November is my favorite time in El Salv. The days are significantly less hot and there is a constant brisa! It’s also my favorite time because it is when school lets out for the salvo “summer” and I get a break from 150 screaming bichos.

We wrapped up computer classes at the beginning of November so the kids could have time to “study” for their end of the year exams. And then the graduation planning began. I helped organize the graduation ceremony for our students graduating from kindergarten and sixth grade. For the sixth graders, it is the final activity that they will be present for at Centro Escolar San Jeronimo. For those who are able to continue studying, they will have to travel to the pueblo to attend classes. This year, 10 out of 18 graduating sixth graders have plans to continue studying. The eight students that will not attend seventh grade next year are not choosing to not study, but rather, they don’t have the means to travel to and from the pueblo five days a week. Obviously, economics plays a huge role in deciding whether or not you’re going to finish high school in El Salvador.

The graduation ceremony started with a mass at the Catholic church where all the Catholic students came with their friends and family to worship. The Evangelical students met us at the church afterwards and everyone, all dolled up in their fancy suits and dresses, walked through the community from the church to the school. It was bien bonita! Once at the school, awards for the top students were given and every student received their diploma. I awarded certificates of achievement to the students for participating in computer class throughout the school year. It was very exciting. All the parents were extremely proud that their kids “passed” computacion.

During the ceremony, I was given a chance to address the students and their parents and thank them for working with me at the school this year. I made sure to encourage the parents and kids alike to continue studying as much as possible. Education is the key to development, for sure. At the end of the ceremony, the directora presented me with a certificate of appreciation for my work at the school that year.

After all the graduation festivities were over, I headed out of site for Thanksgiving in the capital. Ever Thanksgiving in El Salvador, families at the American Embassy in San Salvador host PCVs for the night to have a turkey dinner and a hot shower. It was fabulous. My friend Paul and I were paired with a woman who works for USAID at the Embassy and was also a PCV in Paraguay ten years ago. It was so nice to talk to someone about my peace corps experience that had been through the experience. We had lots of wine, a fabulous turkey marinated in pisco sour, and WAY too much pie.

After Thanksgiving, we had a swearing in party for the newest group of volunteers in San Salvador, where we danced the night away at one of our favorite clubs in the city. It’s always a good time when all the volunteers in country have a chance to get together.

After swearing in, a group of us headed east to San Miguel to disfrutar Fiestas Patronales. It was a gran locura, a street party that took over the entire city. Liter Regia beers, papas fritas, masks and entertainers everywhere. We probably covered the entire city on foot that night, making our way through the fiesta, taking pictures with strangers along the way (they loved all the gingas in their mascaras!). Needless to say, the following day I had one of the worst gomas (hangovers) of my life, and I had never been so glad to get back to my bed in the campo. I think I stayed in bed for two days recovering, but the weekend had been well worth it!

Centro Escolar San Jeronimo Staff

Graduation Parade

Maria Julissa

In October it rained for something like 15 days and I'm still recovering from it...I've tried to write about the tropical depression that destroyed El Salv in October, but I can't come up with the right words to describe what it was like to be trapped in site with limited food and no transportation, soaking wet for almost two weeks. I'm obviously still suffering from PTSD from the rain, so here are some pictures I took during the storm. See for yourself:

Main road under water...

Baby Jefe loved playing in the rain. I did not love drying him off afterwards.

Road in front of my house was washed out.

Main road washed away. No transportation in and out for DAYS!

Shin deep in water on the street!

In September, I took a MUCH needed vacation to the states to visit with friends and family for two weeks, and it was incredible! I flew into DC and stayed with my friend Jody for a few days before we (and her mom!) headed down to Elizabeth City, NC to see the fam. While in DC I had Trader Joe’s wine, a chili cheese dog at a Nationals game, some grande margs at Chevy’s and wing stop french fries. It. Was. Glorious.

Being home was so refreshing. I got to replace some moldy clothes, eat my mom’s home cooking and drink my weight in wine and microbrews. Lane took me out on our sailboat for the first time, I went out to lunch almost every day (my favorite activity!) and enjoyed netflix on demand for hours on end. Oh, and I got to spend some quality time with my mom and Shrimpy, see Grammy King and meet baby Addi for the first time!

Having to leave after two relaxing weeks was difficult, but it was significantly less brutal than it was after my first trip back to the states last Christmas, which is a testament to the fact that you can get used to anything and I had finally acustumbrar-ed to my life in El Salv.

Returning to country was somewhat bittersweet though because as I was coming back, my friend Sam was leaving for good. While I was away, he decided to Early Terminate his service out of lack of work in his site. I miss him dearly, and hate that when I want to call him to tell him a ridiculously hilarious salvo story it now costs me 15 cents, but he’s enjoying himself in the “oooosa” and happy with his decision.

Thanks for reading, October update coming soon!

PS. Since I originally wrote this blog, Sam has since started working for NBC 40 Atlantic City, NJ. HOLLER! He's a celeb already and I am SO excited to go "down the shore" to see him in action!

In August, my school was approved for a small infrastructure project funded by USAID. The directiva (parent-teacher governing organization) and I worked together in July and August writing a grant soliciting the education fund of the USAID money set aside for Peace Corps projects for materials and transportation for a division wall construction project that would divide the kindergarten and first grade classrooms. The current division is made out of cardboard and plywood, and is falling down around the students. The replacement wall will be made from dry wall.

We were approved and it has taken months and months for my school to actually get into gear, but we have all the construction materials purchased and our laborers are going to start building Jan 2 (keep your fingers crossed!). The school will be paying for the labor as their “community contribution,” a 25% collaboration on the part of the community that is required for all projects funded through USAID. The entire project is only going to cost around $400 but will make a big difference in the day to day for the kindergarteners and first graders.

I’ll post pictures of the new wall when it’s finished! Stay tuned.

Current division wall in total disrepair...

My new house!

July of this year was one of my least favorite months of my service. One afternoon, after spending the day running errands in San Miguel and getting Jefe a bath and some much needed flea medicine, we boarded my bus in the terminal to head back to site. While we were waiting, a teenage boy came on and sat next to me. He started talking to me like he knew me, spent some time petting Jefe and asking questions about me and what I was doing here. This is not unusual. The bus I ride goes from San Miguel to my community, stopping in several rural communities along the way, so when people approach me on my bus I usually feel fairly certain that although I may not know them, they probably know me from seeing me en route. Anyway, I answered his questions as if he was an amigo, assuming he was from one of the communities near mine. After several minutes of friendly conversation, he moved in closer to me and whispered that he was with MS18 and had a gun in his jacket. He instructed me to hand over my phone, my wallet and the ring on my finger, threatening to put a bullet in my head if I didn’t. Obviously, I did what he asked, and he got up and ran off the bus.

I have never been so scared, or felt so helpless in my life. I was sitting on the bus that goes straight to my door in San Jeronimo, and had just told this kid (who was obviously sent onto the bus with instructions to rob me) where I lived and he had access to all the contacts on my phone. It was so strange being obviously threatened and robbed on a bus full of my neighbors, who did nothing to help me. I cried the whole way home and spent the next several nights out of site out of fear of someone coming to my home to find me.

A month later I had an intruder in my home one night while I was sleeping. After a couple days of asking around, it turned out that my intruder was a kid looking for a place to sleep because he ran away from home, but it in no way made me feels at ease about my security situation in site. If a kid could break in relatively easy, who knows who else could potentially get in. Then, when I was home for vacation in early September, my house was broken into again, and the ladron cut the chains I had locked my bedroom doors with to get inside.

I have since moved houses, obviously, but it doesn’t make me any less anxious when I sleep at night or return home after a weekend out of site. Yes, I am surrounded by more neighbors now, but I was surrounded by all my neighbors when I was robbed at gunpoint on my bus earlier this year and it didn’t help. What can they do?

The security situation down here in El Salv is currently under review by Peace Corps Washington, and rightfully so in my opinion. I feel unsafe on a fairly regular basis, and while our safety and security office does what they can, they are not out with us day to day, and most of what they can do for us is record and report incidents. I guess enough incidents have been reported now that headquarters has taken notice and are working to do something about it. What will be done for us in El Salv is still uncertain, but I will keep you posted when we get official word. Rumor mill within PC El Salv is that my group will be allowed to COS earlier than originally scheduled and I could potentially be home in February. While I am saddened that Peace Corps can no longer operate normally in El Salv because of gangs and other dangers, I think it’s a long time coming and something definitely needs to be done about the lack of security we face on a daily basis.

Here's a link to an announcement in the NYTimes concerning Peace Corps operations in the northern triangle: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/world/americas/peace-corps-cuts-back-in-honduras-guatemala-and-el-salvador.html?_r=1

By the time June rolled around this year, the computer lab in my school was (for the most part) fully functioning and computer classes were a go! I started out working with Don Saul teaching the kids how to use the computers, but after much complaining on the part of the kids, my director decided that I was going to give the classes by myself. The kids didn’t like classes with Don Saul because he was too strict (and he was). He was getting way too technical in class and was always screaming at the kids for not remembering how to save a word document or create a folder on the desktop. I’m sorry, but these kids had never seen a computer before in their lives. I was perfectly content with them if they could turn one on and off correctly and could manage the mouse with relative ease. Once Don Saul left the classes, I decided that I would teach Microsoft Office/typing to my fifth and sixth graders, and the younger kids would spend their classes playing math and spelling games, or researching topics on the Encarta encyclopedia.

After a couple months of practice, every kid at my school was able to use the computers on their own, without my help! And those kids that were especially good at remembering how to open programs, or “hacer clic” on the mouse were eager to help out those lagging behind. My school director always brags to parents that stop by that even my five year olds can play the counting games on their own. I’m extremely proud of my kids and their progress with the computers this year.

In June, once computer classes were in full swing, my sister Beth came to visit. I took her to school with me one day and she helped me teach a class to my kindergarteners. She helped them with counting and the alphabet, and she said she learned more Spanish playing the games with the kids on the computer than she did all year in her college Spanish courses! It was HILARIOUS seeing her next to my teeny tiny five year olds, and they were obviously in complete awe of her height! They’re still asking me where my sister that is “casi dos metros” (almost two meters tall) is and if she’s coming back to play with them again. They’re so presh!

Having Beth visiting was definitely an eye opener. So many things down here in El Salv that I consider normal now, Beth was completely offended by. On my bus, she couldn’t understand how I could sit calmly in my seat while four different women were intruding on my “personal space”. Personal space is the first thing I had to give up when I arrived in El Salv, and it’s normal for me to be touching everyone around me. Beth could never get used to it. She couldn’t believe the pollution from cars, she had trouble breathing in the capital from all the exhaust. She was afraid of my friend Kristina’s latrine (I’ll give that one to her…it’s pretty gross. I used to not sit on it, but two years later I’m even doing that!) and one night we were watching a movie on my laptop and she kept swatting away the small moths that were hovering around the screen, something I gave up on a long time ago! It was kind of hilarious seeing her out of her element, and I only wish I could have watched myself in the beginning, because I know I was just as offended by the same things when I first got here!

I also celebrated by 24th birthday in June during her visit. We met up with some of my PCV friends in the capital and had a night out on the town before she left! $5 all you can drink at one of my favorite bars, Avant, was the perfect ending to her viaje!

In May, after a fabulous scuba vacation with my mom and PCV friends in Utila, Honduras, I started making shampoo at school as a fundraiser for our computer lab. We learned how to make shampoo using aloe vera during training, and in May I bought the necessary materials and tried it out with my fourth graders. Let me tell you, nothing has ever gone over so well. My kids LOVE making shampoo. They always bring in the aloe vera from their houses (it grows wild in my community) and never stop asking when it’s going to be time to make more shampoo. I’ve done the activity with all age levels at school and even the smallest kids can do it, it’s that simple.

Los Pasos:

1. Mix two liters of water with ½ lb of salt.

2. Meanwhile, peel aloe vera from nine leaves and blend well in a blender.

3. Add two liters of glicerine with four additional liters of water into salt-water mix and mix well.

4. Mix in blended aloe vera.

5. Add preservatives, color and fragrance.

6. Let sit overnight.

7. Bottle and bathe!

The materials have to be bought in San Salvador, which means when I leave, the project will probably die because we live lejos from the capital and no one goes back and forth like I do. But I’m totally okay with that. This project has given me something fun to do with my kids and my community has gone absolutely LOCA for the shampoo. They’ve started calling it “Champu la Yorda” (Shampoo by Jordan) and I can’t walk through my community without several people asking if we’ve got any available at school.

We make around 25 bottles at a time, and we cannot make it fast enough. We usually sell out before we’re done bottling the stuff. My community swears by it now. It cures caspas (dandruff), strengthens weak hair and even combats balding! I’ve been using it since May and I just got a compliment from another PCV telling me how healthy my hair looks, so it must be working! Oh, and the best part, we bottle the shampoo in recycled soda bottles!

We haven’t made much in the grand scheme of things, around $90 in six months, but it’s been worth it regardless. I have to make sure I’ve got materials ready when school starts up again in January because I’ve already got students and parents harassing me for more Champu la Yorda!

Jonni

My helpers

Me and panchita selling lunch.

Ferris Wheel/clothing line...

Third world baile!

April was an eventful month. I spent most of the month planting trees in my community, but it wasn’t all work. My community celebrated Fiestas Patronales (Patron Saint Festivals) April 16-21. It was one of the craziest weeks of my life here in El Salv. Not only was there a huge dance/show every night for a week on the streets of my community, but there were carnival rides, a pizza man (I ate pizza for dinner for about a month straight) and about 100 “hermanos lejanos” (aka salvos that live in the states) that came back to visit for the celebration. I got no sleep and was practically deaf by the time the week was over!

I played with my women’s softball team in a tournament one day (we lost) and the rest of my afternoons during fiestas were spent cooking and selling food with Nina Panchita. She’s 70 years old and still involved in every sporting event fundraiser. We had a sponsor from the states that paid for all the food we sold, so everything we made that week in food sales went towards our men’s soccer team and women’s softball team.

