Real life in El Salvador

It has been a while since I have written a blog, and with good reason. For some reason, I only like to write blogs if they are uplifting, amusing, etc, and I have had a really tough time focusing on such moods. So, I’ve decided to blog anyway, to update everyone on my life. For better or worse…

1) The weather has changed. After the entire country was inundated by the heavy TS Matthew rains, a wonderfully refreshing October wind blew the dreary grey away and brought with it very chilly nights. They say that the rain will return exactly on October 15, and quite honestly, instead of dreading the next storm, I am impressed that they have the ability to correctly predict the next rain with such accuracy from such a distance (they began the predictions on the 5^th or so). Maybe they know something that we don’t?

2) I have been chosen as the next editor of the Rural Health and Sanitation section of our monthly publication, El Camino. I am a biologist, a jazz guitarist, a philosopher (sometimes), not an editor, but somewhere in my submission and application for the spot, they found a sliver of hope, a bit of creativity, perhaps just an enjoyable story. I am very excited to edit and format the section. I thoroughly enjoy writing and seeing a finished project, so maybe this will bring some worthy accomplishments my way.

3) We celebrated Independence Day on the 15^th of September. I’ll just put a picture so you can see how they celebrated. The entire celebration was put on by the students at the local school.

4) We’re going to build a Casa de Salud in my community. After a long process of communal meetings, grant proposals, and back-and-forth emails, we have found an organization willing to fund a Casa de Salud. Essentially, it houses the office and supplies of the local health promoter. His job, in turn, is to use his knowledge, supplies, and Casa de Salud to improve (or maintain, depending on the situation) the health of the community through workshops, campaigns, house visits, etc. The Vibrant Village Foundation will provide the funding, and a local mason and I will construct the thing. I am thrilled! We will probably begin in January when I return from the states. I will obviously post pictures of its progress.

5) On a more serious note, and with regard to what has been brewing within me for weeks, I think I’d like to focus this post on the men of this country. I have had plenty of interactions with them, yet positive interactions are few and far between. There seems to be a string that connects many men here, and unfortunately, it is the heavy and uncontrollable consumption of alcohol. It is an incredibly destructive force that causes everything from broken bones to destroyed families, corrupted youth, and death. I have personally witnessed baseball bat fights on the streets, pistol fights on the soccer field, abandoned wild children, and thirteen year olds drinking/smoking along with their 35 year old peer. I have the temptation to conclude that these men are the root of all problems in this country, but I will stop short of such an assumption (they’re never fully true). Watching this just makes me feel hopeless, lost, and, quite honestly, deflated. Not only do they destroy plenty of things around them, they make me feel unwelcome in El Salvador.

Because of recent interactions I have had with a few of these men, I have forced conversations with friends in my community about the word Gringo only to realize that it’s not the word itself that I am trying to attack or undermine, rather the malevolent attitude with which some men approach me. After having fully explained the meaning and significance of the word (and having put it in context with Guanaco, a derogatory name for Salvadorans), my friends often say that there is little more I can do than adapt to the cultural use of the word.

I suppose the silver lining of these interactions, if there is one to be found, would be my newly found love for the innocence that the school children carry. It is an innocence that is quickly lost in the Salvadoran culture, but it is refreshing nonetheless. Even my worst days of teaching, in which absolutely no one pays attention, are better than some of my best experiences with the older men in the community, be it on the soccer field, in the town square, etc.

Also, I have been lucky enough to find a wonderfully nice friend by the name of Bartelvi. He’s a 21 year old with a tremendous story. He tried crossing illegally into the US when he was 18, only to be caught by a border guard. The guard threatened his life (‘either turn around or I’ll shoot you; no one will know you’re dead in this desert’) and took everything he had, so Bartelvi was trapped for two years in a small, northern Mexican town without a penny to his name or contact with his family. He literally disappeared for two years. Needless to say, he has a slightly different perspective than the normal 21 year old I meet down here.

