I make a good Cowgirl! Who woulda thought?

With my host dad, Don Chepito



Momma cow and Baby cow in front of my house.

This morning my counterpart’s sister called me to see if I wanted to go do my house visits with her since Ariel wasn’t around to go with me. At first I said no, because I was just going to walk around the area that I already know and it’s not really necessary that I have company.... But when I hung up I felt bad for declining. I realized it would be nice to get to know her and hang out with someone different. She’s in the 9th grade and really nice. So I called her back and said sure, that I’d just finish my breakfast and come over. I forgot that I had to hang my wet laundry out to dry though, and I left much later than I told her I would. To make things worse, I got lost on the way to her house and then some of the bolos on the street starting bothering me, so I went into the house I was near... The one where I buy chocobananas from all the time. They’re cool, they like me. So I had a safe place to go to escape the bolos. They’re the town drunks, they are pretty harmless. They just make me really uncomfortable with their cat calls. They will yell out at me in really bad English - “C’mon baybeee. I alikea ju. Ju awr bootifur.”  Ugh, leave me alone.

I had to ask my friend at that house to let me send a message from her phone because I didn’t have any credit on my phone, I was supposed to buy that when I got to Brenda’s house. She was really hesitant to let me use her phone because she only had 28 cents worth of saldo... a text is 5 cents. I will repay her when I go get my next chocobanana. Brenda was there in minutes. We did our house visits with her friend Lety who is really sweet and pretty as well. She has a lot more ambition than Brenda. She wants to continue her studies and go to high school bachillerato. 9th grade is as high as free public education gets you here. Brenda says she doesn’t want to get her bachillerato. I am wondering if she just says that because she knows her family doesn’t have the money to send her. Her mom is single. She has 6 or 7 kids. All with different fathers. The youngest one is from one of the town’s bolos. Maybe it’s a lot easier for her to pretend like she doesn’t want to rather than face the embarrasment of looking too poor. But you know the girl is poor, she lives in a metal shack with a dirt floor and one bedroom and the and all her sibling and mom sleep in. Her brother is getting his bachillerato though, he got a scholarship with the help of the last peace corps volunteer that worked here in San Jacinto. I would love to be able to do that for some kids here. It’s hard for me to understand why a young man or woman would not want to continue their education... It’s something for them to do other than sit around and clean house and watch tv.

We had some visitors for lunch at the house today. There was this one Salvadoran guy who lives in Australia... he’s related to some friends of my host parents. There are a lot of Salvadorans who have migrated to Australia. It was an interesting lunch... no one else really talked but him. I was amazed at how long he could go on and on without interruption. It was more of a monologue than a conversation... He was telling them all about things they have never heard of... GPS systems, his car that turns on with a button from the outside, all the fancy things he owns. Show off. All that stuff is so foreign to the people here. And it’s not like they are missing out. The simple life is the way to go.

I rode a horse around town today. It was fun to see people look so surprised when I came by on it. They were like “oh! look what the gringa can do!” i think i gained some serious brownie points. We took some pictures of me on it before I left the house. I loved the ride though, I hope I can do it more often around here. 

I came home and exercised in my house... Jumping jacks, kickboxing, running around in circles.... it was good. I can’t go for a run out in the streets here... the dirt roads are too rocky. I would twist my ankle. In the middle of my workout Marinita interrupted me- she want me to go take a picture with the town photographer at her house. I was like, “Umm... now!? I’m all sweaty and wet and red faced.” It could not wait. The photographer is just a guy with a crappy digital camera that brings back a print and you pay him a dollar for it. I told her I could do it for her myself another time, when I could be showered and pretty. But I still had to take the pic right then. It didn’t turn out too bad.

I am getting more comfortable with declining her food now... I have my own kitchen now, I should be expected to use it. So instead of tamales I got to eat Chicken flavored Ramen noodle soup. Way better than tamales! The tamales here are gross. They have no meat... just slimy moist corn mostly. They make me want to gag.

