Dia De Las Gacias

Our friends Adam and Erin Smith opened up their home to over 25 Embassy personnel and Peace Corps Volunteers for a Thanksgiving feast. Chris and I were responsible for the ham. We bought two Virginia hams at a great deli near our apartment. All we needed to do was to heat them up. About 4 hours before go time I headed into the kitchen to start the prep. Much to my dismay the oven would not work. Fortunately, about 30 minutes earlier our Chilean neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves and told us to stop by if we ever needed anything… knock, knock, knock...

Chris and I have sponsored a couple Peace Corp volunteers, Jessica from Maryland, Leah from Minnesota and Rachel from Texas. Whenever they are in the capital they are welcome to stay with us and we try to take care of them. Most live in sparce accomodations, many bathe in cold water they have to carry from a well and pour into a three foot diameter plastic tub. Such is life in the country/campo. Some of them are responsible for building their homes and receive a couple hundred dollars each month from the Peace Corps. One volunteer told me that the entire annual budget for Peace Corps is equal to a single days budget in Iraq (I have not done a fact check to confirm the accuracy of the statement).

At dinner one of the volunteers asked Chris if he was a volunteer in the Peace Corps. He responded, “no it’s more like the War Corps, kind of like the peace corps but with guns”. Give thanks…

The Friday following Thanksgiving we traveled 1.5 hours up the coast to a resort called Las Vereneras (translates in to the poinsettias). Las Vereneras is a private club with personal homes and rental villas. The area is called Los Cabanos and it is pretty underdeveloped, but it has two nice resorts, one of them is all inclusive and looks like a standard Cancun experience - minus the warm beautiful water.

About 15 families from the embassy rented individual villas for the weekend. There were kids galore, great waterslides and a pirate ship in the middle of the pool. There is a wonderful support group for Embassy families in El Salvador. The kids go to private international schools in San Salvador. Every weekend there are family events at the embassy pool or trips out to Mayan ruins or to the beach. Chris and I miss SUmmers and Mae terribly and can't wait until they visit. They will love it here. The beach is not really a swimming beach. The sand is volcanic and it smells like the pacific. Its great for walking but better to relax in a hammock on the patio overlooking the sea drinking out of a coconut. I don’t think Chris went in the water once. Chris was able to get in a quick 18 and become fast friends with the only other person on the course at 7am. There are only 3 golf courses in the entire country and this one just squeezed in the second 9 within the past year. After not playing in over 3 months his first drive on a par 3 landed 1.5 feet from the hole. Tiene mucho suerte. All in all a good weekend at the beach.