I’m going to abruptly end here… Sorry. Just lost the steam needed to write in more detail about the above topics. I’ll write another soon, even if I can’t muster a blog about rainbows and butterflies. Take care!

Soccer Games

I live in El Salvador. We begin later than expected. We were scheduled to leave between 10 and 10:30; the truck didn’t leave until 11:25. We piled into the back of a fruit-truck – smoky diesel engine, shoulder-height side panels, open tail gate – and rambled westward to a town called Nueva Concepcion. By chance, we found the ‘supposed’ dirt road that lead to the ‘supposed’ soccer field, but, by lack of patience for a few sunning cows, the driver cautiously swerved off the road directly into a mud pothole, leaving the truck at a 45 degree angle and slightly swallowed by Mother Earth. With the wonderful and heroic power of another truck’s 4x4, we managed to dislodge the truck… and promptly turn around. We had taken a wrong turn. Lost, we meandered through Nueva Concepcion until we found another soccer field that may (or may not) have been our initial destination. Somehow, though, communication had broken down between our team and the other, for they had not yet arrived nor were they actually aware that a game had been scheduled between our two communities. After numerous telephone calls and 45 minutes of watching the local children fly their homemade kites, a handful of the players finally showed, but it was quickly decided that the field was unplayable due to the overwhelming depth of the mud and we would have to find another place to play. So, we ventured back down our pothole-ridden dirt road with the hopes of finding the ‘supposed’ soccer field unoccupied – wishful thinking when soccer is the official pastime on Sunday. As was expected, a game was underway, so, with a little planning and a ton of wishful thinking, we drove towards the town’s stadium (more like a high school football stadium, really). Sure enough, though, fate was on our side. The mayor reluctantly allowed us to play, but with truncated halves, for the stadium’s field was also in terrible shape from the previous night’s rain. We played and thoroughly tore it apart. I can only imagine how much the mayor now regrets that decision. He shouldn’t regret it too much though, for our karma quickly came full circle. It began to rain the instant we finished playing. So, what had been a pleasant, sunny, hour-long ride to the field became the coldest day in El Salvador… ever. We had finished later than usual (no wonder, considering we spent 2 hours thoroughly familiarizing ourselves with the entirety of Nueva Concepcion before beginning the game), so the sun set 15 minutes into our drive; the rain was torrential; and the driver had to maintain a fairly slow pace for fear of being swept away in the river-road (a new word, perfectly applicable to the hybrid between Salvadoran rain and roads). Those three factors led to numb hands, incessant shivering, and my first true craving for long sleeves. What should hypothetically require 3 hours in the United States occupies an entire day in El Salvador. Eight and a half hours for a soccer game. I am incredibly glad that I love soccer...

Ashley visits...

It’s amazing how much the internalization of problems can be solved through the help of friends and loved ones. I had been in my new site for 10 days when Ashley arrived. By the time she left, I would have spent more time in my site with her here than not. I felt that I had settled in fairly well before her arrival and that my new site was steadily progressing in a desirable direction, but having her here helped me resolve issues I didn’t even know existed; I became more human than I had yet been in this Central American republic.

She was here for two and a half weeks, and roughly speaking, we spent each ‘work’ week in my site and each weekend in a different part of the country, exploring secluded mountain-top coffee villages and rustically-developed beach towns. The time we spent in my site was an absolutely fantastic opportunity for her to truly experience the things that I often have trouble explaining over the phone. Some things simply do not translate through conversation: soccer games played in hurricane-force winds and horizontal rain (which then turns streets into nameable rivers); the true isolation of some communities (like my first one); the loneliness that can swallow you whole; the incredible companionship that can be found in a giggly 7 year old; the art of eating Salvadoran pupusas (thick, corn tortillas the size of tea saucers filled with cheese, beans, sausage); the utter frustration of packed buses; the pure bliss of empty, early-morning buses; the simplicity of a hammock, coffee, and a book; Pollo Campero (the equivalent of Chick-fil-A maybe?); realizing that some things are universal, like little kids begging their mom with the word ‘but’, only in Spanish (pero, pero, pero, pero); the comfort of a mosquito net in the tropics; the refreshing first splash of a bucket bath (maybe I‘m exaggerating this one).