At night, everyone got dressed up and headed out to the bailes. I’ve NEVER seen bailes in this country as big as the productions that lined my dirt roads that week. Giant stages, hundreds of speakers, lights everywhere. It was complete insanity for my small, rural community, but when you’ve got community members in the states paying the bills there are apparently no limits to what we could afford.

While fiestas was fun, it was a perfect example of why this country is never going to develop when it relies on remittances from the USA to survive. Money from the states is “free” to the people in my community (and all over the country). They don’t live 10 to a home like their brothers and sisters in the states do to be able to save money to send home. They don’t work three jobs at minimum wage (or lower) to earn a buck. They sit in their hammocks and watch their novellas until it’s time to head to western union to pick up their cash. It’s easy money for those receiving. Our fiestas were funded with this kind of money, and when all was said and done, the weeklong party in my community ended up costing around $15,000. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Meanwhile, we have unpaved roads, are in desperate need of a small bridge on our main road, a tank to store water and there are still some homes in my community that are without water and/or electricity.

The guys from the states came to San Jeronimo last April and asked me why I hadn’t gotten funds from the USA to build a water tank for the water system, or bathrooms for the casa comunal, implying that I wasn’t working hard enough or doing my job in the community. Meanwhile, if they would forgo two or three years of fiestas patronales, all of those projects could be fully funded with the money they raise amongst themselves in the states! It was kind of a slap in the face, but the culture of receiving remittances down here is something that I (and every other PCV) has to come to terms with. It’s something that we constantly fight against when we try to raise money for the small projects we’re able to complete.

I won’t be in my community next year for Fiestas, and while it was fun, I am glad I don’t have to watch all that hard earned money go towards a couple nights of dancing instead of new bathrooms at the school or pipes to the remaining houses that can’t afford to have water.

PS. I danced on stage one night in a competition and to this day, eight months later, I STILL have people coming up to me telling me they saw me dancing during fiestas!

I was just chatting with my mom, complaining about how boring this month has been because school is out and I have nothing to fill my days (okay, let’s be real, school is half a day, but still…), so she suggested that I update my blog. Hm. I then loaded my blog and realized that I haven’t updated since April…oops. Again, I have no excuses, except that the things I’m doing down here become normal, mundane even, and I don’t qualify my day to day as very exciting anymore, thus the lack of blogs. In an effort to catch my readers up on what I’ve been up to these last eight months, I’m going to be updating my blog this month with recaps of each month that has passed since my last entry, giving you guys the highlights of my life down here in San Jeronimo. So stay tuned!

Two weeks ago I traveled to Chinameca, San Miguel with a couple of members of my ADESCO to pick up 150 trees we successfully solicited from FUNDACHINAMECA, an NGO specializing in gardening and reforestation. We loaded the trees in the back of the truck, and so began what I thought was going to be a fairly simple project to do with the school kids. Boy was I wrong! We’re at week three of planting at this point and we’re still not done. I’ve got about 30 trees in the ground at the school and am hopefully going to get the remaining 25 that I’ve allocated for the school in the ground this week. The rest are supposedly being planted by the soccer team at the soccer field, but I’ll believe it when I see it… Planting with the school children has proven much more difficult than I anticipated. I initially tried planting each day with a different class, but when the entire class is involved at once, most of the kids just run around and goof off. So I’ve had to pull 4-5 kids at a time to dig holes, plant and water the trees. And my kids are small; the school only goes up to sixth grade, so there are only a handful of boys who are strong enough to dig the holes somewhat efficiently. Needless to say, the process is a slow one! The kids seem to be enjoying the project, though, which is fun. The trees are small still, and like babies, need lots of care, so we’ve got a schedule posted now organizing which classes are in charge each week of watering the trees. The girls, although completely uninterested in planting the trees, are eager to cuidar them, and give them water every day. So at least we’ve got a system going. Our computers are mostly fixed now also, we’re just waiting on a few monitors to come back from (hopefully) being repaired. Once we get an official count on how many actually sirve we’re going to buy the computer desks and get set up! I’m giving basic instruction, with the help of Don Saul (a teacher at school), to the older kids right now, and am hoping to get my hands on a typing program in Spanish and maybe an electronic encyclopedia to start giving regular classes. The computer room needs some work but we’re getting there! My mission this week is to draw some posters of basic info about computers and typing that we can hang up to help the kids out on vocabulary. The kids are so excited to finally get their hands on the computers, and it’s such a trip teaching a child how to use a mouse for the first time. They are so proud when they can “hacer clic” correctly, or type their names! What else? We’ve got fiestas patronales next week so my community is full of visitors from the states and I’m now being sexually harassed in my community in both English and Spanish. Fun? Vendors are busy building their stands and pizza is already being sold at night! I’m excited to be able to buy food next week instead of cooking! The softball team (which I recently joined) is hosting a baile Saturday to raise money for new uniforms, and we’ve got a tournament on Wednesday, so wish me luck! The girls and I are selling food to support the men’s soccer team the following day, so I’m heading to the market this week to buy an apron. The salvos are going to DIE when I show up in a campo apron ready to vender! Can’t wait! Other than that its carnival rides and discos every night for a week. I’m going to need lots of Benadryl to sleep through all the noise but I’m excited. April should go quickly. This week I’m working on the trees, next week is fiestas, then Semana Santa and then HONDURAS with my mom!! Is it April 30th yet!? Miss you mucho! And thanks for reading!

Hey guys! Stay tuned for an entry about my reforestation project but as promised, I've posted some pictures of our work so far on facebook! So check 'em out!!

alu!

So I spent the morning unpacking computers at my school and helping the computer repair men try to organize the mess that is our ten computers. They spent the day cleaning and trying to salvage our late 1990's HP and Dell models while the kids looked on completely in awe.

Absolutely no learning happened today, and while that's not completely out of the ordinary, it was crazy listening to the kids talk about the computers. Some simply asked what they were. They'd never seen a computer before. Others asked if we were going to watch tv in school today because they mistook the monitors for televisions. And the rest just pretended to type on imaginary key boards in front of them! Hilarious!

Oh, and the home screen is the most "bonita" thing most of them had ever seen. I'm excited to get our computer room up and running. We're getting there, slowly but surely, and the kids are excited to learn. So stay tuned.

xoxo

Sorr about the slacking. No excuses for my not updating this little blog of mine except that I’m lazy and since I don’t have internet in my site anymore (I know, que triste) I forget to blog before I head to town for an internet sesh. Before I blogged out of boredom….so I’ll try to be better? God knows I’m still bored! Sometimes, and let me repeat that, SOMETIMES, it’s nice to be the gringa in this country. The other day, my bus didn’t come and I needed to get out of my site for mid service medical. The men’s soccer team was heading out the same day for a soccer game, and they were going my way, so I hopped a ride with them in the back of a cattle truck. Imagine, me standing in the back of a truck with 30ish Salvadoran 20 something guys. Just my scene, right? Thankfully, as soon as one of the moms saw me back there with the boys, and because I’m the little white girl in my community, I was “forced” to get out of the crowd and was given a seat in the front cabin. Holler. Saved myself a sun burn and about an hour of sexual harassment. And speaking of sexual harassment, in case you didn’t see my pictures of the bus driver strike in San Salvador, I was sexually harassed (verbally) by about 100 bus drivers on strike walking by me in a parade. So. Unamused. It’s real hot these days. I’ve spent most of this month in my underwear and have recently taken to spending about an hour a day floating in my pila. Yes, I know that’s the same water I bathe and wash my dishes with, but you know what, I have no regrets. At about 2pm in this ungodly heat, it’s totally worth it. I can now get pupusas five days a week in my site. And because it’s too hot to cook and I’ve been living on cereal lately, I am all about some greasy pork and cheese filled tortillas! This is probably the start of me gaining weight for once in this country, but if I do, again, it will be totally worth it. Upcoming projects: setting up the computer lab at my school (thanks mom and Lane for your ayuda!) and planting trees in a reforestation campaign with the school kids. So look for updates/pictures on those coming in the next week or two! (You can hold me to that!) I just finished mid-service (WOO!!) medical and I have officially been living in this place for one year and have yet to have an amoeba or parasite. I realize as I’m typing these words in my word document that I’ve just jinxed myself but, whatever. Something to be proud of I think! The NYTimes travel section is my new weakness. I’m cutting out articles about places I want to visit and restaurants I can’t wait to eat at once I leave El Salv. It’s torture reading about authentic Italian restaurants in San Fran or tapas in Valencia, but I can’t stop. Less than one year left of canned tuna and tomato sauce. Just finished Wuthering Heights and I’m on to Slaughterhouse Five and The Fountainhead next. At least I’ll be well read after my time in Peace Corps! Also, if it weren’t for my bootleg downloads of Glee I don’t know how I would make it in my site. If I could have dinner with one person, living or dead, real or fictional, right now I’d choose Rachel Berry. Mostly because I would die to sing a duet with Lea Michelle, but I’m obsessed with her and love every song she covers better than the originals… I would love it if someone would send me some powdered pasta sauces. You know, the ones that you add milk and butter to and cook on a stove? McCormick does them pretty well I think. I need some alfredo or something in my life! I’m so over tomato sauce. Obama is coming to El Salv next week and the entire capital is shutting down for his visit. The Sheraton hotel is packed with State Dept. workers and secret service and apparently “centro” (aka the sketchiest place in San Salvador) has been “cleaned out” and is eerily quiet. Wonder what they did with all the marreros? I think Obama should see the capital of this great country at its finest—extremely dangerous, no? Anywho, every room at the Sheraton has been booked by Obama and his posse, so no go on getting a room there. Damn! I was hoping to meet Michelle so she’d want to fund my garden project at school. She’s into school gardens in an effort to combat juvenile obesity right? She needs to get to work in San Geronimo with me! Okay, that’s all I’ve got in me for now. Miss you all mucho! Thanks for reading! (Oh, and if any of you readers out there are interested in funding my school garden project, since Michelle clearly isn’t going to, let me know!) Les quiero mucho and stay tuned! xoxo

Sorry guys, but I promise to post a real life update this weekend!

I have been slacking REAL hard lately on updating this blog, so lo siento. I wish I could claim that I’ve just been too busy to keep up with it, but we all know that would be a lie. Although, I have had a decent amount of things to do since I got back from the states. First and foremost, I have officially been in country for one year!! Still can’t believe it, but I made it and I’m still trucking along. To celebrate, 23 of us from my group spent two nights at a gorgeous beach in Auhuachapan. We rented a beautiful house and spent two days reunited, which was so fun! It’s rare we all see each other like that and it was great to catch up with some of the volunteers I don’t see on a regular basis. We finished off our weekend in the capital with a Peace Corps fiesta for the Superbowl. SO many volunteers showed up and we had a huge gringo fest watching the game. The half time show was a huge hit among us and I was shocked to hear it got bad/mixed reviews by viewers in the states. I guess after a year in country our standards for entertainment have lowered but we enjoyed every minute of singing along to Fergie!! What’s next? Pregnancy club is still going and attendance is improving! We’ve covered “things to avoid during pregnancy” and breast feeding in the last month. My women didn’t know what caffeine was and I spent about half an hour explaining what it was and that it is in the coffee they drink every day. These women had no idea that drinking coffee during pregnancy could actually be harmful to their child. It’s amazing that what is basic knowledge to us, something as seemingly simple like not drinking caffeine while you’re pregnant or breast feeding, is completely unknown to these women. We also talked about how it is important to talk to your baby while you’re breastfeeding it, rather than just letting the baby feed while the mom’s attention is elsewhere. Pregnancy club is definitely as much a learning experience for me as it is for my ladies. In other news, I’m working with my school teachers and with the ADESCO that operates in the states on a bathroom project at the school. Right now we’re just in the beginning phases, organizing and planning the time line, as well as getting all the parents on board, but hopefully we’ll have new bathrooms (flushing toilets!) at the school by next year. The latrines that are there now are beyond disgusting and it’s to the point that parents have instructed their kids to not go to the bathroom while they’re at school because they’re so gross. I’m also starting an environmental youth group with the kids at my school called “Guardianes Ambientales.” It’s sponsored by the Ministry of Education here and I’m going to be giving environmental charlas (lessons) to the school kids twice a month and with the help of my teachers we’re going to start a school vegetable garden, organic composting and also have a team of kids that are in charge of organizing trash campaigns and recycling. Again, we’re just in the beginning phases but I am optimistic about it. Should be fun! I hosted a new trainee for her immersion day. Immersion day is part of every PCV’s initial training and it happens during your first month of training. Peace Corps sends you out to spend the weekend with a current volunteer in their site and then one night with a campo family in the same site. I hosted a girl named Chelsea who is from Alexandria! She was so nice and it was fun to be on the receiving end of immersion day. I still find it hard to believe that I’m now part of the veteran group of volunteers here, but it does feel SO long ago that I was asking a thousand questions about how to take a bucket bath, or what to do if I see a scorpion! Made me realize how tough I’ve gotten over the last twelve months! I think Chelsea enjoyed herself in my site for the weekend. I took her to Pizza Hut in San Miguel, and we cooked a Mexican feast which I know from experience is a welcome change of pace from training and living with a host family. Que mas? President Obama is scheduled to make a trip to El Salv in March, so all the PCVs are anxious about hopefully getting to attend an event to meet him. I’ll believe it when I see it, although I’d love an excuse to buy a new dress! I’m keeping myself entertained these days with Mad Men and the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo book series. Completely enthralled by both! Little Jefe got a serious hair cut the other day and he looks bien silly with no hair but I know he’s got to be cooler for it. The heat here is getting out of control. We’re averaging 100+ degree days out here lately, and it’s been brutal. I’ve spent an embarrassing number of days out here in my underwear…sometimes it’s just too damn hot for clothes! Luckily my house is surrounded by trees and I can get away with it!! The one upside to all this sun is that my clothes are drying in record time these days!

my friend kristina and i were chased through her community by a herd of cows the other night. campo4life i guess.

