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.

Training Round 2

Sorry for being such a slacker and not updating for such a long time.

My asamblea general went pretty well.  I had lots of people show up but I was a little disappointed that the people in my community I was most eager to hear about my project plans like the health promoter, mayor, and my host mom were all unable to attend.  I guess it's a good thing I see them often enough that it isn't a big deal they weren't there.

I've been back in San Vicente for my second round of training for the past week.  It's great to be back with my host family in San Esteban but I've hardly had any time with them because training has been so busy.  I like these training sessions sooo much better than the ones from PST1.  I'm actually learning stuff that I'll be able to use in my community like how to make pinatas, jewelry, recycled purses, how to start a water or latrine project, and how to write grants.  It's all extremely useful and I can't wait to get back to my community so I can get things going!

This next week we're heading to the capital to visit some museums and to a beautiful waterfall and gardens on the western side of the country.  Then I'm back in San Esteban for a few days of English classes, and then back to San Salvador for Thanksgiving at the Embassy and my swearing in party!!  SO much stuff going on but I love it.  I will admit I hate missing the annual Harvey & Mabe-White excursion to Ocean Isle Beach but glad I will still be able to celebrate with Americans (and hot showers!).

I almost forgot to mention I went hiking up a volcano the other week!!!  My friend, the dentist from the clinic, invited me to climb Volcano Izalco in Sonsonate.  I don't know why I was thinking it would be easy but it took us 4 hours to get to the top.  The hardest part wasn't even hiking up Izalco, but going down Cerro Verde (the point of view of this picture) and then back up it again to get to where we parked.  Although I was completely exhausted and aching for days after, it was totally worth the view of practically all of El Salvador and just the feeling of accomplishment after hiking up a volcano.  Not to mention, I was the first person from our group to make it to the top!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Due to persistent torrential downpours, I´ve been forbidden to leave my site since last Tuesday. I am on “standfast” which in Peace Corps lingo signifies, “stay put until we say otherwise.”  I am not allowed to travel because several roads have been washed out and many areas are at risk for landslides.   I have yet to run out of books to read on my Kindle, thanks to Nitisha, but I’m about to run out of programs to watch on my computer.  

Although most days I curse the scorching Salvadoran sun, I do miss it right now.  Without it, I haven’t been able to wash my clothes because there is no sun to dry them.  I have run out of clothes to wear and to make matters worse, I think I have bedbugs.  Bedbugs are hard to get rid of in the first place and it is impossible to eradicate them without being able to do my laundry.  I can’t walk around my site too much because it is really muddy here and since it is the rainy season, the roads are covered in algae, thus extremely slippery.   Plus, the path to my house has turned into a stream.  I also can’t visit many people in my community for the same reasons.  Yet another problem is bathing.  My bathing area is outdoors with only a screen surrounding it.  Although it’s not really cold here, the rain makes it quite unpleasant to bathe.  Thankfully, my host mom has been heating up my bathwater, which makes it bearable. 

I guess I am fortunate that nothing detrimental has happened in my area.  Some homes by the Lempa River have flooded, but that is the worst I have heard.  The president of El Salvador has declared a National Emergency  because of this “tropical depression.”  Many communities have been flooded or have experienced landslides, leaving thousands homeless and in shelters throughout the country, and some dead.  Unfortunately, since I am at the early stages of my time in site, it is difficult for me to organize some sort of community action to help support those in need.  I hope to work with the health clinic nearby, who has been caring for those whose homes have flooded.

In other news, my Asamblea General is next Friday.  This is my official meeting to introduce myself to the community.  I’m a little nervous about making a speech in Spanish but I am excited to introduce myself to everyone in the community whom I haven’t met yet and explain to them what I hope to accomplish and learn through while living and working with them during the next two years.

mi casita

I´m a natural

Papa scorpion (thankfully not the one that stung me)

my swollen thumb

Another interesting tidbit: I got stung by a scorpion last week.  That was fun.  I had just returned home from the All Volunteer Conference in La Palma, Chalatenango.  I set down my luggage and as I reached to close the door to my room, I felt this sharp pain on my thumb.  At first I thought it was a giant splinter but I saw the culprit when I looked at the frame for the missing chunk of wood that was likely embedded in my finger.  Thank goodness I was at home so I yelled, “me picó un alacrán!” and my host mom came running.  She put lime on it and smeared its poop all over the sting.  Apparently that’s supposed to help; it did make me laugh.  I also called my PCMO who instructed me to take an antihistamine and painkillers.  My thumb hurt like hell and swelled to twice its size in first few hours but after that, it just felt numb.  After telling several Salvadorans my story, I was surprised to find out that many of them have never been stung by a scorpion. Thus, I am proud to say I survived my first (and hopefully only!) scorpion sting.  It feels kind of like a rite of passage.

