How many roads must a man walk down

It only took us an hour drive to get from San Vicente to Costa del Sol. I have been here an entire month and had no idea that the beach was that close. That’s the greatest thing about being in this tiny country. Everything is so close! And when I find out next week where my permanent home will be for the next 2 years- I don’t have to be sad about being far from my dear friends I’ve made, because you can’t ever really be too far away in El Salvador.

I really enjoyed the beach! Well... of course I did! It was the beach! And we basically had the beach to ourselves because it’s “winter” and people don’t come to the beach as much in the winter. But it was still plenty hot and the water was warm. Why do they even bother calling it winter... it’s NOT cold! So we rented a really nice because house that we comfortably fit 20 people into and each only had to pay 20 bucks for it. and 5 dollars for a round trip ride... not bad for what we got. If you go see the pics i put on facebook, you will see it was very nice! It made me miss home...being in a comfy bed, with air conditioning, and showers.... It’s funny. I don’t miss these things too much when I am living without them every day. I miss them once I am reminded that I don’t have them. Does that make sense? I am extremely surprised how quickly I got used to ice cold bucket baths. Haha... i used to be so picky about having my shower water be warm enough. And I don’t think I will ever complain about having to do laundry ever again.

So yea, the one night in a luxurious home was magnificent. It was a great birthday with great friends... Lots of fun. Can’t wait to do it again.

Got back yesterday so tired. Slept early and still this morning I felt tired- my Spanish teacher let me skip class today. That was nice. Especially because I really don’t feel like I want them or need them. I know my Spanish is far from perfect. But I have no problem communicating or understanding... and I can learn a lot more on my own or just talking to people. I am so amazed at how quickly I picked up with where I left off with my Spanish from last summer and how much I have improved. This is exactly what I wanted and what I felt I needed to gain fluency. After 2 more years of this I will sound pretty good I think, if this is how I sound after a month. I’m even picking up of the rural accent- and i like it!

I spent some extra time getting to know my family tonight. They are very different from my Santa Clara family. Cristina and Samuel are the parents names. And they live with their two children Erica, 12, and Edenielson, 9. They left their children here with their grandma to go to the United States for 3-4 years. They lived in Maryland, and came back just about 2 years ago. I am fascinated with the immigration issue and how this need/desire to go to the United States touches every single family, person you meet in this country. They shared their border-crossing story with me. I am pretty tired right now and am not sure I will do it justice- but on with it anyway, right.

Samuel went first. He paid guides to take him of course. There’s not one guide that take you the whole way, I learned. They have different guides for separate stretches of the journey. He was guided up to the Arizona border. He said that he walked through the desert in Arizona for 9 days. What the!?!?! That’s hardcore. For some reason I just thought everyone went “mojado.” But this is how badly people want to come work in my country. They will suffer and go by train for hours, by foot across countries, and walk through desert for days with hardly any food or water- to work a labor intensive job and earn what I consider a very meager wage. To be in the country that I had the privilege of being born in. I am glad I am in El Salvador, and getting to see the other side. Changes the way I think about the people that I worked with in restaurants and the children immigrants and immigrant students i had. I can’t say it’s for the better or worse. Just see them in a new light.

Christina went the easier way- by train, then mojado across the rio grande river. Definitely no desert walk. She even passed through Houston on her way to Maryland. Makes me wonder, how many times did I pass immigrants fresh out of the river in my hometown. She went to be with her husband, he had to have surgery on his back because he hurt himself while working on one of his construction jobs. She went to work in a factory that packaged pistachio nuts like the bag my grandma sent me said. They sent a lot of money back to loved ones, and to take care of their kids. Finally when the US economy started getting worse and Sam couldnt find any more jobs, they decided to fly back home and be with their kids again. Ummm, but if they had been making great money there, would they have just left their kids on their own in El Sal for good? I hope not. So they came back and used all the money they saved to repair their home, build on it and make it nicer. Now they live off of everything they make here... Their life is not easy here... but life isn’t easy anywhere. They seem to always have great attitudes about it all.

Ok that’s all i can give tonight- i’m too sleepy now...

Paz. AMor.

p.s. i hate when i have to pee really bad at night and i have to get out of my mosquito net cage and go to the latrine outside in the dark. sometimes i don’t make it happen. lol.

And So It Is

So my last post came from a place of negativity. I was really bummed about having to leave my Santa Clara family. Wednesday afternoon came and I packed my bags and waited for my bosses arrival so they could give my family the news. They came and Ceci handled the situation well. She cried a little when they told her. I love her. They gave her the news, left for a while so i could pack my stuff, then they came back 45 minutes later to haul me off to farmville. When they showed up and we had to say goodbye- oh my god.... i never would have thought there would be so much crying. I lived with them for one month, and this was the most emotional goodbye i could have dreamed of. I was ok until 2 year old Diego started crying... when he started crying we all started crying. My whole family and even my spanish teacher! And off we went. Ceci told me today that Diego is still going to the door of my room and knocking on it saying “umy! umy!” and that after we drove off yesterday Oscar and Diego went in my room and sat on my bed and were crying together. Oscar said he think that i left because he bothered me too much and I told my bosses. Not even close. I would’ve stayed if I could have.

