The last few weeks have been very busy here in El Salvador.
The country is still dealing with the loss of over 250 people in San Vicente due to mudslides which were due to a tropical storm and of course deforestation. The people here are used to this sort of way of life, dealing with some sort of disaster and mainly trying to "sobrevivir" or survive everyday. It makes you wonder how or what you can do to empower these people, to improve the quality of life, and to hope that maybe others around the world who are more fortunate see this and decide to help.
For the past week I have been in San Salvador with the other youth development volunteers for more training, but this time to learn about how we can make differences in the lives of the people in our communities. We have learned how to put on youth camps, environmental camps, sports tournaments, english classes, and also how to start small businesses, and prepare students for college or the workforce.
We have one week left of training and this next week should be even better. On tuesday we are going to visit a volunteer that I am really interested in seeing. He is going to show us his theatre group, but what I am more interested in is his break dance team that he started. Of course I cannot break dance nor have I ever break danced, but I do have a lot of kids in my community that can and it would be a really great project for them to be involved in.
Lastly there are 16 youth development volunteers and we are staying in a hotel and have been having a really great time getting to hangout for the past week. But because there are more girls than guys there are a few rooms that have guys and girls in them, except for ours, which includes 4 guys and myself and was named "the boys room". The boys room is a magical place where you can smell however you want to smell, not worry about hygiene or lack of bathing, and of course use the bathroom with the door open. Honestly, it has been a lot of fun and as bad as it smells (all the girls say its like a combination of shoes, pizza, and farts) everyone seems to want to hangout there more than anywhere.
I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and is getting ready for the holiday season. I know it has been snowing back home, but here it is warm, sunny, and all around beautiful.
girls from my site.
christmas eve.
my boys from fourth grade. the kid on the left is jefferson and i call him senor presidente.
Ito and his family singing songs on christmas eve.
christmas eve/what these guys do everyday, play cards and whistle at the girlies.
campo!
carmela's house.
where i live now. with light, and in the house above there is a super nice bathroom.
where i was going to live, but there is no bathroom nor water nor light.
La Cancha
Don Tonio and me on graduation day. his nephew Ito graduated from high school. 
this is the picture of Los Lideres. Alcalde (Mayor) Adrian, Diablo, Volunteer Miguel, Director Don Chem
gerson
carlos on graduation day.
below the kids you can see names. those are all the names of the kids who were killed in el mozote.
the memorial in el mozote where many people were killed.
johnny and willy. this is the first day i ever hungout with them.