Okay. So vacation at home was so great. Loved the cold weather even though I complained about it the entire time, ate some AMAZING food and hung out a lot on my couch with my dog. Two weeks at home was NOT enough, and leaving was way too hard. But I keep telling myself that I’ve got a year under my belt now and I can get through another year of this. Right? Right. One positive to coming back to el salv was seeing my dog! Little jefe was a little worse for the wear after two weeks in my friend Sam’s site. He had fleas pretty bad, so I’ve had to cut all his hair off, but he’s better now and loving life back on my porch. Thank God I’ve got him to keep me company in the campo. My pueblo is celebrating their Fiestas Patronales (Patron Saint Festivals) and so my community has been busy partying every night, which has made for some eerily quiet mornings. I’m kind of loving waking up on my own time, and not to my neighbor’s music. Not going to head to the fiestas myself I don’t think though. Not a big fan of being out in the pueblo until 3am. Bailes in this country are kind of my worst nightmare because I spend the entire time having to defend myself from unwanted sexual advances from all the men and drunks. No grac. Trying to get back into the swing of things “work” wise. Currently working on a grant to set up a computer lab at my school and had pregnancy club this week. Attendance was abnormally low but I’m not going to worry too much about it. I’m working on getting some more invitations out and trying to read up on Lamaze so I can start that soon. Busy busy. Got a lot planned in the next couple of weekends. Next weekend I’m heading back to San Vicente for the 60th wedding anniversary of a couple in my old host community, San Isidro. I’m really excited to see all of them again. Always love going back there because I actually feel at home and love my family there! Then after that it’s going to be 1 year in country, officially! And I’m heading out west to celebrate with the rest of my group at a beach house we’ve rented. Some friends and I have also made up a "bucket list" of things we want to do in El Salv before we leave, and our goal is to do one a month so that we always have something fun to look forward to. Hope all is well with you all back home! And if I didn’t get to see you when I was home, lo siento! Leaving my house for an extended period of time was bien dificil. But I miss/love you all!

The women in my pregnancy club think it is the funniest thing they’ve ever heard that I don’t have a baby. And the question makes me laugh every time. Pregnancy club is going really well. Since my last update, we’ve had two more meetings with decent attendance. Our second meeting on Family Planning was on the same day as our school’s graduation, but we still had nine women come! During our family planning class, we talked about all the barriers women in this country face in terms of family planning and discussed the myths surrounding contraception. Because of a lack of education (or willingness to even address such a taboo subject) the women in my group are very nervous about using birth control. And those that do understand how birth control works aren’t able to use it because their husbands won’t allow it. My nurse and I emphasized that the administration of birth control in the clinic is 100% confidential, and if a woman comes in asking for the injection, she can get it without her husband’s knowledge or permission. But the topic of family planning still remains a touchy subject. Our third meeting was on World AIDS Day, so we had a lesson on HIV/AIDS. I was extremely nervous about this lesson, as Estella does not have a great track record with me on giving accurate information about HIV/AIDS but I printed out some materials for her to go over, and boy did she surprise me! She had done her homework and our lesson went very smoothly. HIV/AIDS is another topic that Salvadorans (especially in the campo) don’t know much about, and a lot of what they do know comes from the campo myths that exist in the rural areas. The women were very interested and asked tons of questions, which is always exciting! I think they learned a lot that day. Next week we’ve got cervical and breast cancer scheduled. We’re going to talk about both types of cancer and explain prevention for both diseases. The clinic offers free pap smears in the community, and I’ve been told it’s required for all pregnant women during their first trimester when they come in for their monthly checkups. Results take three months to process though…que lento! And for mammograms you’ve got to travel to a hospital, so maybe we can make a field trip out of that? What else? Oh! Since it’s nearing Navidad everyone in my community is setting off fireworks. All day and all night. And they’re not pretty colorful fireworks. In El Salv we’ve got what they call “cuetes,” which are just noise. Big bangs. In a country where the murder rate is something like 19 per day, you’d think people would be more sensitive about setting off fireworks that sound exactly like a gunshot!? The first time one went off next door I literally hit the ground! Needless to say my nerves are shot! The weather has been kind of perfect around here lately. December is apparently the coolest month in the country and I have definitely cooled off a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still real hot during the day, and I haven’t stopped sweating yet, but in the evenings we’ve got a nice breeze going and it’s pretty nice. Not looking forward to coming back in January and starting the hottest months of the dry season. I wasn’t in my new site during the dry season last year so I have no idea what is about to happen in terms of the heat, but I live in the hottest region of the country so I’m not excited about it. And speaking of the heat, I think I’ve definitely acclimated myself to the extreme temperatures we get out here in La Union. I was at a Habitat for Humanity Blitz Build last week in San Vicente (where I lived for training). We were working hauling concrete for eight hours in the sun and although I was tired from all the heavy lifting, I wasn’t really sweating from the heat. I actually thought it felt kind of fresco, even in the sun! The volunteers that were there working were from Indiana and Canada, and they reminded me of myself eight months ago in that same San Vicente sun…they could hardly stand it! Although I’m used to this heat finally, I am VERY excited about the winter cold that will greet me at the Norfolk airport in two short weeks! I am beyond anxious about coming home and it’s about all I can think about anymore! I am going to freeze my butt off though! Looking forward to putting on my LLBean slippers and not taking them off for 15 days! Miss you all! Hopefully I’ll see you soon!

First, here’s what’s been going on on the “work front.” Pregnancy club numero uno went surprisingly well. I spent the entire morning before my meeting dreading that no one was going to show, but we ended up with 9 women in attendance!! So I felt pretty good about that. My nurse and I gave a charla about childbirth and how to care for newborns. We had a doll that the women had to practice on for learning how to change diapers (mostly for the teenage girls there), and how to properly hold a baby while breastfeeding. And Estella went on a rant about how important it is that you have your child in a hospital, and NOT with a midwife/witch doctor. FINALLY! A rant from her that made sense!! She was much more on top of her game with the pregnant women than she has ever been at the school with HIV/AIDS. So that was a plus. It was also nice to work OUTSIDE of the school. The women were attentive, participated and excited to come back for the next lesson. Definitely a 180 experience from any work I’ve done in the school so far, so I have high hopes for this group. I’m hoping to continue the group after the holidays and even extend it by giving Lamaze classes or something. Still working out what I think will work, but Pregnancy Club is something that I think I could work on long term.

School just let out for the summer (like every day isn’t vacation in the Salvadoran school system?) so I get a break from feeling guilty about not wanting to show up at school at 8am with 150 screaming children. We’re having a graduation mass/diploma ceremony this Wednesday so I’m busy this week helping the teachers get ready for that. The 6th graders are even putting on a dance for Wednesday night that they’re real excited about.

In other news, the creepy crawlers are out in FULL force in my house right now. In the last week I have killed four tarantulas and a scorpion. Not amused. Tarantulas are about the ugliest insect I’ve ever seen and I literally still have goose bumps thinking about the one I killed last Thursday. I was cleaning my house getting ready for my friend Pablo to come and visit and I found one the size of my entire hand hiding behind my bag. I WISH someone had been there to watch me try to kill this thing. I was alone in my house, screaming and jumping around because I had the chills so bad every time I thought about smashing it with a shoe, and Taylor Swift was playing in the background. I’m sure it would have been comical to any onlooker! I eventually killed it (and since then, three others) but DREAD finding another one. Que feo!

Also, two weeks ago I was robbed at knife point in San Miguel. I’m pretty sure the guy watched me take money out of the ATM and then followed me across the street to take it all from me. He came up to me, showed me his knife and asked for all my money. I gave him my wallet and he took my cash and ran. Could have been worse, as I was coming home from the capital and had my phone, computer and clothes with me also, but still. Getting robbed at knife point is not my favorite. Especially when I make $300/month in a country where that’s barely enough! Every dollar is precious these days! So I’m extra cautious now when I’m in San Miguel, but I can’t really avoid the place since it’s the only destination my bus goes to.

I’ve also found pupusas in my site…FINALLY. I’ve been asking around if anyone sells them and everyone has either told me they don’t know or that no one sells them. False. I was walking Jefe the other day and stumbled upon a woman making them in her front yard. So Sundays and Wednesdays are pupusa nights from now on!

Looking ahead, I’ve got my second meeting of Pregnancy Club this week, and then next week I’m off to the capital to have thanksgiving dinner with an embassy family. Hoping whoever is hosting me can cook!

Eat lots of turkey and mashed potatoes for me! Miss you all!

xoxo

First, here’s what’s been going on on the “work front.” Pregnancy club numero uno went surprisingly well. I spent the entire morning before my meeting dreading that no one was going to show, but we ended up with 9 women in attendance!! So I felt pretty good about that. My nurse and I gave a charla about childbirth and how to care for newborns. We had a doll that the women had to practice on for learning how to change diapers (mostly for the teenage girls there), and how to properly hold a baby while breastfeeding. And Estella went on a rant about how important it is that you have your child in a hospital, and NOT with a midwife/witch doctor. FINALLY! A rant from her that made sense!! She was much more on top of her game with the pregnant women than she has ever been at the school with HIV/AIDS. So that was a plus. It was also nice to work OUTSIDE of the school. The women were attentive, participated and excited to come back for the next lesson. Definitely a 180 experience from any work I’ve done in the school so far, so I have high hopes for this group. I’m hoping to continue the group after the holidays and even extend it by giving Lamaze classes or something. Still working out what I think will work, but Pregnancy Club is something that I think I could work on long term.

School just let out for the summer (like every day isn’t vacation in the Salvadoran school system?) so I get a break from feeling guilty about not wanting to show up at school at 8am with 150 screaming children. We’re having a graduation mass/diploma ceremony this Wednesday so I’m busy this week helping the teachers get ready for that. The 6th graders are even putting on a dance for Wednesday night that they’re real excited about.

In other news, the creepy crawlers are out in FULL force in my house right now. In the last week I have killed four tarantulas and a scorpion. Not amused. Tarantulas are about the ugliest insect I’ve ever seen and I literally still have goose bumps thinking about the one I killed last Thursday. I was cleaning my house getting ready for my friend Pablo to come and visit and I found one the size of my entire hand hiding behind my bag. I WISH someone had been there to watch me try to kill this thing. I was alone in my house, screaming and jumping around because I had the chills so bad every time I thought about smashing it with a shoe, and Taylor Swift was playing in the background. I’m sure it would have been comical to any onlooker! I eventually killed it (and since then, three others) but DREAD finding another one. Que feo!

Also, two weeks ago I was robbed at knife point in San Miguel. I’m pretty sure the guy watched me take money out of the ATM and then followed me across the street to take it all from me. He came up to me, showed me his knife and asked for all my money. I gave him my wallet and he took my cash and ran. Could have been worse, as I was coming home from the capital and had my phone, computer and clothes with me also, but still. Getting robbed at knife point is not my favorite. Especially when I make $300/month in a country where that’s barely enough! Every dollar is precious these days! So I’m extra cautious now when I’m in San Miguel, but I can’t really avoid the place since it’s the only destination my bus goes to.

I’ve also found pupusas in my site…FINALLY. I’ve been asking around if anyone sells them and everyone has either told me they don’t know or that no one sells them. False. I was walking Jefe the other day and stumbled upon a woman making them in her front yard. So Sundays and Wednesdays are pupusa nights from now on!

Looking ahead, I’ve got my second meeting of Pregnancy Club this week, and then next week I’m off to the capital to have thanksgiving dinner with an embassy family. Hoping whoever is hosting me can cook!

Eat lots of turkey and mashed potatoes for me! Miss you all!

xoxo

So I realize I’ve been slacking hard on updating my blog, but it’s because nothing that exciting happens to/around me down here so I have nothing to write about… but here are a few updates for those of you still reading: I am still the only resident in my house (thank god!). The family that was going to move in downstairs was told by my ADESCO to find a different house because I was already living there. They have since moved to the next community over and I haven’t heard a word about it since. SO unnecessary. My sex ed/HIV/AIDS/family planning classes are still going twice a week at the school, surprisingly enough. I still have bastante trouble with estella (the nurse) mainly because she is BEYOND uninformed about the topics, and continues to tell the kids wrong information about things even though we meet before every class and discuss the main points of the charla (I always make sure to go over things I think she’s misinformed about). Here are some of the highlights: 1. She told the kids that if they start masturbating at a young age they will develop mental problems and eventually go blind… really? This came up in a “true or false” activity, and the paper she was reading from explicitly stated that this statement was false and explained why. She apparently decided she was smarter than my reference book and went on a rant about how masturbation will make you blind! 2. She KEEPS telling my kids that everyone in our class is a heterosexual. And I don’t know how many times she’s said that, trying to explain the difference between a heterosexual and a homosexual. And whenever I ask the kids to define those words (after we’ve talked about the definitions several times), I continue to get the “heterosexuality is right. Homosexuality is wrong” response from them. I keep telling them that the question of right and wrong is not part of the discussion we’re having, and that I just want to make sure they understand the difference between the two words (and also to expel the myth that HIV is a disease limited to homosexuals) but they apparently aren’t listening. 3. She told my kids that there was a cure for herpes and that men are more susceptible to STDs because they can have sex with animals. (I WISH I WERE KIDDING OR EXAGGERATING!). She said that because men have penises it’s easier for them to fornicate with animals, and are thus at a greater risk for contracting an STD. It is unbelievably frustrating to have to interrupt and correct her in front of all the kids. And I’m sure the kids are just more and more confused because they’re getting contrasting information constantly! Besides my sex ed classes at the school, I’m also planning a series of four charlas for the pregnant women in my community, and we’re calling it “pregnancy club.” We’ve got 23 women in my community, and the smaller communities that surround mine, who are pregnant, and five of them are high risk (aka too young to be having children). So we’re starting with “childbirth and caring for newborns” next week. I’ve got a few meetings scheduled with my nurse so that we can meticulously go over everything to avoid misinforming these women/girls. I’m dreading low attendance, but hoping that at least some of them come so I can continue this next year, after the holidays. My new puppy Jefe is doing well! He’s getting all his vaccinations this month, and he’s growing so fast! He’s so adorable I can hardly stand it. He sleeps for most of the afternoon because of the heat, and LOVES to go outside and play in the grass (although, we’re having a problem with ticks so I’m keeping him out of the grass as much as possible). He’s finally big enough to chew on his bone, so that and the stuffed animal Katie sent for him are his favorite toys. He loves chewing on those while lying on the dried grass broom on my patio. The stuffed animal squeaks, and he just bit it hard enough to trigger the noise and now he’s scared of it. He can’t figure out where the noise is coming from. Too precious. He travels with me on the bus in a plastic basket/bag and he’s finally walking on the leash (although not too far). He loves my friend Kristina’s cat, and they play whenever the two of us visit. I’m SO happy I have him. He’s been good company. Although, all I can think about when I’m playing with him is how badly I just want to get on a plane and take him home. Getting on a plane and going home is still constantly on my mind. I had a good week and a half where I was content here with my puppy and my sex ed classes, but I guess the novelty of both have worn off and I want to pack up and leave again. The ups and downs of my day to day here are incredible. My community is great, and I have work to do, but I still want to get the hell out of here. Not sure what my problem is, but I’m trying to figure it out because I don’t want to up and quit. Stress. For instance, today I went to the clinic, and visited a neighbor to help her with a scholarship for university. Nothing provoked a bad mood or my early termination mentality this morning. I even went on an early morning run! But when I came home to make lunch, I sobbed the entire time I was cooking. For no apparent reason. UGHHHHH! I’m not sure I can deal with the emotional ups and downs much longer. (I just read that 1/3 of PCVs early terminate, but I don’t want to quit!) So that’s what’s been going on with me. I’m heading to the capital this weekend to celebrate my friend Alex’s bday/Halloween so I’ve got that to look forward to. And only two months until I’m home for a visit (let the countdown begin!!!) I miss/love you guys! Have a marg or something for me!

