So, what have I been up to? Let’s see. . . not much. It’s the same old thing in site. A few weeks ago I attended IST (in-service-training) that happens once a year per program. It was pretty uneventful, but it was at the beach. Another new group of volunteers have arrived, making our group the oldest. Six months left to go. I’m counting down, as usual. Basically I have to make it to November. Once I’m there, school ends for the year and I’m going home for Thanksgiving. Then, when I get back in December, I’ll breeze through Christmas and the new year. After that is our close of service conference followed by a few months of med exams, final reports, and interviews. Then, I’m home free. So I have September and October to kill, really.

Anyway, I’m writing this blog to talk about results. The reason Peace Corps has been so difficult for me is because after all the work, or attempts to work, it seems nearly impossible to see any concrete results. I mean, we’re all really trying to make things work out here, but when you’re giving it all you have and there are no rewards, things can become quite frustrating. I may see little tiny things here and there like a student answering a question correctly in class, but it’s just not enough.

For the first time this last week I saw a result, a result from the workshop I was a part of. Although this result did not appear in my site, it did appear while working on my favorite project here in El Salvador. Outside of my community I’m on an HIV/AIDS prevention team made up of volunteers interested and educated in the topic. As part of the PEPFAR initiative, we hold training-of-trainers workshops several times a year, focusing on prevention and discrimination. They’re usually workshops for other volunteers and their counterparts (host country nationals). This time we included high school students and educators from a school called Sup¬érate. These kids are rockstar students. In addition to attending high school, they come to the Sup¬érate campus everyday to be trained in English, computation, and life skills. Most of them speak fluent English and are quite mature for their young age. All are very motivated and extremely fast learners. Anyway, they were an awesome group to work with and much different that the kids I see every day.

The workshop basically works like this: We (the HIV team) spend a day and a half giving the workshop, carrying out short lectures and participatory activities with the attendees. Then, we have a testimonial followed by preparation for a practicum that comes the next day, giving the attendees an opportunity to practice a condensed version of the workshop that we give.

So, results. I’m here to talk about the testimonial, which is typically the most impactful part of our workshop. Ernesto comes to most of our workshops to talk to the attendees about how he contracted HIV. After telling his story he answers any questions that people might have. He’s an awesome guy who really is an educator himself. Anyway, at the end session, on young girl raised her hand to ask a question, which really turned into a commentary. Brenda explained that she used to discriminate against people with HIV and AIDS. She then explained to Ernesto that he and the workshop had changed her life and she was eternally grateful. Afterward she asked him for a hug. I just about died. I’m mean I know is sounds so cheesey, but watching someone’s mind change about something that powerful really makes this whole process worth it. And after spending a few days with Brenda, it was even more meaningful, watching her grow as an individual.

Now, I plan on going to visit the SupŽrate campus closest to me in San Miguel (there are three campuses across the country and we got representatives from them all). One, to see how the students are implementing HIV prevention work and two, to work more with these amazing kids. And did I mention, this is the campus Brenda attends.

Well, successes do exist here. They're far and few between, but when they come they're worth it.

New Blog. . .

I’m obviously struggling with this commitment. It’s hard sometimes, life just gets monotonous out here and I don’t really have a lot to write about. And frankly, lately, I’ve been in an uneventful rut. Luckily, on one of my never ending bus rides, yesterday,

I brainstormed a few anecdotes to share with the avid readers out there.

After a year and a half of a clean bill of health, the parasites finally got me. I’ll spare you all the details, but t wasn’t pretty.

P90X, the new workout regimen I’ve been doing the last few of months or so. So I finally decided to start exercising in Peace Corps. I mean, after sweating through the first year of my service, I figured why not whip my body into shape with some more sweating. It’s about an hour a day and it’s a pretty good workout. . . I mean the first few weeks I was a pathetic mess and felt like my body would never recover, but I’ve come around. The down side of it all, the lovely host Tony. I basically want to strangle him at every chance I get, with his stupid jokes and his cheese-ball humor. I mean, a little positivity here and there is fine, but his voice has become excruciatingly unbearable. I pretty much am forced to listen to his annoying stream of consciousness each day. Shut up, and let’s get on with it. Love, Kristina P.S. It’s a really good workout, but Tony thinks it’s the BEST workout EVER!!! Yay, for him. But you should try it.

Next, homophobia. It runs rampant in Latin America, as we all could have guessed. However, we have a high population of men, who dress as women, who have sex with men, who are completely accepted into society. And that’s great; at least this people are accepting of one typically discriminated upon population, but it confuses me, because men are called gay for the slightest hint at sort of feminine demeanor. I guess it’s gotta be all or nothing. . . it remains a question unanswered.

Okay, time for some real stuff.

I have new neighbors who have moved in with my existing neighbors. It’s a mother and her two children (the father is still living in their San Miguel house and working). They hail from San Miguel where they have two houses, but are currently all living in one room and sharing a latrine with my other neighbor, the kids’ grandmother, and I. So what happened? What always happens, MS18 . . . the gangs. They were being extorted and couldn’t pay up. After demanding thousands of dollars, the mareros (gang members) told them to pay or they would slaughter their children. So they came here.

It’s been a couple months now, I they’re a really nice family. I even had the opportunity to speak with the mother, Elsy, about the war. She told me that in the early eighties the guerillas invaded her home in San Miguel, staying there for an eleven-day battle, fighting from her living room. She said they slept under tables surrounded by furniture it hopes to protect themselves from some of the blows. An entire wall in her house was blown out by a bomb. She still says it was the most terrifying time in her life. I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like for her and her family.

Moving away from the heavy, stuff . . .

Work wise, I’m still teaching my classes and will be heading up to Perquín this weekend with one of my teachers to attend a workshop on recognizing emergencies (First Aid training) so that we can finally start our first aid youth group. Should be productive. At least the weather will be cooler up there.

Anyway, hope that gives you an idea of what’s happening here.

Kristina

Oh hey, I’m still alive out here.

So after a little cajoling from my mother, here I am once again. I’m really bad at committing to these type of things; you know, journals, blogs, etc. But anyway, here’s my revival effort.

I went on vacation for a few days to Utila, Honduras. Caribbean island, luxury. I mean, there are two main islands to visit off of Honduras: Utila, the backpacker’s island and Roatan, the resort island. We went to the cheaper one, but it was still amazing. The islands are infamous for being the cheapest place in the world to get scuba certified. Additionally, the islands are English speaking and swarming with ex-pats who have opened a variety of delicious restaurants. Five dollars for a giant seafood dinner. I mean, it was a REAL vacation (as opposed to going to the capital to stay in a hostel so we can eat overpriced fast food). Anyway, I shouldn’t talk about it too much or I just might ET (early terminate) and move there…just kidding, I think. In any case, if anyone wants to visit, let me know.

After an amazing trip I had to go back to site. Brutal. Coming back from vacation is always really hard. Then, I watched my cat die from eating a poisoned rat. Great. What a welcome back.

On the bright side I’ve been sharing Jordan’s dog, Jefe. This morning I chased him around for awhile, trying to save him from the goat that was tied up outside my house. Just a typical Monday morning on the farm.

Workwise…a sore subject. It’s just hard. I’m frustrated, most of the time.

Anyway, my world map is mostly done, it just needs to be labeled. We’re going to number all the countries and make lists of the names so the map can be utilized for teaching geography. And, my recycling program is finally coming together. We found a group that will come pick up and buy our soft plastics, aluminum, and paper. Also, this week the mayor’s office will be bringing out a receptacle to collect plastic bottles. Last Thursday, I went to Jordan’s site to help teach all the new volunteers a little about micro businesses and shampoo making (yes, another odd skill I’ve acquired here in Peace Corps). Aside from that, my classes are still running well…except for the frequent cases of bad behavior. One thing I have noticed though is that my second and third grade students are actually reading better now that they have to read, so that’s good. Future updates to come. Work is a little slow right now. Everyone’s been telling me I’m in the oh-so-famous one-year-slump. Hope that ends soon.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Feel free to send questions or comments. I’m looking for some new material.

Also, I’m using the vacation days I have left to come home in November. That six month countdown starts immediately.

So, there’s a lot of complaining I do about this whole thing because well, frankly, it’s not that awesome. But then, every once in awhile I have an exceptional experience. During times like these I need to remember that some days are really good days. And it’s not even that the other days are bad, they’re just days. So here’s the story of these last few days.

I am currently spending my time at a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) workshop in Perquín with the English teacher at my school, Don Rodolfo.

Day 1: Friday

The plan was to meet my teacher at the school at 7:30am to leave for the workshop (we had to be in Perquín by 11:30am, ready to go). And of course he showed up leisurely at 8:30, had some coffee and some breakfast, and was ready to leave at 9:00am. Great, I thought, we’re definitely going to be late, in typical Salvadoran fashion. And, being late stresses me out. A great way to start a three and a half hour bus trip.

Surprisingly, things turned around from there, and let me tell you, by surprisingly I mean miraculously. Don Rodolfo showed up in his car. Now he shows up in his car everyday (he lives close, but not close enough to walk), but we had discussed transportation to the workshop and he said his car probably wouldn’t make it up the mountains, which was fine, I understood. We would be taking the bus. But, like I said, miraculously, he said we would try it in the car. . . and we made it! One hour and twenty minutes. Success! We arrived early!

During the car ride we chatted, talking about El Salvador and traveling around, using the time as an opportunity for me to practice my Spanish. Anyway, then we got to the good stuff, the stuff I’m always hoping to hear about, but always afraid to ask about. The war. I mean, it was kind of perfect, kind of cliché really, riding up through the Morazán mountains, talking about the war on the guerilla battlegrounds. I know, it’s a little much, but it’s true. So anyway. . .

NOTE: the information presented here is note being pulled from historical sources, so the accuracy may be a bit off, but the stories are true

he told me how the military took over La Unión, along with most of the country, including Santa Rosa. At the time he was young, in high school perhaps, and the military took over his school, sending the students over to the grade school for morning classes, while the military infiltrated the school and turned into a new base camp.

Kids were picked off the streets frequently to be recruited by the army. The entry age was supposedly eighteen, but from what I here, kids as young as twelve were taken in. And there were no options, the youth were plucked off of sidewalks, and taken away. Peoples’ children would just disappear one day, sometimes returning, sometimes disappearing forever.

Some years later. . .

One evening, around eight, Don Rodolfo and a classmate were heading back from the university in San Miguel, hitchhiking their way back to Santa Rosa, a common travel technique, nothing out of the ordinary. After attempting to flag down several cars, they were offered a ride in the back of a pickup truck, going as far as Jocoro, a pueblo about twenty minutes from where I live. They took the ride and got off in Jocoro, standing beneath a street lamp, assuming they would soon find a ride to their final destination. Suddenly, the street lamp went out and the military pulled up. They began questioning the two about their whereabouts. Don Rodolfo explained to the officers that they were students, just trying to get home after spending a long day studying. The officers made them empty their pockets. Don Rodolfo reveled some Honduran limpiras that he had remaining from a boarder sale he had attended. One of the officers immediately began making accusations about Don Rodolfo’s guerilla involvement (apparently Hondurans were deeply embedded in the guerilla forces). He repeatedly tried to explain his situation, but the officers became aggravated and hostile, accusing him of involvement with the enemy. They then proceeded to question every aspect of his life, demanding to know names of professors and family members, requesting phone numbers and addresses. Don Rodolfo willingly gave all the information he could, but the officers’ attitudes became increasingly aggressive until they began beating and kicking the two students.

Luckily, after spending the night, beaten and bruised, in a makeshift holding cell, Don Rodolfo and his classmate were released. Upon arriving home, Don Rodolfo’s mother already knew what had happened. These things happened often. The military had called and visited his mother, in attempts to verify his innocence, making threats to the family. Lucky for him, though, he returned safely and avoided any further interactions.

Around the same time, Don Rodolfo’s sister was studying the National University in San Salvador, a particularly volatile region at the time. Many of the university students were becoming involved in the fighting and protesting with the guerrillas.

And because of her association with these groups of people, she left the country, seeking a safer life in the US, afraid of being stopped and captured by military, as her brother had. She remains there today.