Anyway, my new home is great too, of course. It’s just very different from pueblo life. We all go to bed at 8 pm everynight. There’s not much to do. Just sit around and talk and play with kids. There are so many kids in my family though, it’s great! I live with a married couple and there 2 kids, 9 and 12. then they have a million cousins that live on the same compound so there are always soccer games and such going on. I woke up at 5:30 this morning to milk the family’s cow. Cow teets have a very rare feeling about them. Can’t say that I enjoyed it. But i’m always up for trying something new! And later today I played with the family’s baby ducks. Pics on facebook if your interested. Animals rock.

I have to say, living out in the country I think is much nicer in some ways. I’m really enjoying the natural beauty of this place. Except for the huge spider i found in my bed this evening. But there’s so much greenery to see as I take long walks on roads made of stone and dirt. You say hi to everyone you walk by and get to know who they are. In Houston, I was always very interested in who strangers might be, and here I actually get to talk to them. It’s great! Except for the big groups of bolo (drunk) men that congregate on the sides of roads. They get no attention from me.

I visited the school today... It’s gorgeous. It was built on a hillside and the basketball court area has a huge open wall facing a gorgeous view of the mountains. Makes me go “wow.” So, yes... I like it here, even though I was really bummed about having to move. The only thing that still isn’t so great is that my group just can’t seem to fit into any sort of groove. We are all just very different people. And there are two people in the group that just can’t see eye to eye on anything. So, its tough... only 3 more weeks. OMG! pretty soon I will be finding out what place I will call my home. A week from thursday.

Tomorrow I turn 24. I am happy to start this next year of my life here. I will be celebrating on the beach with some wonderful friends.

I love peace corps.

I know I have only been here a month- but I already feel like joining PC was the best decision I ever made.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

AHHHHHHH! Tomorrow I am moving to a new training town with the 3 other girls from my training community. We were supposed to be here for our entire training but the other girls have been having problems with their houses and have been very vocal about all of their dislikes about their living situations to our superiors. I am the only trainee in my town that is happy living with my family and I get taken care of very well. Unfortunately, the amount and nature of complaints the other girls have voices have given our bosses no choice but to move us all to an entirely new community. THIS SUCKS!

When they brought us in for the meeting today I was in tears when they told me I had to move. Now I have to leave this wonderful family behind that i was supposed to be with for the next 4 weeks and move to a smaller and more rural place where we will be living in houses that are much less nice- including latrines instead of flush toilets. I tried to put up a fight and ask them to let me stay in the pueblo by myself. But they won't let me. It just isn't an option. So there's absolutely nothing I can do about it... I was very very upset about this and I still am. This decision was made that we would move... and it's funny that oddly enough the girls don't even really want to go. But it doesnt matter... Tomorrow we move out. Hitting the road. So I will just go with it. Having to go through big changes like this is one of the hardest things about Peace Corps I think... Having to leave and say goodbye to people that you really love and start over somewhere else. I have to start over with a new family, we have to start over on our community project with a youth group, and we have readjust our working relationships with each other. In the big picture though, I will probably just look back on these training times and laugh at how crazy my training experience was.

I'm really going to miss my awesome family. But I know I will be back to visit them as much as I can. So i found out i'm moving this afternoon, and by tomorrow afternoon I have to have all my things packed up and ready to go. Oh boy! I'm just gonna focus on good vibes and happy thoughts. I can do this.

All Go-Go-Go

It has been very “go-go-go” these days, if you know what I mean. I have been so busy that i’ve hardly had time to blog. It’s especially hard because when i’m at home my host family really expects me to hang out with them. You can’t just go in your room and shut your door around here too often or you risk damaging the “confianza” you’ve spent weeks establishing. But it’s ok, I like hanging out with them for the most part. It just leaves little time for the blog. So... now that it is late and all the chambre (gossip), wrestling like middle schoolers, and giggles have run their course for the night... here i am left with what little time i have to Speed Blog before i get to sleep.

What’s happened in the last week?

Wednesday we had our first youth group meeting in our community. We had nearly 50 kids show up. Incredible turnout! Some communities only had 7 show up. SO... i had a great time leading activities with enthusiasm... it felt great being up in front of kids again. We talked about what kind of project we could do together for the community... and I was looking forward to our next meeting. Well We had our next meeting today.... unfortunately it didn’t really happen. We were all there at 3 today, the set time for the meeting. At about 3:20 the girls in my group decided to call it quits and go home because they weren’t really feeling like doing it today anyway. I kinda understood, I didnt really feel like doing it either... but I didnt just want to leave and not have the meeting because the kids weren’t there... Everyone knows that people always show up late around here. So I told them they could go home if they wanted, but I couldn’t do it. I stuck around. And sure enough, as soon as they left... all the kids we were waiting on showed up. At least I was there to tell them something about the meeting not happening. I ended up telling them that the other girls weren’t feeling too well so they had to go home. I hope that we didn’t lose our rapport with them... I stuck around and played soccer with them for about an hour. We still had a good time!