So yesterday, when I was washing my laundry, a woman came over to my house to inform me that she and her three kids were moving into the bottom part of my house the following morning...

um. no? that doesn't sirve for me?

things are still unresolved. apparently they were given permission from the owner to move in, but my adesco told them to find another house because I am already living there and there's no way to lock them out of my part of the house. so I'm currently waiting to see if anyone shows up with their furniture and children. my counterpart says, worst comes to worst, there is another house I can move into...

can somebody get me out of here? this is SO unneccessary!

anywho, I'll keep you posted. but if I have to move, it may be into a two story house on W. Church st. in elizabeth freaking city, north carolina.

Today I found diet coke in El Salvador. Not Coca light, DIET coke. All is right in the world again. I may be able to live here for two years. Given, I'll have to come to the capital to restock, but you don't see this girl complaining.

I will never speak bad of wal mart again.

note to self: make sure members of your grant writing training workshops can actually read and write...

the ONE member of the water project committee that could read/write didn't show up to the last meeting. He's my counterpart. So much for capacity building.

Fail?

So, as I've mentioned before, my community is currently working on their own potable water project, but they’re at a standstill because they’ve run out of moolah to finish the thing. I met with my ADESCO last week to discuss the project in detail and begin the grant application for Engineers Without Borders. I asked any and all questions about the project in preparation for writing this grant application, and here’s what I learned: The community raised about $21,050 on their own for the project. Each family that receives water paid $378 each to help fund the construction of the well and tubes to their houses. Los Hermanos Lejanos (aka the family members that live in the USA) contributed $5,000 for the cost of the water pump and the installation costs. And each family has to pay $7 a month for water, which goes towards the maintenance costs and electric bills of the project each month. So I’m meeting with my ADESCO again this week to go over the grant application as a lesson for them in grant writing, and so that they have a copy of a general grant written in Spanish to solicit help for this project (and so that they’re capable of writing grants for other projects in the future). The actual application for EWB is in English, which I’ll be able to do easily in a day or two, but I figure I’ll give my ADESCO a couple days of grant writing training, you know, in the spirit of capacity building. In learning about the water project, I learned that the general management of it is kind of a disaster. The guy who is collecting money just keeps it in a bag in his house. No transparency or accountability in terms of bill keeping. And many times families won’t pay their monthly fee and record keeping about who owes what is a mess. SO. After we finish writing a grant to finish the project, my next task is to set up a water committee and train them in how to run the program a little more efficiently, ie. Set up a bank account, enforce payments and initiating a proper book keeping system complete with receipts. Setting up and training a water committee should keep me busy for at least a month or so, right? In other news, my tree project kind of fell through, so I’m going to start looking for free trees from some organizations in my area so I can do the reforestation campaign in the community. I know the school is interested in working on the project, and the men’s soccer team also wants to plant trees at the soccer field, so I may actually have some workers if I can get my hands on the trees! Oh! And I got a new puppy! He’s still nameless, but I love him already. He’s 6 weeks old and weighs about 5lbs and is about the cutest dog I’ve ever seen in my life (after my shrimpy of course!). I’m hoping he’ll keep my busy and be good company out here in my site!! Until next time, “yorda”

Yesterday the Mayor’s office sent someone out here to my community to inspect the “roads” and decide which parts are in desperate need of being fixed so that the buses can pass through here again. I went out to the worst parts with some men from my community and the man from the Mayor’s office, and we have gotten approval to have some of the bigger holes/mud pits fixed! The Mayor’s office is supposed to be sending out the trucks to start the work tomorrow morning…so keep your fingers crossed for us that it will actually happen! Also, I woke up this morning to an announcement being made on the community loud speaker. Usually these announcements concern a modified bus schedule or pick up location, or announce a funeral or party that everyone is invited to. This morning was different. This morning, I woke up to my neighbor/ADESCO vice president giving the community a lecture on participation. I have a feeling his rant stemmed from the fact that he has now lost two full days of work in his corn field because he’s the one that has been dealing with the Mayor’s office about the roads this week, but he continued to lecture the community on how “Senorita Georgia” (heaven forbid anyone be able to pronounce Jordan) is never going to be able to get any work done because I can’t get the community support/participation I will need to get projects done. BAHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHHAHHA. I don’t know how the shit happens but somehow I’m not even surprised. So we’ll see if people will show to my meeting this Friday to start the Engineers without Borders application for our water project. Oh! And Feliz Día de la Independencia! No one here can understand how it’s NOT Independence Day in the United States today…I guess we need a little history lesson down here.

Last Tuesday I hopped on the bus out of my community at 5:20am to head to San Salvador for IST (in service training). We got about one hour down the road before the driver received a call instructing him to turn back around, and that no buses would be allowed to enter San Miguel that day, and for the following 72 hours. Bus strike. Nationwide. And not initiated by the bus drivers, but by the gangs. Bus drivers were instructed by a statement made by several gang members on the news that they were not permitted to drive their routes, and if they ignored the strike, their bus would be burned. And in this country, the gangs don’t make empty threats… The bus strike (which isn’t even the right word for what it actually was) of course happened on the same day that 40 RHS Peace Corps volunteers had to make their way to the capital for IST. The RHS-ers all live in the campo and it takes about ½ a day to get to the capital from most of our sites, so the majority of us had left our sites before our security office had even caught wind of the strike. I called my boss at 5:55am as he was getting off his shift at the hospital and he hadn’t heard a thing about it. So the majority of us had to hitch hike out of site to get to the capital. I hopped a truck out of my community that was going to the highway about 30 minutes outside of San Miguel. From there, I stood on the side of the road and flagged a pick-up truck that had a bunch of people in the back and rode the rest of the way to San Miguel. Driving through San Miguel was eerie to say the least. The usual hustle and bustle of the third largest city in El Salvador was absent. No traffic. Hardly any pedestrians. As we drove through centro (the main market area) I noticed that there were gang members standing at the corners, patrolling for disobedient buses. Scary. At the terminal there was only one bus with about three brave souls aboard waiting to head to San Salvador. No thanks. As I sat in Pollo Campero waiting for a few more PCVs to meet me, I noticed that on my side of the road a group of armed soldiers stood facing a group of scary looking tattooed men patrolling the terminal from across the street. NO GRAC!!!! So I got the hell out of there by way of the nearest cab and an armed escort (the pollo camper security guard). Three other volunteers and I ended up taking a cab to the capital, which was totally worth it and definitely more safe than hoping in a pick-up truck with strangers for a two hour trip… Now here’s my question: WHY am I living in a country that can essentially be taken hostage for 72 hours by the gangs (read: terrorists) at any given moment?! MS13 and 18 were UNITED on this bus strike (which is a huge deal because in the prisons in this country, 13s and 18s have to be separated because they kill eachother), and worked together to release a statement initiating the strike and listing their demands from the government. They had a few demands that were all a little silly and totally unrealistic, my favorite being that they wanted to the government to give jobs to every gang member in the country. Chyea. But the strike is over now, and despite the various rumors going around we’re all hoping it’s the end of things for a while. We’ll see. In other news: IST was fun and productive. We stayed in a nice hotel in Ahuachapán and it was COLD there at night! SUCH a nice change of pace. It was on La Ruta de Flores and the terrain was beautiful. It was the first time us newbies spent any meaningful time with the older class of volunteers and they offered us lots of guidance in terms of projects we can get going in our communities. I’m looking at starting a vivero (nursery) project with my school while I write grants to solicit for funds to finish our potable water project and start a chicken coop nutrition project with some women. It’s still hard to get myself back to site. Every time I leave I dread coming back. Everyone keeps telling me it gets better after the first year….so that’s how many months away? So wish me luck! Here comes the rain so I’m out! Miss you all! xoxo

Heading back to site on Sunday, I was in an oddly positive mood. I had had a great weekend in the capital, and was ready to get back to site and finish off my trash project at the school with a few more charlas and a community wide clean-up mid week. But of course, all my efforts/excitement came crashing down when I was informed that last Friday, while I was gone, my nurse took the kids around the community and had them pick up trash while a band played in the parade….NO SIRVE. Now, I wanted to have the damn thing last Thursday, and I rescheduled to suite HER request for Wednesday. And she KNEW I was going to be gone Friday (HEP A vaccine/weekend fun in San Sal). We had talked about it several times, and we decided that this Wednesday was going to work best for everyone involved. But on a whim, she went over to the school last Friday and did my project, WITHOUT ME. Now, I realize that a community clean up activity isn’t that serious. Not a huge project. It was just something I wanted to do with the kids to give me something to do and get involved at the school a little more. But I had solicited the mayor for the trash truck for Wednesday, and all systems were a go on that (although, that ended up not coming through either…no words) and I was going to make announcements in the community to get everyone involved and put the kids into teams to tackle different parts of the community. But noooooo. Estella had to go over to the school while I was gone, hijack my project, and do it half assed. The kids picked up 1 big trash bag full of trash collectively and the rest of the community wasn’t involved at all. Now, I was pretty depressed about finding this out, and when I talked to my school director she was very apologetic, and she didn’t understand why Estella did the limpieza because she knew I was out of the community that day, AND three of the teachers were out that day also, which means three classes of students didn’t get to participate in the limpieza that they were all excited about. So. We discussed it and decided we would have another limpieza for the original date, and that I should go ahead and confirm with Mr. Mayor about the time the truck was coming so that I could make the community wide announcement to get everyone else involved. I was optimistic for about five freaking minutes after I spoke with her, until I realized that the mayor was not going to respond to any of my messages or calls, thus making me realize no trash truck was going to come to our community on the pre-arranged date. So, my clean up project came crashing down before my eyes. Fail. FAILFAILFAIL. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. This was my big project for August; trash education and a clean up in the community. I guess I can feel okay about the fact that every kid at our school now understands the difference between organic and inorganic trash, but I just can’t help but feel completely defeated. So needless to say, I’m back to the “what am I doing here?”/bitter phase that is the PCV cycle of emotions. If I can’t even get cooperation to pull off a stupid limpieza, how am I ever going to get anyone organized enough to pull off a woman’s group to educate women on child health and nutrition, or organize fundraisers to raise money for the school’s computer program? I came here to work with Salvadorans. Peace Corps is all about capacity building, and I was excited about that. But my recent experiences in my few short (read: painfully long) months as a volunteer has shown me that, at least thus far, Salvadorans don’t want to work with me. And this is a depressing realization to come to when I’ve still got a year and a half ahead of me…. Also, it’s been raining in my community since Monday. It’s now Thursday. I have not seen the sun in four whole days! I have an enormous pile of dirty clothes that I fear will never be washed, and the veggie truck hasn’t been out here because the roads are washed out (the buses aren’t running either…) so I’ve been eating beans in a bag and instant soup all week. Rumor is there’s a bus out tomorrow, so if you’re reading this blog it means I was able to get to San Miguel and use the internet to post/eat a freaking hamburger!! Anyway, I’m off to watch Dear John (for the third time) in bed (it’s currently 7:21pm). I miss you all desperately! I want to come hoooommmeeeeeeeeee! Xoxo “yorda”

Now, before I left for Peace Corps, I was contemplating becoming a Spanish teacher. You know, because I like kids, like Spanish, I’d get the summers off, etc. Well, in my 6 months as a PCV in El Salvador, I think I have ruled that career option out from the possibilities...and here’s why:

As I told you in my last blog, I gave an HIV workshop to the kids 13 years old and up at the school in my community. The first day of the workshop went fine. We had a small group of good kids that participated and listened. Great. Day two was the biggest disaster of my life. After part one, I guess word got around about the gringa teaching about HIV and it was way awesome, because on day two, all the slackers who didn’t show up for part one of the workshop because they were too cool for school decided to come. Initially, I was pumped that more kids seemed to be showing interest, but the additional kids that showed up on day two were the class clowns and slackers, and they proceeded to make the 1.5 hours I spent with them a living hell. The ring leader wore a bandana over his face and didn’t shut up the entire time, making jokes, horsing around, etc. One kid played music from his cell phone the entire time I was talking, and continued to do so even though I asked him to put it away several times. I caught another boy trying to cut the hair of the girl sitting in front of him (I confiscated the scissors). Also, for the entire session, the kids outside of the room that were not allowed to participate because they were too young decided it would be funny to beat on the door. Kids banging on a metal door=MORE than enough to give you a headache.

