Always Surprising

After five years living in a fraternity house and more than a year and a half in The Saviour I thought I had seen just about every random thing that I could see. On the 22nd I saw something that brought the two together like never before. I was invited along with some of the young people in my community to go to a pool/restaurant (think tiny water park). The first surprise, which in all honesty shouldn't have surprised me, was that a church group showed up and set up a portable mass in the middle of water park. Only here would anyone think to combine pools and mass. I felt a little guilty because I was there with my buddies and we were drinking a bit, though trying to be a bit inconspicuous. Nothing says El Salvador to me like a nice jewish boy having a beer in the middle of mass.
Then in the middle of all the madness I spied someone in a shirt that looked a little familiar. On closer inspection it said "Semper Pi". I realized rather quickly that it was an Alpha Epsilon Pi shirt that was a knock off of a US Marines shirt. I had seen that shirt before at a convention so the rest of it I could recite from memory, "The Few, The Proud, The Circumcised". I decided then and there that he had no idea what he was wearing and it was my duty to inform him. Luckily I knew the word in spanish for circumcision and was capable of fully explaining it to him. He seemed incredulous at best upon being informed that he was wearing a shirt advertising someone had sliced him up a bit. Then he one upped my by changing into an AEPi Stands With Israel shirt. Yes that is correct, the very same shirt that was sold at convention and given to all the brothers that went on birthright. I had to explain that shirt too. I had to explain that almost all my friends from college had that exact same shirt. Then the incredulous Salvadoran started asking me all about what Alpha Epsilon Pi was, which led to me explaining fraternities a bit, and realizing that the relatively simple act of explaining a circumcision led to a full scale discussion about fraternities to a Salvadoran who had never heard of either before in his life. I was in a bit over my head and I gracefully bowed out when one of my friends called to me.
The rest of the day was spent in the pool or on the water slides with my buddies and their kids. I never thought playing in a kiddy pool with a 2 year old could be so much fun, but I learn new things every day here in El Salvador.