I started packing this weekend. I’m surprised, but it wasn’t as painful as I imagined. I think I am just doing it mechanically…placing things into boxes, dividing things into piles, organizing papers…the fact that I am now leaving the pink cement block house I have called home for two years has not really sunk in. [...]
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Hello loyal friends and family…. It has been many days since I have written and so many things have happened I don’t even know where to begin. Well, just a quick update on where I have been and what I have been doing. I am afraid to say that very little of it has been [...]
The spirit of the season is the spirit of giving..so give me some money. Just kidding…. I mean, I do want money, but if you do give some it will not be going to me. As my Peace Corps service comes to a close I am organizing my final project to complete and for my [...]
This year I am spending my first Christmas away from home…and if I am lucky it will be my only Christmas away from home. It is strange…there are no coats, no gentle snowfall, no gray winter mornings…there are only blustery, sunny days, where the sky is blue it hurts to look at it. It is [...]
It is 8 pm on Saturday night and I am huddled under a pile of blankets listening to the roof groan and shake as fierce winds slam into the walls of my little cement block house. Sometimes when I am all alone in my pink coffee field home I close my eyes and imagine what [...]
Gathered around having a drink… To keep the lonely holiday blues at bay here amongst those of us who are celebrating a Salvadoran Christmas (or Hanukkah!) the volunteers in my region had a little get-together to rejoice in the spirit of the season…and by rejoice I mean exchange $5 white elephant gifts and drink. [...]
Happy Holidays from way south of the border! Hope it is snowing where you are to get you in Christmas mood!This past week I took my scholarship girls to a camp put on by the PCV scholarship committee called WYD. This was the second camp for the year for the scholarship recipients. While the first [...]
As Thanksgiving has passed, I can’t help but feel the sinking feeling in my stomach telling me that I am far from home…reminding me that I am off on my adventure alone. Holidays always make the homesickness sting just a little more…. Missing you Weeks family, and Kerwin family, and Givens family, and friends too… [...]
Happy Monday! Just kidding…everyone knows Monday is the worst day of the week. Fortunately for me every day is basically the same as every other day, so mostly I am not too down. All Monday holds for me is a quick trip to get water samples and a long day in the hammock. Can’t believe [...]
Happy Turkey Day….Sorry I know I am a day late, but I wanted to say it with pictures! You know how boring a blog post is without pictures. Out here in cyber space keeping a reader’s attention is a difficult task, so I try to add visuals as often as possible… Anyway, today I am [...]
Things are getting wrapped up around here as my time here ticks by. This past week my friend Adrianne came out to my site to help with an HIV/AIDS workshop put on with my youth group in Juayua. This is my final grant for the entirety of my Peace Corps service! As we head into [...]
Been running around a lot lately…sorry if I have been a fuera de contacto for a while… Currently, I am working in San Vicente (where the training center is, where I lived the first months of my time here) with the newest group of volunteers to arrive in the country. This weekend some “older” volunteers, [...]
Attention loyal blog readers: We are going on 2 years together here in cyber space! Crazy! 20 months I have been living, working, learning, and exploring here in El Salvador. Now only 4 months left! I remember dragging my suitcase up this mountain for the first time thinking, “What have I got myself into? I [...]
Halloween party in the school! In celebration of Halloween, since I was stuck in my campo house, I decided to make the best of it and do a little cultural exchange with my students. I made a poster with information about our Halloween traditions (aka: carving pumpkins, scarecrows, black cats, costumes, trick-or-treating, etc.) Then we [...]
So, there is a phenomena called a “quarter-life crisis” Everyone has heard of a mid-life crisis, but not everyone has heard of a quarter-life crisis. A quarter-life crisis is the developmental stage adults age 20-35 go through as their life progresses into adulthood. The pressure to have it all: perfect job, right city, right home, [...]
The rain finally stopped…hooray! The “house-arrest” restriction was lifted on Friday morning, so Friday afternoon was spent laying out by the pool at the Sheraton hotel in San Salvador, eating a quarter-pounder from McDonald’s, and just enjoying the company of other people. Friday night was spent out on the town In the aftermath of the [...]