So I went on my immersion days from Thursday to Sunday. Due to lack of time for writing tonight and getting sleepy. I’m going to give you the low down in a quick choppier fashion than i normally write. But please don’t think that makes it seem like I’m not a dedicated and thoughtful blogger... because you better believe I am.

Thursday- At bus terminal to catch ride from San Vicente to La Union. Was traveling with fellow trainee Anna. Used nasty latrine bathroom on side of the road. Grossest. Thing. Ever. But did what i had to do. If can do biz in there... can do biz anywhere. Crazy cobrador (guy who collects bus fare) spoke english. Was sketchy. Asked Duffy the guy that was with us if he “had a lot of meat for the hamburgers here”... took me a sec to catch on to what he was talking about. Cobrador proceeded to tell Duffy to never sleep with a Salvadorian woman because his dick will turn into a rock and it will fall off. Quote unquote. What the hell? Who says that? I guess its not as shocking here as it would be in the Us. “Hello nice to meet you let’s talk about penises because I am macho” I do not like these sketchy bus people. Barf.

Stopped at burger king for lunch! Met up with PCV that took us to Nueva Esparta where we stayed the night and got to know other volunteers. These people volunteers sites we saw were awesome. Hope I am as lucky as they are. There we played pool at the local pool hall that shuts down whenever the gringos want to play so we had the place to ourselves. Ate yummy chili and spaghetti.

Friday- Woke up at 5 am to catch bus to Upire. Yes, a tad hungover. Sat on the rockiest bus ride i’ve ever taken on dirt road. Rocking. Swaying. It was so up and down it could be a ride at disneyworld. Bus didnt go all the way to the town because the road was too muddy. So we had to get off and walk the rest of the way. Wasn’t too bad. I had hiking shoes and a redbull. Went and had coffee at the house Anna was staying at. Her house was ridiculously nice. You join peace corps and u never would imagine you’d be staying at a house thats that frikin ritzy. Mine was not nice. I was a little jealous. I was more jealous of the mosquito net she had than the granite counter tops, beautiful tile, and flat screen TVs. I dont care how nasty and old my house is, i just want a net to keep the bugs and rats off me. I have never seen so many spiders in a house. I think I handle it well though. And there was a roosting hen with 10 baby chicks underneath her sitting next to the kitchen table as we ate our meals. I had many moments where i though “am i really here? doing this?” I slept fine there. It was freezing at night! I haven’t known what it feels like to be cold in so long. It was great! We gave a charla to the kindergarteners at his school about brushing their teeth. That was fun. Followed Brian around his town and mostly just sat and drank coffee at all the local families houses. Drank tons of bad instant coffee. Later sat in a meeting about his project that was hard to stay awake in. Finally crashed after that.

Saturday-slept in. Ate tamales for breakfast. I hate the tamales here. They are not like Mexico. They make me want to gag. They hardly put anything inside. usually its just all the fatty corn part. One of mine had fatty chicken parts in it. I watched the mom making my breakfast. She was holding a bottle over the stove fire and i asked her “what is that?” she says “pig fat.” I thought, ok nothing wrong with a little pig fat to cook the food. I’ve seen that before. Then she poors nearly half of the huge bottle in the saucepan... just to make some eggs. Disgusting. All of her meals tasted like the fattiest greasiest food i ever ate. I wonder how many pounds she put on me that weekend. The family was really sweet and nice though. She had clothes for sale in the room I slept in.... I bought 4 shirts from her. Altogether nice family. Nice town. Super evangelical though.

Went to Brians house. One of his rooms is all cement walls that he draws all over with sidewalk chalk. So i drew a big butterfly. It was fun! I hope i have cement walls like that at my house! Then i will beg all of you to ship me some chalk!

On the way home we got more Burger King. Funny how i never eat that crap at home but here it is such a wonderful treat. Any break from beans and tortillas is well appreciated. THe same creepo cobrador was on our bus on the way home. Haha.

Well tomorrow is another day at the training center. I should get to sleep. Buenas noches everyone. I miss you my loved ones!

Paz y amor.

P.S. please hold off on shipping packages. It takes so long to get here that you should wait til you get my permanent site address. Thanks to the few that already sent me stuff! Should get it any day now! :)

I love mi familia

Ah!! There’s so much I have to do before training is over!!! Tomorrow we are going to start working with our youth group on a social service project for the community. I dont know how we will even fit in time to do this social service with them with all of the training sessions and field trips we have. But we will somehow find a way. Then I found out on Monday that I have to teach a 2 hour English class to 7th graders at the school next wednesday. I think it’s going to be hard because I don’t know the kids or anything about what levels they are on with the English language. I’m just supposed to go in a teach for one day. Then I have to prepare a 50 minute presentation about Youth Assets to present the week after that. And papers to fill out and Spanish to study and a host family to hang out with... And I LOVE my host family! So i definitely want to make sure I get time to hang out with them. I am already halfway through my training and well on my way to being sworn in. Nutz!