Alive in Palacios

I was recently informed that people are eager to hear how things are going in Palacios, Cabañas.  Sorry I haven´t updated recently, I can only check my email at my site and I only come to the cybercafe in Ilobasco, the closest pueblo, once a week. Things are going well at my site.  The people are really nice and I love the area.  It´s pretty hot but I don´t mind it too much and I´m right beside the beautiful Rio Lempa.  I´ve gone fishing and there´s plenty of hiking to do in Palacios. I caught six fish with a pole made from a branch and a piece of string.  Either American fish are really smart or American fishermen are really stupid for spending so much money on their fancy fishing poles I´ve visited the school several times and I´ve been making house to house visits to get to know everyone in my community.  The only trouble I´m having is with my living situation but I´m hoping to get that figured out soon.  Luckily, I do have my own room but there are some other issues I hope to get resolved.  My host family is great.  My mom, Aracely, her two daughters Estela (22) and Leydi (3), and her neice, Geisy (13).  I would love to write more about Palacios but I´m short on time so I will plan on giving a more in depth update later.  I just wanted everyone to know that I am surviving life in Palacios and I´m living the Peace Corps life for sure.

Bring It On

After weeks and weeks of eagerly awaiting my site placement, I was finally informed I will be heading to Cantón Palacios, Jutiapa, Cabañas, El Salvador.  It is on the banks of the Rio Lempa and is a big fishing and cattle-raising community.  My site has no running water and no direct transportation.  All in all, it's pretty friggin' rural. It's about a 2.5 hour drive from where I am now and equidistance to the capital.  Luckily, the closest city, Ilobasco, is just an hour away.  It is a cute artisan town with a SuperSelectos that sells American staples, and most importantly, peanut butter!  I'm also 2.5 hours from the closest person in my training group but there is another volunteer that's just an hour away.

My new home, Palacios!

I will admit that everything was not all sunshine and rainbows on Site Assignment Day and I was dealt the the first real obstacles of my PC experience.  After looking more carefully at my information packet, I read that I will be sharing a room with a girl in my host family.  It was especially hard to hear this after talking with peers who will be living in their own houses.  The one thing I tried to make very clear in my site interviews was that I needed my privacy.  I understand the new policy that we are required to live with a host family for our own safety but it is also Peace Corps policy that every volunteer should have their own room.  Apparently, my family was supposed to build a partition to split her bedroom from mine but it never happened.  Needless to say, I'm not so happy that I will have to share a room with someone for the first two months.     I don't want to come to my site with negative presumptions about my living situation but it's hard enough moving in with strangers in a new community where I don't know anyone, am not fluent in the language, and am the only "gringa" for hours, and to top it all off, NO space of my own.  I'm not a whiner or a quitter so I will deal.  We will see how these first months go and hopefully the situation is better than it sounds or I can move in with another family or build a room of my own.  Furthermore, I am replacing a volunteer who just ETed (early terminated) three weeks ago.  I hope she tactfully explained to the community her reasons for leaving so that I'm not stuck with that, too.

On a more positive note, I spoke with my "community guide" on Friday and she seemed super nice.  I will be meeting with her this Saturday for an orientation in San Salvador and riding back with her to Palacios.  It looks like I will be doing a lot of rural health and youth projects in my community.  I won't know the specifics about my projects until I get there and spend some time getting to know the people in my community and assessing their needs and desires.  I also spoke with the volunteer who is an hour away.  He had some positive things to say about my host family and the surrounding area and we're scheduled to meet up in Ilobasco sometime next week.  Aside from the no privacy thing, I'm pretty excited about moving to my community.  I can't wait to meet everybody and see what Palacios is like!

Jeez, I almost forgot to tell you about the awesome time we had at the Embassy!  Last Wednesday, my training group was invited to a tea with the Ambassador and the DCM, who is actually a friend of a friend of my Mom (small world!)  We had an informal Q & A session and then had REAL coffee and hors d'oeuvres, a refreshing break from instant coffee and tortillas, and chatted some more.  I learned some interesting and slightly scary stats about El Salvador, which are probably best unmentioned until I make it through service.  The ambassador's house is pretty sweet and she's got it all to herself.  Lucky lady!  But I guess she deserves it; being ambassador is a pretty tough job.

Wish me luck in my new site, sounds like I'll need it!  I'll let you all know my address as soon as I figure it out so you can send letters & care packages :)

Me, Jamie & Cory with our Caminanta group & homemade tie-dyed tees!

Still Loving It!

A lot has happened since my last blog.  Sorry for being such a slacker and not updating more often.

I just had the most awesome time tie-dying t-shirts with our group of jovenes!  I was really nervous how it was going to go because I'm definitely not an expert on tie-dying but it went really well and I think everyone had a great time.

Things are still going great in my training site.  As you can see, the group of kids we are working with are great.  Not all of them are in the photo above, there are about three times this many in total.  We're also working on a garden with them and we went with some of them yesterday to plant various seeds.

I still love my training site and host family. Jamie, another PCT in my training, and I even have an exercise group that goes running with us every morning!  It started out just being a couple girls but more and more people keep showing up.  I've even spotted a few guys running around the park, too.  Exercise isn't very common around here and usually if someone is running, everyone thinks they're running from something, not doing it for exercise.  It's really hard some mornings to get up at 5 am but I try to remember that people are expecting me to show and I´m supposed to be setting an example for them.  I also have a little group of neighborhood kids that does Zumba (Hottest Latin Dance Workout!) with me in the evenings.  It is a blast and anyone would crack up if they saw how ridiculous all of us look trying to get the moves right.  I think it's wonderful that I can being a positive and healthy influence just by getting my jog on to keep myself from getting what I call the "tortilla belly." This is pretty much the equivalent of a beer belly practically every Salvadoran woman has from eating un montón de tortillas with each meal.

