Dom and Chris are volunteers in El Salvador. The following is their account of the celebrations for the feast of Don Bosco (31st of January)...

Don Bosco Day in El Salvador - well, for a start it is actually two days because they want to include both the day-boys at the school and the 'internos', or borders. So the celebrations on Friday were with all the kids including the 500 from outside. It started with a 'lie-in' - breakfast at 7.30, not 6.30 - then everyone went out into the streets outside CN (el Ciudad de los Niños, which means city of the children) and we had a 15minute or so procession lead by Fr. Luis, the rector, and about 20-25 altar servers dressed very smartly, and then followed by a giant and beautifully decorated statue of Don Bosco and Dominic Savio, carried by 4 of the oldest and strongest boys, and then followed by a percussion band banging out deafening rhythms, and then followed by everyone else! Lots of the locals came out into the streets to watch the procession as well. We processed to the gymnasium where we had a large and very tradition mass with incense, but a modern touch on the side with a full band (surprisingly like my church in Guildford) playing the music - we have those guys for every mass which is cool. After mass we helped hand out a regalo (present) to all the kids- a juice drink and 2 cookies each- whilst trying the protect the boxes so the kids didn't nick any more!

Then a sort-of party started - involving loud music being pumped out around the school and all sorts of sports tournaments taking place! this lasted until lunchtime when the kids got pizza and ice-cream for lunch- we, the brothers, priests and volunteers, also got Pizza Hut which was awesome! And then after lunch they had a normal afternoon in the workshops.

The evening before, as a side note, Chris and I went into our room to discover that an army of ants- at least 5000 thousand, and I have a video- had crawled through our air conditioning unit and were now in our room and as my bed is directly under the unit, on my bed! Thank the Lord I had my perfect mosquito net up because they were all over that and not actually in my bed, but it was like something from a horror film. Anyway, as we were inspecting the ants, 3 GIANT wasps (about 3/4 times the size of wasps in the UK) also came flying through the unit straight at us and we just pegged it! Spoke to Padre Luis who thought we were a couple of chickens and this was perfectly normal. He gave us some spray which got rid of the ants but the wasps were still very much there and scary so we eventually convinced Padre Luis to let us sleep in a different room for a night, which only had the relatively minor problem of cockroaches... Anyway we slept in there and in the morning as we were trying to decide what to do, one of the kids offered to help and started to throw stuff at them! Crazy but strangely effective- one flew out the door and he successfully killed the other 2 whilst Chris and I were outside, and then picked them up to show us his handy-work! (i have a picture of that too). We gave him a cookie to say thank you which seemed to satisfy!

Then on Saturday (actual Don Bosco day) we had another morning of football tournaments in which Chris and I participated, making up a 5-a-side team with some of the other kids. We got to the Semi-finals before narrowly losing 3-2, having been 1-0 up, and I sprained my ankle in the process and now can't walk very well but hey, was worth it. Was also insanely tiring in the heat. For lunch, we had a special meal in the Priests' house with all the community and some visitors, which was awesome- beef wrapped in bacon, chicken, salad, rice, spaghetti, strawberries in cream for pud and red wine and beer available as well! I have to admit I felt slightly guilty eating such a lavish meal in such a poor country, but that guilt was largely shoved out the way by enjoyment being experienced by my taste buds.

In the afternoon the kids went swimming and we just chilled out and rested before we walked (I drove) into town to the local church for another special Don Bosco mass, lead by the other Priest here, Father Manuel. After mass the kids got more pizza and ice cream, as did we, and then they had a half hour extension to their bed time- 8.30! We went with a few of the brothers on a trip round the local slums to drop home the cooking ladies; quite an eye-opener. Also made me feel quite sick because the roads are terrible!

Hope you are well,

Regards,

Dom and Chris.