Armadillo Hunting!

A few pretty awesome notes from the past day or two:

- Had an exciting conversation with a guy earlier tonight who has been serving as a Volunteer in El Salvador for almost 3 years (he extended his service an extra year). He informed me one of his favorite hobbies was to go on night hunts with some of the local young men in his village. They hunt ARMADILLO, RACCOON, and IGUANA! Apparently, the technique involves three men: one to shine a flashlight so the animal freezes, another armed with a sling shot to hit them with once they've been caught in the light, and a third to run up to the frozen, stunned animal and chop its head off with a machete. I truly couldn't me more excited to get in on these kind of adventures as soon as possible. The volunteer told me he especially liked the taste of the armadillo, which he compared to barbacoa meat from Chipotle, and iguana, which is cooked by grilling the spine along with the meat attached to it then topping it with a sauce made from local flowers and peppers.

- Forgot to mention it in earlier posts, but I met and hung out with Jozy Altidore, from the U.S. National Soccer Team and a star of the recent World Cup, in LAX Airport. He was in line right next to us for the ticket counter, was surprised we recognized him, and was real cool. This might end up being the most memorable moment of my entire 27-month Peace Corps experience (kidding...kind of).

- Earlier today I saw a local Salvadoran man wearing a "Texans for Obama" shirt. Immediately, I stopped and told him I liked his shirt. He looked confused so I told him I was from Texas. Still looking confused, I tried to explain in my limited Spanish why I also had a "Texans for Obama" shirt. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure the dude had no idea what his shirt said, but it was great to realize the shirts I worked to get all around Texas two summers ago have already made it down to a small village in El Salvador.

Today was another busy day, with us waking up at 6:30 for breakfast, then being at the training center from 8 am to 8 pm. Among my activities was a trip to a local government office to get a NIC card (basically a Salvadoran Social Security card), learning how to make pupusas (the national food of El Salvador), receiving a lecture from the director of the Agricultural Sustainability and Environmental Education programs in the country, and receiving another 90-minute lecture from one of the Peace Corps Medical Officer's titled "Diarrhea & Dehydration: What To Do." That last lecture was real gem, but apparently is pretty serious, as basically 100% of volunteers in El Salvador has at least 2 or 3 problems with that during their 27-month service. Awesome.

Also, in case your interested, I've officially made it big. I even got a picture at the top:
http://www.gwu.edu/explore/gwtoday/gwpeople/servingtheworld