But I think I received the better part of the deal (sorry darling). At the most basic level, having a visitor forced me to push the boundaries of what I thought possible. Food, movies, and organization of the house, for example. All have been forever changed just by her visiting. I know now that, if I so choose, I can live comfortably and enjoyably in this country. In a more substantial manner, though, she also reminded me that I still am a human, I still am Erik Howard, and I can fully be that individual in a country with different mannerisms, expectations, and norms. Quite honestly, I think my community was more interested in her arrival than mine (it’s ok, no hard feelings haha), but I certainly know that her presence opened many doors and began PLENTY of relationships throughout the community. I simply became a regular human in the eyes of my community. My story became real and visible. I absolutely miss her presence here, as does the community. As the little girls have been asking since she left, ‘…y la Ashley?’ (…and Ashley? Where did she go?)

Speaking of Site Changes...

Peace Corps has broken itself into two separate entities: the dream and the realization. I flew out of Washington with little knowledge of what I was really getting myself into, but honestly, how could I know? Uprooting from all that is comfortable for an elusive new beginning is rarely accompanied by a legible roadmap… And so it was with Peace Corps El Salvador. A latent expectation of realizing substantial, life-altering change has been replaced with more realistic hopes of changing unhelpful behavior, redirecting negative thoughts towards communal growth and change, and developing previously-hidden relationships into lifelong bonds. The dream that hazily floated through my head in South Carolina pointedly realized itself and, unfortunately, broke me.

Few have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin anew, yet I have been given the chance to be the first volunteer in two different sites. The two communities are opposites in many ways, their locations certainly being one. La Palomilla, Nueva Granada, Usulután is flat, hot, dry, and dusty, and scorpions are plentiful enough to be deemed household pets. (Not once did I wash my clothes without a little guy crawling from within the safety of a pants leg). Tobias, Santa Rita, Chalatenango, on the other hand, is a rolling-hill paradise. The drive into my new community feels like a summer’s drive through Vermont. Lush, green hills rise from the water reservoir that reminds me of Lake Champlain to the looming storm clouds that blanket the higher peaks of El Pital.

However, when the formal discussions with the bosses began, I was told site-changes carry a seriously mixed bag of emotions. I heard the advice, but considering the emotional state I was in that ultimately led to a site change, it was nearly impossible to process and incorporate the thought until I closed the door of the truck and saw my host family crying goodbye in the mirror. As a family, they offered me the best of their small food supply, their kindest welcome, and a true concern for my well-being. Sadness and lose wholly overwhelmed me when I realized that, though I still live in El Salvador, I cannot communicate with the Guevaras, yet bliss, excitement, hope, and a sense of possibility pushed those feelings aside when I mentally placed myself in the moment, when I focused on my new site, when an entire community welcomed me with the same open arms that a single family had before. So it is with a mixed bag of emotions...

Certainly, I am new to the country (I will be the first to admit that I still have much to discover about myself and how that translates into being a balanced, successful volunteer), and I know that volunteers with more time under their belts may come to the conclusion that a site change is, well, ridiculous, but I think that some of the greatest things that we might gain from our two year service are friendships that cross cultural boundaries and a respect for another world that, at times, seems mind-bogglingly different. However, if this exchange does not exist, or cannot be cultivated, Peace Corps, in my mind, does not exist.

So, with regards to my own site change, I have acquired the most important resource one might have in El Salvador: respect, friendship, and trust within the community. My desire to flee, to seek a safe-haven, has simply vanished now that I live in a community that has quickly come to terms with its new neighbor. I was truly unaware how significant attitude and openness by a community could be in the success of a volunteer’s stay, but in acting on something that, at times, can be taboo for many in Peace Corps, I found exactly that for which I was searching. Though in a more realistic design, that which was broken at a very early stage has been repaired by those around me. Maybe a site change isn’t such a bad thing after all…

Here's to New Beginnings!