Moving on. . .

One of the most interesting things Don Rodolfo told me that day, related to a book I read, that I recommend to all of you. Massacre in El Mozote. It’s a short book, based on the experiences of a woman named Rufina, one of the few surviving victims of the massacre, someone left to tell the story. Don Rodolfo knows her daughter. She was a guerilla fighter, who hid those ties from her mother. Don Rodolfo says that she enjoys talking about the war and will take me there someday soon, I hope. It’s really incredible how all these people are connected. Living in such a small country during a civil war really seems to have connected everyone in such a profound way.

It’s really crazy how I’m leaving in a place where America and money seem to be such high and mighty topics when just twenty years ago the entire country was a battle ground for a bloody civil war.

Days 2: Saturday

Okay, so I can’t really top the events of day 1, but getting back to my day to day life, the workshop has been going well. It’s actually been really helpful on a variety of levels. I’ve learned a lot of good teaching techniques that can be applied to a variety of subjects and I have bettered by relationship with my English teacher. We both have been motivated to work together in order to better the quality and diversity of teaching English in our school. I feel good and I hope to utilize these new techniques to motivate our students. Time will tell if we can really make some changes. Wish me luck and I’ll cross my fingers.

Day 3: Sunday

Today. We will be presenting unit and lesson plans that we worked on yesterday, reviewing several more teaching topics, and heading home after lunch.

The End.

All in all,I’ve had a good weekend that didn’t involve the capital. Haha. Now, I’ve just got to hold on to this positivity, because it doesn’t always show itself often.

Dear creeps of El Salvador,

Just because I’m a gringa does not mean you have the permission to do the following:

1. Speak to and hit on me in broken English. (Just because you try to speak English, does not mean I want to jump in bed with you).

2. Hit on me, period. (You’re old. . . or sometimes you’re a minor).

2a. Refer to me as Mi Amor, Baby, Mami, etc.

2b. Hit on me in groups; that parade (literally they were part of a parade) of men yelling at my friends and I was awesome.

3. Attempt to kiss me on the street. (I have faster reflexes than you do, you’re drunk).

4. Touch me.

5. Press your whole body against mine on the bus, sandwiching me in between you and the window.

6. Stare at me like you want to rape me.

7. Jack off next to me.

Respectfully Yours,

Kristina

Reasons why I love my neighbors. I know I’ve probably mentioned them before, but let’s do a recap. We have the parents, Modesto and Sandra, who are in their mid-thirties…almost; then Milka who is thirteen; Madai who is eleven; Modestito who is three; and Kaley who is one. I adore them all. I mean, Madai has got a lot of personality, but keeps me laughing; and Modestito is about the cutest kid ever, but definitely knows how to push your buttons. Milka is thirteen, a little angst-y, but extremely polite; and Kaley is just adorable…just not as adorable as my niece, of course. Anyway, I spend lots of time at their house and the kids spend lots of time at mine, they’re really my la Chorrera family. They pretty much inherited me, but have treated me like their own.

Aside from all the mushy stuff, they feed me and take care of Coco and Jefe when I’m gone, and Sandra is my personal tailor. She has taken in a number of my pants and shirts (By the way, Peace Corps is also like fat camp) and recently made me a pencil skirt….all for free might I add. I mean, I try to pay her, but she refuses, so I usually just buy her something in return…mostly food items (baked goods or fruit) or bath products (she’s a big fan of facial moisturizer). Anyway, I don’t know if I’d make it here without them. Just thought I should let you know. I’ll try to start circulating a family photo soon…I’ll just need someone else’s camera for that…

Work, is busy, Midservice med starts in a few days. Can’t wait to tell you what diseases the Peace Corps doctors are about to find in me…

Speaking of diseases, I ate some broccoli the other day that I later found a worm living it. Uh oh. Also, I’ve discovered larvae in my water source. That is, not larvae thriving in my standing water, but larvae dispensing itself from running water coming out of my hose. Definitely sticking exclusively to the bottled water from here on out. Gross.

Work wise, I think you’re all pretty up to date from my last entry. There are few new items on the agenda. I’m attempting to start a First Aid Club for some of the older students at my school. They want to go on to study medicine, so they requested this club. Awesome initiative, I think. I’m working on getting some materials together for them. Additionally, I’m taking a group of students to the view the recycling project that has been started in Santa Rosa by some Japanese volunteers with Japanese funding. I’m taking them to see the landfill on the 15th and I’m soliciting for a recycling program at our school, also through the mayor’s office.

That’s all the updates I have for now. Feel free to ask questions and I’ll keep you all updated as time progresses.

WHAT’S HAPPENING (and what I hope to happen) BREAKDOWN

World Map: Draw and paint World, Central America, El Salvador

Recycling project: Visit landfill (March 15), Solicit recycling program for the school (plastic to start)

Youth Groups: Primera Auxilios (First Aid), Guardianes Ambientales (Environmental preservation group)

Classes: Como Planear Mi Vida (life skills), Reading Comprehension, Environmental Education, Sex Ed

Workshops: TEFL-teaching English as a foreign language (March 25-27), Scholarship

camp (April 29-May 1), HIV/STIs/Equality/DomesticViolence (April 8-10)

Funds needed: $320 fix/update computers, $80 world map supplies

Failed Projects: Women’s health group, HIV/AIDS day (Dec 1 2010)

Peace Corps: Midservice medical exams (March 9-11)

Where do I begin? I know it’s been awhile, but I’ve been busy. Who would of thought . . . busy. The word is relative really, but I have been running around like a crazy person. I would use the all time favorite phrase, “I’ve been running around like a chicken with her head cut off,” but that hits too close to home these days.

Anyway, let’s start from where I left off last. I went to the beach in Auachupan, called Barra de Santiago, with twenty something other volunteers from my group, to celebrate our first year in country and it was great. It took us Easterners two days to get out there, but it was worth the travel. I know there are some picture circulating out there, so I hope you guys are now jealous. Posh Corps isn’t so bad after all.

So after spending a few nights in at the beach and SuperBowl in the capital, I headed back to site. My next project was getting Coco spayed. Not so bad. She’s been living at Jordan’s because she’s not allowed to play outside and she can’t escape from Jordan’s house. She is not amused by the enclosure, but is getting along just fine with J’s dog, Jefe. She gets her stitches out on Monday and will finally be coming home.

This last week I visited the city of La Union in the southern half of the department. It was actually a cute little coastal pueblo which has real coffee shop with internet and air-conditioning. La Union’s hidden gem. It’s about an hour and a half away, but I will be visiting here and there for free internet days. Anyway, the real reason I was there was to attend a FONAES seminar, providing rural schools with the materials to start conservation programs. There has been a lot of deforestation in El Salvador and the program is promoting regrowth and environmental education. I plan on soliticiting them soon for materials and beginning a youth group to carry out projects. Luckily, I have a great teacher who has an immense interest in environmental education and will be thrilled to hear about this new opportunity.

Continuing on that note, this past week I went to visit Erica’s site and participated in an environmental education and trash management day at her school. She’s starting a recycling program and asked some volunteers to come out and help. I did activities with the students discussing health factors related to trash management and what the benefits are of a more clean, hygienic life. I think we all did really well. I will be starting a similar program in my school in the months to come.

The following day, we had a regional meeting. Every so often all the volunteers in each department get together with their regional leader, a third year extension volunteer, to discuss volunteer projects and opportunities in the region. It was about six hours, but provided us with some valuable information. Besides, it’s good to see all the gringos now and then.

Between now and the end of the month I have a few more things in store. On the 22nd, I’m finally starting my classes in the school. On the 25th, my TEFL application is due; I’m taking the English teacher at my school to an English teaching workshop sponsored by Peace Corps and the Salvadoran Ministry of Education. It’s a three day event in Perquín at the end of March. On the 27th, I’m going to San Miguel to watch the Oscars, because I’m a fanatic. I’ve been trying to watch all the films that were nominated for best picture by buying them illegally on the street for one dollar. So far I’m only missing TruGrit, The Kids are Alright, and The King’s Speech. Seven out of ten. Not bad for the developing world. On the 28th, my VRF (volunteer reporting file) is due; every few months we have to record all the work we’ve been doing to send back to Washington. And on the 8th, I go in for mid-service med; three days of medical appointments and stool samples in the capital. Can’t wait. Well, at least they put us up for free and pay us extra.

So now let’s examine my newest problem, well . . . a revisited problem, theft. Someone has been repeatedly breaking into my house and stealing from me while I’m gone. So far this thief or thieves has stolen three pairs of my headphones, my camera, my ipod, and oddly enough my Peace Corps assigned medical kit. Great. All my neighbors are convinced that someone has a key and are playing the blame game. I’m a little afraid someone has been breaking in through the roof which probably wouldn’t be that hard. The good news is that they’re doing it while I’m away, although I haven’t been able to sleep too well because I’m paranoid.

I talked to my landlord the other day and he thinks it’s someone with a key too, which would actually be a relief. So, we have a new plan. First, at night I bolt all my doors; there are these bars that I slide through the back of my doors into the wall that keep the doosr from opening. And now when I leave I bolt both front doors and leave through the back door, which I just received the key to, supposedly the only key that exists. Hopefully no one has a copy of this one. The door is in the back room of my house that I don’t use because the bats live there, but it’s tolerable. And, if this new entry/exit door solves my problem . . . great. Additionally I have locked all my valuables in a closet. So hopefully this will keep the thief or thieves out. I’ll keep you all updated.

That’s all for now. Things are moving along out here nicely, well at least more rapidly than before.

I was chased by a herd of cows, directly into a stranger’s house.

Some guy on the bus jacked off next to me for an hour.

I bought a $6 D & G watch on the street.

I discovered a thrift store in Santa Rosa with clothes from the states, shipped in from LA.

One of the teachers at my school is facing 5 years in prison for allegedly sexually assaulting a student.

Half or less of the students showed to school this last week because the first week “just isn’t that important.”

My landlord found termites living in my ceiling boards, but someone came to fix it...I hope.

The HIV workshop went well. More to come.

I visited a church that gets donations from the states and sells those donations for money. I got some cheap, almost expired Kashi cereal and Olay lotion.

Until next time,

Kristina

In honor of my return and my ever-wavering commitment to finish my service, I bought myself a real mattress and some new pillows. Luckily, the house I moved into last June was fully furnished. However, I never had a proper mattress. For awhile, I slept on the colchoneta (futon) that was here. It was flat and uncomfortable on a wooden bed frame. So I was cheap and replaced it with another colchoneta which has almost completely flattened. On Friday, I bought the real deal, $125 worth of glory. I mean, it’s no pillow top, but it has made my bed a happier place. And with a few fluffy $3 pillows, I’m set. Congrats.

Moving on, I had a pretty successful meeting with my teachers last week. On Tuesday morning I went to the school for the first time since I’d been back. No one had been there all Summer, but the teachers come back two weeks before classes start every year to begin preparation for the new school year. Anyway, I planned a meeting for the following day. So on Wednesday I showed up for our eight o’clock meeting, which inevitably started at nine. And although two of the teachers didn’t show, it went well. I explained that I wanted to work with all the classes this year in order to help improve my working relationships with all the teachers and their students. I also made a last ditch effort to get someone to come with me to an HIV/AIDS workshop in San Vicente the 26th-29th. The day before I had asked both my 7th grade teacher, whose class I had worked with on the topic and who expressed interest in the topic, and my health promoter to go, but they couldn’t. So, I opened up the slot to all my teachers, still knowing that it was during the first week of classes. And after explaining what it was and how it worked I got an overwhelming amount of interest. Peace Corps it basically putting us all up free for three nights during the workshop (free transport, free food, and free lodging). And luckily, my school director gave permission and encouragement to the teachers to come (it is the first week of school and all, meaning we’ll be one teacher short and three days less of class for one grade). I’m sure it’ll be worth it though.

So here’s the deal with HIV/AIDS in Peace Corps. Peace Corps El Salvador has recently hired a former volunteer to come work on an AIDS initiatives in El Salvador. So, he has been running workshops around the country on youth, men’s, and women’s health (focusing on STDs and HIV) for volunteers and their counterparts (any community members that volunteers work with –Salvadoran professionals).

