Hey everybody back home,

My flight is set for Friday, February 17. Just a week and a half away!

I added some photos to shutterfly, and the rest I´ll take care of when I get home. There are more on the website than on facebook. The address is

http://elmundoesunpanuelophotos.shutterfly.com/

In the meantime I´m translating for an Eye Care Campaign tomorrow and Thursday and wrapping things up in my community. Then next week I have my last meetings with the bosses and turn in all my paperwork. It´s been a lot to do in a little time, but I´m nearly there.

I´m excited to see yall again!

As some of you have already heard from Mom, they're sending me home a little early. El Salvador and its neighboring countries have serious problems with gangs, and there was a big security incident recently in Honduras, so it affects us too. They're likely closing PC in Honduras, and they're reorganizing PC here and in Guatemala, so they're sending my group home a month early and possibly giving the other volunteers who have more time remaining in their service the option of going to another country. They don't know yet when a new group of volunteers will come here.

What all this means is that my last day is February 16, and I will probably fly home that day or the 17th. It also means that I have a month to finish a ton of paperwork and say my goodbyes. I'm in the capital currently for the Close of Service Medical exam. It was just really sudden. I was hoping to get one last visit to San Vicente in, to meet my host sister's baby. I was also hoping to see the first mangos ripen, but it's unlikely. And last time I was at home I donated all my old winter clothes, and it will still be cold when I get off the plane. Oh well, as they're so fond of saying home, that's the way it is.

At the same time I'm excited about being at home and moving on to the next thing. I just have a lot on my plate right now. Good thing I turned in my last grad school application right before the Close of Service Conference, just in time for them to spring this news.

I look forward to seeing you all in a month!

Hey blog readers,

Sorry I´ve been MIA. I went home for a little while, got stuck in my house for a week during a torrential downpour, and have since been busy. Most of my time at the internet cafe has been sucked up by grad school apps.

Classes end here on Wednesday. Finally!

My time here is coming to an end. Peace Corps has given us a window during March and April during which to leave. The elections for mayors across the country are Sunday, March 11. I´m aiming to be home before them, so we´re looking at the first week. Just a little over three months left!

Happy early Thanksgiving!

Out of the blue, the director of the NGO whose website I translated a few months ago called me up and asked if I´d translate for an event. He said it was a big deal, that the ambassador was going to be there and some people were going to sign an accord. Sure, I said, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. It was huge! They had it in this old theater in Gotera, the department capital of Morazan, where I live, and it was packed. A whole bunch of important government people showed up too.

What was the event and why did they need an interpreter? Montgomery County, Maryland (suburban DC) and my department (state) signed an agreement to be "sister cities," although neither, of course, is a city. So my community got to see me on the news. I hope it wasn´t obvious how nervous I was.

Just as exciting to me, although maybe not to everyone else here, my neighbors cat had kittens and her granddaughter named one Dulce after my puppy. AAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW, too cute! My own Dulce is doing well. She´s as goofy as ever. She tried to bury a rawhide under me in my sleep the other night.

The first week in August means vacation here. I´m still not entirely sure why. It´s the patron saint festivities for the world´s savior, is what they say, but I don´t understand why Jesus gets saint stuff. Besides, there´s already Christmas and Easter. Whatever, it means I don´t have to go to the school this week.

You´ll be happy to hear that the dengue epidemic has calmed down in my community. No, not everybody´s doing their part and keeping the house free of mosquito larva. It seems that the fumigation did kill the adult mosquitos that were carrying dengue, though, and hopefully they didn´t lay too many eggs. They did six rounds of fumigation in the whole community plus one that they call control of the focus when one more case appeared. It´s been a week now since any more fever cases have appeared, so maybe it´s over.

So now I have a breather. It´s been a fairly calm rainy season so far, but soon it will be August and hurricane season. I´ve got a decent stash of books going for when it rains for a week straight. It did rain a lot, though, during the patron saint festivities in my community, which was a bummer. Mostly they ignored it, but I was not so inclined. It´s sinking ankle deep in the mud/cow poop mixture that really gets to me.

I miss you! Come and visit any time!

In order to better explain what´s going on in my site, I´m going to back up and give an overview of the water collection system. It´s something that you get so used to around here that you forget how odd it would seem if you had never lived in a place where you couldn´t open your faucet any time of the day, any day of the week and expect water to fall.