Day 8 of house arrest…ugh. I can’t tell you how depressing it is to be stuck, alone, in an empty house for 8 straight days. It hasn’t stopped raining for more than 5 minutes in 8 days. I haven’t seen the sun since October 9. It is freezing cold here (as in my joints are [...]
Bad news from Cental America… Torrential downpours on the Pacific Coasts of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have caused floods, landslides, road closings, school closings, impeded transport, substantial damage to homes, and more than 40 deaths across the region. Mauricio Funes, President of El Salvador, declared the country in a state of emergency yesterday [...]
There are two ways to look at time as it passes by when you are a PCV (Peace Corp Volunteer). Either you look at each day as another day closer to your last day here. You countdown day in and day out until you finally reach your release date (this is sounding a lot like [...]
When I was a little girl I always resented that we had a “Mother’s Day” and a “Father’s Day” and no “Kids Day.” When I conveyed this to my mother she used to tell me that every day was “Kid’s Day.” In a way she was right; every day in most households the kids come [...]
As part of my EWB (Engineers Without Borders) project, the team has mandated a very important scientific experiment to me. That is right…PCV is now synonymous with scientist! Okay, maybe that is a slight overstatement, but I really am running some official water testing here in the community. I have been taking water samples, preparing [...]
September 15 is the national celebration of El Salvador’s independence from Spain. In honor of this festive holiday, much in the spirit of my small-town celebration in the US, there were dance routines, speeches, and a parade put on by the local schools in Juayua. Forest and I skipped the dance celebration to grab some [...]
I love my friends! Somehow I have been one of the luckiest people in the entire world because I have the most loyal and amazing friends! Even after being out of the country for a year and a half I still get calls and messages and the occasional letter just telling me that I haven’t [...]
Yes, I mean balls of fire…literally. Fellow PCV Adrianne, friend Stephanie, and I were dodging cloth balls dipped in gasoline and thrown at us in the streets on Wednesday night. Talk about cultural exchange… The Nejapa Fireball Festival or Bolas de Fuego takes place once a year on August 31 during the towns Fiestas Patronales, [...]
GLOW camp is officially over! It was a great experience for the volunteers and the girls! Each volunteer gave presentations on different topics concerning young girls today: Self-esteem Body image Leadership Goal-setting Sexual Health/Family Planning Self-Defense and few activities just for fun… Tour of Suchitoto (beautiful town where the workshop was held) Spa and movie [...]
Lindsey´s last week and a half in August=enough to give a healthy person a heart attack. Crazy week! Got back from Costa Rica the 19th, went from the airport directly to a training workshop. Went from workshop straight to my site to do a presentation Sunday afternoon. Monday was spent organizing the workshop supplies for [...]
Just back from my short trip to Costa Rica for Mollie and Ryan’s wedding. Congratulations! I had a fantastic time! It has been so long since I have gotten to hang out with the Liddell family (Lindsay living in Chicago, Taylor living in New York, the rest in Papillion, while I was in Lincoln, [...]
1) My dog 2) Baseball games 3) Warm showers 4) Transportation without buses 5) Sleeping late on Sundays and watching recorder episodes of “Holmes on Homes”…as a matter of fact, just HGTV in general 6) The library 7) The changing seasons 8 ) The Colbert Report 9) Good chocolate 10) The Cornhusker State
Last night my neighbor passed away. She was a sweet (and very old) lady with a pleasant, toothless smile, who perpetually carried a walking stick and often fell asleep in the middle of conversations. She lived next door to me, and when I stopped by to visit she would say she always knew when I [...]
So, remember how I wrote about “Posh Corps”….well about that…I am ditching this place and heading to Costa Rica for a week! Whoo! I leave on Saturday morning and return the following Thursday. I will be staying at the beautiful (or so I hear, being as I have never been to Costa Rica) Tamarindo beach [...]
A running joke among Peace Corps volunteers is Peace Corps El Salvador should be renamed “Posh Corps.” Imagine packing pocket knives, survival guides, hiking shoes, and emergency flashlights, then arriving in country and getting a cell phone, home internet, and long hours in the hammock. The beach is a few bus rides away, so is [...]
There are so many moments where I feel as if I have lost control of my emotions. I am not sure if it the simple fact that I tend to run a little on the crazy side naturally, or if it the stressful toll living here takes on me. I suspect it is a combination [...]