The nurse who was “helping” me added to the chaos that was the workshop, in that she didn’t try to keep any of the kids in check and goofed off with them the whole time. Also, she didn’t review the activities we were going to do with them, even though I went over them once with her and gave her copies to take home and study over the weekend, so she messed things up constantly, which was confusing for the kids.

Moral of the story: don’t be a teacher in El Salvador? The schools here are chaos (not just in my community) and I don’t know how anyone can deal with hundreds of kids running around screaming for 4 hours every day.

On a more positive note: Right before part two of the HIV workshop, I gave my first trash management charla (lesson) to the kindergarten/first grade class. THEY WERE GEMS! I can’t believe the 6 year old students are better behaved than the 15 year olds. They were SO excited that I was there teaching them about trash, and they participated when I asked them questions, and all of them had questions for me at the end! And they can’t wait to do the community clean up next week (kids excited about picking up trash, imagine that!). I have given my trash charla to all the grades at the school now, and it has gone pretty well (I think they learned something new about trash and our environment) but I am procrastinating big time on heading into that 5th/6th grade classroom of hellions and talking about trash management. I’m thinking I’ll finish and give them the lesson on Tuesday, you know, give me the weekend to mentally/emotionally prepare myself. UGH.

So that’s where I’m at this week. My limpieza (community trash clean up) that was scheduled for today fell through, but the mayor has agreed to send a truck out to our community this coming Wednesday, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed he keeps his word because I’m not letting anything push this project back any further.

So, after a week of trash management charlas and HIV workshops, I’m heading to the capital for much needed 2x1 beers! There is not enough Pilsener in San Salvador….

If you need me, I’ll be drunk, poolside at the Sheraton!

xoxo

About two weeks ago I decided that if I was going to make it in this place, I was going to have to get my ass into gear and get busy. You know, to distract me from my mess of emotions that, as of late, have gotten the best of me… So I made a calendar and set goals that I had to accomplish this month. I decided that in August, I needed to meet with my ADESCO and discuss projects they want to work on in my two years/the projects they’re already working on, and I needed to give an HIV workshop at the school. Last week, I accomplished both of those goals, so go me!

My meeting with my ADESCO went well, despite the fact that only five (out of fifteen) people showed up. Apparently there was a soccer tournament in the next town over that no one told me about (of course) when I initially scheduled the meeting. But whatever. I learned that my ADESCO is currently working on a own potable water project. They started this project without any outside funding, and over the years have raised around $30,000 to dig the well, buy the pump and lay the pipes that are needed to get water to most of the households in my community. They hit a dead end though, in that they cannot raise the money within the community to buy the chlorinating tank (I think that’s what it would translate into in English?? I know JACK about water systems. Guess I’ve got some reading to do…) and actually make the running water potable. SO. Where does that leave us? In need of about $50K to get the job finished. YEAH RIGHT.

I am not entirely pessimistic about this project, however (I know, shocker). I am going to try to get someone from peace corps, or maybe a university engineering student to come out here and talk details and logistics with my ADESCO to find out exactly what’s been done already, and what still needs to be done. I need someone that knows what they’re doing in terms of water projects, and someone that speaks old man campo Spanish to figure things out so that I can start to solicit for this kind of money/work. I’m secretly hoping that Engineers Without Boarders will be interested in finishing this project, as it is 100% sustainable and the community contribution is substantial (ie. The $30K they’ve already put into it). But I don’t want to get ahead of myself…

And now, onto the HIV workshop. Before PST2, I went to an HIV training on how to educate youth about HIV/AIDS. We had a four day workshop where we learned how to run activities to teach kids about HIV/AIDS. I reproduced this workshop on Friday, with the help of the community nurse, Estella, at the school. We pulled kids 13 and older out of class and ran half of the workshop (to be continued Monday morning). It was interesting, to say the least. Estella talked and taaaalked. She went off on so many tangents even I was having trouble paying attention! She also told the kids a few things about HIV/AIDS that aren’t true (that you can get the virus from mosquitoes, from tears, etc.) but it was no biggie because I was able to then step in and explain the reasons why her information was incorrect (that mosquitoes can’t carry HIV, and there isn’t a high enough concentration of the virus in tears to spread the disease that way). If the nurse thinks such things about HIV, then GOD KNOWS what the kids thought, so I took it as a good way to expel some of the myths they might believe are true about HIV/AIDS.

It was a learning experience, and I’m kind of excited for Monday to finish the workshop. We’re going to do a few more activities that demonstrate how quickly HIV can spread, and do a Fact/Myth activity to review, and then have a question and answer session. The kids seemed into it, so hopefully they will participate and we’ll get something accomplished!

Also this week, I’m doing trash education at the school with each of the classes, and on Thursday we’re going to have a clean-up activity in/around the school. I’m going to solicit my Mayor for a trash truck to come out the same day so that we can make the clean-up community wide, but that all depends on the willingness of my Mayor…so we’ll see.

Being a little bit busy has helped keep me distracted from wanting to come home, so that’s been a nice change this week. My friend Kristina also came out here to visit me at my site this weekend which has also been fun! Everyone likes visitors!

And it’s San Salvador this weekend!! T-5 days and counting!

Miss you all!

xoxo

I met my Alcalde (mayor) for the first time about a month ago, and was REAL siked about potentially working with him. He is a dual US-El Salvadoran citizen, lived in Maryland for 18 years and worked as a bartender at my fave bar in Georgetown, Third Edition. And he speaks almost perfect English. The first time I met him we just kind of sat and chatted (in English) about DC nightlife and he told me he was excited that his municipality had a volunteer and that he would be happy to work with me on future projects.Last week I had a meeting with him to discuss two activities in my community: movie night to raise money for computer desks at my school, and a trash service. He owns a “disco” business (speakers, TVs, projection screens, DJ equipment, etc) and was happy to send his guys down to my community to help with movie night, except it was going to have to be “movie day” because he couldn’t do it at night. But whatever, it was something and I was excited about it. My excitement only lasted a few hours thought, because I later found out the school isn’t allowed to take off for that (we apparently had to ask special permission, and permission was not granted), so my fundraising idea for this month went to hell in about 2.5 seconds after I told the teachers the good news about the projection equipment. So anyway, my mayor and I had discussed the possibility of getting a trash service to my community once a week when we met last month. I told him it was something I was interested in and he told me it was a definite possibility for my community, so I didn’t think I was going to get shot down so hard when I went in last week to talk to him about it again. I went in and told him I was going to be doing some trash management education in my community this month, and wanted to get the ball rolling on the trash pickup service. Here’s what he told me: That my community did not vote for him in the last election and therefore he is not spending money on projects in my area. That it’s just too bad that I wasn’t placed in another community, Agua Fria, because if I was there I would be able to get all the support/resources that I needed from his office. And that his office has enough money in their budget for four rural communities (like mine) to get trash service, but he refuses to give any one trash pickup out in the campo because if he gives it to one community, every other community will be banging on his door asking for it too.FML.I don’t even know where to begin on this one. Wouldn’t he want to work on projects in areas where he lacks political support, in an effort to win votes in the upcoming election? And shouldn’t four communities benefit from trash service, regardless if other communities might get jealous? And wouldn’t having a health volunteer who was willing to RUN the damn trash program and educate the people in her community about trash management be a GREAT way to clean up about a fourth of his municipality!!?? NO SIRVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!So in the span of about one hour, my plans for the month were shot to hell. Can’t do movie day and now I’m unmotivated to run the trash charlas and school clean up I wanted to do with the students at my school. Why educate them about littering, if there’s no other option, and apparently no hope for improvement? Needless to say I’m extremely discouraged about my job down here. I am completely without resources, and my main resource (my mayor’s office) isn’t going to work with me because my community didn’t vote for him. There are grants I can apply for though Peace Corps, but the process is long and the money is limited. I am almost paralyzed and can’t figure out how to start this completely ambiguous assignment I’ve been given down here. UGH.So here’s where I’m out now: I’m going to run a school clean up and trash talks at the school this month, as well as give an HIV workshop to the kids 13 and older at my school. I want to get a teeth brushing activity going with the kindergarteners at my school too, where we work brushing our teeth into the daily schedule at the school so that the younger kids get in the habit of brushing their teeth every day. BUT, like I said, I lack resources, so I’m going to have to go visit some dentists in my area and see if they’d like to donate toothbrushes and toothpaste. That being said, if anyone wants to send me a package with a dental hygiene donation IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! Toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss? Whatever. I am going to get these kids to clean up their teeth if I can’t get them to clean up their community!!Miss you all! xoxo

Personal space is a foreign concept to Salvadorans. And in a country where it is definitely too damn hot to touch, I can’t understand it. When I’m waiting in line at the grocery store, you better believe there is a Salvadoran teenage girl right up on me behind me in line. Talking to a neighbor on the street assures that at least four small children are rubbing my stomach. It doesn’t matter what I do or where I go in this country, people are constantly invading my bubble of personal space!

Today’s bus ride back from the pueblo serves as a prime example of what I’m talking about. The ride back from my pueblo is already a pretty uncomfortable ride. The bus has to trudge through streams, puddles, mud, rocky roads and God knows what else, so needless to say, it’s a little painful to begin with. Now add a large Salvadoran woman who knows no personal boundaries into the equation and I’ve got myself a pretty uncomfortable ride home! This woman gets on the bus, and instead of choosing any of the empty seats available on the bus, she decides to sit right next to yours truly. Imagine: It’s about 100 degrees. The sun is beating down on you through the window. You’re sticking to the seat already and now a 200+lb woman sits AS CLOSE to you as she can possibly get. I swear, this woman was so close to me that she was resting her arm on my leg! I could feel her sweat dripping down my arm! NO SIRVE!!!!!!!!!! The entire way, every time we hit a bump on the road (which was very frequently) her left elbow jabbed into my side! But of course, I don’t know how to say “move over lady, you’re making me sweat!” in Spanish, so I was just grateful that she was getting off the bus before I was!

When trying to figure out how to entertain my parents in this tourism-free zone of a country I live in, I naturally looked for a place to go with some sort of hike for Lane and a cute town nearby for my mom. I settled on Santa Ana. We used Santa Ana as home base for a few days in order to climb the Santa Ana volcano out of Cerro Verde national park (hike for Lane) and to go to a food festival in a nearby pueblo (cute town with delish food for mom).

Lane was pumped about the hike. While my mom and I wanted to stay at the beach instead of treking cross country to Santa Ana, Lane was ready to get to the volcano. Now, I have previously mentioned in this blog about how backwards/broken things in this country work, and my volcano experience is a PERFECT example of why this place "no sirve." Here goes:

Getting to Cerro Verde to hike the volcano was no easy feat. I could find NOTHING online about how long the bus took from the city, when it left, or how many times a day it ran. I found out from the hotel clerk that it left at 8am daily, and was given directions to the bus stop. Correction: I was given wrong directions to the bus stop. So good thing I'm used to people giving me wrong directions, and that I've learned to ask someone different where to go at about every other block. We made it to the bus stop, which turned out to be a small terminal, and the only one of it's kind I've seen here. You prepaid to get on the bus (which only makes perfect sense, but is almost never done in this country) and the terminal had an indoor waiting area, which I've never seen.

So we made the bumpy two hour drive up to the park. When we got to the park, we were three of around ten passengers, but we were the only three made to get off at the entrance. There, we had to pay $1 each to enter the park, and then walk uphill to the gate, while everyone else on the bus got a ride and free admission! No sirve.

So. The only bus from Santa Ana (basically the only major city anywhere near the national park) gets to the park at 10. Guided tours leave at 11. No earlier. So we had to sit around and wait for an hour to start the climb.

The guided hike consists of essentially three guides; the official guide (to whom you have to pay another dollar) and two police escorts. No joke. And in addition to paying the dollar entrance fee and the guide fee, you have to pay random farmers, whose property you cross through along the way to get to the top of the mountain, and $6 to an NGO that "conserves" nature in the park. The hike ends up costing you $9... and a small part of your soul.

Now what they don't tell you in Lonely planet or online, or even at the park before you start, is that in order to climb the Santa Ana volcano (the second highest volcano in the country, ps) you also have to climb Cerro Verde, a smaller, inactive volcano that sits next to Santa Ana. It's actually a two volcano hike. Yet another thing that they don't tell you is that in order to catch the only bus out of the park and back to Santa Ana (which comes at 3pm), is that you have to RUN up and down both volcanos in just four hours. No sirve.

So what did this mean for us? Well, we ran down Cerro Verde (the hike starts at the top). And I mean I was literally running down a muddy mountain. In front of me were one police escort weighing in at about 100lbs who does the hike four times a week, one 80lb guide, and about 10 salvadoran 20-somethings (who smoked while they ran...impressive, I know). Behind me was the second police escort, and Lane. We ran down the first mountain and up about half of the second one before I decided that I did not pay $9 to run up a volcano! I was going to try and enjoy the hike for god's sake! So I slowed down to a comfortable pace and continued upwards.

Now, at this point I'm thinking, "why the hell did I pay for a guide up this mountain?" The police escort was free, so I can understand them being over it and just hauling ass up the thing, but we paid our "guide" money to take us up and I expected at least to get some information about the trees or animals that lived in the park, or about the history of the volcano. Wrong. (A lesson about El Salvador that I am learning over and over again: do not expect anything). Our "guide" did not utter a single word the whole way up. We didn't stop for water, we didn't stop to learn anything about the park and we didn't stop to take pictures. No sirve.

