Nathalia's Post

Last week I visited Mike at his site in Las Trancas, Usulutan. In one week I had great experiences which are going to be difficult for me to put into words, but I'll try.

I had a red eye flight so I arrived on Good Friday morning pretty bleary eyed but very excited. I hadn't traveled to a different country other than Canada in something like 6 years, and I was a bit nervous about just the process, but I made it.

After a very windy and loud (windows down, radio up high, driving between 60-70 mph) car ride by a very nice neighbor, I finally got to see Mike's house and the much revered hammock.

The house is small and about as rustic as I had thought, but nice. It's the dusty season outide and in the house too, and it was quite hot, about the 90s all day. I'll complain but I really do prefer the heat to the cold.

Anyway, to keep this from growing to extreme lengths, I'll give a few highlights:

-going to the church for a procession my first night there and being invited to go up to the altar to get a piece of scented cotton. I couldn't really say no but didn't want to go alone, so I made someone walk with me, much to his chagrin.

- going to Alegria, a small pueblo on a volcano. It was a bit cooler here and we ate at a restaurant with an amazing view but the best part was the zoo they had on site that had a parrot, a racoon, two foxes and some rabbits.

- I fell in love with one of the dogs that came to Mike's backdoor.

- learning how to make pupusas with Fatima who lives next door and is incredibly nice.

- the cheese pills; my mother asked me for cheese pills, after some jokes, we found them but had no idea how they work and my mother didn't explain well to me, so I asked the Fatima and she showed me how to make it, which was amazing. Although we thought we lost the pills on the bus and Fatima got us one, they showed up a few days after I left.

- the neighbor kids were hilarious and came over almost every day wanting to play Uno which Mike's mom had sent with me, a stroke of brilliance on her part because they couldn't get enough.

- making pizza with kids from the school which was chaotic and a great time. There were about 20 kids all under 12 and about 5 of the little girls were latched onto me somehow, but I was pretty interested in looking at the animals around the yard (pigs and cows and a cat, definite attractions for me) so they were all trooping around with me. It was a crazy afternoon but a lot of fun and I felt very popular with my fans.

We spent the last two days in a comfy hotel in the capital. On the last day there was a peace corps soccer game fundraiser about an hour out and Mike basically was the team, with one assist and one goal, so everyone was pretty stoked.

I had an absolutely amazing time and it is obvious to me that Mike's community is really appreciative of his presence and just plain old happy to have someone to chat with and get to know. I'm looking forward to my next visit, slated for July. I highly suggest making this trip if possible, it was great to put images and places and faces to things I had heard about and it was also just really great to see Mike.