Ok well tomorrow it’s back to work at the school. I need to get in the habit of waking up earlier during the week. Before Milton wakes me up throwing stuff at my door. He’s so cute. I walked out of my house tonight and heard him crying. He was just standing in the middle of the dark field by my house... kinda far away, just standing there crying. He got scared on his way back to his house from Marinita’s and couldn’t see or he was confused about which way to go or something. His mom wasn’t home and his 2 older sisters don’t look after him very well. I ran into the dark field and picked him up and carried him home. Poor little guy... He needs a good mommy. Turns out he does have more than one shirt. It’s just that his mom doesn’t change his clothes much or wash them very well. Marinita and Chepito, my host parents do it for him when they can.

Question: At what age is it necessary for a child to start brushing their teeth?

A bug just flew in my eye

From 10-2

Hello! I haven’t felt a whole lot like blogging lately- I’ve been tired. Today is Saturday...I woke up at 8 am to the sound of rocks hitting my my metal front door. I got up and opened the door. Milton, of course. He was so happy to see me. I told him he needed to pick up all those rocks from the porch, and that he needs to not do that in the future. As cute as he is, I don’t want him to be my alarm clock. I got my clothes on and let him in to join me. He played with the tether ball while I made breakfast. Then I put on James Taylor and we danced. It was a nice way to start my day.

I didn’t leave my house today though. I had every intention of going to do house visits today but time didnt allow for it. I wasn’t able to wash my clothes last week because of all the rain. So that meant I had double to wash this week. I started at 9 am and didnt finish until 1 or 2. I did take a lunch break. But washing all your clothes by hand here really takes a lot of time and energy. Especially sheets and blankets.

I have the option of paying the next door neighbor $5 each time I want her to wash my clothes. And I know 3 people in this town that have washing machines they said I could use. So I have a way around this. But for some reason, at least for now, I have no desire to take the easy way out. It’s not like I don’t have enough time to do it myself. And hopefully I will get better and faster at it so it wont take up my entire day.

After washing, my host parents came into my house to help me fix my mosquito net. I needed to set it up so that I could put plastic on the top of it to prevent the water leaks from dropping on my bed when it rains. It’s a lot better now than it was before. But while we were working on this, my mom spotted one of the rats that I’ve been living with hiding behind the barrel of frijoles in the corner. We chased him around for a while... everytime we got him out from hiding behind one thing he’s just run and hide around another. I don’t know why I’m such a sissy, but everytime it ran out into view I screamed like a little girl. I couldn’t help it. But it doesn’t make sense because once upon a time, I had pet rats. Looking back- that was effin weird. They are gross. I learned that rats are very good jumpers. My dad ran to the house and came back with his machete. He was planning to whack it. I was like- ooooh grossss rat guts in my house...but then I realized if we didnt kill him he would probably just continue coming around and making noise that keeps me up at night. So I said, “ok do it. but i can’t look!” I went and sat in a chair on the other side of the room with my back facing the scene of the murder.

But then they couldn’t find him. The sneaky little rat got away. I’m kinda glad. Being whacked by a machete is a brutal way to die. Do you think rat venom is kinder?

Anyway... Sorry I know I write an awful lot about the rats and the bugs and what not. It may seem like I’m not doing much of anything around here except for devising plans on how I am going to live with or fend off these creatures. I go to the school everyday monday through friday, and I do house visits as part of my census and community diagnostic. So I am busy doing stuff for work too. It’s just that right now all I’m doing is getting to know the people in this community and what I can do for them. I am not supposed to start projects or serious work until I am done with my PreService Training 2 (PST2) which is in November. So then is when you may start seeing me write more about other stuff. Of course, I will probably never stop mentioning my encounters with the critters and experiences with the everyday little stuff. So I will go on....

Last night I was on my front porch talking to my mom about how I would hang a hammock on it. I looked down and saw a culebra snake... It wasn’t gigantic but it wasn’t small.... She said they are poisonous. She ran to the house and, of course, came back with a machete. The culebra was chopped into pieces like a green bean.

The family’s dog, Tyson, didn’t like me at first, because I was a stranger. He was barking at me and trying to attack me a little. But now he knows me and really likes me. He has starting sleeping outside my front door at night. I especially like him now. He is a good guard dog. Except some punkass kids from the street through a rock at him the other day and hurt his front leg... so he’s only walking on 3 now... Hopefully he gets better. I dont like him though when he bites the little puppies faces. They are his sons and only a few months old... they try to get in and eat his food but Tyson wont have that... the other day he bit my favorite puppies face and it had a bloody wound :( But it’s a dog eat dog world out here.

