What's Going On and What's Next

I have about two months left in my second term as an English Language Fellow at the Centro Cultural Salvadoreño Americano. Since I've been a not-so-good little ELF and haven't been writing my highlights (not true either, I've started to write them and just never finished them), this is my attempt to update the world on what I'm doing and to come out on top in google searches for "ccsa," just because it's fun.

Lots has changed in the past couple of months at CCSA, most noticeably the color of the buildings and the logo. They finally added the "americano" on for good (used to be just CCS). The paint part involved lots of fume-filled days, headaches, and the unfortunate deaths of many garden plants, but it looks good now that it's almost done. I also recently realized that I was in San Miguel this time last year, and had no idea how hot it would get in San Sal (even though this is an abnormal year). In San Miguel right now they're getting up to 110, but then you know you're never going to go outside unless it's dark. In San Sal, the heat comes in. Yuck.

I'm busy trying to finish up my curriculum project, teach my ILEA and admin classes, plan for July's national conference, and keep up with my Peace Corps outreach stuff, among many other little things. Our TESOL organization is finally on it's way to becoming legal and someday I'll publish it's first newsletter (once people send me things to publish). I'll head to Honduras for my birthday to present at IHCI's conference and enjoy "real" hot water in a nice hotel.

On the publicity side, the embassy wrote this nice article about me back in January and I'm making a little video about my time here.

Other than that, my kitten came back a couple of days after he ran after and I had my first car accident that was my fault (my fault for driving like I'm in Ohio and not El Salvador). I've got an interview on Monday, which is great if it works out. And then I can plan my wedding!

Gatito Gone Missing

My little gatito disappeared from my second floor apartment on Friday night. He was there when I went to sleep, not there when I got up. Salvadorans keep telling me that they don't like cats because all they do is escape (which is why they're not the most popular pet here) or that he's out chasing female cats and will come back when he's done (he's neutered, isn't this supposed to help keep him from doing this?). I find it odd, because there's no way to climb out of the one window that was open, unless he jumped down into one of the tree-shrub things below, and if he'd wanted out so bad, why hadn't he done it before? He could have fallen I suppose, since he likes to sleep on the window sill, but I doubt it. The vigilantes said they didn't hear or see anything, which is also strange, since Nico is a cry baby. Or, someone could have pulled him out of the window with a pole (apparently something that people do here). My neighbors (except for the one across the hall) are all unfriendly, but I don't think they would do that.

Anyways, I doubt he's coming back. I'm gone all day, there's no way for him to climb into the apartment, and I wouldn't be able to hear him crying at night if he does return. My first "real" pet of my own!

The circus

We went to the circus on Friday...first time I'd been in quite a while. Edwin had never been before. A couple of weeks ago four baby lions were born, and they let us take pictures with them (fun for us, I imagine not so much fun for the babies). It was fun, but sad at the same time (for the animals). And look, you can suggest names online for the babies here, and I suppose win something (unless you're a foreigner, and then you're not allowed to win anything).