Speaking of my host family.... I am so incredibly lucky to have them. They definitely have a lot to do with how happy I have been since I got here. They are just cool. They keep it real. I just feel comfortable with them and we talk a lot. We laugh a lot too. And we don’t just chit chat about the mundane- like I hear a lot of volunteers talk with their families mostly about the weather and stuff like that. I have real conversations with my family. Well mostly just Ceci and my host grandma. They are the coolest. I feel close to them and they are really making my experience wonderful. Ceci goes out of her way to make me comfortable and happy and well fed. And my host grandma is so sweet. She randomly will get up and come across the room just to give me a kiss and tell me she loves me and “guapisima” or “simpatica.” And she smiles and laughs all the time despite the fact she is super old and in pain a lot of the time from what she call “colitis.” She just seems happy. Maybe because she has been free form the chains of her husband for about 20 years now. He is the father of her 8 children and lives down the hill from us. But the family doesnt really talk to him at all. He is a bolo, a drunk and when he was living with the family he was beating my host grandma and all of their children. So good for her that she got out of that. But it is a bit awkward when I am with Ceci and we walk by where he is sitting on the corner and she won’t even acknowledge him. She was really hurt by him.

In fact, many of the women here are single. It seems like the majority are living without a man around. Either divorced or their husband left to go to the states to work. Anyway...My grandma put an apron over my head last night that looked just like her’s. I just left in on the rest of the day. She liked that. It was kind of fun walking around looking like her. :)

Thursday I am leaving for my immersion days.... I’m going to the department of La Union in the north close to the border of Honduras. It’s pretty far away... I was told I’m going to the farthest away place for my immersion site. Of course I am. I was put in the farthest away community for training too. I was also shocked to find out that I’m going with another girl to visit the same guy in the same place. They told us this was us, on our own, independent. And as frightened as I was to be traveling solo on public transportation, I still wanted to do it on my own. Oh well... I have a travel buddy and she’s cool... so I’ll just enjoy the company... I will have plenty of time to travel solo in my next couple years.

Ok time to play UNO with the family!

Confession

Ok I have to admit it- I'm starting to grow a little tired of this no running water thing. It's usually not too much of a pain.... it's not taking the bucket baths themselves that is getting old. They really arent bad. It's just making sure that I actually have the water to be able to do so is what's starting to wear on me. I want to shower in the morning. But there is no water in the bucket for me to use. I have to take the water out of the pila and bring it in there. Those big jugs get really heavy when they are full. I don't know how these women carry them on their heads with no hands.

For a while I was bathing with the water brought from the river, if I wasn't bathing in the river itself. But since we finally had running water for one day last week, we were able to fill up our pilas (water reserves that are basically huge concrete tubs) with water from the faucet. I'm trying not to think about how gross and dirty the water is that has been sitting there for a week... that has mosquito larvae swimming in it... I'm always worried that i accidentally got some contaminated water in my mouth when I pour the bucket over my head. But... knock on wood.... luckily i haven't gotten really sick yet since i've been here. I'm wondering when it's my turn. The other trainees around me seem to be dropping... one goes, then another.... One of the guys in my group was vomiting all day on Sunday and had to go to the hospital in the capital. They found that he had some kind of crazy amoebas hatching in his stomach. Yuck! How awful! But despite how disgusting and uncomfortable that sounds.... he recommended that we all get sick because apparently the hospital is really fancy and nice. He's enjoying his stay there with AC and other amenities. Haha. I would rather not get sick! But it's good to know they take us to a nice hospital that is well equipped.

OK going to bed. Tomorrow is another day at the training center... And I will get to find out where in the country I'll be going for my 4 immersion days! EEK!

Text Message Me!!

Want to know how to send text messages to anyone in El Salvador (who has a Tigo phone, like me) for free, using the internet? Well here you go.

1. Go to this website: http://www.tigo.com.sv/seccion/mundo-tigo, and click on the box that says empresas tigo and then click envio de mensajes

2. A pop-up will open, with the name Messenger Tigo. Where it says "nombre a mostrar en el chat" type your name and click aceptar.

3. Next the page will display "lista de destinatarios." Where is says telefono, type in my 8 digit phone number (If you need my number, e-mail me) and click aceptar. A message goes to my phone saying that you want to start a conversation with me.

4. In the next window, a box will say "Escribe aqui el texto que quieres enviar (clic aqui para iniciar)" which means "Write here the text you want to send (click here to start)" So, click there and type your message, then click Enviar to send it to me. A codigo verificador (verification code) will pop up, type it into the little box and click enviar. It will show up on my phone.

