The day began a little late, due to our fantastic late night yesterday at the KGB (Karaoke Bar and Grill). Weary-eyed and tired we filed into the van and Carlos drove us back to Centro Escolar Catolico San José in San José de Villanueva to finish painting with the help of some local boys. A group of us were responsible for finishing painting the classrooms while another group went to drop off donations of clothing and blankets at a nearby clinic named Unidad de Salud in San José de Villanueva. We met Dr. Guern and Dr. Guillermo Jinares who were extremely grateful for our help. We were assigned the job of scraping a wall at the clinic in preparation for painting. When it was lunch time the group returned to the school where we finally experienced our first rain in El Salvador! After lunch, eight people were assigned to finish up the second classroom while the rest of the group went to visit homes which was a building project completed by previous Interact Missions, a group from new Hampshire and the Queens University Rotaract Club. The families living there were welcoming and were glad to see returning Rotarians. Back at the school, we cleaned up our painting equipment while the other group had their chance to visit the building project. Once everything was organized we played some volleyball with the local boys. While trying to do a spike/volley Lesley broke a light ?. After volleyball the priest Mario _____ invited us for pupusas and soda. He told us of the history of the school; it had started as 35 students being taught in the hallways of houses, and now the school consists of more than 1000 students with science and computer labs. He also explained to us that a child could be sent to the school for only four dollars per month. Its amazing to think that one take out meal could send a child to school for 10 weeks. After this hard days work we were on our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We ordered pizza for supper and then went to Tucsan (restaurant) in the Gran Via to welcome the new president of Rotaract. After pledging the presidents oath and presentations of awards we came back to our temporary home: “Hotel Sisimiles”, and will now enjoy a much needed sleep.

Emily, Anne-Marie and Lesley