We decided roughly 3 days beforehand that we were going to go to El Salvador, but the rest of the logistics were pretty difficult to figure out. How to get there? Where to stay? Why travel so far on Friday just to come back on Sunday? And what to do about the “event” that the English department was supposed to be decorating the comedor for that we had just found out about that day?! We decided our best bet would be to ask for a “permiso” for Friday so we could leave Thursday afternoon.
Volunteers at NPH are given 4 weeks of vacation in the course of a year, but we are also allowed to take “personal days”. These can be taken if you’re sick, if you’re just having a REALLY rough day, or if you have worked really hard and earn an extra day off. Sam and I approached the principal of our school, Martha Julia, and explained how much work we had been doing recently and how much time we spend in the English department. We were pretty much prepared to BEG for Friday off, but luckily didn’t have to :). Instead she signed our papers and wished us Bon Voyage saying it was our responsibility to make sure all the decorations for the comedor were completed in advance and ready to go for Friday. WOO WOO!
Armed with our permisos, we were ready and willing to put in the extra hours. We stayed late in the English department every day that week (we even worked from 7 am until 10 pm one night!), making posters, signs, flags, etc. for the comedor.
A few of the other volunteers also decided to request permiso. Hooray! After the Band event on Thursday morning, Sam, Leeah, Katie, Carrie, and I packed our bags and headed up to NPH’s main entrance to catch our shuttle. After an EXTREMELY stressful 72 hours, we couldn’t believe we were finally on our way!
We arrived in our private shuttle very late on Thursday (after wayyyy too many stops trying to find an ATM – 4th times the charm…), drank some DELICIOUS and FREE juice smoothies thanks to our fantastic hostel, El Roble, (mine was strawberry and banana with orange juice – aka HEAVEN), played a couple rounds of cards, and then headed in for the night.
The next morning I woke up RIDICULOUSLY early – we’re talking 5:45 am. For all of you who think that I sleep all day – just remember that pretty much every day I wake up at 6 am SANS alarm clock. My days of sleeping until noon are long gone! Anyhoo, I showered, took tons of pictures of our hostel, and ate a wonderful breakfast of fresh fruit and rolls. My friends woke up about 3 hours later and we proceeded to eat all of our glorious and free buffet breakfast…not realizing that there were other people staying in the hostel! Oops…none left for the boys! Oh well, they were pretty cool about it and we ended up making some pretty good friends with Hjalmar from Norway and John from England.
The rest of the weekend consisted of A LOT of the beach, which for me meant a lot of sunburning. Yikes. I NEVER burn. And I thought I never would. But apparently the El Salvadoran sun did me in! I think on any subsequent trips to the beach I will be investing in some sunscreen… It also consisted of a LOT of drinking (including a dance contest between myself and Hjalmar – unfortunately he won, but I’m pretty sure it was rigged…), a LOT of smoothies (I couldn’t get enough of the strawberry, banana, orange juice concoctions!), a lot of hammocks, and some good times with good friends :).
Our last night we went to the beach to take pictures of the fairly nonexistent sunset, and although I didn’t get too many good pictures of the beach, I got some pretty sweet ones of the girls :) Overall a pretty sweet vacation, and I look forward to more trips to El Roble :).
the beach :)
my attempt at being artsy...
sunset
me, Leeah, Sam, Katie, and Carrie
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