Wow, I have so many great, new experiences to post about tonight! I'm going to start with yesterday. La Palma is pretty well known for its art. At every little shop you will see something with the "typico" art style. It was designed by Fernando LLort (pronounced like Yort). Yesterday morning we went to this museum with an original drawing of his, and then a whole bunch of orher things that were done by people he trained. Unfortunately, there were no cameras allowed. After we finished there, we did get to go to the place where he used to work and make all of the stuff. Norma had "connections" with the people who work there now, so we got to tour the whole place and see how everything is made. Cameras were allowed here.

This is a man cutting the wood into the shape, I don't remember what they were working on here. Possibly a bird, I think.
After it's cut and sanded and all of the other stuff that all of my shop friends will know about that I don't, they paint it. This is the part that I enjoy watching, even though I totally love the smell of the room where they do all of the wood working. The man here is painting on some alphabet blocks, and then these ladies are working on several different projects. I love how their children come to work with them, and are "learning" how to help them at so young.

Today was really neat, too. This morning was the children's program, where all of the sponsor children got to get their bags of groceries. It's pretty cool to see them get so much; they aren't used to that. After the children's program was when the "adventure" began, though. Jorge drove us across the border to Honduras. We started off at his house and we got to meet his family. They have three girls, 12, 11, and 5. We played soccer in their hallway together, and it was actually a lot of fun. His wife helped my mom with shopping around town because they have things at the stores there that we need for cooking and can't find in El Salvador. Then, they said we were going to Esquipulas for some more shopping. We didn't realize till on the way- Esquipulas? Is a famous city in Guatemala. There is a huge, beautiful, and very very old catholic church

in the middle of town. It is home to a famous statue called Cristo Negro, or "Black Jesus". The whole city was really pretty, it was an amazing experience. A huge thanks to Jorge and his family :)

More to be posted later!
su amiga,
Ruth Erin