3 out of the 5 pairs of shoes I brought to this country have molded. My birkenstocks that were pretty new molded in the first month. I think I might have to chuck them. My greek sandals started molding this week, but i just wiped the mold off, and I think I’ll still be able to use them. Is it bad to walk around in moldy shoes? My toms molded but I can wash those pretty easily I think. The problem is, I am realizing my shoe supply is insufficient and it is nearly impossible to find shoes for my big feet in this country of little people. Maybe I can run into some size 10 shoes in the capital. If not, I will be asking for shoe donations.... or mom and dad, maybe i have some at home that i could use and u could ship me. 

People really are small here though. I am taller than almost everyone. And people here will just tell you you’re fat. They don’t consider it offensive. Either that or they just don’t care if they are offensive. Where I come from, that’s just about the most offensive thing you could tell someone. I ran into my old host brother from training the other day and when he saw me the first thing he said was “You’re fatter.” Ummm thanks. And then I was at the thrift store shopping and the lady at the store, while i was trying on shirts, would tell me “Your too fat for that.” Ouch. I haven’t really gained weight here... but no woman wants to hear that. I exercised today for the first time in weeks.

I bought a ton of stuff I needed for my house yesterday. My favorite thing I bought is my nica. It’s a little bucket that I can pee in. It’s great! I don’t have to go leave my house at night and walk to the latrine. I get a little scared of the dark out there at night. Even with my guard dog. My host mom tells me to always lock my door whenever I leave my house. The bolos, drunks, walk around and go on to peoples property at night and steal stuff. They have been known to steal food from peoples gardens, chickens, and various other things. So I dont want to go outside at night. My host dad goes out at night a lot because he has to pee a lot. He told me he will get up and go 5 or 6 times in a night. I’m pretty sure that is a prostate problem. What do men do for that? Take pills? Drink something special? Maybe it would be weird if I gave me him medical advice on that. He could go to the doctor if he wanted to.

Around here there is always someone coming to your house with stuff they are selling. Today it was a lady from Honduras with a bag full of plastic crap made in China. It was all junk. I wasn’t really interested but before i knew if she had all her oriental trading spread out on the floor of my front porch. I bought some hair clips, a stress ball, and a recorder. The recorder could be fun when I am bored in the future. I know how to play one song on it that I learned in elementary school and never forgot. Oh and I got some dish towels. Not too bad. All that for about 2 bucks. Not bad. The lady said she comes twice a month. So she’ll be back in 15 days to try to sell me more crap I don’t need. She said she lives in Honduras. What a tough way to earn a living. All of the junk she sells can be found when u go shopping in the city. And everyone here goes to the city to do all there shopping. There really isn’t really a need for her job... But people here do what they can to make a living any way they can. Rough.

Marinita, my host mom, randomly asked me today- “So your mom is from Mexico right?”  I laughed... I dont know why she thought that. She has seen pictures of my mom on the wall in my house... I guess mom could look a little mexicana. She also said you look young mom. You are a young mexican mama according to Marinita.

Lastly- it’s funny to discover what Marinita thinks she knows about me. When we were shopping, looking through the Honduran lady’s merchandise- the woman offered me a catholic rosary. Marinita said, “Oh no Amy wouldn’t want that. She’s Evangelical.” Haha! I guess she knows I’m not catholic, I dont get on my knees when we go to mass, or do that cross thing with my hand on my head. So that must mean i’m not catholic- and if I’m not Catholic- well I guess to her, there’s only one other thing I could be. I am pretty sure they don’t know about other religions here. I was invited to pray at the metal shack house again tomorrow at 4. Mmmmm... no más por favor. I told her I’d go if I don’t have anything else to do... I might be busy with house visits.

Allrighty- Time to go to bed! Staying up til 10:30 is super late for the campo.

The Cheese Stands Alone

From 9-30


Yesterday was the Misa Patronal of my community... their biggest Catholic Mass of the year. It was a big thing for the community so I was expected to go. It was pouring rain though- to get to the church I had to taked off my shoes, roll my pants up above my knees and wade through a flooded street barefoot. When the mass was over it was still raining- but that didn’t stop these devoted catholics from their procession through the streets. I think it was a bad idea for them to take their guitars out in the rain... that will ruin a guitar! It’s funny whenever it rains, people usually use it as an excuse to stay home and not go anywhere. But yesterday there was no stopping them.