5. I answer the text from my phone, and it shows up in the text box on your screen.

What's the worst that could happen

I love walking to out of my house and seeing the neighbors pig and her baby pigs following her around in the street. And I love seeing the ducks on my doorstep, and hearing cows and roosters moo. I never knew it was so nice to live around farm animals. Seeing and hearing them makes me happy. My friend Jessica would beg to differ... she has a rooster outside her room that goes cock-a-doodle-doo at all hours and through the night. She regularly shares her ideas about how she might kill him inconspicuously with her family knowing she did it. Luckily, I dont have this problem.

I went to Catholic mass this morning with my host grandmother. It was a neat cultural experience. I didnt understand a whole lot of what the priest was talking about... but that’s ok. I definitely felt like everyone was staring at me. But that’s ok. It’s nothing new. They had a band that played some very contemporary music. I wanted to boogie on down there in the iglesia. But I was already getting enough weird stares.

I didnt get a chance to tell about my trip to the capital yet! Well, let me first say that riding on public buses was my biggest fear about coming to this country. Because i read all about stabbings, murders, and people being set on fire on public buses in the capital. So it freaked me out that I knew I would have to ride them. And the day came for me to face my fear. It wasn’t so bad. I’m glad I got it over with! The buses are all pretty fast paced, and it’s pretty entertaining to see the people who walk on trying to sell stuff. I saw people selling wallets, pens, and one guy was selling this “magical” cream that you could rub anywhere on your body and it would make pain go away. Haha. OK buddy.

So I was on edge the entire time I was on the bus. Keeping my eyes out for possible danger. We changed buses 3 or 4 times. On each one I was preparing myself for the worst.... On the 2nd bus there was a singing clown. He was the scariest looking clown ever! As he stood there singing, I started thinking that it actually would be a really good idea to disguise yourself as a clown if u are a robber or a killer. A good way to do what you want while concealing your identity. The whole time he was singing, in my head I was coming up with ways he could harm me. Maybe he would pull out a gun from his gigantic pants that were held up by suspenders. Maybe his music shaker was really a bomb. Well... he finished his song and then went around asking for money. Some gave him some change, some didnt. And that was it, he was done. I was alive in perfect condition and everyone safely arrived at the destination. It’s safe to say I’m pretty paranoid about the situation. This week I will have to travel to stay with a volunteer in their site for 3 nights. It could be anywhere in the country. I really hope I get something good. And then as far as my permanent site goes- I’m not very religious... but in church this morning... I prayed. That I get put in a site that has good people and where I will be happy. Right now, the not knowing where I’m going to be concerns me.

We went to a some very nice museums in the capital. I enjoyed most of them. But the last was so huge and we had a guide that had a voice that put me to sleep. After 30 minutes, I checked out and starting walking around listening to the FM radio on my cell phone the rest of the time. San Salvador has tons of great radio stations- many that even play a lot of pop music from the US.

When we went to the mall for lunch, I bought the USB that would allow me to have wireless internet at my house. Thank God for this internet! It is really helping me feel alot more comfortable here. To be able to stay in touch with everyone and share stories and pictures. A lot of people I know have criticized me for getting internet or even a cell phone. They say “That’s not Peace Corps!” And I’m like- “uhhhhh, sure it’s not Peace Corps 1960s... but it’s the Peace Corps today!” We have these tools available to us. Why not use them. It’s so much better for your sanity to remain connected to everyone and to be able to use it as a resource to help make your service projects better. They can kiss my technology loving ass. :) Ok well that was rude... To each his own, really. If they want to pretend they are in Peace Corps 1960s- go for it. Have fun!

I got to eat Quizno’s in the capital! It was delicious! They have everything there. Wendy’s. Pizza Hut. Sushi. Mc Donald’s. Wal Mart (except it’s not called walmart, it’s call Hiper Paiz).... you want it, you can find it there. But also- I really didnt like the capital. It’s big, dirty, fast-paced, and scary. I am only going to go there if I have to. And I know I will have to go there for doctors appointments.... but other than that. No thank you. There are some volunteers that love going there so much. One guy treats himself to a monthly vacation at the 5 star Sheraton Hotel for a weekend. LoL. That has to get expensive. But hey, you need to make sure you do things for yourself to keep you happy in service... if that’s what does it for him then kudos. I hope I can find more affordable ways to treat myself to an escape.

Lastly, we went to the U.S. Embassy Friday afternoon. It is a frikin’ palace! A piece of heaven. I walked in there and felt regal. It was so beautiful. Huge beautiful garden on the terrace where we were treated to refreshments. We sat and talked with the Charge D’ Affairs (I think that’s what he is called), who is doing all that an Ambassador would do because they are still waiting for the nominated ambassador to complete the hiring process. We all sat and met with him.... He welcomed us to El Salvador, and talked with us about the importance of our service and safety and what not. Then he opened up for questions. Everyone was so serious, and asking serious questions... I think everyone was trying to act as professional and proper as possible. And sure I felt that too... Then I all of a sudden found myself asking him the question “Sooooo- What exactly do you do here?” and then the whole room burst into laughter! And I was thinking “what’s wrong with that question? oh god, everyone in here knows this except for me and I just asked this very prestigious man the dumbest question ever, i’m supposed to know... i shoulda kept my mouth shut!” But he answered, and I felt like his response was a valuable one. Later, people made comments to me like “nice question Amy” - they told me it was the way i asked it... the delivery... and a few friends made me feel much better when they said that they were thinking the same thing- like “who is this guy?” but they were too afraid to ask. So yea! I’m not going to feel bad about it. I had a question- and I had the guts to throw it out there. Maybe I could have thought of a fancier way to say it, but oh well.