So anyway, my prior second grade teacher, and this year’s sixth grade teacher, Niña Digna, is coming to the workshop with me to learn how to educate the youth on HIV. I’m excited to be working with her because she is one of the only teachers that lives in the community (most teachers commute in for work) and will hopefully be able to assist in other community projects relating to the topic. I think this is a really good opportunity for her to learn more about HIV and for us to work more together in health education.

Anyway, so here’s my outline for classes next year, another discussion point from the meeting. Kindergarten will get story time, for fun. First and Second grade will be receiving a reading comprehension course with some of the new books we received in our library (I’m really trying to encourage reading because people here don’t read). Third through Fifth grades, will be receiving a general environmental and health education course. Sixth grade will continue to receive Cómo Planear Mi Vida (How to Plan My Life, a life skills course which gives them an opportunity to examine their futures). Seventh and Eighth grade will received a modified sex ed course, stemming from Cómo Planear Mi Vida Sections and my prior HIV/AIDS course. And ninth grade is a work in progress. I won’t be teaching a class exactly, but I’m working on an enrichment program. My first idea is to get them to help me paint a world map in the school because lord knows, these kids are blind to geography and have no visual concept of how the world is set up. During this time, I’ll be looking for funding to create my enrichment program, hopefully consisting of trips, mostly to the capital, to visit museums and cultural centers. I want to give them an opportunity to see what else is out there in the world, well at least in El Salvador. So, my teachers seem to be on board with all that.

And, as much as I couldn’t wait for the school year to end last year I’m actually looking forward to its return. I mean, I want to keep teaching, but I also really need a routine in my life right now, just to keep things moving. Besides, these kids desperately need something to do. They’re currently driving me a little nuts.

Also, now that I’m back I’m giving my women’s group another shot. I stopped by Niña Elba’s (my health promoter) this week and dropped off some material on domestic violence for her to look over. We’ll be meeting this week to discuss the details and the group will meet in two weeks when I’m back from the HIV workshop. Hopefully this time around everything goes a lot smoother. So, we’ll see. If not, I’ll find something else to try.

Some things to look forward to. . . This weekend I’m heading out to San Vicente to stay with my host family because there’s a big anniversary party happening on Saturday. And apparently, the brand new volunteers will have just gotten in, so a few will be in my old training community staying with my old host family for the party; looking forward to meeting them too! Also, the first weekend in February, twenty-six of the volunteers from my training group (obviously including me) are all heading out for a beach weekend, celebrating of one year of Peace Corps. Should be fun.

So, luckily, things are starting to get back to normal around here and I have some fun things to look forward to. I’ll keep you posted.

Talk to you all soon.

P.S. Finished The Help. SO good. Thanks Aunty Phyl.

P.P.S. I ran from a cow stampede the other day. Actually Ran.

I’m back. And where am I? Sitting in my hammock.

Let me tell you, the first day back was unexpectedly jolting. And I was depressed and pathetic and unprepared to enter this life again. I was also exhausted and starving after my 14 hour journey through the night. No more midnight flights for me. This was Friday.

Saturday, I decided to stop being so pathetic and regain my strength with some top ramen and instant coffee. I then ventured over and visited my neighbors. It was actually really comforting. Callita, who I also refer to as abuelita, my 87-year-old neighbor and great grandmother to most of the kids here, was thrilled to see me. She’s my favorite and very lucid for her age. I guess it is reassuring to know someone actually missed me. Anyway, she was beside herself when I delivered her promised flaxseed formula to help with her digestion track. In return I got some fresh eggs. And I was in no place to turn down food. I had just turned my fridge on, and it was empty.

I also visited my adopted family, next door, delivering new tennis shoes to my favorite three year old, Modestito. He was also beside himself and then cried when his mother Sandra told him he had to take them off because he was playing in the mud. As usual, their family was extremely welcoming and has been feeding me non-stop. I’ve accepted only some of their food offers though, for I’m trying to come down from the over-eating stint I was on in the States. Sandra’s cooking is always delicious though.

Saturday afternoon I made it into Santa Rosa in order to refill my fridge with food. Lots of fresh vegetables, eggs, and REAL coffee. Hallelujah. I mean, as much as I love instant, I have finally graduated to the real deal. Thanks to the fam, I received a French press over xmas and am bathing in my new-found luxury.

So, I’ve pretty much been just relaxing. I’ll be doing a little work at the school the next few weeks, preparing with my teachers to begin the new year, but I’m taking it easy. I’m supposed to go in tomorrow for a meeting with the school staff, so we’ll see how that goes. Hopefully my computer workshop with the teachers will go over well. Anyway, once the school year starts (Jan 24), everything should be getting back in motion. I have my classes, the hopeful resurrection of my women’s group, and a couple other ideas in mind. Right now I’m just trying to get back in the swing of things.

Current reading: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Current page: 174. It’s really good so far. And, I’m really trying to get back in the habit of reading again. I got sucked into my computer, watching movies on my hard-drive the last few months before I came home, so now I’m trying to kick that habit and educate myself a bit.

Well, that’s all for now. Thought I’d send out an update. New years resolution: get back to blogging.

P.S. Who’s coming to visit this year? I want answers.

P.P.S. My neighbor Jenny told me Coco finally killed a rat while I was gone. It’s a miracle!

So I know everyone told me you can’t get anything done in December and January, but for some reason I thought I could. I was wrong. Kind of. And that’s why I’ve been putting off writing this blog, because well, I don’t have a lot of positive things to say. However, let’s discuss the one success I have had.

Don Rodolfo, our English teacher who has better bilingual skills than I do (his English is better than my Spanish, if that makes sense), and I have been teaching biweekly English classes for the past three weeks. Next week is our last week, as I am going to the States, but it has really been a good experience. We get adults in our classes, and we get people from all around the area, but for me I really enjoyed seeing our school’s students attend. Before the school year ended, I was teaching classes nearly every day. I enjoyed it, but part of teaching during school hours requires me to deal with all the students, including the terrors. This time around, I avoided them, because in my class are students that want to be there to learn, motivated kids who have chosen to spend part of their Summer learning a new language. Hallelujah. It made me think, I should really start some classes or activities outside of school hours. Before, I didn’t think anyone would show up, and to be honest, I don’t know if they will now, but they did come to this class, and they did keep coming. As I build a relationship with these kids, I hope that their participation will grow.

On the other side of the spectrum we have the things that didn’t succeed. The things I will try to resurrect in the new year.

First, my women’s group. We have had one meeting. Cervical cancer. It was great once it finally came to life. Our second meeting failed before I could even present my ideas to my health promoter. After another string of failed preparation meetings with her, I have given up. I called her again this afternoon to remind her that she missed our last meeting, but I would like to try again. She then proceeded to tell me we needed a new topic. I then reminded her that we had decided on one and I had done all the preparation. I was really excited about it too, we were to discuss domestic violence and I was really excited to present the information I had gathered. And of course, after explaining to her that I was leaving for the states in two weeks, she told me we didn’t have sufficient time to prepare. Well, I have a new plan. The first part requires me to start next year, when I get back and the community is out of vacation mode. The second part requires me to find someone new to work with. I still want to invite my health promoter, but I need a more reliable source to keep things moving. I have someone in mind. So that’s that.

Second, the library. What a disaster. So way back when, I went to a library training with a few people in my community to learn how to organize the donation of 500-1000 books we would be getting, card-catalog style. And I thought great. No. I have spent long hours in the library with the eighth grade boys, cleaning, organizing and taking an inventory of our materials. We’re still not finished with that. There are tons of old books and textbooks that we’re adding to the hodge podge of books we received from Rotary International. I am grateful for their donation, but we got about fifty copies of twenty or thirty books. So, it’s not exactly the library I had imagined. And, we’re definitely not cataloging the same book fifty times. Anyway, once this all gets in place, as I explained to a few people, this will be a library for teachers only. They can come in and check out a set of books to use with their class. I was thinking perhaps I’ll start a reading group or something, but we’ll see. I mean, it’s not the library I had wished for, but that’s how it is out here in Peace Corps. And, I still want to get some good use out of it, I’m just afraid people will lose interest in it. In the meantime and am looking for book donations in hopes the library will improve and grow over my remaining service.

Oh yeah, and our computer lab is a wreck. I’m not good with the more technical aspects of computers, AKA the virus infested monsters that scare the hell out of me that are currently sitting behind that closed door. One of the teachers told me she would bring some anti-virus in for me to install, but that didn’t happen. Ugh. I’m in the process of looking for a professional.

So, here I am, more anxious than ever for this upcoming trip, wading through these last eleven days. For now, I relax. I’ll spend the some of the last week teaching English. The rest of the time I’ll be laying in my hammock and playing checkers with neighborhood kids (I swear these kids are little cheaters, making up rules as they go, convincing me that their rules are the right ones).

One more exciting event before I leave. I’m going to visit my host family from San Vicente for the first time in months! I lived with them during training and I miss them dearly. Can’t wait to see them next weekend!

And, that’s it, probably until I get back in January. So. . . see you soon?

One night I’m relaxing in my hammock, and I do plenty of that, don’t you worry, and Coco is sleeping next to me. Aw how cute. After awhile she stretches and decides to get up. Problem. Her paw has some how gotten stuck in one of the belt loops on my jeans. I try and finagle it out, but it’s in there tight, the belt loop is all twisted up and the cat is screaming and crying. Yeah, so cats scream. At this point I don’t want to do anything because I’m afraid I’ll break her foot, the way she’s yelling. So I need help. Great. Wait for someone to walk by, even though it’s night and most people are in there houses. Coco continues to try and escape, but now starts hissing and scratching back in fear. Fuck. Luckily the older man next door walks by, Don Chepe. He was totally weirded out because although he finally figured out what was going on, I was sitting there a little panicked pointing at my pants and blabbing on in broken Spanish. Anyway, so I decide to call my neighbor Jenny, his granddaughter for some additional assistance. Fortunately my phone was in arms reach.

Jenny comes over. Another thank god, my door was already open. I could barely move at all because Coco was going completely crazy. She comes in and tries to set Coco free. I figured that she would be able to see how Coco’s foot was caught and pull it right out. No. She fights back hard. Jenny then retrieves a towel and covers Coco while we try and work on her trapped foot. At this point I’m convinced that her foot is already broken or soon will be. Great. At this point Jenny tells me to take off my pants. Cool. “Can’t we just cut them?” I ask. Well, neither of us had scissors, so no. Anyway I proceed to shimmy off my pants and that finally does the trick. Coco runs off and is totally fine, at which point I’m in my hammock with my pants down laughing hysterically. Then, because of all the commotion all the Salvadorans come scurrying over. Me with my pants down. Awesome, just what I wanted. Mildly humiliating. I mean, they’ve already seen me without my shirt on via the scorpion attack incident, might as well just let it all hang out. So. . . that’s that tale.

I spent this last weekend in Morazán visiting friends. It was great. And, it was definitely a welcomed break from flat, hot, ugly La Unión. Morazán is cooler, mountainous and beautiful.

I left Friday morning and made the four hour bus trip up through the cool mountains of northern Morazán to visit a volunteer in the region. Her house was beautiful, given volunteer housing standards, and her back porch overlooked the well-forested mountains. Wish I could wake up to that every morning. I spent one night there which was definitely a chilly one, probably hitting the low sixties (boy am I in for a freezing few weeks in the states). We had a nice time. I got in around noon and we ate some lunch, went on a short hike, and visited her neighbors who were harvesting coffee. Finally, Salvadorans who drink real coffee! It’s really a miracle, but it made me think maybe it’s time to get off the instant. Anyway, we spent some time there chatting with her neighbors while watching the toucans fly around the papaya trees. It was really a beautiful place.

The next morning we headed up to Perquín, a place I’d been wanting to visit since I got in country. Morazán has a tumultuous past, an area hit hard by the civil war which ended in the early 1990s. Perquín is famous for its location which houses the guerilla past. It’s a small pueblo, in a far off place, but is definitely worth the trip. There’s a small museum at the top of the hill which houses a variety of photographs and war memorabilia. The guide pointed himself out in one of the photos; he was nine and training to be a guerilla. Crazy, right? Anyway, the most famous artifacts are the remains of the military helicopter which the guerillas exploded with Monterossa inside.