Once I slowed down to enjoy the scenery I had a pretty decent time, although I was dead tired by that point. And so was Lane. We were both losing our footing (as you do when you're muscles start to wear) and threatened to quit and wait behind several times. We both made it to the top eventually (thanks to the police escort that waited behind with us and encouraged us along) and had a good long rest to take in the views.

And then it started raining. And we started down the mountain (again, with the running). Lane is exhausted, and slips down some rocks. With the rain, Lane was having trouble seeing out of his glasses and he slips again. The rocks are wet and slick, and running down them was not a safe bet for these two Americans! Again, we were lagging behind the runners, and with the rain and the falling, the police escort asked us if we'd like the police vehicle to pick us up in the valley in order to avoid having to climb (translation: run) back up Cerro Verde and so we'd make the 3 o'clock bus. Um, yes please!! By that point we had no shame in taking the ride, as we'd already climbed 1.5 volcanos. Done and done. So we were driven to the top and had just enough time to hit the bathrooms and hop on the bus out of town!

So was it all worth it? My mom says no (she waited in the rain at the top for four hours freezing). I think Lane enjoyed himself despite everything. And I'm still undecided. The view from the top was amazing. There's a crater lake inside the volcano and you can also see Lake Coatepeque from the top off in the nearby distance, but it was cloudy and rainy which put a damper on that excitement. Also, we were exhausted by the time we got to the top, and spent most of the time sitting/laying trying to recuperate, and desperately dreading the hike back. And the whole running up a mountain and a half was a little bit excrutiating. But it was an experience, and Lane and I did have fun making fun of the whole situation, and we definitely made the best of it! If nothing else, we've got some stronger calf muscles and a few good memories to show for it!

After much anticipation and what seemed like an eternity of waiting, my parents came to visit!! I was essentially out of commission in the two weeks prior to their visit because all I could do was count the days, hell, the hours, until their plane landed.

I picked them up at the airport, and the taxi that we took back to the hotel gave them what I thought was an appropriate welcome to the country; we got in a taxi that had no suspension and thus the rear of the car scraped the pavement the entire 45 minutes back into the city! The taxi “no sirve,” a term that has quickly summed up most of my feeling about this place. “No Sirve” means, literally, “doesn’t serve/work” and my parents got a firsthand look during their two week visit at the broken, backwards country that I now call home.

Something though that “si sirve” for Lane at least was Tony Roma’s 2x1 draft beers. Soon (and I’m talking about 20 minutes) after we checked in at the hotel, I took my parents to enjoy my favorite activity in the capital (well, second favorite, after Pizza Hut delivery and CNN), and that’s 2x1 beers! And then for dinner we went to Tucson for 2x1 beers AND 2x1 steaks! Tucson is in La Gran Via, which is essentially Georgetown, DC in the middle of a third world country. Neither of my parents could believe how nice the pedestrian shopping mall was, and now understand why I love to go there for dinner every time I venture to the capital. The capital doesn’t offer much in the form of tourism, so both times we spent the night there, we mostly ate and drank and I got to show them where I spend my time when I’m there (i.e. Tucson, Tony Roma’s and the Happy House Hotel).

The next morning, my parents and I hauled all their luggage (which was made larger because they carted down a bunch of my crap for me) to the bus terminal and headed out East to my site. It was at the terminal that I introduced Lane to pupusas. His response when I handed him the pork and bean filled tortilla: “What is this? Like a pizza or something?” He loved them and was impressed at the price tag of 3 for a dollar.

The terminal in San Miguel (the transfer point to get to my site) was a SHOW. Gringos on parade for sure! We barely made it to the bus on time, but it was PACKED and it was chaos in the terminal. Of course, all of us had to pee, we had a ton of luggage to put on the bus, and the bus was way over capacity, if there is such a thing in this country. In the terminal, in front of the bus that goes to my community, in the midst of all this chaos, is where I mistakenly decided to introduce my parents to water in a bag. Hell. It was hot, and we were sweaty and in desperate need of water, regardless of the container it came in… (Water in a bag is about the most retarded thing I’ve ever heard of, because once you make a hole in the corner to suck through, you basically have to finish the thing, and I never want that much water in one gulp…). Lane punctured the bag, and tried to pour the water into his small water bottle. “Tried” being the key word. The water gushed everywhere, soaking both him and me, while the Salvadorans around us just laughed. We were a show. He eventually mastered the task, but needless to say we mostly drank bottled water for the rest of the trip!

We spent two nights in my site, which was fun. They were my first visitors here, and it was fun showing them around where I live. My mom really liked my house, and she had fun trying to figure out how I could improve my cooking techniques and recipes given what minimal equipment I have. Lane enjoyed my patio, and was busy reminiscing about his time in Africa in the Peace Corps. My living conditions are clearly superior to what was available to him, but some things are always the same in the third world. Open windows with no screens, dirt roads with puddles of god knows what in them, the trash, chickens running wild and women walking around gracefully balancing their loads on their heads are all clear signs of life in developing nations!

Both parents liked the bucket bath, as it is hella refreshing in this heat! Although, my mom did have to ask me how to even begin to wash dishes in the pila, and when she was cutting watermelon in my concrete sink, she saw the “abate” (larvae poison in small red bags we keep in our pilas here to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in the standing water) and thought she had spilled some of the watermelon in it!

My mom also learned how to make tortillas while she was here. A neighbor of mine, Beatriz, and her mom taught us both how to make tortillas and it was hilarious! Neither of us could ever get it quite right, but it was fun trying. Beatriz is a PRO, as she’s been making 100 tortillas about every other day since she was 11, and so she perfected the faulty tortillas my mom and I produced, while her 99 year old grandmother sat by watching us and laughing. She thought it was the craziest thing she’d ever heard when I told her my mom had never made a tortilla before, and that we don’t eat them with every meal in the states! She just couldn’t wrap her brain around how we can ever get full without eating them!

I cooked my “no refrigeration necessary” veggie and pasta dish for my parents also, so they could experience my nightly meal and how it is to live without a refrigerator. I also took them to visit the school and the kids loved it. Everyone kept talking about how young my mom is, and how beautiful Lane’s white hair is!!

After my site, we hit playa El Tunco and the cliff top beach house we rented for a week of r&r. It was heaven. The hammocks looked out over the waves crashing against the cliff (and the salt water pool) and I read two books sitting in those hammocks that week! We also had a bunch of my new PCV friends stay with us for a few days so now my parents can put faces with names when I talk about my life here! We ate seafood, drank beer, swam in the two pools and read for the week and it was amazing. I never wanted to leave.

After the beach, we headed west to Santa Ana, where we explored the “colonial” city (not so much colonial anymore, just a few colonial style landmarks in the main square and more rundown buildings with tin roofs…like I said, no sirve). Lane and I hiked the volcano at Santa Ana (the second tallest in the country) but that’s a whole other blog post entirely! And my mom and I went with my friend Molly out to a food festival in Juayua and had a great time eating cheap food and shopping in the artisan market.

The trip ended too soon, and so we had one last dinner at Tucson with my friend Paul that was in town, and then they had to leave. All I wanted to do was get on that plane with them home, out of here! Still do. It was so fun having them here and when they left it just reminded me how much I miss home.

Lane said he’s not planning another vacation here, because there’s nothing to do. And my mom wants to come back and live with me on my patio for a month or two, but only if I get a second hammock!

Moral of the story: come visit me? I want visitors and even though most of the time this place “no sirve,” we can make our own fun! And there are always 2x1 beers…

Today I burned my trash for the first time. And it was a little heartbreaking.

I never had to burn my trash at my old site because whenever my trash was full the bichos would go through it, take what they wanted out of it, and then it would disappear somewhere behind my host family's house. I never had the courage to go back there and see what the deal was...

So anyway, I had been putting off burning my trash since I've been here because I could never build up the guts to actually do it, but today I bit the bullet and burned three full grocery bags full of trash.

Here's what I learned:

1. When it's sunny, you can't see the flame after you strike a matche, but that doesn't mean it's not there. I wasted so many matches today thinking they didn't sirve, but then came to find out I just couldn't see the flame because of the sun (of course, I burned my trash during the 1 hour of sunlight we had today). Needless to say, I wasted about half a box of matches before I actually got the damn thing going.

2. Don't burn aluminum?

3. When burning plastic bottles, make sure the tops are off before you start. Otherwise, they blow up at you! Learned that the hard way today, twice.

4. Instant soup bakes into bread? That was a weird discovery once it was all over.

5. Burning trash takes forever. After about 45 min of monitoring this whole ordeal, I finally poured a bucket of water on it and walked off. It was too many minutes out of my hammock, let's be real.

Also, while my trash was burning I felt oddly self conscious about it. I was so worried that someone was going to walk down the path to my house and see me. And really, everyone burns their trash, and nobody cares, so I had no reason to feel self conscious about it. It just didn't feel right. God knows I'm no environmentalist or anything, but I will be soliciting my Mayor for a trash service at some point during my service!!

Until next time!

Life in the campo is hard. Here’s a few recent examples of why:

Laundry. I can’t believe I ever dreaded doing laundry in the states. I definitely took the washer/drier combo for granted. I do my own laundry here, mainly because, really, what else am I doing at this point? I guess I could try and find a muchacha to wash my clothes once a week but it seems unnecessary since I have infinite time and an indoor pila. But still, doing laundry in the campo is a CHORE. First, I have to soak the clothes. Then I have to soap and scrub them by hand. And rinsing them after all of that is unbelievably tedious. I’m never quite sure if I get all the soap out or not! By the time I’m finished washing all my clothes I’m usually soaking wet with a combination of pila water and soap that’s splashed up on me, and sweat. It’s safe to say that bath time usually follows laundry time.

Cooking. First of all, cooking at medio dia in this country is torture. I can’t even count how many mid day meals I’ve skipped in the campo because it’s just too damn hot to be anywhere near a stove. I have no idea how these women spend all day indoors with their fire pit stoves making tortillas. Bath time round two usually follows lunch on the afternoons I actually eat lunch.

And getting water to boil at night when there’s a breeze is not an easy task. The wind blows my small flame from my table top stove away from my pot so I spend about 30 minutes adjusting the pot so that I can get some water to boil!! Also, the other night at my friend Kristina’s house, we were trying to make salsa for some tacos and we just couldn’t get enough light. I swear I chopped vegetables that night by light of my headlamp! Ridiculous! But such is life in the campo.

Sleep. You’d think sleeping would be the easiest part of my day, mainly because I’m usually completely exhausted from chores in the campo. But sleep is something I have to work at. Roosters don’t crow once at sun-up like all the childrens stories about farms would have you believe. Oh no. Who ever made up that cruel little myth should die a slow and painful death. Roosters crow at all hours of the night. And when one goes, ten go. And then the cows start at about 4am. And the damn chuchos (street dogs) and their dog fights. I’ve finally gotten a fan, and I use it at night to drown out the animal noise, which helps, but it’s still insane how loud it is here at night.

The market. I kind of love the market here, but some days it’s clear I’m still not quite cut out for it. I love that I can buy a bag of veggies for $4 and eat for a week on them. And that if I need toilet paper, or a new (well, second hand) shirt for 25 cents, or even a plastic set of drawers for my house, I can get them all in the same place. What I don’t love when I trip and fall and I land in a nasty puddle of San Miguel sludge in front of 4 old ladies who begin to lecture me on my flip flops (flip flops are for the casa, not the calle). And I really hate it when my newly purchased tomatoes and onions go flying out of my bags all around me as I hit the cement! SO. EMBARRASSING. I always feel like gringa on parade at the market because I usually end up at least somewhat flustered and clearly overwhelmed when I leave the place.

Life is almost defeating here. I haven’t been able to make it a week here without some sort of terribly embarrassing or painful thing happen to me in the campo. But I figure my embarrassing and painful stories are entertaining to you all! So think of me falling in the streets with my groceries flying everywhere next time you’re loading your Kroger bags into your car. And think of me soaking wet from laundry in the campo next folding the fresh laundry out of your drier! You don’t know how good you have it!

Okay guys, as promised, here's the low down on my new site in La Union:

-I am now living in the hottest part of the country. I'm in La Union, near San Alejo, but the buses from my community run 6 times a day to San Miguel, so I'm going to be doing most of my shopping/errands in San Mig. San Mig is kinda sketch, but there's a metro centro which means I now am an hour and a half away from fast food and the movies. There are a bunch of PCVs in my area and I'll always have a PCV San Miguel date, which is exciting.

-My community, while it is an hour and a half from San Mig., and we have buses, is out in the boonies. My cell service is VERY limited, which is disappointing, but if I leave my phone in one spot in my house I can receive and make calls. The community is small, about 100 houses (although a lot of them are vacant...LOTS of them have gone "mojado" and traveled illegally to the states) and most of the houses are close together, which will be nice once I start my census next week. Also, my site is pretty flat, which is a plus.

-My new house is awesome and I love it! It's two stories, and I don't use half of the house. The bottom floor of my area of the house is just the pila area and the bathroom (complete with a toilet, yay!) and upstairs I have 2 big rooms and a second floor open air patio. I've already logged lots of hammock hours up there and I love it. It's so peaceful. And it's painted pink and purple, which of course makes me happy! My house is set off from the road so it's tranquilo and I no longer have 1000000 people in and out of my house at all hours of the day. Thank. God.

-My counterpart, Cecilia, is the health promoter in my community. She's pretty much left me alone since I've been here, which I think I will appreciate more as time goes on.

That's basically it for now. I haven't really done much yet, but I'm going to start on my census this week, and hopefully do a mapping activity at the school with the kids before I start so I can meet some people finally. I already feel more comfortable in my new site than I did in El Tablon, and I am so lucky I was able to get a change so quickly! Wish me luck! Miss you all!

xoxo

I know I've been slacking, hard, on updating my blog, but my life's been a whirl wind this last month. Here are the highlights of what's been going on:

1. AIDS Extravaganza: So we had an HIV/AIDS training for a week at the beach and it was really interesting. I learned a lot and am pumped about doing HIV education in my community now! The beach was kind of lame, and no one was there but us, and it rained the whole time (thank you Agatha) but the hotel had good food and most of my PCV friends were there so we had a great time. It was so good to finally see everyone again after two months isolated in the campo...

