Hot, Sweaty and Dirty

Note to self- figure out how to say "I am melting into a puddle because it is so freaking hot" in Spanish.

Mano de Leon or hand of a lion: either way an enormous leaf

All of a sudden it is so hot here. It used to be hot, but not hot enough to complain and definitely not hot enough to write about. All of a sudden at the beginning of this week, someone flipped a switch here and it is outrageously hot. I told my host mom that I wanted to walk around naked it is so hot, and she just about died laughing she thought that was so funny. I want to do nothing except go swimming and lay in my hammock eating frozen grapes. haha Someone please remind me that this is what I signed up for in joining Peace Corps El Salvador. I signed up for hot hot HOT heat. haha But really though I am enjoying my time in my site so far.

I am slowly but surely completing my health census.  Some days it is hard to motivate my self to knock on random people's doors and ask them to talk about their personal health life. But it is getting easier and many people in my community are so inviting and kind. And they love to give me gifts of food. So far I have received home made cheese,  a bottle of honey, tamales,  and a bag full of delicious mangos.

This is my chicken sitting on her eggs up close. Doesn't she look like she could attack at any moment?

Ok so since I last wrote, I have acquired a few more things for what we will call my current chicken obsession. So it all started with one chicken and 14 eggs (which are still growing away). Then this past week, I was chatting with a new friend, who sells lumber, about my CO and he mentioned he could help me out and provide the materials I would need to build my chicken coop! (wood stakes and chicken wire) He dropped them off on Saturday, so now I have all of the materials, it just needs to be assembled. As my friend and I continued chatting, it turned out that he has a chicken over load at his house. He has one hen too many (with 10 eggs) and a rooster with an attitude problem. So I have now inherited all of these animals as well! That puts me at about 25 chickens and a rooster. It is pretty common that not all of the eggs will hatch so it might be a few less than that, but never the less I am super excited!

One of my host sisters, Catherine, enjoying a freshly picked orange 

Another thing I am going to try out is growing a papaya tree. I feel like a tree is a very lofty project to attempt from a seed (as I have never done this before), but I hear papayas are super easy to grow. So as I had hundreds of free seeds from the papaya I ate yesterday, mounds of cow manure and an empty yogurt cup I have decided to give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is that nothing happens, and the best thing that can happen is that in a year or so I have my very own papaya tree!

Also something I am looking into is composting. I have done a little research, as I know nothing really about composting, and wow is is complicated! It has to be just the right size, with just the right carbon to nitrogen ratio. You can't put in this and that, and to make it compost just right you really should chop everything up into little pieces before you add it to the pile. And here I was thinking I could just start throwing things in one spot and it would just start composting. It will keep my brain going though (not that it is not working hard enough as it is with all this Spanish!).

Joelle at the top of our hike, elated! 

On Saturday I went on a hike with my friend Joelle (another volunteer who lives super close) in the Parque Nacional Monticristo. There is a place you can hike to in the park where Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador meet. Pretty awesome! And I have to say this hike was much more relaxed than the volcano hike I did when I was in San Vicente. No more lost toenails for me!

Also just as a side note, my feet are filthy. It is so hot here it really is a necessity to wear some sort of sandals all the time. And because it is so dry my feet just get caked in dust. No amount of scrubbing will make them clean. Also can anyone imagine if I went to get a pedicure right now?  I bet they would send me away with my dirty feet and two big toes missing nails. haha

Spanish word of the day: Fan- Ventilador

(my latest purchase, which I am currently sitting in front of)