WOW.... it has been literally 2 months since I have last posted. Sorry bout that guys, but I have a computer (thanks mom and dad) so I should be able to update muuuch more frequently. So, really, a lot of stuff has happened.....


This country has solidly grown on me. I have had many great opportunities to get to know other volunteers, beautiful towns, awesome beaches, and special little nooks, all of which wash me with a new coat of optimism and excitement. I visited two different mountain towns centered around their colonial church and artisan markets (Ataco and Suchitoto), a rocky, fierce beach that is the envy of surfers the world over (El Tunco), and a flat, palm- and volcano-backed swath of white sand (El Cuco).

At the same time, the site that I am living in (La Palomilla) will no longer be my home after this coming weekend. After living 2 months with the community, absorbing all that I could from my surroundings, and then returning to our second round of training (which lasted, essentially, through the first half of June), I had a huge realization that I really was not enjoying my experience as I should. I was not able to commit myself to volunteering as I had intended. A lot of factors affected my decision, but I essentially realized that living in La Palomilla was not healthy, mentally or physically, for a two year post. Everytime I got on bus 357 in El Triunfo destined for La Palomilla, a small part of my brain starting spiraling into a pit. By the time I had actually reached La Palomilla, my mental state had reached rock bottom. So, today (this has been a long process - a little more than three weeks) I visited my new community in the department of Chalatenango. Santa Rita is the pueblo, so the municipio (county in english) is also called Santa Rita. I will live ten minutes, walking, outside of the pueblo in a canton called Tobias (accent on the I). Chalatenango is generally speaking a much more mountainous, northern department of El Salvador, so it's a bit cooler. The town is also much more densely constructed, so reaching everyone will be much easier (La Palomilla took 35 minutes to walk from one side to the other).


Here's to new beginnings!

Possible Projects

Now that I have more or less adjusted to my site, I think the time has finally arrived to talk about projects. I know this feeling might (probably will) change as my two years wear on, but I think that my ADESCO and youth group are pretty organized. Many volunteers experience the exact opposite. Anyway, to the projects that I would like to realizar (we'll see how many I can actually accomplish in two years):

1) Guardería (children´s nursery)

When I first met my host brother and truly talked to my counterpart, I asked what projects the ADESCO had lined up and which project was the most important. After receiving the answer `un milagro´ and laughing for the next 5 minutes with both my host brother and counterpart, they quickly settled on una guardería. The town currently has one, but the organization that provided for and constructed the building placed it in a relatively low area. So, when it rains (and boy does it rain) the structure it totally flooded. After a few years of that, the infrastructure has pretty much become useless. In other words, the children from 2-5 years old really have no safe place as a day-care center.

As far as projects are concerned, this will probably be my largest in the community. A rough estimate for funds to build a day-care center would be, I´m guessing, around $15000. In El Sal, I would imagine raising that much money can be a pretty lengthy process, so hopefully we will begin fund-raising soon so that the town might have enough funds to begin construction by the time I leave.

2) Stoves

Currently, I am working with my ADESCO to find out the interest level for more efficient, smokeless stoves. As it is, most women throughout the community cook over an open fire inside their homes. The smoke mostly rolls around inside the house, eventually causing all sorts of respiratory infections/diseases. Also, the inefficiency of an open fire means the family burns through un monton de firewood.

Stove Team International builds portable cement stoves to remedy just this situation. However, each stove costs $32. For a family roughly making $150/month, $32 is a fortune. So, money needs to be raised for that project as well. If we as a community can lower the price to $20 by acquiring funds from outside sources (~$2000), I imagine interest in the stove would sky-rocket. Vamos a ver.

3) Letrinas

My community has around 185 families, 40-50 of which do not have a personal latrine. They are either forced to share with neighbors or simply do without (meaning feces may sometimes be left uncovered, etc). A basic latrine costs in the range of $50-75 each. Again that price is simply ridiculous for most families in my community. Money, again, is the issue.

