incredibly windy the last few days and thus there was no power in the pueblo. Damn. Sure enough, the closer we got to the town, the more downed trees and lines we saw.
I finally got home, opened the door and saw the incredible amount of dust that had piled everywhere. You seen, the windy season here happens during the dry season – thus an incredible amount of dust and dirt gets whipped around and deposited in my house. I cannot go into how gross it was. I decided not to dwell on it – instead I dropped my luggage off and ran over to say hi to Iris, Sonia and the rest of the gang. Yup – I was even fed lunch!
I stayed with each for a little while before heading back to the house to start the cleaning. Iris said I should wait for the wind to die down – but I told her I just couldn’t live with it that filthy. It was just a light straightening up – taking the stuff I had brought inside back outside, changing my sheets (covered in dust) and that’s about it.
I believe that night I just hung out with Iris at her house and stole some more food for dinner. I also gave out Christmas presents. They loved them all.
A side note: The power outage did not affect the cantina or the drunkards that visit it. There were about 8 drunkards all huddled around a candle the last time I checked.
The next day I really went to work and scrubbed down the house. I’ll probably have to do it again this week to finish up what dust settled after the cleaning. So gross. Anyway, to mop the place I throw rags over a broom type thing. I had finished with one rag and brought it over to the sink to clean it out. Apparently – while I wasn’t looking – a scorpion snuck into the rag. I took one look at him, then looked over at a large rock at my feet…well…you can put 2 + 2 together.
I got down there, swung through customs and then grabbed my luggage (the last off the stupid carrousel) on my way to the taxi stand. I love the shuttle - $3 instead of $20…badass. After all that fun, I finally found my way to the hostel. I’m glad I got there early, ‘cause by night time it was packed. Anyway, at this point I was feeling introverted ‘cause I had just spent the last two weeks with people but I still had to be nice. Though, I really didn’t go out when they did. Oops.
So, soon enough is was Thursday and time to head back to the Santo. Don Justo was confused and instead of my ride getting there at 9am, he got there close to 11:30ish. All good. I should note at this time that the new town driver is a nice guy and not too bad of a driver – way less scary then the previous one.
Anyway, we were driving along when he told me that it had been incredibly windy the last few days and thus there was no power in the pueblo. Damn. Sure enough, the closer we got to the town, the more downed trees and lines we saw.
I finally got home, opened the door and saw the incredible amount of dust that had piled everywhere. You seen, the windy season here happens during the dry season – thus an incredible amount of dust and dirt gets whipped around and deposited in my house. I cannot go into how gross it was. I decided not to dwell on it – instead I dropped my luggage off and ran over to say hi to Iris, Sonia and the rest of the gang. Yup – I was even fed lunch!
I stayed with each for a little while before heading back to the house to start the cleaning. Iris said I should wait for the wind to die down – but I told her I just couldn’t live with it that filthy. It was just a light straightening up – taking the stuff I had brought inside back outside, changing my sheets (covered in dust) and that’s about it.
I believe that night I just hung out with Iris at her house and stole some more food for dinner. I also gave out Christmas presents. They loved them all.
A side note: The power outage did not affect the cantina or the drunkards that visit it. There were about 8 drunkards all huddled around a candle the last time I checked.
The next day I really went to work and scrubbed down the house. I’ll probably have to do it again this week to finish up what dust settled after the cleaning. So gross. Anyway, to mop the place I throw rags over a broom type thing. I had finished with one rag and brought it over to the sink to clean it out. Apparently – while I wasn’t looking – a scorpion snuck into the rag. I took one look at him, then looked over at a large rock at my feet…well…you can put 2 + 2 together.
Completely off track for the moment:
As I’m writing this blog entry, I’m also watching the guys of the office take down the Christmas lights. Apparently, they weren’t sure whether the wires were live or not – so they just lightly touched they’re screwdriver to them. I love it down here.
Back to coming back.
That night we all just chilled at Sonia’s house – it was too scary to be alone. Let me tell ya – a black out with that strong of wind when you’re alone is scary as hell. I also knew that if I chilled at Sonia’s house long enough, she would offer me dinner…and she did. It was good. We then played cards to 8:30ish when I went home. Ricardo, her son, was nice enough to walk me home.
Saturday is when I taught Mayra Rummikub. I’ve failed to note that Mayra is recovering from surgery. While I was away, her appendix exploded and she was rushed into emergency surgery. Thankfully, she survived, but I believe it was close for a while. Anyway, she is now addicted to the game and hunts me down to play for hours at a time. I’m teaching others as well so that she can pick on them too.
During the afternoon, some kids were parading around the town with the adults dancing if you paid a small contribution. Iris and I did and saw the little kids do their normal dance routine. I think I have it memorized at this point.
That night was similar to the previous night – only this time someone came during dinner to ask if the mayor was around….something about needing a coffin for someone who had just passed away. This isn’t uncommon- I know of Don Justo paying for the coffins of others. Sometimes the families just can’t afford it themselves and as Mayor he takes the responsibility on himself.
Sunday around 4am the power came back on – how do I know? I had accidentally left my lights on and thus got a nice wake up call. Though, I won’t complain too much…I love electricity. I finally got to go food shopping, since I refused to go until there was power.
That night was the annual cross dressing event on the Epiphany. What?! It’s when about 20 – 30 guys of the community get dressed up as women and monsters and go around the community dancing for $.50/song. I have no idea why they do it on the Epiphany. It’s fun to watch for a little while, but I can’t follow it for the entire parade.
That brings me to Monday and my first day back at work. I just checked in on projects and worked at updating info. So far, so good.
I also found out that the gossip on the street was how ‘gordita’ I got while in the US. For those that don’t know gordita = little fat. Nice.
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