A little over a week ago I went to San Salvador, the capital.  We visited the Peace Corps Headquarters and an archaeology museum and we ate at Pizza Hut for lunch which really made me miss my American food.  We didn't have much time to explore the city but I'm sure I'll be spending my fair share of time there during the next two years so I'll have time to see everything.

This past weekend was Immersion Weekend so all of us trainees went to various sites all over the country where volunteers have been living and working for at least a year.  I was a little disappointed with my placement because I only got to go an hour away from where I am right now but I had a great time.  I went to San Jacinto, which is a semi-rural canton in San Vicente.  The volunteer I visited was really nice and laid-back like me so we got along well.  The family I stayed with was great too.  I think they enjoyed messing with me a little because the lady I stayed with owns a tienda and one morning she comes up to me with several bottles of medicine with English labels and asks me if I can translate it to Spanish for her.  Two of them were prostate vitamins, so that was interesting trying to explain.  Then she says, "Ok, so my husband can use them, right?"  TMI for only having been there one night.  I also got to be a madrina in a carrera de cintas while I was there. That was so much fun!  A carrera de cintas is a competition where there are several rings with all the madrina's names lined up on a pole and the men try to stick a pencil through one of the rings while riding a horse.  If they succeed, that madrina gives them their sash and a little gift.  They can also give a kiss.  In my case, this 12 year old got my ring so I went in to gave him a hug and he kissed my neck (I think he was peer pressured because everyone was yelling, "give the gringa a kiss!")  It was cute though.

I taught an English class this morning.  My subject was "teaching English through music" so I played a bunch of Beatles songs because they're easy to understand but the kids' favorite was "Always" by Bon Jovi.  I have no idea but EVERYONE in El Salvador is in love with Bon Jovi's music, it's really funny.

This weekend is our "free weekend" although we only get one night off.  Almost everyone in my training group is going to the beach together.  I'm super excited to see the beach and relax a little.  We're also stopping at SuperSelectos (kind of like wal-mart) on the way there to stock up on American grub.

As you can see, I have A LOT going on.  And I'm loving every minute of it (minus the scary medical charlas about bugs that suck your face and carry diseases that can kill you.)

P.S. Don't forget there are way more pictures on my picasa website (the link is on the right.)

Who needs a hair dryer when you have a pica?

It has been one week since I moved in with my host family in San Esteban Catarina.  I absolutely love them!  My family consists of my abuelita, Graciela, her three daughters: Veronica, Lillian, and Daniella, and two grandsons, Joaquin and Ricardo.  I've learned so much and I feel like I'm really close to my family already.  Joaquin took a liking to me instantly and the other day Veronica taught me how to make papas rellenas.  I think by the end of my eight weeks here I won't want to leave.  It's also interesting because my family has wifi and television, but an outside shower and toilet that doesn't flush, and a latrine.  Apparently I'm being spoiled here and my permanent site won't be anywhere near this nice (definitely no wifi!)  It will also probably be in a much more rural area.

(Lillian, Veronica, and Graciela)

Right now I'm only a 15 minute pica ride to San Vicente, where the Peace Corps training site is located.  A pica is just a pick-up (hence the name pica, which I just put together today) with a tarp where everyone stands and holds on to get to town.  It's 30 cents to get to San Vicente from here and it's usually super crowded and I have to hold on for dear life.  The view is amazing though.  I live in the mountains and there's also a volcano close by called "Chicontepec."  Since it's the rainy season, everything is lusciously green.  I wish I could take a photo but I'm afraid my camera would get snatched so you'll just have to take my word for it.  Every single time I travel back and forth I am in awe and I think how lucky I am to be in such a beautiful place.

Today I tried pan dulce, or sweetbreads.  Cuerpo de Paz treated us since several of us had/have birthdays coming up.  I had the pineapple flavored and it was absolutely delicious.  Supposedly, the place where the make it is one of the best panaderias in all of El Salvador.

Spanish classes are pretty intense and sometimes last all day long but my Spanish is rapidly improving.  My family tells me my Spanish skills are great, but I think that's only because they've never had an "aspirante" that spoke the language upon arrival before.  I really enjoy learning and being able to practice with all of the kids in the neighborhood.  They're all so nice and curious, always asking me what certain things mean in English and telling me how to say things in Spanish.  One of my neighbors, a little girl named Nicole, even brought me elote (corn on the cob) that her family had prepared this evening.  This weekend we are traveling to another volunteer's site to do activities with a group of kids.  I'm excited to get to play outside with kids all day but I'm going to have to make sure I bring my sunblock!

My busted arm from traveling and vaccinations.  Everyone keeps asking me how I got such a big bruise and Veronica even asked me if it was from domestic violence!