Buenas Noches! Haven´t been able to do a blog entry for quite a while, mainly because my life has been absolutely super jam-packed.

I can´t quite believe the project has finished. The last two weeks were incredible, we packed an awful lot in and we were all absolutely gutted to leave. On the two weekends we had in El Salvador we went first to Perquin, head of the guerilla camps FMLN headquarters and to a place nearby called El Mazote. Both amazing and educational places with very sad stories. In the latter, an entire village of 1200 people were taken, divided up into age and sex, raped, tortured and murdered by the right wing governmental party that were in power at that time, with the excuse that militants were being harboured there. 400 children were included in that ´Guerilla´statistic... Only one woman escaped, lived in isolation for 12 years, and then was the one to pass on the story. And this was im 1981, during a civil war that I had no idea existed.

As my good friends will know, the trip to Perquin also allowed me to achieve something for which I will forever claim to be a massive lad. Since the driver of our pick up truck was falling asleep (by the way, riding in the back of a pick up truck through a beautiful warm country filled with mango and papaya trees is the closest to pure happiness I have ever come) on the way back, the nuns decided it would be best if I drove this enormous tank of a midnight blue shiny pick up back the 4 hour journey to El Salvador, through country where it is considered normal for 6 cars at a time to overtake on blind bends, where no road markings exist when there are 4 lanes going on, and where there are no cats eyes, streetlights or in fact anything of use with relation to night driving whatsoever... lad? I think so.

The last two weeks of the project allowed us to really develop our relationships with the children, and we got to know an absolutely great group of kids called the Houellas (in english - the footsteps). These are a group of around 100 kids at the school, who get together in their spare time, talk, chat about their problems (which believe me, they have, and then some) and then once they´re done talking, they get up, smile, have a laugh, and go and help people in the community with work they need doing and things they need sorting. I´ve never met such a group of resilient, courageous, and genuinely kind-hearted people in my entire life. What was most touching of all was how much they appreciated us being there, and coming to their group meetings, just to listen to them, and how amazed and grateful they were that people from elsewhere actually cared. At the end of the two weeks they wanted to do something special for us so they hired an entire bus, took us to a beautiful place called the Puerto de Diablo, brought us breakfast, and generally just gave us a fantastic time full of memories. I wouldn´t have thought it was possible to get attached to people to that extent, especially with a language limitation but you can - I´ve never felt so instantly comfortable with a group of people I didn´t know. The amount of tears that fell from both English and El Salvadorian sides when we left was quite telling of what this month has been like. We´ve made friends with them on facebook and we really really hope we can stay in contact, especially with the older ones who are 18/ 19 themselves, so they especially appreciated people their own age that care. Seems desperately desperately sad that we will be leaving, and these amazing people that want to be doctors, and lawyers and youth workers will in all likelihood be stuck in La Chakra for the rest of their lives. The boys that weren´t even in the gangs said they were scared to leave La Chakra, because they thought they would be killed if they did. If we ever do come back, so much will have happened. And if we don´t come back, we will never know what happens to them... and most stories will not be happy endings. It´s quite hard explaining why we have to leave, especially to the younger ones who thought it was just a weekend trip away, and to the older ones who felt as upset as we did leaving.

My piano prodigy Carlos also continued to be great - I taught him both hands, sharps and flats and a ridiculous amount before I left, poor boy, but he says he wants to continue so I am happy! Possible one of the greatest achievements of my life so far, making a 16 year old 6 foot 4 boy feel desperate to learn the left hand of Fur Elise haha. I printed out a little booklet of progressively harder music and instructions and stuff before I left so I hope it helps! He also happens to be amazing at art, and on the day I left, he gave me a little tile he had made in 3rd grade, of a yin yan with ´Carlos´ scratched into the back in 10 years old handwriting. Really, really touching. Sister Cruz looked pretty heartbroken when we left too, but we will see here in 3 weeks time the day before we fly home which I´m really looking forward to.

So after El Salvador we went directly to Lago de Atitlan in Guatemala which is a beautiful crystal blue lake in the Guatemalan highlands. What we found out on our way, was that due to the excessive rain, there had been lots of mudslides the day before, some pretty severely nasty ones... The first time I have ever been thigh deep in liquid mud, and I hope the last! But we got through it, into the back of a pick up, onto a little boat, and to a lovely little hostel in San Marcos filled with thatched huts and ageing hippies getting stoned and making delicious food. A few ´treats´ were offered seemed to bring a bit too much of a glint to the owner´s eye haha... We went swimming in the cleanest most crystal blue lake I´ve ever experienced and ate some delicious and totally unexpected fantastic curry for not very much money at all! Coming back out from Lago de Atitlan on our way to Antigua, the mudslide had almost been cleared - still had to walk through ankle deep mud and get a bus the other side but miles better. The journey along roads with periodic bolders, piles of red mud, and unexpected cliff falls was pretty hairy, but we´re safe in Antigua for a couple of days now and I´m hoping the rain slows down for a bit in the highlands before we have to move again.

My spanish is getting better and better, I even managed to have an argument with a man trying to rip us off earlier and won! Still practising and still loving it. Antigua seems more touristy but I think it will be a nice break after all the emotionally exhausting stories from El Salvador, and leaving the nuns!

I´m going to have a shower - after hopping from bus to bus I still have mud-socks up to halfway up my calves from the mini mudslide trek. Two australian trekkers told us we were officially RAD and said we counted as hardcore travellers for crossing a mudslide, twice. Pretty chuffed with that.

Hope you´re all doing well, can´t believe you will get to see my ugly mug in about 3 weeks! (Oh yeah, as we were exchanging email addresses with the Houellas and in particular their lovely lovely leader David, I had to tell them my realy name was freya. So I had to explain the ugly thing. So their parting memory of me is "ooogly lillly, hahahahah oooogly lillly. Frreya, you will be sorely missed. Lilly, oooogly, hahaha...."

Snooze time - sleep deficit currently about 2 weeks.xxxxxxxxx

p.s. Pupusas are possibly the best food in the entire world. Mother dear if you are reading this I WILL be finding out what to use for an English version and cooking them when I get back.