Outside of the capital, it is rare that people have access to water all of the time. A lot of people in the rural areas still have to leave their home to wash in the river and collect drinking water. In fact, my community only installed a water project within the last few years. The source will dry up, though, if everybody´s allowed to have water all day, so water is released at a certain time of the day. It comes for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the time of year, with more coming now because it´s rainy season. You collect the water in bottles to drink and cook, and the rest falls in whatever receptacle you have (i.e. barrels or pilas, which are like big cement blocks) for washing. This of course solves the problem of not having water available all day, but creates other problems. The big one? Mosquitos. Mosquitos lay their eggs in still water. Plus it´s raining now, so all that inorganic trash is also collecting water.

Until recently, the Ministry of Health bought a type of powdered pesticide that they gave to the health promotors to distribute so that people could put it in their barrels or pila to kill the mosquito larvae, but this year they decided it was up to every family to maintain their pila/barrel clean. It sucks, but at the same time, the pesticide wasn´t 100% effective, and it only kills the larvae, so any more developed mosquitos require fumigation. So what are your options? You can keep fish in there, which eat the larvae. You can keep your water covered when you´re not using it. You can also scrub your receptacle every week with bleach.

So do people do that? Honestly, not many. A lot of them just complain that the ministry isn´t buying the pesticide powder anymore. Where does that leave us in my community? Four confirmed cases of dengue and at least seven more suspected, and all this in a community that hasn´t seen a case in three years.

What´s dengue? It´s a virus spread by a certain type of mosquito (not the same that carries malaria). It´s characterized by fever, headache, joint pain, and rash. There are two main types, classic and hemorrhagic, both of which include four strains, so in theory, if you were really unlucky, you could get dengue a total of eight times in your life. There is no vaccine, only prevention. For the past week, my health promotor and professionals from the public health clinic in my municipality have been working in my community to contain the outbreak. They´ve fumigated every house twice and will do a third round on Thursday to kill the rest of the adult mosquitos. They´ve checked every barrel and pila in San Juan, draining those with adolescent mosquitos and emphasizing the need to maintain your pila clean. They´ve interviewed everybody who´s had a fever in the last two weeks and taken blood samples from those who possibly have dengue. It´s been hectic!

All that being said, don´t worry about me. I´ve actually never felt better.

I´ll sign off now. If you made it this far, you´re probably tired of reading!

Hey everybody, I hope life is treating you well in the states!

I´m doing pretty well. The recyclying project is painfully slow. Old habits die hard, right? At the very least I get to recycle, which makes me happy.

The big news is the success of my exercise class. "WHAT?!" you say. First I picked up jump rope last summer as a way to exercise on my own, in my house, without stares and catcalling. Then when I was at home I found these yoga/pilates/kickboxing/aerobics videos in the $1 section at Target, so I brought a few back. For a while the women in my community have been asking me how I shed some weight because obesity, and diet related diseases, are a huge problem here, particularly among the women. So I´ve been tossing around the idea for a while of giving classes, but I wasn´t sure how it would go over. I called a meeting of all the women, and they were so tickled! I have a small turn out, but a few regulars who really like it. So now I have exercise buddies, and I enjoy this project so much more than working in the school.

Ugh, the school. The principal´s such a creep, and the teachers are almost entirely unmotivated. The students and I get a long, but I work mostly with middle school aged students, so they like me individually, but they never want to participate in a group class. On top of universal pre-teen issues, they are SO incredibly shy. They sit in class copying from the board, never being asked to participate, and they literally freak out when I ask them to speak. That school is such a mess on every level. It´s heart-breaking.

What else? I participate in this theater/skit group when I get the chance. It´s a group of volunteers who travel and perform, and the kids love it because it´s goofy and it means a group of weird white people invade their community briefly. It´s also something they would never do themselves because they´re way too shy, so I think they appreciate that we have no shame.

Lastly, we celebrated Mother´s Day this month, which is a huge deal here. I´ll try to put some photos up soon.

Love y'all!

That´s right, everyday I have less time here. One year in, one year older (24).

I thought I would address a question Mom posed in her last letter. "Is it hard to get people to recycle here?"