Next to the museum is a old guerilla camp which you can venture through with the help of a guide. It was the best part. We went around the camp talking about the guerrillas and Radio Veneremos. We checked out sleeping quarters, climbed in underground shelters, and crossed some questionable footbridges (which kind of terrified me, I mean, the whole one person capacity didn’t really put me at ease). It was a lot of fun though and really fascinating.

I’m a junkie for anything relating to the war here and I am always on the search for more books and information, so it was nice to finally get up to Perquín. The war is really interesting and still really fresh. The sad thing is a lot of people were affected, but still so many don’t know a lot about it. In La Unión for example, the youth know near nothing about the war. This region was minimally involved and continues to be minimally aware. And for those that do have a past in it, it’s still hard to talk about because the people who were involved or affected feel strongly connected to one side or the other (FMLN/guerillas vs Salvadoran, US sponsored, military) and are hostile discussing opposition. I hope to teach about the war to the kids next year though, but I need to be careful in doing so. Hopefully I’ll find an approach that works

Anyway, that was my weekend. Some suggested reading: Rebel Radio, Massacre at El Mozote, or anything on Radio Venceremos or the twelve year civil war in El Salvador.

That aside, continuing with my usual projects and looking forward to Thanksgiving celebrations with the American Embassy.

I know it’s been awhile. And, I promise to start writing regularly again soon. It’s just been a crazy, busy few weeks. So here are the recaps.

Getting my women’s group together was a nightmare, but it finally happened and it was actually really successful. Ten women came (we invited fifteen), a high turnout; we discussed pelvic exams and cervical cancer. Everyone had a lot to contribute. It was so nice to finally be working with a group of adults for once; no one was shouting and interrupting, and everyone was actively participating. All of the struggles of daily school life disappeared. I mean, yeah women showed up with their kids, but that aside, I actually felt as ease for the first time in awhile. Hopefully these meetings will continue. So far so good. My health promoter is a big flake, but during the meeting she was amazing. I couldn’t have pulled it off without her. So, to be continued…

I had an end of the year meeting with my teachers. The results are as follows. My plan, still stands, to finish the library by the time school resumes in mid-January. I’m working on fixing my computers that are old and infected with viruses. Wish me luck. I am planning on holding a two week intensive computer workshop in January with my teachers to prepare them to teach their own computer classes the following year. For next year, I’m continuing my life skills course, como planear mi vida, I’m turning my HIV/AIDS course into a sexual health and education course, and I’m beginning and environmental class with the younger grades whom I’ve yet to work much with, so I’m excited about that.

This last week I spent a tremendous amount of time finishing up scholarship applications for some of my kids to go to high school. The applications were long and detailed. It required essays, recommendations from teachers, and recommendations from me. And per usual, it took forever to get everyone’s information in order, even before I began my contribution. But, at last I finally got everything together and delivered the applications to San Salvador on Saturday. A select few of you readers will be contacted to donate to the scholarship organization (sorry in advance), but no pressure. It’s called MJD (women and youth in development, mujeres y jovenes en desarrollo) and I had to include five contacts in order for the application to be processed. Anyway, six of my kids applied and I’m hoping at least one will receive the scholarship. Also, those other, non select few can feel free to donate too, just let me know and I’ll send you the info (you can do it online through Peace Corps). The more money we get, the more scholarships we can give out (they’re for high school and college). Okay, I’m done begging for money.

In the meantime, I’m working on my next women’s group meeting, planning for my Summer English course, set to start on November 23rd, and I’m getting together some of the students from my 8th and 9th grade HIV/AIDS courses to help me put on an event for World AIDS Day, December 1st. Post December 1st, I’m planning for my vacation time in the States!!!

Moving on, my indoor creature following has increased. Adding to the list of frogs, lizards, snakes, scorpions, rats, and bats, we have tarantulas and giant slimy salamander-like somethings (a new lizard breed, the old ones were smaller and less terrifying). I’m sure I’ll be able to add to the list soon.

-Kristina

The rain is gone…I think. We’ve gone over a week without it anyway, the longest we’ve gone in about six months. I’m not thrilled because it’s dry, hot heat from here on out. I mean, I imagine we’ll see a few more showers before the end of the year, but hopefully nothing like last year; November was plagued with devastating mud slides. The good thing is though, my laundry will start drying again…and stop molding. Hurray.

So now that I’ve given you a somewhat adequate, probably incorrect, super exciting weather update, let’s continue with my other entertainment source. My cat. To begin, she is a rat killing failure. She’s still a kitten and all, but a recent chain of events, okay well one event, has lead me to believe that she may never get this whole hunting thing down. One night last week I was in my hammock and saw a rat crawl into the middle of my floor. Instead of the usual routine of screaming and chasing it myself, I stayed quiet and urged Coco to check out the competition. Let’s put it this way, I had time to get up, find my memory card, put it in my camera, and take a picture of the new couple as they proceeded to stare at each other for about ten minutes. My god. Just kill me. She ended up following it around the couch for awhile (notice how I used the word following and NOT chasing) until it disappeared. Fail. I’m still hoping that once she’s actually bigger than the rat she’ll start hunting. For now she likes going after leaves, and bugs that look like leaves. Well, and one other thing, redeeming her from this rat failure.

So, I could deal with the bugs, the frogs, the bats, and even to some extent the rats. I definitely draw the line at snakes though. But, to my surprise, my lovely little Coco CAN kill snakes. It was a small one, but not one I was interested in entertaining for the night. Maybe she’s getting the hang of hunting after all. Or at least, she thought it was a toy and that’ll do.

Also, I tried to take my cat on an adventure. Well, I was going to visit another volunteer for the weekend and didn’t want to leave her alone so I took her with me. Well, I thought I could just through her in my big plastic tote, but on our way out of my community she jumped out and into the river. I had to go on a rescue mission. She can swim. The trip was pretty much three hours of hell and trying to keep her contained. Anyway, I bought he a proper carrier for the way back and it turned out okay. But it’s true, cats don’t travel well.

Work-wise, everything is pretty much the same. Despite the mishaps with my women’s group, we should be meeting this coming Wednesday. I finally met with Elba to work everything out. That aside, there’s four more weeks of school and I’m looking forward to a break. I’m meeting with my teachers next week to discuss my plans for next year and start the process of reorganizing a handful of projects. And last but not least, shelves are being built for my library as we speak. Yep, my library has finally been resurrected and I’m going to make that happen before next year. That’s about it, I’ll keep the updates coming as things proceed.

On another note, there are a few aspects of El Salvador that I’ve been meaning to share. Today we’ll begin with one of those things. You can buy anything on the bus. Vendors are constantly selling a variety of goods on the buses. And these vendors pile on everywhere. You can buy any kind of food, hot and ready to sell pupusas, fries, hamburgers, bread, fried chicken, bags of fresh fruit and veggies, peanuts, cashews, candy, cookies, crackers, snowcones, juice, agua de coco (I could probably add that in seventeen times to equal the relative occurrence), sodas, bags of water, Gatorade, the list of food products goes on; kitchen ware (and I use the word kitchen loosely here); cleaning supplies; school supplies; bedding; hammocks; bras and underwear; boxers; kids clothing; medications; the word of god; the word of Madonna; clown services (clowns get on the bus sometimes and collect money for their entertainment); stickers; etc. I mean, it’s ridiculous, but kind of awesome. You just need to be careful with some of the food products breeding parasites. Anyway, if you ever get on a bus in El Salvador, be prepared to be bombarded by a variety of these products.

Well, that pretty much sums it up. Now, just counting down the days until my December vacation!

NOTE: I know this blog is turning kind of cynical, but I haven't gone crazy (too crazy) and I'm just trying to be honest about this whole experience. I also take everything with a grain of salt. I complain a lot because I write when I'm frustrated and less so when I'm happy. So, here you have it. Additionally, I'm home

December 20th through January 6th. Plan accordingly.

So everything was going pretty well until this week. (Sorry, this is probably a paraphrase of what I say every week, but I continue to feel similarly). The last few days have been hellish, aside from the fact that the heat has returned, and I'm frustrated as usual. First of all, my women's group plans were pretty much destroyed for the week. Tuesday I was supposed to meet with my health promoter, Wednesday we were supposed to hand out invitations, and Thursday we were supposed to have our first meeting with the women. Fail.

Yesterday I was supposed to meet with my health promoter to go over preparations for our first women’s group meeting, as mentioned. Mind you, she had nothing she needed to do for this meeting, but show up and look at MY preparations. I called her earlier in the day to verify that she would be coming to meet me, but she didn't answer. Of course she didn't call back. So, at the time of our meeting I called again. She answered this time and told me she didn't call me back because she didn't have my number...suddenly. Well, then how did you know it was me? Ugh. Anyway, she proceeded to tell me she couldn't meet me and further she couldn't attend the women’s group meeting on Thursday. In response, I suggested we make similar plans for the following week; we are now supposed to meet this Thursday to discuss plans for the group meeting next Wednesday. There are few problems with this whole situation. One, she wasn't doing anything at the moment on Tuesday and all I wanted her to do was look over the preparations that I made. Two, we are meeting at the same time the women’s group was to take place this Thursday for our preparation discussion. She couldn't do the group meeting, but can meet with me? I basically deduced that the "other work" she had that day was NOT at the time of our meeting, even though that's what she said, she simply did not do more work that day. Ugh. This is how this country works. There's always some excuse and some round-about way of saying it. I mean, she works everyday and told me it would be fine before, so what's the problem? Whatever, I have to keep trying.

Possible solution: I could just do this on my own, but that's not the point. For one, she is my official counterpart, the local professional who Peace Corps tells us to work with. She came to the capital and everything to meet me before I was sworn in. Another thing, this would be the first time we would be working together on something and I was actually excited cause hey, we're in the same field of work here. I thought she was a little more reliable though. Also, the idea of me being here is to work WITH the people and create sustainable work. If I create a women's group alone, it will fall apart when I leave, but if I have a local professional involved, the capacity building part of this whole exercise is still in tact. Hence, I want to make an effort to work with her on this. Besides, she has good insight on how these women work and what methods are appropriate for the discourse of this group.

To continue, the conversation I had with my health promoter yesterday (by the way her name is Elba) proceeded to worsen when I asked if she would be coming to our monthly ADESCO meeting that afternoon. She to told we weren't having it. Of course not. Why didn't anyone tell me? Well, for the same reason I'm not told anything else here. LACK OF COMMUNICATION AT EVERY LEVEL.

And here's the thing, yet again, I have to beg and plead for people to work with me in this community and even then they flake. I was put here because the community needed and WANTED help. So much for the want. Ah, the developing world. At least I'm learning a lot about it.

So far this whole experience can be defined as disappointing. It's sad really, but it's the truth. I don't know exactly what I had in mind, but this isn't it. On the bright side I'm not quitting and I'm not depressed. I'm really trying my best. I've talked to other volunteers too and a lot of them say it takes a good year to really begin liking your community. I guess I'm not doing so bad, right? I've been living here about five months so far (excluding the time I was in the States). It's just scary to think things might not turn around for another seven months. Yikes. I just gotta keep pushing.

Also, I want to clarify. There are two really great teachers at the school that want to work with me and have their own ideas. It's great. I mean they're flakes sometimes too, but everyone here is at some point. Cultural immersion at its finest.

At least I have my cat. And yes, I'm probably that crazy cat lady, but at least I have just one.

A few other good things to mention: I've been getting some good packages lately thanks to some great relatives and I'm getting the Economist delivered to me right here in El Salvador. Hallelujah. I just got of the phone with a women from the post office in the capital who was confused why this American living in El Salvador didn't have a real address to get the magazine sent to and I had to explain that I live in rural El Salvador. She asked why and although I was tempted to say, "I have no idea," I explained myself. So, my first issue should be on its way very soon. Yay.

I saw a teenage girl wearing an "Old Guys Rule" tshirt yesterday.