Afterwards we had snacks and more refreshments. There were awesome little sandwhiches and pastries. The plates were so cool. They had gold trim and had the US Seal on them... My friend gave me the idea of putting one in my purse to take with me. But I couldn’t do it. I just took some of the fancy paper napkins with the seal on them instead. :)

Doing Business

8-14

Where to start? I am hanging out at the casa with the family. We might be going to a pool today. It would be cool to get out and do something different. I finally stopped hiding my laptop from my family. I got tired of having to wait until bed time to use it. It sure did attract a lot of attention when i first whipped it out. But it’s ok. We had fun playing with the camera on the photo booth program. I’ll put some of those pics up.

I’ve only used a latrine a couple of times since I’ve gotten here. I ws lucky enough to get a flush toilet at my house. Of course, there’s never any running water so it doesn’t flush by itself.... you have to pour the water in there yourself to get things down. 1000 times better than latrines.

Why do you need a latrine? Are nasty and gross and all around unpleasant to experience. Jesse, the trainee that was living here in my community until the drama happened the other night.... he was the only trainee in my pueblo that was put in a house with a latrine. He admitted that sometimes he would have to go to the bathroom really bad but he would put it off for hours just because he didnt want to have to go use the latrine. He says that when he sat on it the flies would be shooting up and out between his legs.

One day, I had to go to the bathroom when we were having a meeting at his house. So I asked where the bathroom was, forgetting what he had told me about it. When I saw the latrine, I looked in and saw tons of cockroaches and grasshoppers covering the inside walls of the thing you are supposed to sit on and there were flies everywhere... I decided I would rather hold it. I am sure I will have to get over this fear of latrines if I’m gonna live here for two years. It’s going to take a lot for me to get used to doing my business in something like that. I didnt want his family to be offended that I saw their bathroom and thought it was so disgusting that I would rather be in pain holding it than go in their nasty latrine. So I stood back there on the side of the house and slowly counted to 60 before going back inside... to let them think I used it. Jesse guessed that I didnt really do business back there. I confessed. Maybe I should’ve counted to 100.

I’m thinking about my permanent site. I only have 5 weeks of training left until I go to my home for the next 2 years. My boss says we will all be put in more rural areas. My pueblo right now is a fairly large community...with maybe 6000 residents. I will go live in what is called a canton... which usually has less than 1000. They did this because it’s harder to integrate in larger communities. In a canton, I will know everyone and everyone will know me. It’s supposed to be easier to be successful in your projects. I dont know if it’s so true. I want a pueblo like the one I’m in now. I feel like I am integrating really well here, despite the large size. I know most of the people in my area, all the neighbors.... I meet more people hanging out at the pupuseria every night. My Spanish has improved drastically in just 3 and a half weeks!

Anyway back to my original questions- why do we even need latrines? Why can’t I just do my #1 and 2 out in the grass? I tell ya- if I end up with a latrine in my site... I will probably find myself just doing my business out in the grass to avoid going in the scary shit box. Hopefully I will adjust.

OK! I’m off to spend the rest of my saturday at a waterfall! WOO HOO! We are gonna bring our lunches and picnic and swim... I will try to take pictures!!!

el fin de la semana!!!

It has been a looooong week. Every single day this week I had to leave my community to either go to San Vicente or San Salvador. The weekend is here and I am happy I will sleep in tomorrow. At least I will try. There is a 7th Day Adventist church that is basically in my backyard, and every saturday they spend the entire day from dawn til dusk singing praise to the lord on a speaker system with the volume all the way up. That’s how they do it here. Every time amplifiers are involved- they make them go to 11. I went to several dances for the fiestas patronales, and the music was so loud that my ears would ring for the next 24 hours or so. The dances were fun though! The last one was a “discoteca” that included a latino boy band performance. It was incredible what a great set up and show they put on with fancy staging and lighting and everything. The fiestas lasted for almost 2 weeks.... and I am glad they are over so that things will calm down here some. All day and all night people were setting up fireworks that sounded a lot like gunshots... I would wake up in the night startled but the sound. And people would be out there playing live music at 5 am too.... It’s so different here! In the US I would consider filing noise complaints if my neighbors were constantly loud and partying at night. No such thing here of course. I have it pretty good at my house though as far as noise goes. My friend Jessica has a rooster that lives right outside her room that crows at all hours. Apparently everynight she lies there thinking about how she can kill the bastard. She sounds pretty serious about it too. It is so loud she says earplugs don’t do a thing. But we signed up for this. :) i’m not having any problems really. It does suck that the one guy we had in our training group in our community is being moved to another. He got home from the dance the other night to his family being involved in a violent altercation with a fellow. It was decided that the home was unfit for a volunteer to live in... So he’s gone and it’s just me and the girls now. We will miss him. I’ll write more tomorrow about what i’ve been up to this week and my experiences with my first trips to the capital. It’s bed time!!!