YES. Change is always hard, isn´t it, and habit is always easy. In my experience, Salvadorans are very good at reusing. They´ll take things that I would consider useless and find a use for them. However, once something is considered trash, it´s often just tossed. The thing is, it´s too expensive to get trash pick up in the rural areas, so options are limited. Additionally, there´s the cultural element, which is that they often don´t even see the trash, whereas I see a beautiful country covered with garbage. It´s so sad to see people throw trash out the bus window, but it´s even sadder to see it in the community. It´s as though once they drop that piece of garbage at the soccer field, it´s not there. They really don´t notice it or think it´s gross. So yes, this recycling project is going to be difficult, but there is a family in my community that has realized the economic potential of recycling, and I´m working with them to get the project going in the school. Plus I promised to take the kids who bring the most recyclable stuff on a field trip. Slowly but surely people are starting to change their habits. I hope the kids bring a lot, especially plastics. The thing is, with no garbage collection, when you tell people not to just toss the stuff in the river, their option becomes burning, which is one thing when we talk about paper, but horrible (and smelly) when it´s plastic.

In other news, I passed my mid service med exams with flying colors, and I´m going back to the capital this week for some relaxation in the air conditioning and a late birthday celebration. Then it´s Holy Week, when nobody does anything but rest, go to church, and eat.

In February I celebrated a year in country. Now, this Sunday marks one year ago that I got to site! Some days seem longer than others, but then I look up and so much time has gone by, and lately I´ve been really busy.

A couple weeks ago I went back to San Vicente because my older host sister got married. I put a bunch of photos on facebook, so check them out! It was my first wedding here and a lot of fun. I was thinking, though, that I´ve never been to a Catholic wedding in the states. I wonder what the similarities are. I know the Catholic Church here, and in Latin America in general, is pretty different in some aspects from the church in the states.

Earlier this week I went to my nearest neighboring volunteer´s site to help him put on a skit. It´s this PC El Salvador theater project called ¨Gringuisimo.¨ He posted a clip of the video on youtube, and there´s a link on facebook. It´s in Spanish, though.

Then this weekend I´m taking my English teacher to a workshop on teaching methodology that the PC TEFL guy is hosting in Perquin, this town north of me (almost to Honduras) that is famous for being a center of activity during the war. The hotel where we´re staying also happens to be where I watched Obama get elected in 2008!

Speaking of which, he came to ES this week! No, I didn´t get invited to meet him. If only.

Finally, next week is my mid-service medical exam. Not so fun, but a few friends are doing it with me. I´m going to call it my birthday celebration because I won´t have a chance to do anything on my actual 24th.

I almost forgot projects. The recycling project is finally moving along. The Life Planning/Sex ed project with the older students is going so-so. English too. The website translation is still incomplete, and in fact they´ve added to the site even since I started. It´s huge! The NGO has also offered me more work since then, and I´m debating accepting the offer. It certainly was not what I wanted when I joined PC; I wanted to live, work, and learn in a community. With my community being the way it is, though, it´s nice that I´ve been offered projects outside, and it feels good to know they think highly of me and the work I´ve done for them so far. Not that my community doesn´t appreciate me. They love me, and I love them! Community integration has never been my issue here. It´s the work/projects. It´s hard to explain.

Thanks to everyone at home for the care packages! Getting mail is the best!

Wow, classes started, and then out of nowhere I started getting invited to stuff out of site every week, so I´ve been crazy busy! I´m doing a Life Planning course this year with the older students (7-9 grade, the third cycle as they call it). I´m also giving English courses, and I´m feeling pretty good about them at this point. Besides, they´re so appreciated in my community. I think most people in San Juan wouldn´t care if the only thing I did for two years was teach English in the school. I´m also working on getting a recycling project going to clean up the community and make a little money for the school, but it´s hit a few hiccups. It´ll work out, but it (like everything else around here) is taking longer than I thought.

An NGO (non-governmental organization, basically what we think of as a non-profit) asked me to translate their website into English, and that´s going to be a huge project. Here´s a link. I´m not sure if you´ll be able to follow the link to the English version when they start posting the translations, but we´ll see. Eventually they´d like to get status in the US so they can receive tax-deductible donations from you all to help fund school infraestructure projects and scholarships in the department (state) of Morazan!

http://fundemac.org/

On February 3, we (my training class) celebrated a year in country! We rented a beach house for two nights, then went to the capital to watch the Super Bowl. Then last week I visited a friend for her fiestas patronales, which is when a community celebrates their patron saint. And today I´m returning from visiting another friend and helping her with her Environment Day, kicking off her recycling project. Busy busy!

