Hanging with la Mara

It’s been a bit since I last wrote. I have a good excuse though.. I all of a sudden got a raging social life!!! Yahoo!!! Another big difference between here and Costa Rica.

We inaugurated the house last Saturday night. I invited over a few friends, I had a grad total of four at that point, and made hummus and falafal. Both turned out quite well I might add. One thing led to another and I think there had to have been at least, at least 10 people at my house. Get back! So, the next thing I know, it’s 7:30 am and I am somehow (I’m not completely sure I am awake at this point) getting myself out of bed and heading to the beach. YEA!!!!

We were all going to go to San Blas with Hugo’s family, but it ended up that of the party attendees only Hugo (friend of a friend I met the night before) and I made it up the next morning. I accomplished this huge feat primarily because I didn’t know there was an option to back out and sleep in. So I end up in a mini-van with a group of people, all but one of whom were complete strangers. We went to a rancho, which is a house by the beach, which people generally rent out for the day. The current, pretty much everywhere in El Salvador is “carry you off to sea” strong, so I didn’t swim a whole bunch. The waves however are amazing for watching. They are famed to be great for surfing as well as long as you don’t end up being “carried off to sea.” Not a beginners beach is what I am trying to say. Anyway, had a great day, even if I was a little (ha!) tired. I made ANOTHER new friend, Lupita, who works for the Office of International Labor at the UN. The rest of the group consisted of amazing nice people that welcomed me immediately and acted like my beach party crashing hadn’t imposed on them in the least. In fact, they promised to include me in future excursions. We stopped for pupusas on the way home to round out the day.

The most amazing, and BEST part of the weekend was that Sunday night when I got home, the roomie, Armando, had cleaned up after the party that I threw. AMAZING! He gets the “Best Roommate of the Year Award.” Pretty much blew Necio out of the water on that one. (That cat never cleaned a dish in his life.)

Anyway, the rest of the week has been a rush of work and a little afterwork hanging with la mara. "Mara" in this sense meaning “gang” but not in the “pandilla, lets get tattoos and pillage” sense. Tattoos are completely optional.

In the area of immigration difficulties, my co-worker Erin is being kicked out of the country to renew her visa. Not that unusual, except for the fact that she is married to a Salvadoran for the past 3 years. I only mention this to put to rest any fears that I will be marrying for residency. It really wouldn’t help and I am not all that opposed to getting a vacation every three months.