Livin la vida Salvadoreña

For lunch today my grandma put an entire cooked chicken on my plate. No way can I eat an entire chicken in one sitting, along with a huge bowl of soup, two pieces of bread, cole slaw and flan. Seriously. I can´t do it. I tried my best. Then I had to take off for a meeting with a small business owner in my pueblo. It was interesting. Eva has a hot dog/hamburger/sandwich stand on the side of her house. She´s open every night and makes about 40 dollars profit a week. Tasty stuff she sells.

Yesterday was the best day I´ve had since I got here. I had some fun! I slept in, hung out at the casa, then later went to San Vicente with Ceci, my host sister. I needed to go to the bank to pay her rent. It was so great hanging out with a non-gringo for the day. We went to eat at Pollo Campero... best food I´ve had since I got here! I was so happy. They are like a KFC that serves pizza. I filled up on my favorite food- CHICKEN WINGS!!!- and took a pizza home for dinner. Fridays are buy one get one free pizza days. We got so much food, and it only cost us 11 dollars!! And i was so happy that i got to have to tasty meals in one day! A nice break from beans tortillas and pupusas.

When we got back I saw some parades in the town for the fiestas. Later I hung out at the family pupuseria where I ate my pizza... I think it´s funny when I find myself there eating American type foods as opposed to the pupusas everyone else eats. Then I went to the park and contemplated whether or not I had enough guts to ride the sketchy old ferris wheel that spins 100 mph. I couldn´t do it! Then my friends and I went to the first dance of the fiestas. Apparently there are many more dances to come. Theres another one tonight, but i´m still tired from last night! It was so fun to dance! I only danced with my friends and people that I know. The guys that came up and asked me to dance, I turned them all down. They play a lot of kumbia, reggaeton, and electronic music. It was in the casa comunal and felt very much like a high school dance. They even had a crowning of a queen. The music was so loud it hurt my ears. I stayed until the end though, with my host family. The other PC trainees bailed earlier than me... but I didn´t, I was having a blast.It was surprisingly clean. People were dancing nasty, and the guys i danced with didn´t even touch me. I like that!! Maybe it´s also because it´s so hot here and everyone was dirrping with sweat, it would be gross to touch someone else all sweaty. It went until midnight.

When we went home I hung out with Ceci, Elmer, and Oscar for a while. Ceci is so great. We started talking about my job and why I´m here, and what I can do here. Which led to us talking about how many of the people here just can´t wait to leave and get to the U.S. Including her. She actually had a plan to go 4 years ago. She had her money all saved up and was ready to go when she suddenly got very sice right before the day she was set to leave. Her mom convinced her it was a sign that she was not supposed to go. And so she stayed. She really regrets it. Most of her family is already there living in Virginia and Maryland, and she misses them a ton. If she leaves though, then her poor 70 year old mom will be so lonely. I don´t blame her for wanting to go. She has so much she wants for her life and her future, and she knows she is not going to be able to make those things happen for her here. She told me it costs $7000 to pay the guides to help get you there. Wow that´s a lot of money! You only pay half up front. Then when you get to the U.S. you send the rest of the money to your family to pay it off. If you don´t pay it off they will out you to the immigration police, or they might do even worse things to you. Do you think they even kill? I dunno.... Anyway, she says she is going to try to apply for a visa to go legally for the fourth and last time. If she doesn´t get it... she says she´ll go for it. Eek!

Tomorrow I am going to go to the rodeo and watch some bullriding with Jamie. Fun!

Another thing for the wish list- some kind of small fan. Like one of those hand held accordian ones, or even better- a battery operated hand held fan! It is hot as hell here. You just sweat all the time.

i love my grandma Mirian. She is the sweetest little old lady. I can´t understand most of what she says, but she loves me anyway. When I had a cold last week, she was taking care of me. She was rubbing alcohol and this menthol icy hot stuff all over my throat. It didnt´really help, but it was nice that she was trying to take care of me, and I enjoyed letting her.

One of my friends was hanging out at my fam´s pupuseria with me the other night. We were sitting in these cheap plastic chairs, and all of sudden the back legs on her chair slowly started to bend. She went down a little, and then came back up and straightened the legs. Next thing we know the legs bent completely and she was falling backward in the chair and was laying on the floor! Pobrecita! I would have been embarrassed... but it was seriously the best laugh I´ve had in a while. We were warned about the cheap chinese plastic chairs.

That´s all for now. Paz y Amor.