As always, I hope yall are well. It should be warming up soon, but if it´s not soon enough, come visit! Highs are in the 90s, and it´s only going to get hotter until the rain comes in May!

The water committee already fell apart. Whatever. I don´t care. I´m not surprised, just disappointed.

Classes start next week. So far it looks like I´ll be giving English classes, working with the older students with a program PC calls ¨How to Plan My Life,¨possibly teaching computation, starting a recycling program, and doing some sort of school garden project. We´ll see.

So after all this, I´m still a little sad, but doing well at the same time. Dulce´s doing also doing well also. Her mother, poor thing, is badly mistreated and was at the point of starvation, so I started feeding her too, so she spends a lot of time with us now. I think she´s pregnant again, but this time she´s healthy enough to handle it.

We have a water committee! Some important government people came and organized elections for the committee, to separate the water from the local government and its problems. I'm glad I was coordinating - it was chaos! It's over now, though. Cross your fingers that everything goes well and we can move things along with the government too!

Christmas was awesome, but busy. I spent it in site, at a few soccer tournaments, mass, and a party. Now I'm in San Vicente for New Years with my host family.

Most of the next few weeks I'll be working with Engineers without Borders at a different site where they're building a bridge. I'm helping translate.

Happy New Year!

Given the political tensions in my community, several friends here and at home have suggested that I request a site change. Honestly, I really don´t consider that an option. Certainly some volunteers have moved and found success at their new site, but others are shocked to discover that their new community also has problems, as though PC is hiding the good sites from us or something. No, I would only move if they made me, and that would only be for security or health reasons. Given everything I´ve been through in the last year, I can´t imagine starting over again, figuring out a new community and its problems, and actually having time left in my service to do anything. Plus I´m 100% sure I would not find another counterpart as awesome as Roxana in any other community anywhere else in the world. Besides, the people in my community are still really good to me; they just have a lot of issues amongst themselves. That´s really why I joined PC in the first place. Yes, I´d love to be able to do big projects, but if that´s all I wanted to do, I could have found a job with a different organization instead of waiting forever on PC. I wanted to live in a community and form relationships, understand the culture better. Yes I´ve had to lower my expectations as far as work goes, but that´s okay.

I´m sure most of you have heard by now that I´ll be home again this Friday. I look forward to seeing any of you can make the trip to Atlanta. Thank you for supporting my family and me.

I think it´s time I explain better what´s happening in my community. It´s a very long and complicated story, but I´ll do my best.

First of all, I need to explain what I mean by ¨local government.¨It´s more local than the mayor - he´s doing just fine in my municipality. It´s my community´s government. It´s called an ADESCO, an acronym for Association for Community Development. It´s not a given that all communities have one; they have to want one, and it often takes years to get enough community members involved and to apply for legal standing. Mine is actually one of the oldest ones around and for years was respected for being well-organized.

As it happens, my ADESCO is in charge of the water project, which was completed only a year or two ago. Before that, all the women had to go to the river to wash and bring back water. Now they have clorinated water piped into their homes. Like my places in El Salvador where water comes to the houses, it´s not available all day. Instead, it comes for a little while and people fill their barrels or pilas during that time. Clearly it´s a wonderful thing to have the water project, but the management of it has created a lot of tensions in San Juan, in addition to the normal political squabbles. Upon receiving the water, everyone in the community agreed to a set of rules, but of course that doesn´t always hold up. That´s why the rebel government was formed. Well, actually there are a number of reasons, but water is the big thing. Both sides have points in their favor. Understandably people need water for everything, but if they don´t pay for 3 months, their water gets cut off, which is also reasonable. Then they say they´re paying too much or not getting enough. It´s hard because it´s such a basic necessity.

I tell you all of this because things got even crazier last week when the rebel government broke into the water system and put their own locks on it, placing themselves in charge of the water project. The mayor tried to send one of his men, the social promotor, to the community, but they put up road blocks. Supposedly the major himself is coming for a meeting later this week and bringing the police and church leaders with him. We´ll see.