2. PST2: This was two weeks of technical training for the rural health program that basically outlined the kind of projects we can potentially do in our communities. We did a bunch of site visits to other volunteer's sites, and saw sucessful rabbit projects (yes, we killed and cooked 2 rabbits on that trip and it was kind of awesome), a shampoo project, family garden projects and women´s groups that focus on reproductive health and nutrition. PST2 was in San Vicente so it was good to be back in my original host community and see everyone. And a new restaurant/bar opened near the training center which was CLUTCH for after training beers!

3. I went to the capital every weekend and spent all my peace corps pay check in about 3 days...oops! We only got paid $250 this month, as opposed to $325, and that doesn´t get you very far in the capital. I probably spent about $100 on beer alone in 3 weekends, but it was so necessary! We also found a place that sells liter beers for $1, so that was crucial. PST2 was pretty much a 25 day binder and I´m spending the next 2 weeks before July 4th weekend drying out...

4. aaaaaannnddddd I GOT A SITE CHANGE!!!!! I'm running out of time but I SWEAR I will give you all details about the switch and my new community this week. I already like it 10x better in my new site (San Geronimo, La Union) and my new house has a 2nd floor patio, an indoor bathroom and is painted pink and purple. I'm working on getting pics up soon!

xoxo

El Transporte. Where do I even begin? Well, I guess I can begin by telling you that when I'm in the capital I don't even pretend like I know what I'm doing on the buses and honestly, I take cabs most places... I'm sorry, but just boarding a bus in San Sal puts me at a pretty decent risk of being extorted/shot/robbed by a marra and put getting lost into the mix and I just don't think it's worth it. So I take cabs. And I'm not ashamed that I'll probably never learn how to get around San Sal on a bus. Va.

Next. Today, it took me FOREVER to get back from the capital because transportation is SUCH a crap shoot! Here's what happened en route today:

I get on the Especial bus at the terminal and I've got a seat and there's AC! And it's only $3 so I'm feeling pretty good about things. We barely get out of the city and the AC stops working. No biggie. I live in the campo now so I'm pretty used to sweating through my clothes. But of course, because it's an Especial bus, we pull over and are told another bus is coming for us. We're broken down in Soyopango, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in this country, so no way am I waiting. Plus I need to get back to my community so I can get some food shopping done! So me and about 15 other passengers demand our money back because we're going to take another bus, and of course the cobrador (the man who collects your bus fare) is NOT trying to refund our money. But 10 minutes later I've got my refund and I'm on another bus headed my way on the PanAmerican.

So this new bus is packed and I ended up having to stand the 2 hours to my exit on the PanAm for my pueblo, which I'd usually not enjoy, but it gave me a great view of the fist fight that happened between a passenger and the cobrador about half way through the trip. I'm not sure what happened to cause the fight but the passenger threw the first punch and was kicked off the bus.

I finally make it to my pueblo and we're on our way to my community in the back of a big old truck driving through the mountains when a bunch of soldiers pulls us over to check out our cargo. All the men were required to get off the truck and were patted down. And the soldiers took several bags off the truck which were never to be seen again. And let me tell you, having 3 men with machine guns on their shoulders walking around next to me in the back of a truck in the middle of no where was pretty unsettling!!

Moral of the story: transportation here is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get when you climb aboard! But I survived! At least for today!

salud!

I FINALLY got my living situation finalized! In June, after PST2, I am moving in with Nina Isabel and Don Gonzalo, an 85 year old couple up the street. Yes, they are Tomas' parents but they never interact, Tomas never goes over there and he better not start... So I'm VERY excited about moving and have high hopes that life will improve once I'm out of where I am now. I'll have my own house next to their sheet metal structure, and I'll have to build my own bucket bath area, but I'm not worried about it. All I care about is that there's an end in sight to my living situation with Tomas and his family!

Other than that, I've been relatively busy this week. Don't get me wrong, I've spent some serious time in my hammock, but a few things have been going on around here. On Friday, there was a serious Mother's day celebration at the school. It lasted 3 hours and it was full of dancing, singing, games and prizes. It was kind of hilarious to watch and I've got some pictures of the highlights on facebook if you want to check them out. All the grades were in charge of a dance or some sort of performance, and there was some serious booty shaking and waltzing going on! The outfits were probably the best part...SO MUCH SYNTHETIC FIBER! All the girls were decked out in prom-dress like dresses, full length and shiny! And the guys were in their Sunday best. Some mom's had poems read to them, and others had to dance in front of everyone for prizes. The celebration of course took the place of classes that day, and on Monday the kids are off from school for the holiday also. Salvo kids rarely actually have class. But it was fun and I got free lunch out of it (food was only provided for mother's but because I'm white and because I showed up I got lunch too!) My amiga/neighbor Paula dressed up as a man for her dance and it was totally hilarious. Everyone was rolling with laughter!

I maybe finished my census yesterday? There are supposedly 80 houses in the community, and I've been up and down the roads in all directions and I've only got 73... I don't think I'm going to tell my counterpart that I'm missing 7 families mainly because I'm fairly convinced that the remaining houses are up the mountain farther than I made it, and frankly, it's too hot to climb back up there again!

I've got lots of work to do today to get ready for my Asamblea General (community meeting) that's coming up on Thursday. I'm going to make some posters about my census and a poster with some pictures from home describing myself, so it shouldn't be too difficult. I've got to hand out invitations tomorrow and then Tuesday I'm off to San Miguel to work on a library project with Rotary International for the school here. Then this weekend I'm heading back to San Vicente for Fiestas Patronales (patron saint festival) in my host community for a visit with my host family there. So I've got things to look forward too and to keep me busy this week, which is good.

Anyway, I've rambled on and this blog is very scattered, but last but not least I want to say:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM! I miss you and you have no idea how bad I wish I was home with you!! Literally CANNOT wait until July 20!!!! Give yourself a big hug for me! Love you mucho!

April was probably the worst month of my entire life. I have never been so miserable as I was in April, but I made it through, and celebrated my first five weeks in site by going to San Salvador with some of my new PCV amigos!

Let me just tell you how much fun I had. I called my mom one afternoon and she said to me, "Omg, it sounds like you're having so much fun. It's so nice to hear you laugh again." I spent three days in the capital with my friends Pablo, Sam, Mallory, Alex, Megan, Adrianne and Andrew. We spent the weekend telling our horror stories and drinking beers. My theme for the weekend was "I've got five weeks to forget and only 3 days to do it!"

It was so nice to commiserate with people, and it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one that is struggle city these days. It was also nice to sit in bed watching CNN all day Saturday with everyone while eating delivery pizza hut. I took about 7 showers over the weekend, and my feet were clean for once. I got to shave my legs! I drank fountain soda. The Sheraton pool Sunday was the bomb.com, and life was even sweeter when we decided to book a room at the Sheraton for Sunday night! I've never slept in a more comfortable bed! We had cable tv, soft pillows, air conditioning and and an ice machine! God I miss ice.

I feel a little lost right now not getting constant updates from Don Lemon about the crisis in the gulf. And watching "teen mom" on MTV made me realize that yeah, life's been rough these past 6 weeks, but at least I'm not a white trash teenage mom! San Salv was the perfect mental health weekend and it was desperately needed.

It wasn't real life, but it was a great escape from the reality that is my life in the campo as a PCV.

Anyway, on the agenda for this week is English classes (we're learning some numbers and the days of the week) and finishing up my census. My boss is coming out here next week and I have to give a big presentation to the community about myself and about the results of the census. Hopefully that will keep me busy and distracted for a little while!

OH! And I maybe got a dog? My host mom brought a puppy back from the pueblo a couple days ago and yesterday (two days later...) someone comes in and tells me it's my dog. But they've already named it and they keep it in their house. Their kids are attached to it already, so I may just take a few pics of it and leave it here when I finally move. We'll see. He's cute as a button though! I loaded a few pics of him on facebook so check them out!

Miss you all!

salu pues!

I HATE that people here think I don't understand them. Because I do. And it's not because I can't speak Spanish, it's because people ask me the STRANGEST questions.

For example, I taught my first English class yesterday. We went over the alphabet and basic numbers. One girl gave me attitude at the end of class because I didn't teach them how to "spell the alphabet." Like, What? When I told her it was the same alphabet as Spanish, and that you can't spell letters, she rolled her eyes and told me I just didn't understand what she was asking. But I understood her perfectly clear, because I CAN SPEAK SPANISH!

Another example, Tomas, my host dad, wrote up a proposal to send to some catholic organization in Germany to solicit for money to build a church here. And he asked me to type it up on my computer. Fine. So I'm reading through it and none of the words are spelled right, there's no punctuation and none of the sentences actually make any sense. Fine. So I ask his daughter to help me work through it so it's readable. Anyway, Tomas wrote the word "conflicto" (conflict) but on paper it looked like two different words, "con fruta" (with fruit). When I asked Martha, his daughter what the word was, she didn't know either and had to go and ask her dad. Now Tomas won't shut up about how I can't read Spanish because I didn't understand his writing. I CAN READ SPANISH. I UNDERSTAND SPANISH!

This is driving me crazy.

The kids here are driving me crazy too. Yesterday, I swear, they were devil children. They were storming through my house touching everything and trying to steal things. I can't even talk about it I'm so irritated.

Tomas is mocking me constantly to my face. He now makes fun of me because I have a college degree. And because I'm white. He's SO unpleasant and I am literally counting the days until I can move out of his place.

OH! And it FINALLY rained today!! It stared last night and didn't let up until about 9am. The electricity went out and there was no religious music or mass on tv this morning to wake me up. Even the roosters were quiet. It. Was. Amazing. Love the rain!

Anyway, I'm out. One more English class and 2 days stand between me and the capital! And then it's $1 draft beers and mexican food all weekend! THANK THE GOOD LORD!

Miss you all!

Adios!

So, while I'd love to tell you all I've been doing big and exciting things this week, I have not. Since I fell down the rocky cliff playing soccer, and getting what is probably the ugliest scab/bruise ever known to (wo)man, I have pretty much been confined to my hammock. Which I have to admit isn't the worst thing in the world.

I have read 3 books in my hammock this week. I started out with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, then went on to Peace Like A River and just finished Robinson Crusoe. And let me tell you, I've never related to a book so much in my life as I did to Robinson Crusoe. He called his island The Island of Despair. I've been referring to El Salvador as Hell Salvador in my journal recently. He had to scrounge for fresh water to drink, as do I. He had no other living soul around to speak to, and while I'm surrounded by Hell Salvadorans, few of them will actually speak to me! Crusoe eventually got a man-slave who did all of the hard labor for him at his camp, and I've got a little latino host brother that climbs mango trees for me at my request. He's my Mr. Friday. Crusoe spent most of his days wondering what on earth he ever did to deserve being cast away on a deserted island. I have just about the same thought process every morning when I wake up, but then I remind myself I signed myself up for this!

Today, in addition to reading, I spent about 2 hours silent in my hammock watching wasps build a nest in my electrical sockets. Again. I didn't even try to stop it.

I've also started to wonder how many trips to the tienda for salva cola are acceptable in one day...

I have WAY too much time alone with my thoughts in my hammock. My mind wanders and there's no telling where it's going to end up. I start out thinking about the larvae that was in my bath water this morning, which reminds me of the time I walked around in the hot sun with my health promoter inspecting pilas for mosquito larvae, which then reminds me of the horrible sun burn I'll probably get if I don't buy some more sunscreen while I'm in the capital next weekend, which of course gets me thinking about food. Today, I actually sent my friend Sam (who's in the capital right now) to see if he'd go to the KFC there and find out if those layered bowls of deliciousness (you know the ones I'm talking about, mashed potatoes, gravy, chicken, corn and cheese layered together in a bowl?) were on the menu there. Like, really? How did I get from mosquito larvae to popcorn chicken at KFC in one sitting?!

In other news, our cow Fortuna is preggers (and why wouldn't she be? all the other women in my community are!) and is going to have a chivo in 15 days. So that'll be exciting/probably really gross to watch. Tomorrow, I'm going to teach the kids here the real rules of softball so that we don't spend the entire time fighting over the made up rules they've got. I'm going to teach my first English class on Monday and then on Friday I'm outta here and heading to San Salv! WOO!

Miss you all! Shoot me an e-mail if anything exciting/not-so-exciting is happening in your life! I'm dying for gossip/news from the home front! jordanleefox@gmail.com

I'm off for another salva cola and hopefully a grape charramusca!

va

First of all, I'd like to start this blog post out with a SHOUT OUT to Tish the Dish! THANKS SO MUCH for the shipment of shampoo and conditioner!! My community can definitely use it and I'm going to meet with my counterpart this week about how we are going to go about distributing in the community! MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS! I know people here are going to appreciate it.

Lot's of things are going on around here right now. I went to a parent teacher meeting at the school here on Monday and let me just tell you how big of a DISASTER things are there...At the end of the month, we are going to lose one of our teachers. It's the teacher that teaches 7, 8 and 9th grade. She has about 80 students in one class right now but the ministry of education won't even pay her salary let alone the salary of the two other teachers those grades are in desperate need of. For the past couple of years an organization in Iowa was paying her salary, but their commitment to the school is up this month. Apparently, our ADESCO has asked for help from the Mayor and has also solicited the Ministry of Education for funding for the current teacher, plus 2 more, but have been waiting on a positive response for months (and really, years). The current teacher is willing to work for 1/2 the salary in the mean time, but the community can't even come up with the $240 for the month to pay her, so it looks like she's out soon and we're going to be without a teacher for 80 students.