4) Potable Water System

Luckily enough, my ADESCO and community have already petitioned for and received the funds for a water system from the local mayor. Because of that, and logically so I guess, the community will probably not receive funding for other projects in the near future (a water system can be incredibly expensive and mayors really don't have that much money to toss around). However, once this project is completed, I would imagine that a TON of intestinal illnesses will disappear.

5) Chickens and Veggies for all!

So this one is also sort of underway. The ADESCO has petitioned Centa/FAO (the ag department of the El Salvador) for help with the project. So Centa/FAO (if I understand this correctly) will provide the training, materials, etc for 30 families in the community. If other families would like to continue with the project, the first 30 are responsible for the training, and funds would need to acquired to purchase the materials, etc. However, the nutritional benefits from such a project are very much needed in La Palomilla. Unfortunately, many children suffer from malnutrtion due to lack of veggies and protein.



The rest of the projects, I guess, are pretty self-explanatory:

6) Computers for the School
7) Educational activities regarding health and nutrition
8) Water-system for the cancha (they really love their futbol)
9) Pave the calle principal (the amount of dust created by passing buses is incredible - and is just another floating particle with the smoke that creates respiratory issues)

Home

So, I suppose that time has come for everyone. Recently I have been hearing a lot of news of people (including myself, I suppose) hitting the point of exhaustion, loneliness, frustration, etc that makes home seem like a wonderful option. It´s a very weird feeling. We´ve been here for 3 months, roughly, and I find that the subtle cultural differences weigh more than the obvious, extreme differences. A slight difference in sense of humor makes forced laughing a little more common than I would like, for example. The constant assumption that, as a male, I would take on multiple partners at once is tiring. An underlying assumption that I always have a ton of cash on me is attention I really just dont want. I know the attention is going to stay and it stems from the fact that they honestly just dont know that much about gringos, but I (and many new volunteers, I imagine) am growing very tired of THAT kind of attention. I am ready to carry on a conversation that doesnt somehow slip into money issues or travel opportunites or.... whatever topic along those lines. Also, if any volunteers are reading this, I fully understand the exhaustion and frustration. And I also understand that pull to go home... I just dont think I have given my site a fair chance before that decision should be made. Little by little...

One Month

So I have been in-site for about a month now, and I feel overwhelmed when thinking about what I should write. I guess I will do my best to describe my site and activities I have been involved with.


I live in a town called La Palomilla (or La Palomia, depending on the level of education). It is the last stop on a winding, dusty road and is an incredibly flat, hot, dusty region of the country. (Because of the pool of sweat in which I repeatedly awoke for the first week or so, I bought a box fan. At least the sweat evaporates now.)

So oftentimes in El Salvador, with its many connections to the US, a sizeable chunk of each community with have what they call Remesa money (money sent from family in the US to help the family remaining in El Sal). My community, however, has very little help from the US, so the poverty and malnutrition rates seem to be a bit higher than normal. I often walk around with the local nurse and health promoter to better know the community. One day, we seemed to hit some of the poorest in the community. A little child maybe 5 years old seemed to be suffering from a ton of issues: trisomy 21 (down syndrome...I really dont like that name. The man who named the disease had very little empathy for those with the genetic disorder), malnutrition (so he had a huge pouch belly), amoebas (which i just found out the other day actually means dysentary), a sinus infection, and an abusive mother. Another little boy with trisomy 21 happened to be the child of a mother with trisomy 21, so neglect and malnutrition were serious issues with him as well. Most houses in the community are made of adobe blocks mixed with sticks and hay. A few houses have plastic bags for walls, and a select few are made out of cement or blocks.

However! I am very lucky with the organization that already exists in my community. So in El Sal a lot of organization and projects originate and are handled by what they call la ADESCO (Asociacion de Desarollo Comunal - association of community development). A lot of times, this can be one of the biggest challenges for a volunteer. The committee simply doesnt work, politics are heavily involved, or interest just isnt there. Before I arrived my ADESCO with help from no one petitioned and received the funds for a chloronated water system in the community (still in the process of being built). PC recommends we not begin water projects in our community because they can be soooo time consuming and soooo frustrating, yet my ADESCO has already completed all of the leg work. Very impressive.