This whole situation breaks my heart on a lot of levels, but what most gets to me is the break down of families here. Everyone in my community is related somehow, and this mess is dividing them. It´s even infiltrated the Seventh Day Adventist Church in my village, and probably would the Catholic if there were a priest here regularly.

All that being said, the people here are still really good to me. Right now I feel frustrated but content.

Mom asked if other volunteers have these same problems here. Certainly all ADESCOs have issues, but mine is unique. I can´t really point to one reason why my community is the way it is, and in what ways the people are different from other Salvadorans, but it is what it is.

I hope I explained this somewhat. Like I said, it´s a crazy, complicated mess. I know y´all are inclined to worry, but don´t! I don´t tell you this to scare you but because you said you wanted to know.

Hey everyone back home,

I hope you are well. I am content, but could be better. My counterpart and community president definitely exaggerated the degree to which tempers had cooled in San Juan. Cross your fingers that everybody can put their politics and pride aside to get this clinic project running! If it goes down the drain, there is a good chance also that the next project will be a goner as well. The next one involves latrines, chicken houses, and new ovens that divert the smoke (they cook often over fires, especially when they´re making tortillas).

I´ve resigned myself at this point to the fact that I will probably work almost entirely in the school if the turmoil persists. I don´t mind, there´s a lot to do there, but the school year ends in two weeks and doesn´t pick up again until February. In the mean time, I´ll be traveling a little bit for different events. Other than that, you´ll find me playing with the kids and making tamales until February!

I flew back to El Salvador last Monday, spent two nights in the capital visiting everybody there, and got back to site on Wednesday! It was hard to leave home, but I´m glad to be back in my community. My house was a crazy mess, but it´s under control now, and I picked up my puppy on Saturday, so everything is returning to normal.

Tempers have cooled somewhat since I left, so the whole political mess is also coming under control. So now my community president is anxious to get working again, and so am I!

So yeah, things on my end are good. I miss everybody at home, now more than ever. Love yall!

I'm still in the US for a little while longer. I was messing around on the internet today and found a photo I want to share with y'all. I haven't been able to get a good photo of a torogoz, the national bird of El Salvador, but I found a great one. It's such a pretty bird! Follow the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrivasphotography/873390883/

While we're at it, here's the izote, the national flower. I'm told you can eat them, but I've never tried one.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Izote_Flor_Nacional.jpg

And Happy (belated) Independence Day to El Salvador and its neighbors! They celebrate Independence on September 15 (ES, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras declared independence as one united country).

I'm still at home, so I took advantage of having internet to post some more photos.

http://elmundoesunpanuelophotos.shutterfly.com/

The new ones include my host family during my first two months at site, a big 15th birthday party, my new house, Dulce (my puppy), patron saint festival activities, and the medical clinic project.

I am back in the US. I came back really suddenly on emergency leave to be with the family. Dad's taken a turn for the worse. I have no idea how long I'll be back. I hope to talk to yall soon. The house phone is 770-985-2422 and my mom's cell is 770-823-1829. I might get a pre-paid cell for while I'm here, but I'll let you know.

So this new storm is called Alex, right? All I know is that it finally stopped raining. PC had us on standfast in our sites, meaning we weren´t allowed to leave. There´s really no risk of flooding where I am, but I´ve heard they evacuated people in other parts of ES. I just got another good soaking, and lots of time to go through my pile of books. My poor puppy´s so bored she´s about to destroy everything in my house.

I´m putting up photos on facebook as we speak. I´m also uploading some full quality ones to shutterfly.com so that everyone can see them, but obviously that takes longer. I´ll try to get some more up soon.

http://elmundoesunpanuelophotos.shutterfly.com/

Hope that link works.

Ok, so life is crazy. I was thinking this whole government mess would be over by now, but the meeting with the mayor this week didn´t solve anything. It turned into such a shouting match that my counterpart and I just left, and we learned later that they hadn´t reached an agreement anyway. We´re still hanging, but we´ve got to keep going as best we can given the circumstances and the information we have (and by we, I mean my counterpart and I).

Good news, though! I´m in my new house with my new puppy! She´s a gift from one of the women in the community, and her name is Dulce (pronounced Dool-say - it means "sweet"). While her owner gave her tortillas occasionally, she was pretty much a street dog, but now that I have her, feed her, and spoil her, she doesn´t want to leave my side! She´s like Winston, if you remember when we got him, Mom; at first she was shy, but now that her belly´s full, her personality is shining through! Such a cutie, too. She´s a mutt, but she looks Border collie-ish, except brown and white instead of black. She´s about three months old. My house is great too, and I´m surrounded by little boys who come to visit me all the time.