Many people in my town are very religious. They are either Catholic or Evangelical. I have yet to visit an Evangelical service, but I hear they are pretty intense- with people screaming and crying and falling on the floor. Yea. I don’t mind religious people, but sometimes things do get a little weird. It can be a bit much at times. Everytime they say they want to do something in the future they say “Primero Dios” or “Si Dios permite”- It’s like they’re saying “If God lets it happen.” I’ll say, “So are we having a meeting tomorrow?” They say, “Si Dios permite.” And I’m like- so does that mean yes? God gave you the right to make decisions for yourself. Can you please just say yes or no. I love how they say “Gracias a Dios” about everything.... Thanks to God, right. Well one of my friends didn’t understand. He thought that people were saying “Thank you Goodbye” all the time because a Dios sounds like Adios. Haha. I have started saying these phrases sometimes too, it helps build the confianza.

Well I don’t have much time left because I need to go get lunch and do a bit of shopping. Then I am going to meet up with my fellow San Vicente volunteers- they are having a get together, kind of welcoming me and Jamie to the crew. Should be fun. But before I go, let me write about the time I made macaroni and cheese for my host family in San Isidro. I don’t think it made it into my blog- and I was telling me mom about it and she said it was definitely one to write about. Soooo....

My parent’s sent me tons of boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I decided to make it for my family for dinner one night. I made it with my host sister and so my parents didnt see exactly how it was made. But they were like- “Ooooooh Amyyyy. This is gooood! What do you call this?” And I’m like “Macaroni and Cheese.” They look at me funny, so I say “Macaroni y Queso.” They had never seen yellow cheese like that before. They thought it was really great and fancy. They asked me “So you taught Erica how to make this, now she can make it for us in the future!?” And I had to say, “Well, no, you have to have the box.” They didn’t quite understand that the food was made with ingredients from a box. Powder that turns into cheese is a foreign concept for them. Anyways, it was great.... Good ol’ American food from a box!

On another note, I love coming to the training center and using the bathroom here. It is so enjoyable to use a real toilet, and not have to sit over a huge hole filled with years worth of excrements and not knowing what kind of nasty things are crawling below you. I never imagined I would ever enjoy sitting on a real toilet so much.

School was canceled today and tomorrow because of all the rain. And here I am in the city today, and the sky is clear! So off I go to get some shopping done!

Paz y Amor :)

Yada Yada

Teachers here only make about $500 a month. That´s pretty bad. I made that in a week as a teacher in Texas. Well.. the teacher here do only work for half the day... but still. That´s not enough to live on.

When I first came here I really didn´t like the tortillas and all the beans. Now I am surprised how much I like them and how satisfying they are. The tortillas are thick and heavy. At first I couldn´t eat many of them. Now I eat like 2 or 3 with every meal. LoL. I have also been eating the veggies and fruits here knowing that my mom does not wash them properly. If eaten raw they are supposed to soak in chlorinated water for 30 minutes... But of course my host mom doesnt know that. And a lot of times I just take everything she gives me with a smile... If i was constantly asking her how she prepared things she would be offended. So I just eat it... I am gonna get sick eventually no matter what. So i´m not going to be super anal about what I eat. Unless it just looks awful and disgusting. It´s not gonna kill me. One day I wilI probably get amoebas and in face, kind of am looking forward to it. I will get to go stay at the nice hospital in the capital that I hear is really sweet and comfortable. A/C, TV, toilet. Heck yea!

Well, I´m off to hang out with the kiddos in the school. Then in about an hour I have to go to a funeral. I tried to get out of it... but you can´t really get out of things here that easily. If people invite me to something and I have nothing else to do, I´m there. Through the good and the bad and the ugly.

Paz y Amor yall!

Meet Milton

I had a great time hanging out with my 3 year old neighbor yesterday afternoon- Milton. He lives on the other side of the field from my house. When I first got here I thought he was annoying, and even evil because one day he killed 2 baby chicks. But he’s not evil, he probably just didn’t know what he was doing. Milton is the youngest of 5 kids- living with mom. His dad took off for the U.S. and married another lady and started a new family forgetting about his wife and 5 kids here in El Sal. It’s a sad story- but unfortunately not an uncommon one.