Also, the youth group in town, also without my help, organized a trash pickup day and a tren de aseo (garbage truck). So my town is freshly clean, organized, and full of enthusiasm despite the heat, dust, and poverty. It certainly is inspiring.

Aside from that, I have been playing a ton of soccer. The community has 4 full teams, each of which has its own uniform, and I usually play between the A squad and B squad, depending on which positions they need filled. A few weekends ago, we had to finish our day of soccer early because a fight broke out between our teams. I have never experienced hockey mixed with soccer, but it certainly is an interesting combo.

What else....
I live in a cement block house with a corrugated roof (it is literally an oven during the day)
I purchased a bike as it is THE form of transportation within my site
I witnessed a pig eat a turkey..... I didnt know pigs were carnivores...?


Alrighty. For now thats all Ive got. Also breakfast is ready. I hope everyone is doing well! Until next time.

My Site

We finally found out our sites. Mine is called Palomilla del Gualcho in the municipio (municipal area) of Nueva Granada in the department Usulutan. We graduate in one week, and by next Saturday, we will be in our sites. I also created a shutterfly account. The address is http://erikpeacecorps.shutterfly.com

Firsts

It seems like I have already had my fair share of new experiences; I think most of my fellow aspirantes (trainees) would vote me the most (un)lucky of the group. Let me share a few:

- A few nights ago, I had my first true run-in with scorpions. Around 12:30 I woke up and, without thinking, sat upright. After 5-10 seconds I realized that something was crawling on my back, so I naturally flicked the creature and reached for my headlamp. Just in time, I saw a scorpion crawling over the edge of my bed. Also naturally, I spent the next 45 minutes searching every corner of my room. It stung me two times on my back while I was sleeping. The morning before, I awoke to a much larger scorpion hanging out on top of my mosquito net.... Who knows what's going on?

- Saturday night, just before I fell asleep, a very significant tremor shook my bed (well I guess my whole room) for 30-45 seconds.

- After counting my sicknesses so far, I realized that I have already had churria (GI problems) 3 different times, a cold, a scorpion bite in a little more than a month... but who's counting.

- The other day we visited an NGO called MOJE. The organization works with youths between 16-18 y.o. to provide an alternative to gang activity. Ceramics, woodworking, etc are their focus, and after they graduate, most youths open an artisan shop. Quite an awesome experience...

We have a really busy two weeks coming up. This weekend, Peace Corps and Jika (Japanese equivalent) have rented the national futbol stadium to play a round-robin tournament among the volunteers. We've been told that even a visit to the stadium is a life wish for many Salvadorans, so we are all really excited for the trip. This coming Thursday we officially find out our site assignments, and next weekend we 'graduate' from trainee to volunteer. Everyone seems pretty excited... really antsy I suppose. I think we're all ready to be in our sites where life is a little bit slower and relaxed.... I hope everyone is doing well!

Current news

So I was slightly sick again - not really news at this point. It certainly says something when it is relieving to realize that I only had food poisoning and not some other nasty thing inside of my gut (no amoebas this time). I think it is very interesting that everytime I´ve had a stomach issue, my host mom immediately tries to figure out what I ate outside of the house. That piece of food is almost always the culprit haha.

This past weekend we had a free weekend so a small group of us went down to a beach called Costa del Sol. The town mostly subsists off of fishing and there really isn´t any tourism, so we didn´t see another gringo while we were there. That was refreshing, and the waves were pretty awesome for esurfiar, so I feel a bit more rejuvenated.

Last night, while I was making one of my many visits to the latrine, I realized that a cow of my family was having a baby. That was certainly an experience. My host father stayed up til 5:30 or so taking care of the mother once she had finished giving birth. So I think that brings the grand total up to 6 (we somehow acquired another one recently - not sure how haha)

Today we had our final site interviews, so they pretty much told us everything about our site but the name. Flat, dry, hot, dusty.... but a good cancha (soccer field) and a lake. Very strong cell phone reception, but no running water. I pulled the department name out of Carlos: Usulutan (if anyone cares to look that up on the map). It´s southeast El Salvador. I believe that most of the other trainees from this group will be northwest, so I guess I will get to know volunteers from other training groups.