Cross your fingers I get photos up next week. It´s going to be another crazy one, but then next weekend my friends and I are going to the 4th of July party at the embassy in San Sal!

Hey everybody, I´m back home in San Juan! I get to move into my new house today! Cross your fingers that I get a dog tomorrow.

I came back to a community in an uproar over some local government issues, so I´m on hold as far as projects go. To make a long story short, some community members formed a rebel government, but it´s not violent or anything. The whole thing will be sorted out next week, for better or for worse. Then I can get to work (when I know who I´ll be working with!) I´m trying to imagine how this sounds to yall back home. Maybe scary? It´s not really, but it does sort of feel like I´m in a movie at the moment, like I should have a soundtrack to capture the emotions of the moment.

Hope things are well at home and you´re enjoying the summer! Happy Father´s Day!

Just a quick post to say we're all clear! I'm back with the host family, but going to San Salvador this weekend.

My response to the question about the dryer is, "What dryer?" I guess I forget that yall don't really know what life looks like here. Microwaves, while not in every house like back home, are not uncommon here, though. I may start microwaving my clothes to dry them faster during rainy season. It can't hurt to try, right?

I got my house! At least temporarily, anyway. I think once we fix it up, though, they'll give me permission to live there permanently. I just need to fix a few shingles, fill a crack in the walls (the house is made of cement), and put some screens up between the walls and the ceiling. I should be able to move within a week of getting back from training!

Right now I'm in San Vicente for more training, but I doubt if we'll start tomorrow as planned. We are drowning in rains from Tropical Storm Agatha! I'm safe and sound in a hotel with some volunteer friends because they didn't want us to stay with our host families (a lot of the buses are not running in the area right now). I'm sad that I can't be with my training host family, but it's good to see other volunteers again and hear funny stories from everybody's site.

It's so been hot that I've anticipated rainy season (winter) for a while, and boy did I get my wish! In some parts of the country it's been raining for a week straight, and they're evacuating people in areas with risks of mudslides. Plus, there's a lot of flooding. My site is okay, but not everybody's so lucky. My biggest issue is when I'm going to have clean, dry clothes again! I told Mom last night that I was cold, and she didn't believe me. Just so you know, I think you were right, Mom. I have adjusted so well to the climate here that the change has turned me into a wimp. It's 73 outside and I'm in long sleeves! In my defense, I think it did get down into the 60s last night, and San Vicente's colder than my site. Plus my clothes are wet (the ones in my suitcase too)!

Happy Memorial Day back home!

I just finished typing up my health census, which I´m presenting to the community next Monday. Then I get free time, which I plan to use fixing up my house! I think we found the perfect one yesterday. I´ll post a photo when I get a chance. It´s super cute, pretty big (especially for only one person), and already has a lot of furniture, which is a big plus. I´ll also have good neighbors. I´m still waiting on the official ok from the Peace Corps, but I´m confident it´ll pass the test (PC has a ton of safety rules about the houses we live in). I´m super excited about being on my own, having friends over to visit, getting a puppy, and planting a garden!

We celebrated Mother´s Day this past Monday. Happy late Mother´s Day to all of you!

Thanks for all the love, support, packages, letters, etc. I love and miss you all!

Hey everyone,

Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog!

I started my health census in the community today. Before I start any projects I need to know what´s really going on in San Juan! The school principal also asked if I could give the teachers English lessons once a week, so I´m going to be doing a little of that too.

I had a request to write about the other volunteers. At first it seemed weird to me that I´m here in ES and you would want to know about the gringos, but I guess we seem strange or crazy to you back home. Basically we´re your run of the mill North Americans. Most of us are in our 20s, but there are a few random volunteers who hit a mid-life crisis or retire and decide to sign up. We´re not especially hippy or religious. We´re from all over the states, by the mid-west and western coast are most represented.

I was also asked about weird food. The weirdest I´ve had so far is chicken guts, rabbit, and dove (which I helped de-feather). There´s a guy in my community, though, who´s infamous for having given the last volunteer iguana, snake, and armadillo.