This August coming up is going to be a CRAZY month! I have two presentations, a workshop, a camp, a vacation, English classes, and a grant already in the works, and the month hasn’t even begun! The grant I am currently writing will be the last one of my service here. PC policy states that [...]
Dear Friends and Family, As you well know, I have been serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador for number months now. In my community I work as a rural health volunteer, focusing mainly on common illness prevention, food safety, water quality, and sexual health. Of the many issues present in my community [...]
Hello! I can’t believe I haven’t written here in almost a month! Crazy how time passes so quickly! Speaking of time passing so quickly, we have passed the year mark, and we are coming to the home stretch, a little less than 8 months left in my PC service! I can’t believe it! I was [...]
Sorry for the long break in posts….my parents even called me to tell me they were worried they hadn’t heard from me in so long! I have been busy the last few weeks with Engineers Without Borders. The team came on the 28th, well the three women came on the 28th, Cody came on the [...]
Good news! I get to go back to the volcano tomorrow! Thank goodness because this IV is extremely painful… Anyway, the tests for infection came back positive, but the tests for kidney stones came back negative. So, after a rigorous round of antibiotics and re-hydration fluids, if everything goes as planned I will be on [...]
Number of hospital visits in 23 years in the United States = 0 Number of hospital visits in 1 year in El Salvador = 2 Hmmm…maybe El Salvador is trying to tell me something… At least that is what I told my nurse friend Lupe last night as I was writhing in pain on her [...]
We are at 9 and a half months and counting! We have squeezed past the one-year mark and we are barreling on down to the single digits! Some days it is hard to believe I have been living in Central America for over a year. The time seems to fly..then again, there are days when [...]
Hey friends, family, and maybe a few strangers who stumbled on here by accident… I think it is official to say the rainy season has begun. It has rained in my site every day for a week, so I think this qualifies as the start…yuck. Honestly, a little rain never hurt anyone (contrary to popular [...]
Last week was Semana Santa here in El Salvador. Semana Santa is also known as Holy Week. Everyone takes the week off. Schools are shut down. All government organizations are closed. Even the buses were shut down for part of the day on Friday. It is something similar to our spring break, but it is [...]
So, I often write/talk to you guys about my Nutrition Center. A Nutrition Center is a government-funded organization placed in rural areas where there is a high population of undernourished children. The kids go there in the morning and eat breakfast, snack, lunch at midday, nap in the afternoon, then go home around 3 pm. [...]
Been having some computer difficulties (DAD, DO NOT PANIC). The LED screen is not working correctly and will only light up white. This is promising, being as most likely the connection between the screen and the compter base is the only problem, since the screen still lights up. There is a reliable guy the Peace [...]
Hello again! It has been too long once again… Last week was interesting…I had my one year medical check. I got a lot of poking and prodding and scraping done. But, good news and bad news, I came back healthy, however that does not explain my hair falling out or the constantly swollen intestines (living [...]
Self-motivation is an essential tool for the success of a PCV. Without self-motivation all that Peace Corps service will end up being is a lot of time spent alone in your house watching movies on your laptop or reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels. To be fair, even with self-motivation volunteers will still be spending a [...]
It is a beautiful sunny day here volcanoside. It has been rainy then windy for the past week, so this change of pace is lovely. Today is the kind of day that makes me close my eyes and think, “There is no where else I should be but right here.” Today is a slow days [...]
Haven’t written in a while…sorry. I would say I have been too busy, but that would be a flat out lie. Even when I am busy I should still take time to write. I will try to do better in the future. Currently, I am writing to avoid finishing other paperwork (which I hate) and [...]
Below is a link to Martha Stewart (courtesy of a fellow PCV!) making pupusas….pupusas are a typical Salvadoran food. Here they are filled with a different kind of cheese, and are fried in LOTS more oil, but same idea…I eat these often. I can buy one for a 25 cents on the street. They are [...]
Spending Valentines Day on my mountain. Fantastic. Luckily I will not be alone, I have a very special Valentine this year…his name is Andy. I plan on making us a romantic dinner of Macaroni and Cheese and watching Love Actually together under my heating blanket. Plane ticket home anyone?
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