Hasta luego y ¡que le vaya bien!

So we´ve been really busy the last few days (weeks?), but not particularly doing anything productive. The PST (pre-service training) has been incredibly overwhelmed with mostly pointless information about very specific scenarios that apply to only a few people in our group. However, this weekend we had our Immersion Weekend, so I wanted to post about that before the details slip away.

Another trainee, Emily, and I were placed with a current volunteer in the northwest corner of the country in Cuiyuscat, Metapán, Santa Ana. We arrived Thursday morning after an eventless bus ride from San Vicente and began the trek to his site. Apparently, a flatbed truck runs between his site and Metapán (the larger city in the area) once a day. It leaves his site at 6am and returns around 12pm, so if he misses either, he has to hitchhike. We caught the flatbed as it was returning to his site, but the drive was still 45 minutes or so. That trek should be cut down a bit once they finish paving a highway through the area that will connect with the rest of the country.
His site is actually pretty nice. His house isn´t exactly the best, but he makes it work. The town somehow has paved roads and a tremendously large catholic church (donated by some german ngo), but the majority of the town doesn´t have constantly running water. Priorities, I guess.
Our first full day (friday) we awoke fairly early to, with a family he particularly likes, milk cows (yep, drank directly from the bucket) and then hike 45 minutes uphill in the beating sun (the temperature isn´t necessarily that bad - lack of shade is horrible) to a molienda. Apparently February is one of the harvest months for caña (sugar cane), so during February the molienda is in full operation. The molienda is essentially a cane press combined with a huge earth-stove that dehydrates the cane sap to something like molasses (sp) combined with Wether´s Originals. Pretty awesome process; very incredible outcome. It´s not pure sugar, but it´s not sappy. It has the texture of fudge and can be used in coffee, pastries, etc as a sweetener.


....the bus is coming soon! I´ll finish this later.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The past few days have been very interesting. The first wave of sickness has passed through our group, so the stress levels for everyone, i think, have been elevated a bit. We´re not exactly sure what happened, but everyone within our Cañas group was sick by the end of Thursday. Sam (a neighbor trainee who essentially sleeps with the pigs) awoke early Thursday morning with everything coming up while I awoke early Thursday morning with everything going down. By 10am, Peace Corps decided that Sam needed to be sent to San Salvador to stay in a hotel just in case he needed to go to the hospital for IVs. By 2ish, the lab had returned my results for me to find out that I somehow contracted amoebas (as my Trainee instructors put it, I am not the first and certainly not the last to become pregnant with amoebas - they are waterborne, so somehow I consumed water from the pila *** ). That afternoon, during our return bus trip to Cañas, Emily, who had been feeling nauseous all day, threw up on the bus - also not uncommon haha. Current volunteers who sat for a panel of questions notified us that during their training, not a single trainee graduated to the status of volunteer without a similar incident on the bus - so that should provide many interesting stories haha.

Today, Saturday, we rode via micro (pronounced mee-croh) to a current volunteer´s site. As the pavement slowly turned to dust, a silly grin across everyone´s face asked the question ´What in the WORLD have I gotten myself into?´ Humor is a wonderful cure for such cases, so we joked about how wonderfully content the hogs looked rolling around in the mud. Also that, as volunteers, we really don´t demand that much - just running water, electricity, internet access, wood floors, and laundry service haha. Just kidding. Well nevermind, we really did joke about it, but it just became much more real today. Another group, still unknown why, was taken to the beach today. I feel that they may have seriously missed out on an opportunity to experience what a site might be like. The volunteer had recently set up a chicken shack for egg production to demonstrate the effectiveness of using a shack instead of free roaming chickens (contains egg production, allows for easier vaccination, etc). His house was a nice cinderblock structure with metal sheeting for a roof (very sturdy and weather proof). He had connected power to his neighbor and just paid when the electricity went over the allowed subsidized amount. The one thing that I took out of the experience that I really would like to mention when sites are being decided: I really would like to be in a larger town. I don´t need water, internet, etc., I simply thrive off of human activity. I like knowing that I have close neighbors or that certain spots in town will always have people to converse with, etc. Isolation will be a difficult thing to cope with.

