Life, in moments.

Moment one:
The day before my birthday I spent the night in Mariona, the community I accompanied as a Casa student. The family there feels very much like my extended family. When I am there, I feel completely at ease and relaxed and supported. And joyful. This moment captures a little bit of that. These two beautiful girls are Maria Jose, five years old, and Jasmin, four. They were blowing up birthday balloons for me, and it turned into a competition to see who could blow up the balloon the biggest. Only problem is, it's hard to blow balloons that big with such tiny lungs, especially when the air keeps escaping. You'll have to watch the video to see who wins.






Moment two:
I am in the back of a pickup truck, surrounded by the staff of Centro Hogar - my wonderful coworkers - as we return from an overnight trip to the finca. It was just a convivio, a bonding trip, a PJ party, if you will. It was one of the most fun times I have ever had here. And I grew even more deeply in love with them and the work we all do.






Moment three:
Same trip to the finca with the staff of Centro Hogar, teaching them about the wonder of s'mores.







Moment four:
I am in Parque Cuscatlan in downtown San Salvador at a fair of sorts, a sort of rally for NGOs working in San Salvador. We are there representing ANADES (I am showing off my sweet new anades "share love, not HIV" tshirt), but Emilia and I escape the booth we are working to enjoy this moment as we sing along to one of our favorite songs from the Revolution, "no basta rezar."

again.

We always have coffee at work - a big, huge coffee-maker full of extra black coffee. And we always have a big container full of sugar next to the coffee. Well, yesterday, as I prepared my 2:00 pm cup of coffee, I noticed the sugar bucket wasn't there. But there was a plastic bag with what I presumed was one of those 1-lb. bags of sugar for the coffee until we got more sugar. (Can you see where this is going?) Yes, friends, it was salt. So for the second time since my return to El Salvador, I have taken a big swallow of really salty coffee. Oooops. (Seriously, who just leaves a bag of salt next to the coffee?!) Lucy, the lady who cleans up the office and makes sure there is always hot coffee, comes around the corner just as I am taking a big gulp, with the bucket of sugar in hand (she had refilled it). She thinks it's hilarious. I think I am going to be famous for doing stuff like this.