Right now I´m living with a new host family. I have a host mom, two sisters (26 and 18), and their children (2 years and 1.5 months). Every day is an adventure with them!

I also have a new address. You can reach me at

Rebecca Jean Maner

San Juan Abajo

Lista de Correos

San Miguel, El Salvador

Centroamerica

7676 9950

I love and miss you all!

I hope you all love where you are as much as I love ES! I want to share with you some of my favorite things about this country:)

1. SALVADORANS! The best part of the country. While the culture is pretty conservative, I find the people to be open and ready to chat with everybody and about almost anything!

2. My host mom, Nina Ana, the woman who looks after my every need and answers all my silly questions. She provides my home-away-from home anytime I need a break from work.

3. Lisette. Hands down the best host sister ever! She cracks me up, gives me pedicures, and takes me everywhere with her. She is also completely insane.

4. Salvadoran children! You can't find cuter ones anywhere. Usually they're embarassed the first time they meet you, but the second time they come around, they act as though they've known you their entire life. They're so enthusiastic about playing with me and teaching me how to live here!

5. Yummy fruit! My host mom knew I was anticipating the mangos on our tree ripening, so she picked the first ripe one and hid it in the kitchen so I could have it for breakfast one morning. Love! Pineapple season is also fast approaching, and bananas and plantains are always available. Not to mention my new favorites, jocote and mamey!

6. Music. Who in the world, outside of Latin America, understands my passion for Spanish-language and 80s music?

7. Spanish. In a week I will be in my site, speaking only Spanish for days on end! I won't have to see a gringo for two months if I don't want to!

8. On the other hand, the ES is small enough that I'm within a day's journey of all my PC friends, the beach, all major cities, and several foreign countries. Vacation!

9. PC friends and staff. I've made some great friends here, and I look forward to meeting the rest of the PC volunteers in the next few months. The staff here is also really awesome! I'm going to miss seeing them daily.

10. SAN JUAN ABAJO! My site:) We got assignments yesterday, and they are sending me to the village of San Juan Abajo in the region of Jocoro in the department (state) of Morazan. Good luck finding San Juan on a map! If it's detailed enough you might find Jocoro. It's in southern Morazan, near La Union. I'll post photos as soon as I can!

I have one week left of training, and then on Friday I'm being sworn in as a volunteer. It's a big deal - a ceremony at the US embassy and a crazy party afterwards in a private club! Then Saturday I have to wake up early to move to my site! I'll be getting there just in time for Holy Week, which is the week from Palm Sunday to Easter. It's one great big vacation all over the country. Then I turn 23! Life is good:)

I feel I should do a better job of explaining my work here. As yet, there hasn´t been a whole lot because I´m in training. We have 7 weeks of training in San Vicente, and it mostly involves culture, development, Peace Corps policy, illnesses, and security. Then, we go to our sites for two months to run diagnostics and (I hope) integrate into the community. After that we have 2 weeks of technical training. Officially I am a trainee right now, and I will become a volunteer on March 27 at the swearing in ceremony in the capital. It´s a big party with the ambassador and most of the PC volunteers in ES.

Basically, it will be a long time before I know what I´m doing, and it will probably change a lot. It depends on what the community wants and needs and what is actually feasible. Peace Corps is about capacity building more than anything else, though, so it will certainly involve training and workshops. It´s like the saying about teaching a person to fish instead of giving him a fish.

I arrived in San Vicente safe and sound! Right now we're in a hotel, but tomorrow night we move in with families who will host us for the next seven weeks while we train. There are 36 of us total in my training class, with 25 Rural Health and Sanitation volunteers and 11 in the Community Organization and Economic Development program. It's a great group!

Some of you asked about care packages, and the Peace Corps staff here said that they have not had problems with customs or boxes being opened.

I love you all!

Welcome, everybody, to my blog! The title, El mundo es un panuelo, is one of the first sayings I learned in Spanish. It is roughly the equivalent of the English phrase, "It's a small world."

I really have no idea how often I'll have Internet access during my Peace Corps service, but I hope to at least be able to add photos and comments once or twice a month. I love snail mail, so email your address or send me a letter, and I'll be sure to reply!

I'm finishing packing and saying my goodbyes this week. I'm also enjoying eating all the foods I'm going to miss over the next two years!