Things, I would say, are going well for me right now. I feel like I'm finally taking ownership of my projects and motivating people to start there own. But, who knows how long this good feeling will last. Peace corps is like a roller coaster, but I've become okay with knowing that. Hopefully this isn't making me a complete cynic, but life out here is rough, rougher than perhaps I anticipated, but let's focus on the good for now.

First of all I got my cat. I posted pictures of her on facebook, as well of some with her and Jordan's new puppy; they're friends. Her name is Coco, as in coconut in Spanish. She is my resolution to my rat problem...well, she will be, right now she's too small (she's their size) and the rats eat her food if I leave it out at night. The good news is, she's taken to sleeping in the closet next to my bed, a former rat home, so that's one less. I love her, but she's a pain in the ass. I went through five days of potty training hell. She's using a litter box for now because she's too small and too dumb to be outside with all the other creatures; she'll get eaten right up. And let me tell you, litter is now so easy to come by. Let's just say I've gotten creative in creating her pseudo-American life here in El Salvador. She's cute though, and full of spunk, so hopefully she'll be a good hunter. All in all, she provides some good entertainment for me.

In other news, I finally started my HIV/AIDS workshops at the school and they're going quite well. The two teachers whose classes I teach in are really involved too. I've gotten them to one, help control the kids, and two, help motivate the kids to participate and really learn the material. It's also been beneficial for my Spanish, talking more professionally and getting good feedback from the teachers on where I need improvement. Anyway, the class is going well and I think these kids are actually learning something. It's frightening to see how little they know about sexual health, but now is the time for them to learn. And, these kids don't seem to mind asking anything. The other day I explained vaginal secretions to someone who asked. And, I'm happy to answer everything.

Also, I finally took some action in order to start my women's group. I'm in the planning process for our first meeting on October seventh now. I met with my health promoter this week to discuss everything. We decided to have two groups since my community has two parts and people won't walk to the other side, but we're starting with one first, to see how it goes. She made a list of women she thought would come and I'm currently working on invitations. We also threw around ideas for the first topic and decided to discuss the importance of an annual PAP smear. I hope it goes well.

I'm really excited to start more work in sexual health, because people don't get that information here and the youth struggle immensely. It's something that needs to be taught here and I'm more than happy to finally be contributing.

The other upcoming project I'm really excited about is my Summer English class. School gets out on November eleventh and doesn't resume until January. I was really getting worried that, since most of my work is in the school, I wouldn't have much to do, but that changed. My English teacher approached me and wants to do a community/Santa Rosa English class during the summer about twice a week. I'm excited to work more with him too.

So, now I have my women's group, English classes, my ever-so exciting ADESCO meetings, and hopefully my Summer take-over of our library project to do after school gets out. Wish we luck.

Right now, I'm sitting around waiting for Hurricane Matthew. I heard it's not actually going to hit El Salvador, but Peace Corps has put us on Standfast anyway. So we have this really cool Emergency Action Plan (EAP) that Peace Corps has in case of a national disaster (violence, natural disasters, etc). We got put on stage one, standfast, or don't travel and report your location, last night, so we'll see. There's been some rain, but is also the wet season, and it doesn't seem to be too bad. Guess I'll be staying in my house this weekend. What fun.

I have a lot of little tid bits to share, so sorry for the lack of cohesiveness in this entry.

Well, the bus strike ended last Friday, but Peace Corps advised us not to travel as usual. The maras didn't get what they wanted, but all has seemed to resume to normal this last week. The only scary thing is that MS-13 and 16 were united on this last front which means the gang strength is increasing. I just hope that the buses don't become too dangerous to travel on before my service ends.

Speaking of buses, I had such enjoyable experience the other day at 8am. I was sitting on the bus with my backpack in the seat next to be because the bus wasn't too full. This bolo (drunkard) comes up and slames himself down on my stuff and snuggles up real close and proceeds to speak broken English to me. I pushed him off me a bit and told him often in English. He fell on the floor and got off the bus in a few stops. Thank god. I hate dealing with men in this country. Some of them are good, but a lot of them aren't, at least when it comes to women. Ugh.

I'm planning on getting a cat soon. I told myself I wouldn't get a pet during Peace Corps, but I have to; it's the best solution to my ever increasing rat problem. Lately, it's gotten to be too much for me and my neighbors told me getting a cat is the best option. I hear them making noise all night long now, scurrying around. I think I've had enough. Gross.

In better news, the young girl who I thought was stealing from me left my community. The bad thing, she married some old guy with family in the states in order to get out of here. Maybe it'll be good for her, force her to learn something; I just hope that doesn't come with too high a price.

The other day Modestito, my little three-year-old neighbor who often proves to be a little pain in the ass, came to my door all dressed up from church and brought me a flower. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. I adore him...sometimes.

Also, I started Como Planear Mi Vida this week and it went really well. The kids actually listened and participated. I got these bratty little kids who never listen, talking about who they admire, what their dreams are, and what is most important to them. Go figure, spice up the cirriculum a bit and you get some responses from these kids. They said things I thought would never come out of their little mouths. I guess I'll be able to humanize these kids a bit more than I thought. Then again, they never cease to surprise me with their lack of knowledge. At the end of the class, they noticed the sticker I had on my water bottle, a peace sign (I know, real cool --I got it for some charity donation I made). The kids asked me if it was the "nazi symbol." Great, not only do they not know what the difference is, they think I'm a nazi? I have my work cut out for me. Baby steps.

This next week I hope to get my HIV classes started. I tried, but failed this week. Big surprise. This week was dedicated to Central American independence, so there were all these other activities going on, preventing me from teaching. And then, the kids had Wednesday off for Independence Day. I swear, I'll be impressed if the school makes it through a full week with everyone in class.

Tuesday I headed out for IST (in-service-training) at six in the morning. I had to make it into San Salvador by the afternoon so that Peace Corps could shuttle all the rural health volunteers to Ataco in the West, all the way west, as far away from me as possible. Then again, I guess it's all relative, really not that far because we're such a small country, but the buses always provide interesting routes so you never know. Well, happy birthday to me. The gangs shut down the buses across the country, prohibiting bus drivesr to drive without facing "consequences," those consequences being death by gunshot in conjunction with bus burnings. So of course many of us were stranded. We were still encouraged to make our best efforts to get to the capital. A few volunteers made it out on the few morning buses, but most of us utilized some form of hitch-hiking, often said to be the better option in this country due to the gang problem. Anyway I made it in safetly; a group of us travel together meeting up with each other along the way. Anyway, the strike is still going on as of now. The gangs are demanding the the government lower bus fares (even though drivers have a pay the gangs weekly already), raise minimum wage, and provide jobs for gang members. The Salvadoran military is out in full force protecting the roads while the government continues to ignore the demands. We head back to the captial tomorrow morning where we'll find out if we can get back to site or if Peace Corps will be putting us up San Sal style. Wish me luck, although I wouldn't mind a few compted nights in the capital.

Anyway, my birthday ended up fun once we got to our location; we went into Ataco (our hotel is right outside of Ataco) for the last night of their festivals. The cobblestones streets were lined with colored laterns, music was playing, and there were tons of food vendors out. We found a bar and sat outside drinking beers. It was nice, especially since my beers were free.

The actual training has been helpful, getting to know a few NGOs and spending time hearing about projects some of the older volunteers are involved in. I'm not really sure what my next move is, but it's nice to see what potential projects I can do. Now I'm just ready to launch my new classes at the school which I made a schedule for on Monday. All and all training was a nice get away and it was a pretty nice set up too (free hotel, free food, hot-ish water, toilets, the opportunity to drink, etc).

Anyway, not a lot to report, but I thought I'd fill you in on the latest.

I'd like to continue the new tradition of sharing t-shirt phrases I see here in English. An eleven-year old was wearing a "I don't like being the bitch, but somebody has got to do it."

On Tuesday afternoon I headed over to Erica's for a farewell hang out. She tore her ACL and has to go to DC for surgery and can't come back until she can walk around normally in her site. For emergency medical leave, volunteers are given 45 days to recover, so hopefully I'll see her then. She's the closest volunteer to me and helps keep me sane so I'll be sad to see her go for a bit. Anyway, I was at her house and the rain started pouring down. I waited and waited and didn't stop so I decided to stay for the night. At around seven, after dinner, her twenty-year-old neighbor came over and asked if we wanted to go to the feria, the festivals in Santa Rosa (It was the last night of the fair and the last night of vacation for the school kids). All my clothes were soaked from the rain, but I was lent pants from Erica's neighbor and we decided to head over.

We got a ride from a kid who was definitely not old enough to drive, but you see twelve-year-olds driving around in this country, so it wasn't anything unusual. We start driving down the main highway and get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic; everyone from the surrounding areas are heading in for one last party filled night. Being the cool kid, our driver decided to take a detour into the bush of El Salvador. We were definitely not driving on any road and it was extremely dark and isolated out there. All I could think was "great, this is where they bring people to be murdered," or at least, "this is where they dump the bodies." I kind of joked around about it for awhile until our car got stuck in a ditch in the mud. Perfect. After about twenty minutes of pushing and frustration we continued on and made it to Santa Rosa. Thank god.

The feria was fun. We ate, shopped, saw a parade, rode a few nauseating rides (I mean, I liked Tilt a Whirl as a kid, but I'm too old for that now...this country is really aging me), played a few games (I won tupperware) and went to a baile, dancing with a group of teenagers while using the tupperware as a prop.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventfully spent at the school. A lot of kids didn't show up this week because of vacation earlier on in the week. I guess they just decided Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday just weren't too important.

Friday went well. I finally got all the teachers together for another meeting. The outcomes: I'm starting to teach "Como planear mi vida" a cirriculum used in Latin America to teach kids about the importance of communication, self-esteem, education, work, sexuality etc (5th, 6th, and 7th grades); I'm beginning an interactive HIV/AIDS course for the 8th and 9th grades; and I'm starting a trash treatment program for the younger grades (composting and recycling). Hopefully all of this will go well and I can get some good projects happening...finally.

Anyway, I'm too broke to buy internet this month; I'm trying to live on a $300 budget. I'll try to keep the blog up when I go into the pueblo this month. Also, I get free internet the 7th through the 9th because we have a mandatory training in Ataco, aka free hotel, if anyone wants to skype.

This week I was totally worthless. Sometimes I wonder if my whole service will be like this and frankly I'm not sure yet. It's on again, off again with work here. This so called "off again" makes me a little crazy. I'm frustrated. Mostly it's the education system. El Salvador is becoming more and more notorious for it's poor education system and I don't know how to fix it. The biggest hurdle is that in this country, education isn't valued. The largest part of my Peace Corps service is education. Yes, I'm a health volunteer, but our main goal is health prevention through education. What have I gotten myself into? I'm still unsure. Anyway, I've finally given up working for the week. Everyone is in vacation mode. School is out for a week because of the festivals in Santa Rosa, so my plan is to calm down and wait until people are ready to work again; although I'm not sure if anyone is ever really ready to work here.

On a lighter note, I have some things to share.

My frog came back again and I played another game of chase it out with a broom. I'm pretty sure it's becoming a new roommate.

I got stung by a scorpion twice, and it was a big sucker. So I was cleaning my pila outside my house and I thought I saw something over my shoulder. There are so many bugs around I did a quick shake, figuring I was just being paranoid. Doing so, I brushed off my shoulders and got stung on my finger. When I felt that I knew what it was. I then proceeded to freak out as the scorpion crawled down my back, under my shirt, stinging me along the way. I immediately started screaming at Jordan to get it off. I pulled off my shirt and was running around in my shorts and bra while she batted it off and the neighbors came running over to kill it. Meanwhile I'm exploding with a plethera of bad language, practically wearing nothing in front of the religious salvos I live by. Oops. Anyway it was not pleasant and I'd rather that NEVER happen again. Ever.

On another note. . .

There is a large American influence in this country. Many men I've talked to have spent time in the states working. Many people in El Salvador receive remittances from family in the States, and often times they spend that money recklessly. It's not rare for someone to own a TV and DVD player and not have running water. In any case, American influence has definitely filtered in. And there are two ways I observe this on a daily basis.

