A Day in Itzapa

Soooo after a very relaxing weekend in El Salvador, we returned to work on Monday. OF COURSE there was no school (haven’t you been reading my blog to know we NEVER have school!??) Instead, since it was Independence week, the kids had…you guessed it…ANOTHER PARADE!! AND AGAIN the English teachers and Basico teachers were in charge of making sure the bands didn’t get too close to one another, which was again followed by a 7 minute performance from each band. The biggest difference? This parade had 19 BANDS! While the other one only had 9.

Anyway, we lead the bands around the town of Itzapa (about 10 minutes drive from Parramos) and after we returned a good 30 minutes later, the kids in the bands each had to wait their turn to perform, but afterwards they were allowed to go. I thought, SWEET! How long could we possibly be here?? So what number band were we you ask? Why number 19 BUT OF COURSE.

Sam and I asked if we were allowed to catch a bus back to Parramos but the answer was a resounding no. We were told we could do whatever we wanted in Itzapa, but had to stay until the band had performed…Great.

What do you do when you’re stuck in a town with nothing to do and no where to go? Find a panaderia of course! We walked for about 10 minutes until we found one (which was about 9 ½ minutes longer than we thought we’d have too…) and bought some DELICIOUS cinnamon rolls and strawberry turnovers. Then, with roughly 2 hours to go, we went into a tienda (shop) and bought a deck of cards. We proceeded to play “Shoothead” (the watered down version of course…) for a good 2 hours, teaching the onlookers, aka the kids in our band, as we played. Man was I glad I’d brought money to Itzapa that day…