Milton’s mom spends all day cleaning and doing chores for other people to earn a few dollars that is her only family’s income, because the deadbeat dad sure isn’t sending money to support them. I don’t know if he owns more than one shirt, because he has either been walking around without a shirt, or wearing the same filthy one since I met him. Milton’s siblings are always out of the house playing with friends in the neighborhood- and so he really has no one looking after him, playing him, or paying him any attention. Most of the attention he gets is negative- people just telling him Dont do this and Dont do that. Chastising him. But still he has a happy disposition and an innocence that is adorable.

I decided to give him my afternoon and offer him some real playtime. I busted out my crayons and paper... he had never seen crayons before I think. He didnt know how to color. It was great fun teaching him how to make lines on the paper... With each crayon he drew a line in then bursted into laughter and smiles and applause. Loved it! I traced his hands and he just couldnt get enough- so the coloring party went on for about to hours. Then I told him I was tired and I was going to go rest. I felt sorry for him, doing that because I knew he really had nothing to do but wander around alone if I didnt stay with him. My host mom was home but she was busy working on the house. But I can’t be his mom. I went to my house to rest. I was in my hammock talking on the phone with people from home for about an hour when I could see the shadow of two little feet at my door. He didn’t knock. Didn’t say anything- just stood there waiting. I couldn’t just ignore him- when I opened the door he melted my heart with his sweet little smile. “Pase” I told him...he came running in like a little penguin- I hung a beach ball on a string from the beam of my ceiling and let him play with it like tether ball. Again- a blast for him.



So yea, he’s cool. We bonded. Now he follows me around everywhere and tries to help me with everything I do. He’s a good little man. Love him.

His artwork:

Tomorrow begins week #2! Bring it!

¡ Ay, Dios Mio!

From 9-25
It would be nice if there were no such thing as cockroaches, rats, spiders, scorpions, mosquitos, or cow poo.
I have a serious problem with all of the above.
The cockroaches are even getting into my dresser. Yesterday I pulled my hairbrush out to brush my hair, and i had a cockroach crawling on my head. Gross! I am fumigating my house this week so it should get better. And I saw another scorpion, even bigger than the first one! Yesterday I also saw a huge frog in my house- the frogs here are bigger than any i’ve ever seen. People here eat them. Haha. They also eat horses sometimes! :( Why would you want to eat a horse? You can ride it to take you to get all kinds of good food!
And last night I could not go to sleep because the rats were making so much noise. I really need to get a cat! I heard them shuffling around plastic bags and running through the metal tube that was up near the roof.... In the past when I heard them I just stayed in bed and kept sleeping- because I there’s really not too much I can do about them if I’m not going to kill it. They are fast and I couldn’t catch and kill it if I wanted to. And if I wake up to chase it out of the house it will just come back in... because the houses here have a gap between the wall and the roof leaving it open to such wildlife. It’s very neccesary for air flow though- since this place is so hot and there is no air conditioning. Well, after trying to drown out their noise with my iPod and that not working, I ended up sitting in my mosquito netted bed shining my flashlight on my unwanted visitors, watching them walk around like they own the place- and I decided I finally had enough. I was done being chicken. Because the more I laid there and put up with it the more concerned I became about what they were capable of. For example, a fellow volunteer has said that she was in her bed at night and had the rats crawling on the outside of her mosquito net. I never want it to get to that point. So I got up and turned on the light- which immediately makes them run away. And I started banging things to scare them off and moved the bags and the metal tube that made a lot of noise. I noticed that had eaten a lot of the poison I left out for them. So, I guess that’s good.
I have a hard time hurting animals. Even if they are gross, mean, scary, etc. For example, the cows that stand in front of my door. I stand and wait for it to move. But when my host mom comes along and sees me standing there waiting on the cows she comes with a giant stick and whacks it really hard in the head. And it moves really fast. I guess it’s a big animal, and it probably doesn’t hurt it at all... But I prefer to just give it a little nudge or politely ask, “Can you please move, cow?” I am slowly learning how to handle this.
It’s been raining all weekend so I haven’t been able to get out into the community much. We were on a standfast this weekend because of the hurricane, so I had to stay in my site. I bought a stove on Friday and a minifridge- YAY! But i haven’t been able to go shopping for food yet. Oooooh I can’t wait to eat some sandwiches, cereal, and the macaroni and cheese I will hopefully be getting in the mail. My house is slowly coming along. No one has ever lived in this building as a house before- it was just a storage space before. I’m going to paint it eventually.
I went to mass at the Catholic church with my family this morning. They had a live band and everything- not too bad. But it’s not something I want to do every Sunday. The priest’s sermon was funny. He was preaching that about how you should be happy with what you have- And he went on for a while about beans. Saying “What’s wrong with eating beans for breakfast lunch and dinner? Eat the beans. Love your beans. They will sustain you.” Oh Salvadorans and their beans.
Then later in the afternoon my host mom asked me to go with her to the neighbors house to pray “just for a little bit,” she said. So I’m like- sure.... and we go to the little metal shack house at the bottom of the hill to pray with the neighbors. We get there and they tell me to sit in the hammock, in the middle of the room, in the middle of all of them. Sitting in the hammock was not the best idea- because what was only supposed to be a short visit turned into well over an hour of prayer. And I was tired, sitting in the comfy hammock, dozing off. I was tired! And it’s not like I can participate. I am not Catholic, and I dont know how to recite all those prayers and chants, and I dont know the songs. The plastic chair would have been a better idea. I hope I can decline the invitation next time.

