last message from down here?

hey everyone,
i am writing what may be my last email from central america. wow, that is a strange thing to say. all those years of waiting, all these weeks of doing it and now it is coming to a close. so, i don´t remember when i last sent a mass email. it may have been in nicaragua. so we have been here for a week and a half. salvador has been one of the most packed, but yet awesome times we have had. we are staying at a hotel that we have basically taken over and so it is like a home. our first days we went to work with a program that helps kids stay out of the gangs. gangs are a huge problem down here and they have absurd amounts of power. so it was cool seeing people embrace the alternatives. the next day we had probably the most intense day of the trip. we began the day with an economic status of the country at the UNDP building. that was pretty cool. then we went to the UCA (University of Central America) campus and had a lecture of 500 years of salvadorian history in 1 hour. crazy. everything from colonization to the civil war (which is such a crazy and hard topic). our professor (Karla Morgan) wen to this university, so she gave us a tour of the school. we then went to the site of where 6 professors and a cook and her daughter were brutally murdered by the salvadorian military in 87. it was so moving. (that sentence does not give it credit, but i really don´t know how to explain waht looking at that rose garden that holds so much history in it means, sorry. lets have coffee sometime and maybe i can help you to see it). then finished the day with a lecture on modern salvadorian politics (which is sooooooooooooooo polarized). the next day we went to the national assembly, visited with ARENA (the conservative party) and the FMLN (the liberal party). it was amazing seeing the differences between the two parties stances and just the way they viewed the world. we then had a day of visiting museums and just hanging out here in san salvador. i love riding buses. the next day we went to the site where Archbishop Romero was shot while he was giving the mass. that was a very emotional visit because his life and death has really affected the life of the country and to go stand on the place where he was killed is mind boggling. there was a museum there too where they had his blood stained robes and pictures of his body as they rushed it out of the building. honestly i have had nights that i cant go right to sleep because i am being tormented by these pictures.
The next day we went out to a community called Huisisilapa where the the whole community was forced to flee to honduras for safety. when they came back, the organized themselves into a community that is working for the good of all and is doing really good work. there was a youth gorup there that was doing good work (including building a full sized soccer field). they had a town radio that i got to talk on too. monday we went to the US embassay and had a conversation that we felt actually didn´t feel terrible about. then we went to hang out and work with a GBLT rights group that were pretty cool. yesterday we had a free day, so instead of doing homework like everyone else, i and a couple other people went to a world class surfing beach and ripped the nar-nar. and then today we went to a different beach and played in the surf.
tomorrow we are going to go out to communities that are beginning ecotourism homesay stuff and we are going to be their guinea pigs. and then the last few days will be debriefing at another lodge.

so that is the trip. wow... thank you all for the paryers, hopes, emails, letters, and random thoughts. i really know that i couldn´t have done it without you. this is important MY PRESENTATION IS MAY 10. please come if you are near to spokane. ti wont be a compelte description o fwhat went on but it will be an introduction. also, i would love to spend time with you all. i don´t know if i will be able to tell you my deepest secrets or how i am going to change my life, but i can give you want i can. so yea, i guess i will see you all soon.