Boom shake the room

So hello again, firstly in response to some people asking 'what are you doing?' i should reply that I have come here to unleash my finely honed teaching skills on the people of San Salvador- i was teaching (Tefl) in London at the end of last year, but thought that it would be good to teach somewhere new and exciting, so here I am.

this last week there's been more San Salvador based fun

Wednesday 11th: Football. El Salvador vs. Trinidad & Tobago in a world cup qualifier. Firstly, is anyone else surprised to learn that Dwight Yorke is still playing for T&T? He's been playing for about a million years. We drove up to the Cuscatlan stadium full of excitement at being able to see some international footballing and parked the car, assisted by a young boy who said in not a totally convinced way 'It (the car) should be fine..I don't think any gangs will come'. I had already been advised to wear trainers (in case of tremors or a fire) so it all seemed a bit more 'edgy' than a Saturday eating soggy pies sponsored by Barclaycard in a london stadium. We sat in the 'Sol' section, which is the cheapest. Not too much sol as it was an evening game. No soggy pies either, but icecreams, burgers, nuts, pop and the world's largest hotdogs being ketchuped and mustarded up from a big cardboard box by a group of women who were selling up at the front. All seemed to be going drastically wrong for ES, the crowd were showing their detest for the 'pendejo, mexicano mierda' referee and linesmen by throwing little water pouches that they sell in the stadium, onto the pitch. We were sitting at the bottom of the sol section and just about managed to avoid being soaked as the little blue bags rained down around us. I the last 10 minutes, ES were down 2-0 and the the number of litle blue bags flying through the sky increased, and then 2 great penalties and the game had turned around, all the men were suddenly at the top of the fence shaking it and cheering and the mexican referee lived to ref another day.

Thursday 12th: Amber and I went up to a mountain town called Suchitoto, which the government promote as a tourist centre. I imagine it's like Antigua in Gautemala- all clean, cobbly, painted up and colonial. It's much much hotter there than in San Salvador for some reason. (Why is this?) When we arrived, we went for a drink at a posada that looked out onto lake Suchitlan below, just enjoying said lake, when a man and his camera came up to the table, filming some kind of publicity for the hotel or town. I was asked if I would send 'saludos' (greetings) to 'all our Salvadoran brothers and sisters in Washington' which was a touch unexpected. The man kept haranguing us and Amber advised that it's better not to be filmed as 'you never know where it'll end up', so I gave up my chance of centralamerican celebrity. Unfortunately I managed to spend the night under the only mosquito net in Salvador to be poplated entirely by mosquitos as my legs now attest (which with accompanying teeth marks are really looking lovely). I might call them itchy and scratchy.

Friday 13th: Surely far too inauspicious a day to do anything?

Saturday 14th - Sunday 15th: Woken up by a tremor which shakes the room and bed and is quite dramatic. A bit like living in Queens Park, when my bed would shake as the trains wen past, but a bit more scary. In the evening we headed off to the coast and spent a night at the sea at a place called Balsamar (not Baltasar). As we were unpacking our things, and Baltasar went off to the bathroom, a scorpion sprinted out, which he squshed with his shoe. Ye gads I thought. No one told me about them. Apparently they like dark damp places where they can go about their scorpion business. I spent much of the night in a neurotic fear, (after I'd managed to force myself to go into the bedroom) hoping that my bed was not going to be charged upon by the scorpion family avening the loss of one of their brothers. To mine and Amber's delight there was a ping pong table at the beach. Whilst we dazzled each other with our moves, i suggested we enter the 2012 Olympics as the El Salvador table tennis team, an idea I must follow up.

Sunday was spent mainly in a hammock which is one of my favourite inactivities. I finished my brilliant book- 3 Cups of Tea, about an American ex-mountaineer nurse who is building schools, especially for girls, in remote parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. I also ate a delicious ranchero breakfast- corn tortillas, eggs and fresh cheese. I have decided I can never eat another corn lead weight tortilla. There was a bit of time in the sea too on Sunday, not all hammock. I can't get over the fact that the sea is warm here. We went back in the evening stopping for a coffee at a nice beach-side place at Playa Zonte. I'm getting used to drinking black coffee, following the docs advice to avoid 'lacteos' dairy. Although he also said that 3 weeks into my recovery I might be able to eat 'safe' things like MacDonalds so I'm not sure about that.

Now back in San Salvador and I'm planning some trips out and then back here for A & B's wedding in just under 2 weeks. I'm going to be her witness which is exciting, as long as I get fearsome Padre Gregorio's seal of aproval, which considering he is, somewhat curiously, insisting Amber has her 'first communion' right before she gets married (which involves studying 30 units on God he has kindly emailed over, in the next week and a half, which he will then test her on and judge wheher she's ready to be communed and wed), it seems like it might be unlikely. We're sure that he's possibly inventing new rules as he goes along, which may involve him changing the country's constitution.

Well done if you're still here. Have god weeks. I hear the snow has gone and Israel has gone super right wing. Oh dear. Besos y un abrazo fuerte xxx