First, the music. People here listen to a lot of Hispanic music, yes, but there's always American music too, especially when the gringos are around. For example, one day I got on a bus with Jordan in my community and the bus workers were hitting on us and wanted to impress us with there American music. "When a Man Loves a Woman," always does the trick. They love their cheesey power ballads and they love the eighties, a lot. Anyway, it's a good pick me up sometimes, seeing what the salvos pick out. Also, when I'm riding the bus to San Miguel there's always this clown that comes on singing Madonna to everyone. I'm not shocked by anything any more. Something exciting is always bound to happy. Okay, well my version of exciting has changed a lot, but hey, I'm coping.

The other thing, being my favorite, is the clothes. People are always wearing t-shirts with something written in English displayed. I've recently recorded a few of my favorites. I saw girl no older than twelve wearing a shirt that said "SEX," a middle aged man wearing a swastica on his shirt, an old woman wearing "I will be a future star," someone wearing a British Flag, a woman wearing "I'm the Daddy," and a young guy wearing "I (heart) my weiner." I'll keep this fun tid bits coming.

That's all for now.

Oh also, I posted a few pictures on an El Salvador album on facebook if you haven't checked them out yet.

This weekend has reminded me that I live in El Salvador in more ways than one.

First, let's begin with Saturday's lunch. Jordan and I went to Pizza Hut in San Miguel, about an hour bus ride away. And let me tell you, totally worth it. Pizza Hut here is one, like a real sit down restaurant, and two much better than in the States. Oh, and three, it has Pizza Puch, or as they say it piksa pooch. Pizza Puch is Pizza Hut's mascot here. It's a giant dog (with a person inside) that walks around and sings and dances with all the kids in Pizza Hut at lunch time. It is the most obscene, ridiculous thing I've seen in awhile. The waitresses and Pizza Puch collect all the kids and jump up and down together. They also perform a routine dance in front of everyone. It makes me kind of want to kill myself, but it's pretty hilarious. Pizza Puch tried to get us to join the fun, but we kindly denied. Next time we'll bring a camera to document the fun. Plus, I've always wanted a photo with the infamous Pizza Puch.

Next, I bought a new colchon, or mattress for my bed. It's really more of a futon-like mattress, but I'd been sleeping on two similar ones that were ancient and completely flat, so I decided I'd shell out the $30 for an upgrade. Anyway, per usual I had to take it on the bus with me. I stand out enough in this country already and the last thing I needed to do was carry around something twice the size of me, but whatever, I had to deal. Anyway, I finally make it through the bus terminal and get myself situated on the bus.

The story continues. Sitting next to Jordan and I on the bus was a two-person mariachi band. That's right folks, guitar and cello in hand, along with some other accessories, the men played and sang along with the radio playing on the bus the whole way back.

Meanwhile, this punk of a kid, no older than 16 or 17, hops on the bus and proceeds to stare at Jordan and I, trying to speak English. We talked to him for a minute and then continued our conversation. We were laughing and joking around and what not and he started mocking us and being obnoxious. I was annoyed, but just ignored the kid. Then he pulls out his fancy camera phone and tries to take picture of us. He was facing the opposite direction, but holding his camera over his shoulder, trying to be sneaky about it. Jackass. Even more obnoxious. Ugh. And of course everyone on the bus is staring at us while this happens. Anyway, the kid finally got off and left us alone.

Cut to today. This morning we were watching a movie because we naturally get up at 5 or 6 because of the normal daily chaos (cows, dogs, roosters, pigs, people, etc). I was sitting down next to my refrigerator and I hear some rustling. Great, I thought, time to find the animal in my house. I check out the scene and low and behold, it's my toad friend. Looks like he never left. I poke at him with my broom stick and doesn't do much, but seems to be alive. I guess there were plenty of bugs for him to eat. Anyway, at first I thought he was sick or something because he wasn't trying to move at all when I touched him. Jordan meanwhile climbs onto the top of my table with my headlamp on to try and get a good look at him. While she's getting in place I pull out a pot and a serving spoon to try and transport the toad in. First I put the pot in front of him, hoping he'll just jump right in. Well, I'm an idiot. Next thing we know he's on the move, but not too far. Again, he doesn't want to move. Jordan decides she'll just sweep him out. He was not happy about it though. The whole time he was all puffed up and kind of hissing at us. Finally we got him out my back door, I gave him a quick bath, and he was on his way. The whole thing was quite the morning activity. And don't worry we have photo footage to share. Coming soon.

One last thing, I hate being a white, female in this country. I am always receiving piropos, or cat calls. The harassment here sucks. Most of it happens outside of my community, thank god, but some days, like today, I just get so sick of it. For the most part I'm used to it. Guys are always hissing at me or making crude gestures and of course I can't say anything because I live in a dangerous country and don't want to be shot for pissing off the wrong guy, but I can't get a break. Today, even the guy driving my bus today was out of control. These sleazy guys are always trying to speak English to me too, which is worse because I can't play dumb. Two guys on the street, in the last few weeks have tried to walk by and kiss me and I just have to go scurrying off. I hate it. And every guy on the street just stares at me. People stare, without any shame, right at me ALL the time, for long periods of time. The worst part is, they try and touch too. I hate that I can't do anything about it. I want to kill these guys. I mean, does this every work for them. Ah. Go to hell.

Well, that pretty much sums up the events of my weekend. Hope you enjoyed all the excitement.

Last Saturday, I went to the beach for a friend's birthday. Well, that pretty much failed too. We got there and there wasn't much to do. We went into town and there were mostly drunks hanging out. It was the first time we had been to this beach, El Cuco, and we were unimpressed. It was extremely hot when we got there. Anyway, we finally made it to our hotel which proved to be decent at first. There was a nice pool and a swim-up bar, but the accomodations and food were a little overpriced. Plus, we had made reservations for seven of us and they gave us a room for five people at the most. The first night there, there were only four of us, so it worked out okay; with a few drinks everything was better. The next day we woke up and waited well over an hour and a half for the wrong food. The weather looked like it was turning as well. Unsatisfied with the experience we decided to leave the beach and head for the capital.

I didn't bring my rain gear or umbrella with me. On our walk to the bus stop, which was about a mile, it began to pour rain. I sloshed through the mud, soaking wet from head to toe, hoping my belongings (including my computer) in my backpack would make it out alive. We got on the bus which didn't leave for another hour and began planning for a dry, airconditioned, cheaper hotel that put us near much better food options. Anyway, we ended up having a good time and everything worked out fine once in the capital.

I made it back to site just fine and have been trying to plan out new projects, but this week has been completely frustrating. The kids at school have been particularly obnoxious, some teachers didn't come in this week, the school director was gone, and I couldn't track down my health promoter. Wednesday I visited Jordan's site after school to have a little break and she's coming for the weekend. Moral support I guess. It's been a rough week. I've been exhausted and feel like this week was pretty much a waste. I'm going to try and just mellow out this weekend and start fresh next week.

On the bright side, I booked my flight back to the States for Christmas! I'm so excited! Hopefully I'll have some better stories the next week and some success with my projects. Until then.

I just finished lunch. I had a fried plantain and beans; probably the most salvo meal I've made myself yet. Maybe I'm finally integrating.

Aside from lunch, I would like to highlight two major problems that I, along with every other volunteer, struggle with in this country. The first problem is fighting the cancellation battle. Everything is always being canceled for one arbitrary reason or another. The other problem is communication. People who you think would communicate with each other never do. Welcome to the developing world.

Monday was a normal day here in the campo. Taught classes at the school and prepared for my ADESCO meeting to be held the following afternoon. It was a rough day for classes because I had the kindergarten kids. Turns out though, I have reason to be frustrated. The old volunteer, Missy, called me this week to see how things were playing out for me in the community. I was asking advice on teaching the kindergartners. What I found out was that my kindergartners are between the ages of three and five. Now I get it. These kids aren't five or six like I thought. How am I supposed to control and teach three-year-olds how to manage a computer. Looks like I need a new plan. The first grade class went great though because the teacher actually took charge and taught most of the class, using me for assistance. I let her borrow the program that the kids use here for her computer at home and she's been practicing. All I need now is to encourage the other teachers to do the same. First though, as planned, I need to teach a majority of them how to use a computer. We're making progress.

Tuesday rolled around and I headed to the school around nine to teach the fourth graders. Upon arrival Don Armando, our school director, greeted me and explained that two university students are suddenly teaching the computer classes. And of course no one told me this was happening until I walked into it, naturally.

Anyway, this has turned out to be good so far. The two university students, Marjorie and Elwin, are working in the school to complete the community service component of their degree; they're getting school credit for this. Their Spanish is obviously better than mine (they're natives) and they have a bunch of free resources and programs at their finger tips. Besides, it's so much better to have two or three people teaching these classes because often times they're very difficult to manage. They're teaching through the end of the school year (through November) and my plan is to work with them to create more interesting topics, improve computer knowledge of the students, and get a working routine in order for these classes. My goal is to continue their work for the next year and to use this time to really get the teachers prepared to work with me when the university student leave. Anyway, it's great having two more authorities figures in the room with me.

Tuesday afternoon my counterpart, Elba, the health promoter called me and explained that our ADESCO meeting for four p.m. was canceled. Great, I thought. Four-forty rolls around and my ADESCO president comes to my door wondering why I'm not at the meeting. Whatever, so I head over. At five o'clock there were three of us, so we decided to postpone the meeting. Two in one, lack of communication and cancellation. Perhaps, they go hand in hand. I think there's a causal relationship here. Obviously.

Wednesday went well, working in the school the full day with one of the university students. Marjorie couldn't make it because her son was sick. It was a long day, but the teachers have started feeding us snacks during the school day for all the hard work, so that helps.

Thursday morning I show up bright and early and the computer classes are canceled because the Marjorie and Elwin both can't come. They have a set plan for the students now and I didn't want to just go in and teach whatever, so I decided to take a day off from the school.

Today, computer classes were back on track, but for some unknown reason, I was informed that my computer/English class with the teachers was canceled. School didn't end an hour early as planned, so we didn't have time for the class. I was kind of annoyed so just left and came back home.

That pretty much sums up my week, pretty average salvadoran schedule.

In the next few weeks I'd like to start some health work. I want to do an HIV/AIDS charla at the escuela de padres, I want to start a health focused women's group, and I want to start working with the seventh, eighth, and ninth graders on reproductive health. And hopefully, I can tap into my resource at the hospital, Dr. Rafael Bonillo, head of education.

Oh yeah, one last thing, I finally decided to stop drinking the water in my community (pass on any long term damage) and start getting bottled water. I get five gallons of drinking water a week for $1.70 from a truck that passes every Thursday morning. After word spread to my health promoter that I wasn't drinking the safest water, I caved. I am a health volunteer after all.

And finally, tomorrow I leave for the beach. Hooray.

Started the morning out with two hours of hand washing my laundry. Always an exciting experience. I try to keep up daily, but when I have a busy week I tend to fall behind. All caught up now though...finally. I just have to cross my fingers that the rain doesn't come. The last thing I want is moldy clothes. So far so good. And, because it's hot, when there's sun, everything dries quickly.

Last Thursday was my general assembly. I invited one hundred twenty households and twenty people showed up. Pretty typical. The number of attendees to beat was six though. One of the new volunteers had only six people show up to her general assembly in May. It went well though. Everyone had a lot to say and my boss came to help out too; he's a salvadoran and a good mediator for these types of events. Plus, people always take me more seriously when there's an official peace corps person present. My ADESCO wants to hold another general assembly soon to discuss community issues, so hopefully more people will show up to that. We have a meeting (the directiva --the ADESCO cabinet --and I) this Tuesday, so hopefully that will get going.

On Friday morning, I went with the director of education, Doctor Rafael, to the high school (instituto) in Santa Rosa to give a health talk on HIV and AIDS. It went well. He has tons of health resources for working with youth; I hope to start some health work in the community soon, maybe begin with the tercer ciclo (grades 7-9) at the school. Who I really want to target are some of the older kids who aren't in school, but I haven't come up with a strategy for that yet. If I invite these kids to come to a health talk, no one will show up. I'm currently trying to build relationships with the youth in the community in order to gain their confindence and trust, but it's not so easy. They don't want advice from me yet.

