It was a normal day in San Salvador, El Salvador. The sun was radiant and slowly burning my skin, and there was a small gust of wind that would come by and mess up my hair every so often. I did not mind as it was Saturday, and more importantly it was morning. I was kicking a five dollar soccer ball that my mom purchased from Walmart earlier that month. I was bouncing it off the walls, and trying to hit it as high as I could. It was one of the first times since I moved that I felt like I was back home again.

Suddenly another gust of wind came, it was a bit stronger than the other ones were, and as it came I kicked my soccer ball up to the sky. I thought the ball had grown wings because it flew right where I did not want it to... Straight into the barbed wire. The barbed wire lived along the 10 foot walls surrounding my house. It felt like a prison. The wire reminded me that life was not the same anymore, that life had changed.

"Pppffffttttt," went the ball as it was slowly deflating. It took about 4 minutes for it to become completely flat. I was angry. I did not have any other balls to play with as we had just moved in. "This would have never happened in Virginia," I thought to myself.  I went inside to bring out a 3 foot broom. I poked the ball out hoping that I could fix it, even though I knew it was already gone. It took a while, but eventually I shook it out. "Ugghhhh," I grunted as the shiny light from the barbed wire went right into my eyes. As I was squinting, I looked at the soccer ball. It looked sad and flat, and now, so did my Saturday morning.

I hated the barbed wire, but I knew that I had to learn to live with it. "It protects our family from the dangers of the outside!" my mom firmly stated when I blamed the ball's death on it. She did not mind the razor wire. She thought that it was great. I thought that it was hell. It sort of took a piece of my childhood away from me. I just wanted to be a normal kid and kick the soccer ball around my excuse of a backyard. Yet, it seemed that I could not even do that, but at the same time I knew my mom was right.

El Salvador was once the murder capital of the world. Every year more gangs come closer into the bubble of a town where all U.S. Embassy people live, and every year the bubble keeps getting tighter and smaller, and eventually it will pop. We cannot keep out what wants in, and even though the barb wire protects, it also kills.

I learned that where I live was not safe. I learned that we had to take certain precautions to stay "safe". Sometimes we are forced to do things, and sometimes it is for the greater good. I learned that life is tough all over. I have Type 1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed when I was only eight years old. I have to take ten shots every day, and my illness is lifelong. Right now I have to learn to manage this disease and El Salvador its crime. I hope we will both find a cure.

I was able to play here as I was able to in Virginia. The only difference is in Virginia; my ball would never pop on razor blades in my backyard. I learned that "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," does not apply everywhere. "It was a normal day in San Salvador, El Salvador" and that was all it was...