The Magic Sock, Cow Patties, and More

Monday 8-2

I went to hang out at my friend Jamie’s house who lives in a nearby town yesterday. It was great getting out of my pueblo and being able to hang out with others, see their town, and use Jamie’s wifi she has at her house. When i came back though I started feeling like I was coming down with a bit of a cold. So many people have been sick around here, I knew I was bound to pick something up eventually. So even though there was a fiesta in the park that all my friends were at, I didnt feel like going. Especially because I didnt want to stand out there in the rain. It’s ok because they have fiestas here for the next couple weeks. They bring in good bands and have carnival rides (that look 100 years old and way too sketchy for me to ever want to try) and they will have dances and stuff. My training schedule doesn’t fit well with parties, but I think I can always find a way to get some fun in.

Here are some random things I have observed since I have arrived:

They like to walk around with cloths on their head when they have a headache or are sick. It kind of reminds me when I was a kid and my feet would hurt from “growing pains” and my parents would give me the “magic sock” that would take the pain away. I think their head rags are kind of like that.

Even though my host family themselves don’t eat that much, they give me 3 or 4 times the amount they can eat. I know that people love you with their food here. But it’s funny....After several conversations of trying to explain that I only want to eat a little like they do, I am now getting much more reasonable portions. I am pretty sure my fruits and vegetables are not cleaned properly. But I just try not to think about it. So far I haven’t had anything too bad happen to me. Hopefully this cold I have will only get better.

People all over this town own cows. And they walk the cows down the pueblo streets every day to take them to the fields to eat grass. The cows poop all over the streets, and unless the rain comes and washes it away, the cow patties are to stay. So you really have to watch your step. I’m a germophobe somewhat so I always take my shoes off when I get to the house because I don’t want to bring in a trail of cow dung. But the rest of family doesnt, and they usually insist I keep my shoes on. It’s ok, they wash their floors often. I saw a little girl step on one of the cow patties yesterday and fell down only to be completely covered in poo. I couldn´t help but laugh.... But I felt bad because she looked like she wanted to cry.

Instead of taking buses to the city from the pueblo, we take the pickup trucks. I think I have mentioned this before. I think it’s the kind of thing you would have to see to really understand. It’s amazing how they can fit over 40 people into the back of one pick up, standing their, packed in like sardines. Everytime I’m on one I can hear the engine of the truck roaring in ways that can’t be good and I imagine the weight of all the people it’s carrying will make it break down. Or the tires will burst. And then what? Well I guess it wouldn’t be bad. Another pick up would pass by and we’d hop on that one.

Every single family I have met here is separated and has some family that moved to the states. I find it sad that many parents leave their own children behind to go to the states to work. I wonder, how can you do that? Leave your child? How sad and difficult that must be. For example, Oscar: 12 year old grandson of my host mom is visiting from Virginia. But he hasn’t always lived there. When he was 1 year old his parents left him behind with his grandma to go to the U.S. They were able to get visas, unlike most of the people that go “mojado” (or “wet”). So they went and worked and sent lots of money back home, and finally when Oscar was 8 he got his visa and he was able to go join his parents. At that point, they weren’t even his parents to him... they were strangers. He still says today that he feels like his parents are more like siblings and his real parents are his family here in El Salvador.

I can’t help but wonder- Is it worth it? Being separated from your family so that you are able to have more money to buy stuff? Here they have built a brand new house, only two years old, that includes a flat screen TV with cable television, nice tile floors, decent furniture, comfy beds, etc. All paid for by the remesas, or money, they receive from family in Virginia. Well, I’m assuming. Because I see what my family does to make their money. They work their asses off all day to sell tostadas in the street (only 25 cents per bag) every afternoon, and then pupusas (only 35 cents each) at night. Maybe the family brings in about $20 a day... And they work every day, never a day without rest. So clearly they get money from the US like most everyone else here. There is no way they could have this nice house and pay for the electricty and things they have here if they didnt. So ok.... maybe it is worth it for families to be divided. I can’t say that’s what I would ever want for my family. There is always some member of a family that makes a sacrifice to be able to provide for their loved ones. And migration is nothing new to mankind that’s for sure. Still, idealistically- I wish the Salvadorians would stay and educate themselves and try to work to make their country better. There may not be many opportunities for work here right now... but there never will be if everyone keeps leaving. One of the reasons I am here is to help improve the quality of life for Salvadorian youth. Unfortunately, many people I have talked to have mentioned how the youth lack motivation and values. This is because many of them are abandoned by their parents and left with other family members that don’t really have the time to raise them and teach them values and morals. And the kids are all just receiving tons of money from their parents in the U.S. so their is no reason for them to feel like they have to go to school or work hard. Things are just so broken here. I am excited to work with the youth, and I am aware of the challenges that I will face. Huge challenges.

This morning my host sister was telling me that she applied for a visa 3 times and was denied. She wants to go to the U.S.... and she is thinking she might just go “mojado.” That sounds very scary to me. What a loss for this country is a great person like her leaves.

Anyway, that’s enough for tonight. More observations to come.