Okay, so something else I want to include in this blog is a short briefing of my pet situation. Technically I don't have any pets and probably won't get any even though lots of volunteers have them. Maybe a cat, but probably not. Anyway, I don't see the need because I've adopted all the neighbors pets. I have a few dogs and a cat. My first dog's name is Oso (Bear, who's sleeping on my floor right now) and he's a mix between a huskie and a chow chow; he's from San Salvador and is adorable. Then, there's Carnelo who is a big bad puppy who I have to keep away because he has no manners, and his brother Terrible who I love. They're both some sort of pit bull mix, also very cute. The cat who hangs out is named Pantera (panther); she's a black cat and is always hanging out in the house chasing the bats. I have a few other dogs around who don't come over, but head my protection team. Basically they attack foreigners, so I'm always safe. Their names are Sombra (Shade) and Esquipi (basically Skippy with a pheonetic spanish spelling) and they're the older dogs of the bunch. I love my animals and always feel protected.

Oh yeah, there's one more dog. He's a shepard and he's older, but he's the biggest bad ass in the neighborhood. He doesn't live with one of the neighbors like the other dogs, he lives farther away and I can't seem to find anyone who remembers his name, but he's cool too, very greedy when it comes to food though. He walks me to and from school most days and none of the agressive dogs every bother me when he's around. He usually comes over at night when he's hungry. Okay, that wraps up the dog discussion.

The last experience I want to share today is my second quincinera experience. The first one I went to was during training in San Vicente and it was pretty mild except for the 90-count chicken slaughter the night before. This was was a bit more grandiose...sort of. I was invited to go by my neighbor Jenny, my sixteen year old best friend who lives next door. We all piled up into the back of pick up yesterday afternoon with all the food (for about 300 people) and headed out. About fifteen people from my community went. So we were all sitting in the pick up holding the large buckets of food when the rain started. Mind you we're all dressed up in full make-up. The kid next to me told me it was okay because "we have the tarp." In the wind and rain we managed to pull the tarp over us and the food and hold it down for the rest of the trip while the wind continued to smack the tarp into my face for thiry more minutes. I mean, it was pretty hilarious. We were all laughing at the chaos.

So, we finally get there and get inside this big hall where the most tacky pink and white wedding decor awaits. Then the rain really starts to pour at which point we realize that there are many holes in the roof and the water is pouring in, on top of us. So I just sat there eating until water was up to my ankles and then decided to find a drier location. Anway, the rain finally subsided and we headed outside where there was a night club set up. Salvos definitely love LOUD music. I danced with Jenny for awhile and then fought off some drunk salvadorans who tried to speak English to me which was a complete and udder failure. Anyway, I actually ended up running into another volunteer who lived there (in the pueblo where the quincinera was held) and talked with him for a bit.

Meanwhile everyone from La Chorrera had left and we were stranded. Perfect. Jenny finally found us a ride around 10:30 from her uncle and we headed home with her grandmother and all the empty food containers. All and all it was pretty fun, but kind of exhausting.

This week I don't have a whole lot planned, just the normal school week plus my ADESCO meeting Tuesday which will hopefully got better than last time. Most of the country is off of school and traveling around this week. It's a holiday week and the big patron saints festivals in San Salvador. Every community had their own patron saint festival every year at different times, but this week is big because it's San Salvador's. My school is in session this week however because they're moving the vacation to the end of the month so they can enjoy Santa Rosa's festival which starts on the eighteenth. Aside from the work week, this weekend I'm off to the beach again (lucky me), to El Cuco in the department of San Miguel. A bunch of volunteers are going down for a friend's birthday. Should be lots of fun. I can't wait!

Finished The Night Trilogy. Really interesting Holocaust book written by a survivor who was awarded with the Nobel Prize; the book includes a memoir and two novels. A good read. Time to pick a new book though and I've got plenty. Thanks to everyone who gave me books. I'm enjoying them all.

Got back from the beach today.Had a great time. It was nice and relaxing. Spent the days in hammocks, reading, and the evenings I spent drinking wine and playing cards. Jordan's parents rented this great house right on the beach. Enjoyed some delicious seafood during the stay as well. Nothing too exciting to report. It's good to get away sometimes though, clear my head, speak some English. Gringo time is necessary. And, as much as I didn't want to leave, I had to, it was time to get back into the ol' grind. It's weird though, how this life is starting to feel routine, starting to feel normal. I guess the acclimation process has really settled in. Came back this afternoon with all my neighbors here to greet me and ask how everything was. It's nice. I mean sometimes I need space and need to shut my door and be alone, but it is nice to know that the people here miss me when I'm gone.

Looking foward to the week. My general assembly is this Thursday. My boss and a few PCVs are coming to attend as well. Getting a little nervous, but everyone tells me it's going to be fine. Passing out invitations and preparing my speech the next few days during the afternoons when I'm not teaching at the school. The assembly is meant to be and introduction to the community and a presentation of the census results. Basically I talk about myself, where I come from, what Peace Corps is, why I'm here, and what trends I've seen in the health problems throughout the community. I'll update everyone on this later this week. My big concern now is getting people to show up. Scheduling this thing has been a little hectic. For starters, I was supposed to do this in April, but I left so I'm doing it now, but there are all these conflicts with the churches and with the school. In any case I avoided everything and chose a date my boss could come, but people keep telling me that since it's the middle of the day and it's hot, people will not want to come. Well hell, there's always something standing in my way. Oh well. I figure as long as the rain doesn't come I'll be okay. And if the rain comes, I'll talk to the five people that come and at least get to know them well.

That's all to report from now. Hope everyone is enjoying the blog.

Okay, so what's new? The library is still an epic failure. People keep lying to me, telling me that we're going to start and then something always comes up. One of these days. I'll let you all know when things get going.

Computer classes are as usual. I'm doing most of the teaching now, for grades six and under. It's rather treacherous because the kids don't really behave too well and are used to getting away with everything. I'm going to try some positive and negative reinforcement this week, something they haven't had much of. I'm also trying to spice up the classes a little and stick to topics the kids are somewhat interested in... for now. All in all, things are going as expected.

On the bright side I had my first English/Computer class with the teachers this afternoon. It was fantastic. We only got to English today, but I think I'm going to stick with that for awhile. We'll see. It's nice to work with a group of people that are motivated and want to be in my class. It was so much fun. Today we worked on the alphabet and basic frases. Just speaking and reading as we went along. It's nice too because they all are active participators. They laughed a lot at each others' pronunciations, but didn't goof off like my fifth graders. It was especially excellent becuase Don Rodolfo, our English teacher was there and was able to help the other teachers transition to English pronunciation. He's definitely an asset to have around. I'm going to work separately with him in the future to help better his English; he has a great foundation, just needs to practice conversing and perhaps some writing.

Aside from work, I made some awesome lasagna last night with the neighbors. Thanks for the recipe, Amanda. Here's your shout out! Anyway, the kids next door helped me, we cooked it in the over at the old lady's house next door (yeah, hemmoroid cream lady), and ate it at my neighbor's. The kids enjoyed it and it tasted great. I had to improvise a little, but it worked out just fine and tasted delicious, especially because I had been playing soccer all afternoon and was starving by the time it was ready (who knew I played sports).

After lasagna I headed home to retire for the night. Well, I was laying in my hammock reading (I just started The Night Trilogy, so good so far) and I heard some rustling near my trash can. I tried to ignore it, but it just continued. Sounded like a rat to me. I'm working on fixing this problem, but haven't got around to it yet. Anyway, I don't like rats, obviously, and I took the broom and started wacking it around the corner the trash can is in. Nothing really happened. Then, I looked down and thought I saw a pile of shit, literally. Gross. How did it get there and WHO did it come from. It was no rat. Well, turns out it wasn't shit, it was a giant brown toad. I tried to chase it out of my house, but instead just chased it around my house for a long time. Finally I gave up. Hopefully it'll eat some bugs.

Anyway, I'm done with work for the week and leaving early tomorrow for the beach! I'll check in when I get back.

I had a pretty successful past week. On Tuesday, I had a meeting with all the teachers and my school director which was fantastic. I was able to sit down with all the teachers to discuss my role in the community and my desire to begin work in the school. All of them seemed very receptive to my eagerness to get everyone together and brainstorm. As a result of this meeting, a few things are going to begin. First of all, I'm going to begin holding weekly English and computer classes for the teachers; the idea being that they will be able to teach or at minimum assist their students with these skills. Another outcome of the meeting is my involvement in the monthly escuela de padres meetings. I'm going to begin giving health charlas (short lectures) to the parents of the students during these meetings, to help promote better health in the community. I also expressed a desire to assist in mathematics and science courses or whereever the teachers may need assistance and again expressed my openness for suggestions or necesities they might have. Hopefully we can all continue the open communication.

In other good news, I finally started attending the computer classes and taught my first one (I'm helping out until the teachers get the hang of things). I taught the fifth graders on Thursday. We did a math lesson and then I let them play some science games. It was pretty fun, but those 10-year-olds are a handful. Luckily, I had there teacher there for moral support. She's nice, her name is Marlen and she's here for the next two months while our permanent teacher is in the states.

On Friday morning, after a failed attempt on Thursday to meet the director of Santa Rosa's hospital, the school's English teacher, Don Rodolfo, took me to meet him. Instead of speaking with the director I ended up speaking with the head of education for the hospital, Lic. Bonilla, who was awesome. He does what I want to do on a big scale, for the pueblo. He is a health educator for all of Santa Rosa. He collaborates with the high school there and the community at large. He's now one of my greatest resources. We talked about what work he does, what health problems are plaguing our area, and what I can teach my community. He's got tons of resources in his office and is excited for me to come check out his work in order to get inspiration for mine. He's even willing to come out to La Chorrera to help me out!

On the usual down side, Silvia stole my shirt and I finally told her she couldn't come in my house because "someone" had been stealing from me. My community members are telling me not to confront her directly because this is the MOST indirect culture EVER, but I'm trying to make her realize that what she's doing is not going to continue. It's complicated and I don't want to ruin any relationships, so I'm trying to be careful what I say for now. My next step is to fill the owner of the house in, to see what he thinks.

Anyway, a few funny run-ins this week. Sandra brought her little, diaper-less girl over and she peed on my hammock, hence my floor.

Jordan came over and we hung a hammock...Success! I didn't fall out of it and now I have two hammocks in my house (one for a friend), but one still got peed on...

The old lady next door came over and asked me to explain to her how to use her hemmeroid cream because the package was in English. I made Jordan take that one; I said her Spanish is better...which it is, but truthfully I was laughing too much to deal with it.

This week I will hopefully secure my general assembly date for July 28th, print invitations, finish my posters which display my census results, continue attending the computer classes at the school, complete my first English/Computer class with the teachers, and take off for the beach on Friday. Jordan's parents are in town and rented a beach house. A bunch of us are going to stay for the weekend.

Okay, let's start with the bad and the ugly.

No luck on attending computer classes this week at the school. And, more delays on our library project. There are two walls being put up in two classrooms so that the two classrooms that are held outside can now be held inside. This is good, I guess, but that means one of the classes is using the computer lab for the week, hence no computer classes, and this project needs to be completed before we continue with the library (for some unknown reason). The easy fix to the classroom problem would be to set up the school schedule like most schools around the country, hold half the classes in the morning and half the classes in the afternoon, utlizing the space that we already have. Well, not so easy. Today I found out that all the classes for all nine grades (kindergarten through ninth, ten classes) are held in the morning because transportation is more difficult for everyone in the afternoon, i.e. most of the teachers. By the way, classes are now held from 7:30am to noon. The education system here definitely needs some work. Anyway, I live in a unique community because we're so close to the pueblo, the bigger city of Santa Rosa, and many people who work at the school live there or in the surrounding area. In many smaller communities, teachers live where they work, but that's not the case here, therefore transportation is an additional weight on our school's schedule.

