May 4-May 17: Two Half Weeks of School and a Trip to El Salvador

Sorry for the delay on the blog, it's been quite the busy last couple of weeks. Although a lot has happened spending it in two different countries, I'll try to be as brief as possible so that the blog doesn't turn into a novel. 

My last two weeks in my community sandwiched a week-long trip to El Salvador. My activities at the schools weren't too different from the weeks prior. At the escuela, I facilitated several PE classes. A couple of weeks earlier, I'd gone in to San Jose to purchase some additional PE equipment for my students. I'd wanted to teach my students Dodgeball for a long time, so I'd been on the hunt to find some softer sports balls to play it. In Costa Rica, Dodgeball is known as "Quemados" or "Burned". (I guess someone who is hit by the ball is "burned"). In any sense, Dodgeball was a big hit with the students. Also at the escuela, I co-led an International Club session with my students about Nicaragua. This was largely a recycled session from what I'd hosted the year before, but the students had fun drawing their preferred "Gallo Pinto" between Costa Rican and Nicaraguan versions and also played a little bit of baseball, which is hugely popular in Nicaragua but not so much in Costa Rica. At the colegio, I hopped in a couple of English classes and hosted another student-led run club this weekend. 


Away from site, I joined my family for a week in El Salvador to celebrate my sister's undergraduate graduation. My parents' social media is a better resource for up-to-date information on what we did, but we had a great time in a country that has gone under rapid change during the last half decade or so. Highlights from our trip included walking through San Salvador's completely revitalized historic center, scoping out Mayan ruins, exploring the colonial towns of Suchitoto and Ataco, lounging on the beach, and eating a healthy amount of pupusas. 






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