ADESCO Meeting, A Night Out and a Sunday at the Lake:

Man it seems like forever since I’ve posted, but maybe just because I’ve been so busy. On Friday, Kevin, Ginger and I met with the President and Vice-President of the ADESCO (Community Development Association) of La Virgen. First I’ll explain what an ADESCO is: it’s a community organization in the smaller rural cantónes that plans and executes community projects based on needs. An ADESCO must be accepted by the mayor of it’s ruling pueblo. Not every small village has an ADESCO – it is really up to the community members to pull themselves together, form a group and make changes.

So the President of the ADESCO here in La Virgen was a really friendly guy and he gave us some great information, but he has had a crazy life. He joined the army in the early 1980’s, at the beginning of the war and received his military training at the School of the Americas, in the United States. I mean I know the US backed the Salvadoran army and that the School of the Americas exists, but to have met someone who went through that is just crazy. He has a certificate from the school, an ID for his battalion and he was a general sergeant. He talked a lot about the war, which obviously had some crazy effects on him.

It’s so hard living the rural life. When the workweek is over there’s nothing to do to celebrate. We can’t go into San Vicente because it’s dark and dangerous to take public transportation after dark, and most rural families don’t go out at night. I mean we could go to the local bar and hang out with all the bolos (drunkards) but that wouldn’t be such a hot idea. But on Saturday night, Luis came over, picked-up us and Kevin, and we headed to San Esteban, a small pueblo on the top of a hill, thus it had a beautiful view of the night lights. We bought some dulces, hung out in the park, and had some ice cream. Kevin and I bought a shake to share and it was like the hugest most massive shake ever and Idalia and Iris were laughing at me because I was eating a popsicle and a shake – yes I’m a fatty. Then we went to buy some pasteles. Ok now these things are seriously delicious. They’re like mini-tacos filled with potatoes and fried…..yummy! I think this was the first time Kevin had been out at night and he was so excited! HAHA He just kept saying how great it felt to be out at night and he and Ginger have officially decided that I have the coolest family because Luis has a car and we go places, even at night.

Sunday, once again an awesome day with my cool family! In the morning we went to church. Now they are Evangelical so I had no idea what to expect – honestly I was worried they were going to start speaking in tongues or do a laying on of hands, but thanks goodness that didn’t happen. The service was outside under an awning. We sang some songs and then the kids went off to the kids classes. Us adults were given a paper of quotes from the Bible and we just read through them. The Minister would call on a person from the congregation to read a passage from the Bible and then he would talk about it. I need to read more about Evangelicalism because I’m not really sure what they believe. But it was so funny, because whenever we sang songs all the little kids would sing/shout as loud as they could.