I do believe that about sums up the past few days (class was obviously involved, ZZzzz). Until later, Cuidale (take care of yourself).


***a pila is a large concrete cistern. water runs to the town 3-4 days/week so they have to collect the water for dry days. also, the pila contains many small fish to 1) clean the siding of algae 2) keep the water moving 3) eat the mosquito larvae is hopes of preventing dengue and malaria (effectiveness yet to be determined). We are NOT supposed to drink from these as they have maaaany foreign objects that our bodies are not yet accustomed to. So somewhere that theory fell apart and I contracted amoebas.

Buenas!

So, I finally have access to the internet. Let´s see. Today is Tuesday, so that means we have been with out host families for 4 nights now. I am in a town called Cañas just outside of San Vicente with the family Ramos Serrano. The first night definitely took me by surprise. I essentially commandeered (i hope that´s a word - my english is slipping already) the room of my eldest host sister. So right, I have a host brother (24) and three sisters (23, 18, 13). It´s a very interesting situation. This isn´t going to be in coherent order, just as it pops into my head:

- The house was built in pieces, meaning that additions aren´t really connected except by metal roofing.
- I sleep under a yellow mosquito net to prevent Chinche (carries the disease Chagas), mosquites, cockroaches, scorpions, etc from biting me.
- Just outback, are two small cinderblock (sp) buildings. One is the bucket shower, the other the latrine. The latrine is pretty ingenious as far as i am concerned. Most latrines have a large pit, while this latrine has a small receptacle that is connected, via small piping, to the large pit. Entonces, it is a hand-flushed latrine. Once yu finish, pour water to flush.
- Our family has 3 dogs (5 on a bad day), a rooster, about 10 hens, 4 cows
- The entire diet revolves around cornmeal and beans. Also, guajada (unpasteurized milk - very delicious and probably not great for the digestive tract) is served with almost every meal. Aguacate (avocado), Mamay (an orange-like fruit), guayaba (guava), guisquil (some green veggie) are also readily available. oh and banana haha


....i will have to finish this post later. Back to safety class (don´t want dengue, chagas, malaria, rabies, or to be robbed on the bus!)

Countdown

So, I leave Tuesday, Feb 2, for DC and Wednesday for El Salvador. I have begun packing and am realizing that I might be able to fit everything in a knapsack. No checked luggage! Ok, so maybe that's not true, but I do think I'm taking relatively little. Interesting items I am throwing in: Ipod speakers, plenty of books, and a hammock. I can't imagine what I'll do with those once I have some free time.
I wish I could speak more of what El Salvador is like, but we'll all have to wait a few days. I can say what I'll be doing, length of stay, etc.

What:
I will be a Rural Health & Sanitation PC volunteer. What exactly I'll be doing will depend entirely on my site's requirements, but past volunteers have worked on potable-water access, proper latrine construction and placement, sanitary handling of food, dental hygiene, sexual health, etc.

Where:
El Salvador, I think. Just kidding, I know. ES is a tiny, pacific-facing country in the middle of Central America. It does not have an Atlantic coast and is the size of New Jersey - or Massachusetts if NJ isn't your thing. I won't know my site until we finish our two month pre-service training (PST) in San Vicente. So, around April 1, I will know my site, life should begin slowing down, and my hammock will probably get a little more use.

When:
February 2, 2010 - April 1, 2012


P.S If there are any postcarders reading this, I will need your address. Gmail is probably the best place to send it.

Welcome!

I have set this blog up in preparation for my departure to El Salvador for Peace Corps on February 3rd, 2010. Check back later for more posts!