Looks like I'm either going to have to figure out how to get some funds to pay this teacher in the meantime, but really that's not sustainable and not the ideal solution to the problem. I'm looking into soliciting the Ministry of Education myself to try to get some answers. I currently do not know how to go about doing either of these things but I guess I'll figure something out. It's shocking to me that the Ministry of Education is now requiring all students to wear school uniforms, and is willing to pay for those, but most schools are lacking funds to pay for enough teachers. So backwards.

The other main thing that's going on over here is my living situation. I've definitely got to get out of where I'm currently living. I will never make it here if I continue to live with these people. They play music at 5am (and I'm starting to think it's just being done to wake me up because as soon as I open my door the music cuts off), one of my host brothers seriously gives me the creeps and Tomas is insane and is driving me nuts. I've had an offer from my host dad's mom (she's 85 and loves me) to live at her house, and also with my neighbors who are currently in the process of building a concrete house on their property, and have assured me it will be done within the month and that they'd love to have me. So we'll see.

What else? I finally got to the Evangelical part of town this week. I went out censusing with my counterpart and saw a completely different side of my community. The area where they live is much poorer and women have kids even earlier in that part of the community. I saw a 16 year old with a toddler. Her husband was in his 30's. Statutory rape laws do not exist in this country, but still, there's something seriously wrong with that... The discrepancy between living conditions between the Catholics and the Evangelicals is also pretty wide. Most houses I saw this week during my census were sticks and mud, and a lot of times, just tarps for walls. It was a little shocking.

I fell down a very rocky hill on Sunday playing soccer. I have a pretty serious cut on my knee and it's black and blue all over. It's been four days and it still hurts as bad as it did when it first happened, so I'm a little worried I might have done some serious damage to it. I can barely walk, so life has been a challenge the last couple of days (getting in and out of pick up trucks and climbing hills has been excruciating...) I'm so desperate for a cure that I let my counterpart rub a concoction of boiled water and herbs on it last night. She assured me it would be better by morning. The scab looks a little better than it did last night, but the herbs didn't help the bruise at all, so it's still pretty painful to walk. So that's been pretty discouraging.

On a more positive note, I had beef yesterday and I'm looking to head to San Salvador next weekend with some friends. THANK THE LORD. I was trying desperately to stay in site for as long as possible without leaving overnight, and I think that 5 weeks will be long enough! Most of the PCVs in my group have left their sites overnight already so whatever. I'm also looking to go back to my San Vicente host community for 2 nights mid-may for the fiestas the community is having. I'm hoping May will be a better month for me than April was, mainly because I'll have some things to look forward too!

I miss you all! Wish me luck!

xoxo

EVERYONE in my community calls me "la gringa." Even my host mom. I mean, come on, I've been living here for 3 weeks now and I know you know my name! All the neighborhood kids refer to me as "la gringa," except for one, who reminds the other kids that I do in fact have a name, and that it's Jordan, and that it's rude to call me "la gringa." I pretty much love him. It's not that I'm offended by it, but if I have to learn the names of every one in my community (and GOD KNOWS they all look alike because they're all related in some crazy twisted way, so learning names has been next to impossible), than they can be bothered to learn one simple name...

Being white in this country kind of sucks for various reasons. Here's just a few: Pretty much every man/teenage boy I walk by whistles at me or says some inappropriate pick up line. Every homeless person within a 10 block radius in any pueblo will flock to me and ask me for a quarter. I get asked "how much did that cost" about every single one of my possessions. And everyone thinks I have thousands of dollars to throw around at them and at the community...which is definitely not the case! And I'm pretty sure I get overcharged for sodas on the buses by street vendors.

Being la gringa does come with a few perks, however. People assume I've never had most foods that they make/grow here in el salv. "You've never had a banana, have you?" or "Have you ever heard of cashews? They're delicious, here try some." Any time anyone asks me if I've ever tried something, I automatically say "no" because I know that food will be coming my way if I act enthusiastic to try it! Also, the other day I was offered the seat in the cabin of the giant truck back to the pueblo, and let me tell you how nice it was to sit comfortably in the front of the truck, rather than holding on for dear life in the back!

The women in my community also think I'm bat crazy. Here are just a few reasons why: I'm 22 and I do not have a husband and a baby. Not only do I not have a husband, but I don't even have a boyfriend back home in the states (gasp!!!) I take baths in the late afternoon. I wait for the water to boil to start cooking noodles. I don't add vegetable oil to my spaghetti noodles once they're done cooking. I only sprinkle a few shakes of salt onto my food. I drink at least one nalgene full of water a day. I don't love coffee. I wash my pots and pans after each time I cook. I can only eat one tortilla in a sitting. And finally, I eat onions. I know, CRAAAAZYYYY.

In other news, transport in and out of my community is a disaster. No one actually knows when trucks come in and out of here so I can never get a straight answer as to how I can get back into the community when I leave it. So that's going to be fun. The chicharras are finally starting to die, so it's a little more quiet around here in the evenings. My host family is still blasting music at 5:30am but I'm getting closer every day to being able to move out, so that's good. Oh! And grape is the current flavor this week for charramuscas, something that I'm very excited about.

I'm off to lay in my hammock for the next couple of hours. Miss you all!

Salu, pues.

xoxo

So Im in the pueblo camping out in the ciber waiting for my regional leader to get here so he can help me work out my living situation. It is pouring rain. And in a few short minutes I have to hop into the back of a truck for an hour ride back to my community in the rain. Aweesommmeeeee! At least I have my jacket today.

Stumbled upon some missionaries from my community while doing my census tuesday. 3 people from the catholic church were out in the evangelical part of town trying to convert them and I ran into them while doing my census. We ended up at the same house and I ended up having to sit and listen to La Palabra de Dios for almost an hour before I could do my census. Now I am worried the evangelicals think Im a missionary! FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. I cannot deal with much more relgion...

Not much else going on in my community right now. Yesterday I spent most of the day either weighing babies and pregnant ladies or in my hammock reading. I am reading Robinson Carusoe now. Book number 4 in 3 weeks!

Thanks Mom for the package! Granola bars and books will get me through many a rainy day! Love you!

Im off to buy minutes for my phone and ice cream before I head back to the land of jesus and no refrigerators!

xoxo

Lord. I don't even know where to start! Oh wait, yes I do...

Yesterday morning. 5:30am. Morning after one of the most exhausting days of my life. I had specifically told my host family I was at least going to sleep until 8 that morning. But of course, I had no such luck with "sleeping in." My 22 year old host brother started BLASTING religious music at 5:30am. AND THEN HE WENT BACK TO SLEEP! Like, are. you. kidding. me? I laid in bed shoving my earplugs into my ears as far as they would go, and finally started drifting off to sleep again around 7, when I was woken up again by my host brothers shoving sticks into the cracks of my windows and throwing rocks at my door. Like, are. you. kidding. me?!

Anyway, I stormed out of my house and asked my host bothers to not ever do that again. And then complained about the music (these people are so far on my nerves I don't even care if I offend them at this point) and this is what my host mom said, "Oh, you don't like music?" NOT AT FIVE FREAKING THIRTY IN THE MORNING I DON'T! Is this real life?!

Anyway, to get away from all the religious music, I put on my shoes, packed a sandwich, and started up the mountain on my census. I refused to let my host sister come with, despite my host mom's wishes, and I had probably the most enjoyable walk of my life. It was hot as hell and it took way longer than I thought, but I met some nice people, enjoyed some awesome views and found a really shady tree that I'm going to hike to occasionally to do some reading. Without all the noise pollution from the radio or the television!

Oh, I also didn't bring my cell phone (on purpose) and when I came back I had 4 missed calls from my host dad. I had only been gone for 3 hours, but he was convinced I was lost. There's one road up the mountain. And the same road brings you back down. No chance for being lost.

Later that afternoon I took the neighborhood kids down to the cancha (futbol field) and we played softball and soccer for about three hours. So fun. They all FREAKED when I brought out my camera and so our photo sesh was very entertaining. A few of them said they knew how cameras worked, so I let them take a few pictures of me (that one's for you mom!) so check out facebook in the next few days, I'm going to try and get them posted asap.

This brings me to my latest discovery here in El Tablon, and that is "charramuscas." This is frozen juice in a plastic bag, and it is God's gift to Usulutan in April. They cost 5 cents and are the most refreshing thing to eat in this country. I bought one for all the kids that played soccer with me, so I now have 15 new friends! All under the age of 12, of course, but whatevs. It's something.

Anyway, today I went to San Miguel to meet up with my friend Kristina. It was SO nice to get out of site for the day. I bought a new pair of sandals and we spent the day eating delicious food, sitting in comfy department store couches (plastic chairs get old real quick!), and of course, half of the day was spent in the public bathrooms because we both were sick...but whatever. It was totally worth it.

Which brings me to my ride back into my community this afternoon. I rode, standing in the back of a pick up truck, through the woods, along the side of the mountain, during sunset. It was gorgeous. I had the best view of the sun setting behind the volcano and I didn't even mind that I was being smacked in the face repeatedly by tree branches!

Bueno, I'm off! Bed early. I'm sure to wake up with the roosters tomorrow.

Salu, pues!

xoxo

When Salvadorans through a party, they don't mess around with la musica. There was a wedding in my community and my ears are literally still ringing from this afternoon, the music was so load. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The wedding festivities started yesterday morning. 530am. This is when we slaughtered the fattened calf! Now normally, I would be a little less enthusiastic about putting 3 bullets into the head of a cow, but I hadn't had meat in 2 weeks and the prospect of beef for lunch the next day definitely outweighed the animal lover in me! So I helped tie the cow to a tree, and then stepped back and watched some hombres kill and skin a cow. I'll spare you all the video I took...

After that, though, yesterday was pretty dull. It was way too hot to census, so I basically laid in my hammock all day long. And washed some clothes. I honestly spent about 2 hours watching wasps build a nest in one of my electrical sockets and I didn't even bother to get up and do anything about it. I just watched. Useless.

Today, on the other hand, was way eventful. Sensory overload. The entire community, plus 3 other cantones nearby piled in the back of several trucks and headed to the pueblo this morning for the wedding mass. Everyone was decked out, looking their best. I've never seen so many early 90's skirt suits (there was polyester EVERYWHERE) and holister t-shirts in my life!! Before mass we all went and bought presents (I gave the couple a bath towel. Apparently that's a good gift...), ate some pupusas and then went to church (again). After the service, we all piled back into the trucks and headed back to our community.

Now, this morning, when I was getting ready, I looked in the mirror and said to myself, "Look, this is your life now. And you're going to have fun today. Got it?" And I really was trying to have fun. But of course, on the way back from church, sitting in the back of a truck in the scorching sun, I got a migraine. Lost all feeling in my left hand/arm, side of my face. Had 2 auras and honestly thought I was going to barf in the truck that was packed 3x as full as it should be. It. Was. Miserable. When we got back to the community, the party was already started and the music was BLARING. I swear, I've never seen so many speakers in my life! And while I normally would think this was hilarious, in the moment, it was the worst situation I could have been in with my migraine.

I toughed it out though until after lunch was served. I ate at the mesa de honor (table of honor) with the bride (whom I hadn't even met yet) and the groom and their families. Lunch was delish and carne asada never tasted so good! After lunch I went back to my house and laid in bed until the migraine passed, and then headed back to the party.

Let me just tell you how being stared at by 400 Salvadorans feels like. It's terrifying. EVERYONE at the party stared at me for the remainder of the afternoon. And of course, none of them bothered to talk to me, except the bolos (the drunks). I was forced to dance with some guy I didn't know, and then ended up dancing with a series of strangers. It was very exciting apparently to dance with the gringa. Side note: Salvo dancing is kinda lame, and none of the guys have any rhythm. I literally stepped side to side for about an hour.

Anyway, after the party was over, about 50 different people came up to me and said, "ya puede, you can dance." I'm the talk of the town apparently. Hilarious. And they think it's even more hilarious that I have no idea who I danced with. If any of the men I danced with had introduced themselves, I wouldn't have been able to hear their names over the music anyway!

Anyway, I'd like to give a shout out to Cindy and my Mom for the wonderful packages I received today!!! Pasta sides and tampons have never made me so happy in my life! It's the little things at this point! Keep 'em coming!

I'm thinking tomorrow I'm going to fake sick so I can lay in bed for most of the morning without being judged. I am freakin' beat.

Miss and love you all!

Adios, pues.

Here are a few things that sum up my life in the last couple of days:

--My host dad told me it was inconvenient that I was living with him and that his wife can't be bothered to cook me lunch. So there's that. I'm going to tell him to shove it where the sun don't shine and then I'm going to pack my bags.

--Why? WHY? Do I insist on looking down into the outhouse with my flashlight every time I go in there at night? What do I think I'm going to find? Roses?

--There's a 16 year old girl in my community 8 mo. preggers. And she's married. And she takes care of her own house. WTF was I doing at age 16? Complaining to my mom, probably, about not liking what she made for dinner. I definitely wasn't mature/responsible enough to cook my own dinner, let alone dinner for a husband!

--A cow strolled right through my house today while I was reading in my hammock. I didn't even shoo it away, I was so stunned.

--I spent an hour in the back of a truck yesterday driving through the jungle in the pouring rain. Completely unprepared. Before I left for town I asked my host dad if he thought it was going to rain and should I bring my raincoat. He assured me it wasn't going to (salvos can pretty much tell you the exact time it's going to rain by looking at the sky). 10 minutes later we're in the truck heading to town and he says to me, "oh, Yordan, you didn't bring your rain coat and it's definitely going to rain. Que lastima."

--An ice cold Salva Cola is the next best thing to a fountain diet coke.

--I've finished 20 houses for my census.

--Currently, there's a candle burning in my house in front of the virgin of guadalupe that's being stored in here. Some sort of offering that I didn't bother to listen to when the girl that came in here made it. It's still burning 5 hours later and I can't decide whether I should blow it out before I go to sleep, or just let it die out?

--Tomorrow I'm waking up at 5 to help kill a calf. And then I'm going to prepare the carne for a wedding on Saturday (have I mentioned I haven't had meat in 2 weeks now and I'm way too excited to kill this cow??)