Kidnap Benefit Party

I took 3 exams this week and am now officially in the intermediate stage of Spanish. I know the present tense, preterite, imperfect, future and conditional. Although I know them, it doesn´t translate to being able to form eloquent sentences. At least I can conjugate on paper and can form basic sentences to get my point across.

I have found that people have a hard time saying my name because they are not use to the sound of the English J. I just let most people call me Junio instead. Though, one of the Spanish teachers couldn´t remember my name and so she called me Sushi. In jest, I returned the favor and called her Tortilla and now we both have new nicknames. This may seem somewhat racist, but we find it funny and we use the names affectionately. Our conversations begin, ¿Como´esta´s Tortilla? ¡Muy bien! ¿Y tu´, como´esta´s Sushi? Bien. Fui a la fiesta anoche.

Every night, there is a benefit party for one of the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in town to raise money for their cause. Nuevos Horizontes has one, Entremundos that provides volunteer opportunities for people in the area has one, Quetzaltrekers that supports Primeros Pasos has one as well. However, I learned about the first kidnap benefit party last night. A friend of Helga, Gladis´daughter, was just kidnapped. Apparently, it is very common to be kidnapped here and the police do not seem to be able to control all the kidnappings and students of a local university are a prime target.

Helga attends a university where kids of politicians, drug traffickers and rich folks go. Kidnappers like to target these kids for the family money. The kidnappers have told the family that if they do not give them a ton of money (I don´t know the exact amount), then they will kill the girl who is about 20 years old. If the family goes to the police, then they will kill her. Unfortunately, the family doesn´t have the money and so they would like to raise the money through a benefit party next Friday. The kidnappers however want the money in the next couple of days and will not wait until Friday. I´m not sure what the family is going to do and I just hope the girl is okay. I´ll keep you posted...