The Gringa's in Town

From 9-23

I was sad last night- missing home, my peeps... but I woke up this morning and it was a new day. I spent the morning teaching my neighborhood kids how to make frienship bracelets. They loved it! Then I went to the school and made more stuff with the first and second grade kids- now there’s a fun bunch! They make me feel like a rockstar, they are all so fascinated by the gringa. I love them. It’s nice to be around kids like them after working the last few years with middle schoolers who are too worried about being cool and give teachers and adults a hard time. I went home with my hands full of stuff they colored and made, and I decorated the walls of my house with it. It’s nice to look at my walls and know that there are kids in this town that love me.
The internet was finally fixed at the school today. I spent a good two hours emailing and facebooking... it took so long because the connection there is slow. I am going to have to write my blogs from home now and then wait to get to the school to put them up... Because I don’t have mobile internet anymore out here in the campo, countryside. So unfortunately the blogs will not be in real time like they were before... But they will still be there and as insightful and interesting as I can make ‘em. :)
I spent so much time on the internet that when I looked at my watch I was late for the ADESCO (city council) meeting. My host dad is president and he wanted me to be there to introduce me to the council. So I ran home and put on my professional looking Peace Corps polo... and walked into the meeting a bit late but it’s fine there were plenty of others late too. He gave me a very nice introduction... although he only referred to me as the joven, the young one... No one here can remember my name. It is so hard for them to say Amy too. Anyway, he made me give a little schpiel, about who i am what i am here to do... Then he went on with talking about how much they will be able to achieve in the community now that I am here. I’m like- Whoa Buddy! I am a youth development volunteer. Here to work with kids. And he is expecting me to help them repair roads and reconstruct buildings and get them supplies... I said right there in the meeting that is not what I am here to do. Also that I don’t come with money, only with my abilities. Sure it would be great if I could give them all that. And I’m not ruling out the possibilty that I can help them by maybe getting grants or working with them to help them organize their efforts to accomplish these projects... But still, it’s not my focus of work. Anyway, I stood up for myself there, and I think they received it pretty well. At the same time, it is awesome that I am in a community that is so enthusiastic and motivated to work with me. There is plenty of work to keep me busy here. Many volunteers end up in places where the people are not motivated to work and they spend most of their 2 years of service in their hammock reading books. I am lucky... I’ll keep busy here for sure. So we’ll see. I’ll do what I can.
OK! Time to watch some Big Bang Theory on my laptop before I go to bed.
PAZ y AMOR!


P.S. There are tons of tiny cockroaches all over my house.
And- I have had beans and tortillas for every single meal since I got to this town. I can’t take it anymore. Tomorrow I am buying a stove and a fridge so I can make my own food in my house. Guess that won’t help with the cockroach problem.
And- There is a tropical storm heading this way. That means lots of rain this weekend and the country is on alert for mudslides... Which also means I won’t have to go on the waterpark excursion I agreed to this sunday with the 8th graders- which is great because i really didn’t want to get up at 5 am to leave- I just want to get some rest!