American Weekend

I know it's a while ago, but last weekend a group of 20 or so American's visited the monastery. They arrived on Friday afternoon, which just happened to be the first day Theo and I were trying to speak only Spanish...just perfect. We quickly decided it would be more fun to speak English and get to know them, than try to speak Spanish. They were a group on a study abroad trip in San Salvador. In addition to Spanish only Friday, we were planning on leaving Saturday morning to visit the Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras. Well, we made a last minute decision and emailed my friend (who we were going to meet at the ruins) to tell her that we would rather postpone the trip until the following weekend: this turned out to be the best decision we have made yet...for several reasons. First, we got to hang out with the Americans which was a lot of fun...I'll tell you about what we did later. Second, we got invited to visit San Salavador and to stay with the group for free (we are planning a weekend to visit). Third, my friend Dani was able to stay for both Sat and Sun the following weekend instead of only Sat. More benefits of delaying the trip became evident when we arrived in Copan (coming soon in a later post).

Back to the American weekend. Friday night after dinner we were invited to milk the cows at 5am with some of the Americans. They were very surprised to find out that we had been here for 5 weeks and hadn't done that yet. In all reality, the idea had never even crossed our minds. We knew that the monastery had cows, and collected their own milk, and made their own yogurt and cheese, but we didn't ever think about helping with that process. Milking was pretty fun, and quite difficult. There is defintely a technique and a skill involved...not to mention muscular endurance...it is tiring. There are 3 or 4 workers that milk all 58 cows by hand, every morning. They must get there at like 3 am or something. Another interesting fact is that all of the cows have names, and the workers can recognize all 58 cows.

That afternoon, Theo and I decided to organize a basketball game. Four monks and two Americans wanted, and were able to play. Of course, being 4 monks and 4 Americans, we had to play 4 on 4, Monks vs Americans. It was Theo, Steph, Jamie, and myself against Padre Juan, Padre Hugo, Hmn Jorge, and Nestor (Seminary student). We were all thinking that it would be a nice and easy game, maybe even half court...not exactly. It was a full court, up and down, intensely competetive battle. We ended up playing for an hour with the Americans winning 35-33 (counting by 1's). Everyone was sweaty and tired. Jamie was really good and had obviously played basketball in HS and maybe in college. Hmn Jorge called her Jordana...haha The game was incredibly fun, especially because it was against the Monks. Theo and I both felt like we gained some respect in the community after that game, at least from the monks we played against. It was especially nice because we didn't know Padre Juan, Padre Hugo, or Nestor too well before, and it is much easier and more comfortable to talk to them. It's amazing how sports bring people together.

Saturday night we ended up playing cards with some of the Americans, another fun, informal way to get to know people. They taught us a new game and we taught them one too. It was a lot of fun. We were all closely watching the clock as 10:30pm (the hour of the dogs) approached to end our card game. The group took off on Sunday but before leaving we got some emails and more importantly an open invitation to visit!