4th of July

Woo hoo, 4th of july weekend is coming up. Alot of Volunteers will be gathering in the south of the country in a place called Paraiso to celebrate the independence of our motherland. Were gonna be camping on the beach for 2 days doing who knows what. Maybe well get our hands on some fireworks, who knows. Im pretty excited though, im leaving here on saturday morning and returning on monday night. ITs gonna take about 6-7 hours to get there i imagine, a series of buses. What else do we have to do though right?
In other news, on Monday i visited a juvenile prison/rehabilitacion center. Consists of 36 kids ages 13-18 who have done everything from smoking weed, to killing a man with their bare hands. So myself and 2 other volunteers gave a sort of presentation to them on Monday, basically introducing ourselves and getting to know them better. IT was quite initmidating be herded through a tunnel of barbed wire fencing up to the barred door which was the entrance to their living quarters. They all starting hooting and hollering when they saw us, and im not gonna lie my heart stopped for a little bit. I was like, are we really going in there? These guys have visible stab and shot wounds, self inflicted tatoos, they just look the part. We were going to be locked in a jail cell with them, hahaha. Luckily there were 3-4 security guards holding night-sticks that were about as thick as my thigh,lol. So were locked in this cell with these dudes, but they all have smiles on their faces, so eager to see us(or maybe just the 2 lady volunteers i was with). They were excited to play the games we had planned and they all participated in the conversations, it was quite refreshing actually. One inmate spotted my tattoo on my right bicep and had me show it to everyone which gave me instant street cred (Thanks Juliana). Afterwards they all asked me to play basletball with them, but i didnt have any clothes for it. So one of the inmates let me borrow his shoes and shorts to play. So there i was in a white wife-beater, some dudes basetball shorts and shoes that were 3 sizes to small. The guys kept telling me how i looked like a thug and this and that. Obviously i relished in the praise. I was nervous playing ball with them. I just stayed beyond the 3-point line pretty much, trying not to make too much contact for fear that they may.....actually....kill me, lol. IT was a great experience though, and one of the first times i felt like i had contributed something so this community. I will be teaching a computer class there once a week in the Fall, which i am pretty excited about.
On a more domestic note. Weve been out of toilet paper for a few days. The thing is, there is a store right across the street that has millions of rolls, but my family has started placing napkins next to the toilet. Not that i have anything agaisnt that, but im wandering why they havent splurged and spent the 2 pesos for a roll of TP. ITs not like this family is dirt poor. If they can afford napkins they can afford TP. I know i should take it upon myself to buy a roll, but i just want to see how long they will actually go using napkins instead of TP. Its the most curious thing to me......

Anyways, thats all i have to say for now. Love and miss you guys alot. Adios y cuidase.