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!
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