Ketchup

Once again, I apologize for my lack of blog entries.  The times I have  internet access are usually when I’m traveling with friends and am busy with other things.  But I wanted to catch you guys up on all that I’ve been doing.  Let’s see…

I’ll start with Thanksgiving since that’s about the time I should’ve posted last.  I spent the holiday with an American family, three other Peace Corps volunteers, and a Salvadoran family that works for  the embassy.   The embassy family graciously invited us to spend the night in their home (air conditioning & hot showers!!!).  I was treated with hummus and Sam Adams upon my arrival and also got to help fix Thanksgiving dinner New Orleans style (with oyster stuffing).  Couldn’t have asked for a more relaxing couple of days. 

I stayed in the capital the weekend after Thanksgiving for my training group’s “Swearing in Party.”  Lots of volunteers were already in San Salvador for Thanksgiving so it was perfect timing for a party and I got to meet several more volunteers from around the country.

December in my site was pretty chill because all of the kids were out of school.  I spent most of my “working days” at the local clinic, which I found out the hard way is about an hour and a half’s walk from my house.  I served as a dental assistant one day, gave a nutrition talk to the seniors, and participated in pupusa-making and gift exchanging at the seniors’ Secret Santa party.

Then it was Christmas.  I’m not gonna lie, I was totally dreading spending Christmas here.  A nurse from the clinic invited me to spend it with her and her family in a nearby pueblo.  She made it sound like they had  many more Navidad celebrations than my tiny caserio but I politely declined because I wouldn’t be able to make it back to my house that day and I really wanted to spend it with my host family here in Palacios.  So I spent the day eating panes rellenos (basically chicken hoagies with slaw) and visiting Mama Chila and Tia Carmen.  Mama Chila is my host mom’s mother who lives about a 45 minute walk from us.  She’s a hoot so I enjoyed going to see her. 

Christmas definitely isn’t as big of a deal here in El Salvador, they basically just celebrate with loud fireworks and tamales, or maybe it was just that I wasn’t with my family so it didn’t seem as much of a celebration…and I don’t like tamales.  I bought small gifts for everyone in my family but gift-giving isn’t so big here.  We did play Secret Santa within the community which I thought was a great idea since most people don’t have a lot they can give and this way, everyone still receives something.  I think the best parts of the evening were spent with my host sisters dancing and then later making s’mores.  My host sister, Wendy, who is in college studying English came back from the pueblo with all of the makings for s’mores and suggested the idea to me but said she needed me to show her how to create them.  What a pleasant surprise! So we made a little bonfire in the front yard and ate yummy s’more sandwiches to finish of the evening.

Since I spent Christmas in my community, I decided I wanted to celebrate the New Year with my fellow volunteers at a popular surfing beach, El Tunco.  I had a blast there, although sadly one of my friends had to remain in the capital because he was diagnosed with dengue.  I met tons of foreigners from the UK and Australia, as well as former Peace Corps volunteers from Belize.  It was so interesting to exchange stories with all of them.  I also took a surfing lesson.  I was proud of myself for standing up a few times and now I’m determined to become an expert surfer by the time I leave in 2 years.

 So now that the holidays are over, I’m back in Palacios trying to get some projects started.  I’ve already had some ups and downs with the ADESCO and experienced what almost every volunteer experiences at least once: no one showing up to their meeting.  I was starting to get really upset with the lack of involvement/compassion within the community.  Yesterday I visited a family whose house had caught on fire and everything inside burned to a crisp.  The family also has two handicapped sons but when we went to visit they seemed surprisingly chipper for someone who just lost everything.  They were sleeping outside with mattresses the mayor had provided them with and only tarps protecting them from the cold.  Yes, it is hot here during the day but there are strong gusts of wind at night which may not seem cold to us but Salvadorans aren’t used to any temperature below 70 degrees.  Needless to say, I decided it was time me and my community got up off our asses to do something for this family.  Today I walked throughout Palacios Centro and neighboring caserio, Limon, going house to house asking the people if they could give anything: clothes, food, money to a family that  had lost everything.  My host mom told me I wouldn’t have much luck because the people here don’t have much and don’t like to give but the help I received was more than I was expecting.  I got $16 and tons of corn, rice, beans, soup, and eggs.  $16 may not seem like much but considering I probably only went to about 20 houses and people here don’t make that much money in a week; it’s a good amount.

I suppose I should mention all the safety/security stuff that’s been going on recently.  You may or may not know that Peace Corps Washington is reassessing the programs here in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.  They already sent the Honduran volunteers home for a briefing in January and I have been told that they will only be sending back certain volunteers.  For the rest of us, as of now they are just trying to make it safer.  Although I feel perfectly safe where I live, I can’t say I don’t get nervous on the buses and when I’m in San Salvador.  Some other volunteers are not as lucky as I am and have had security incidents within their sites.  Our country director tells us they’re not going to send us home, just make some major changes with how the program here works, but I don’t think all the staff and volunteers believe him.  I’d like to think they won’t send us home since I’ve only been here 6 months and in my site only about 3 of those but if it is for the sake of our safety and security, I won’t argue.  As for now, I’m just going to keep working as normal until I hear otherwise.

So here I am, doing my weekly grocery shopping in Ilobasco.  I’ve been out of water for a few days now so I hope I haven’t contracted any parasites from drinking tap water given to me by kind souls on my quest for donations yesterday.   I’m dreading lugging the giant puchinga 20 minutes up the hill to where I live but todo es modo-that’s how it is.