Silva, the little ladrona (theif) stole $20 from me, the second time. Now, I'm sure it's her. I figured it out yesterday and I was furious. I now keep my bag locked away and she's not allowed in my house. She doesn't know this yet though, so I still have that hurdle to climb. I talked to my neighbor Sandra about it and she told me not to let her in anymore and that she is a theif, the second confirmation of this. I'm now about $80 in the hole on a $300 budget. I've got to do something with these kids.

And finally, I think the man who owns my house, Don Alfredo, is in trouble. These gang banger types keep coming to look for him. A few men came to my house last night, yelling outside my door for him. I was afriad to go out, so I didn't answer. I feel pretty safe here, with neighbors that are so close. It wasn't too late, but I waited till they were gone and went to my neighbors who live closest to the front of my house to see who these guys were. They told me they were just looking for Alfredo, but I thought it was weird to come at night. In either case, they now know he doesn't live in my house so hopefully they'll stay away. Everyone is telling me not to worry, that I'm safe. Hope they're right.

Now for the good.

I went over and spent some time with my neighbor Sandra yesterday. She has three girls and a boy. The oldest is Milk, then Madai, and the baby Kailey (just like my little neice Kaley; only a few months apart!). Oh, and then there's the three year old little terror named Modesto, who is adorable. They're a great family and I hope to spend more time with them. Had dinner there yesterday with them and Jenny, my other neightbor and the girls' cousin. Anyway, it was nice to be surrounded by such wonderful people after feeling so disappointed that somone had stolen from me.

I like to call this next story the Breakthrough.

I went to the school today to attend the computer classes everyone has been bugging me to teach. All the kids keep asking and so do the teachers and the director. Here's the issue though. I don't want to be the computer teacher. I'm part of an organization that works on sustainable development. If I teach classes for two years, what happens after that? I leave. The end. It's a concept that I've tried explaining, but isn't really working. What I've been telling everyone is that I'm going to observe the classes this week and see if I can bring in new programs or help better the classes by working with the teachers and the students. I guess they're okay with that for now, but guess I'll have to wait for the classroom construction to subside to start this.

So here's the good stuff. Since I couln't attend the computer classes this morning I began talking with a few of the teachers about what I could do in the school. Of course they started pushing the computer classes because that's what Missy did. Yeah, went down that road again. Anyway, I was explaining to them the same old, "I don't want to teach them, I want to help you guys (the teachers) succeed with them." Then, I continued explaining that my boss put me here in La Chorrera to replace Missy because I have a different skill set than her and I want to do different things. I would like to start reading programs in the library, for example. I told them that I wanted their feedback too. Then they really started to understand. They wanted to know what my specialties are and what new things I could bring in. Finally! Then, they began telling me that they wanted to learn English. This was incredibly exciting! Something sustainable! If I can train the teachers than they can teach the kids! They also explained that the kids are having trouble with math, so I suggested coming into the math classes and helping the teachers and tutoring the student. They loved that idea, and so did the Nina Xiomara, who teaches math and science for the tercer ciclo (the third cycle, students in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades). So, because of all this excitement we bugged the director, Don Armando, to have a meeting with all the teachers tomorrow to throw around ideas. I'm definitely taking this opportunity to continue explaining what I want to do in the community and that it is DIFFERENT than what Missy did. And, I think people will be excited about what I have to offer.

This whole experience is full of highs and lows, on a daily basis. Today, I feel like I finally made some real progress, especially in regard to certain difficulties I've been facing, but who know s what tomorrow will bring.

Yesterday after another unsuccessful day in which I went to meet the governor of La Union who decided not to show, Erica and I went to a bakery for some pan dulce (sweet bread, pastries, etc). We were sitting there kind of pathetically, discussing frustrations with our perspective ADESCOs.

Side note, I don't think I've adequately explained what ADESCOs are. ADESCO stands for Asociacion de Desorollo Comunal, Communal Development Association; it's like a local government for the small communities volunteers work in whose members are internally elected. It doesn't exactly function as a government, but we have a president, a treasurer, and so on. It's like in school when you have a student body president, etc. There's not a president of the community so to speak, but just a president of a group that functions in the community, one that assists in development. It's complicated and I'm still trying to figure it all out. It does sound like an ideal association for volunteers to collaborate with, but it tends to plague everyones' service because these associations don't typically function too well. I haven't quite made a decision on my ADESCO, but I think there's a lot of potential, as long as the president doesn't keep asking for money.

Anyway, returning to my story, Erica and I weren't feeling too awesome, so we were indulging on sweets. All of a sudden I looked down at the bread I was eating and noticed a plastic wrapper attached to the bottom, a plastic wrapper of which I realized I'd eaten half of. Awesome. I'm starving in El Salvador, I now eat plastic. In any case it lightened the mood and Erica just about fell off her chair. It's comforting to bring a little embarrassing humor to the table at times like these.

Another exciting event I witnessed this week was pig neutering. So I live right next to the cow corral which also houses other animals such as pigs. I hear the pigs screaming all the time. I assume they're killing them or transporting them, the usual fuss, but while Meredith was visiting she got really curious so we went over to check it out. That's when we found out what was really happening. A few kids were hanging off the fences surrounding the corral and so was my 90 year old neighbor, all of whom were all encouraging us to come join in on the fun. When we got over there they were working on the biggest pig I've ever seen. They had his front hooves tied together as well as his back ones. He was laying on his side and the men were attempting to calm him down, but he was definitely a fighter. They shot him up with a bunch of morphine and got right to work. They washed the pigs gigantic testicles and then pulled out a switchblade. That would be the point where I left. No thank you. The kids and the old woman laughed at me, but I just couldn't watch that demonstration. Gross.

In good news, my Spanish is getting a lot better. I've met a few people in Santa Rosa lately who were really impressed with the amount of Spanish I could speak. I think it's that I'm starting to sound like salvo too, picking up the accent here in the East. It's a horrible accent though. The best way I can describe it is that it sounds like everyone is mumbling. The other half of the country even has a hard time understanding it. Oh well, integration here I come.

Also, to all you listeners, or readers out there, if you have any questions for me, please ask, I'm always searching for something to write about, even if it's just explaining terms or Spanish words I might throw in.

I am curently living in the shadow of the previous volunteer, Missy. I'm struggling to get my footing, but perhaps with time I will.

Yesterday my regional leader (a third year volunteer), Meredith, came to visit. Regional leaders visit volunteers in assigned regions several times during their service to provide these current volunteers with technical and emotional support. Anyway, she was a helpful resource and was present for the events that happened in the last few days.

Event one, my ADESCO meeting that I've been waiting two weeks to have. First of all, I prescheduled my general assembly for the end of the month in the school because I was afraid that the ADESCO is not on track to having their general assembly. Apparently, I made a good decision because this topic didn't even come up. The meeting, scheduled for 4:00p, began around 4:30p, Salvo style. The meeting went well at first. We began by discussing budgets of our water committee, our recent legalization, changes in our garbage pick up, and my recent presence and my future involvement. I did my FODA with them too, an activity that analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the community. But then, it got a little frusrating. Don Muncho, our very oppinionated president, starting telling the story of how Missy got computers for the school and then proceeded to ask what money I would bring the ADESCO. Cool. He just wants money. At this point, Meredith interjected and explained that I was new, that I need time, and that we have access to grants for certain projects, but we're not here just as a money source, and perhaps over time we can work together on tapping into financial resources. I really appreciated her input and her well articulated Spanish. I guess I have to work on explaining my role in the community and remind them that this is a process and I am at the beginning.

The second event was today, I attended the escuela de padres, a meeting with the parents of the students and the school director. It was refreshing to see the school director, Don Armando, so enthusiastic because sometimes I sense apathy with him. At the beginning of the meeting he presented me to the parents, many of which I know already. I stood up and introduced myself and began talking about the recent library training I attended with one of the parents, which was nice, announcing something I could contribute. The director and some of the teachers spoke on recent news and changes in cirriculum. And although Missy's successes were brought up, I felt like I had a lot of support from the community members present.

It's still hard to be compared to her though because I just started my service, I'm trying to learn Spanish, I'm trying to get a feel for the community, and most importantly, I'm trying to do something different. My boss put me here specifically because I have a different skill set than Missy had. I feel a lot of pressure to do lots of work right away, even though I'm not sure exactly what to do yet. It's hard. I'm trying to help the community remember how it was when Missy first got here, but they're struggling with that concept.

To be a successful development volunteer, you need to live along side of the people, get to know them, and figure out their needs; this takes time. Time that I feel pressured to rush. That's the current struggle, but it's something a lot of people go through. And considering I'm only about one month into site, I feel okay. I'm working on figuring all this out still. I'm doing my best.

Just got back in site from being in San Sal. Had a blast this weekend. Saturday was a lot of fun. Spent some time poolside with a bunch of volunteers at the Sheraton hotel and then went out at night. The embassy put on a little shindig for us and their people at the Sheraton which was a little bit of a bust. There were all a lot older and not exactly drinking types like the PCVs. They also had some expensive food which we couldn't really afford, but it was a good effort. I got a free American flag and some beer discounts. Later, we went out to an irish pub, how very unpatriotic, but had a good time once we finally got there (we got a little lost on the way, but it provided for a fun adventure). I really enjoyed myself and I actually got the opportunity to hang out with some people I hadn't spent a lot of time with in the past; a nice change. Anyway, I got my fill of capital fun for awhile. It's a nice escape.

Hopped off the bus around today at 5:20p and was welcomed by the rain. It's raining lightly now, but it must have been heavier most of the day. I visited my health promoter's house (Niña Elba's her name and she's awesome) for a quick chat (she lives by the desvio, the exit to the main road in La Chorrera). Apparently our Unidad de Salud (Santa Rosa's health clinic) just got a new director and Niña Elba's going to take me to meet him soon. I'm excited because he sounds really motivated and hopefully he can give me some info on the local health situation in detail and suggest some project ideas. Anyway, left her house and headed over the first bridge in the community where I waded through some mud in my flip flops until the school director rescued me in his pick up and drove me up to my house. I also am currently wading through mud to get to and from my latrine. Perfect.

Anyway, like I said last week, I hope this week can help get me on track to starting some real work. I feel motivated right now and will hopefully get some things off the ground at the school this week. I have a meeting with the school director, Don Armando, tomorrow to discuss how things are going in general and what the progress is on the library.

Quick sidenote, it is appopriate to address people of respect in a cerain manner (not kids or good friends, but adults, professionals). For men, it's Don and for women it's Niña(neen-ya), which ironically means little girl in Spanish, but that's how it's done here. So you use that prefix followed by their first name.

Other exciting news in food. I found whole wheat pasta in San Salvador! Going back to eating healthy again because the capital is usually filled with lots of fast food , which is horrible, but it's the most exciting option on a Peace Corps budget and probably just as healthy as what people eat here in the campo (the rural parts). I really need to get started on nutrition classes, but I'm waiting for the next cycle of womens-to-womens grants to open up so I can get money to create interactive classes for the women in my community.

Okay, hope you guys are enjoying my blog, time for dinner.

Bad news, couldn't get in contact with Obama. Guess this country is still in the shit hole. Sorry, old guy.

The rain has ended...for the time being. This means two things. One, my clothes don't mold. Two, it's really hot again and I sweat profusely in this country. Another thing, there are two types of weather here, hot and rainy. People cancel meetings and classes sometimes because it's too hot or it's raining. Good, now my job has become to change weather patterns. This is not looking good.

Here's the agenda for next week because this week I pretty much laid in my hammock waiting for the rain to end.

But first, the last few days. Today I did laundry and finished Little Bee. I liked it. I recommend it. Feel free to come raid my book selection. I have a lot now, I inherited the book collection from the previous volunteer, about 75 books or so. Some interesting selections, but a few gems too. My plan is to get through my stash first. Started Death and the Penguin today; time for a little humor. I go on and off with my reading. I won't read for a week, probably because someone lent me movies, and then I'll read a few books in a few days. I've never had time to do so much reading; it's definitely a welcomed change.

Okay, back to my agenda. I figure if I write this down for you all to read, okay all 3 or so of you, whatever, I'll have to try to make these things really work, so I don't look like an idiot.

1. Meet with my ADESCO and set up my general assembly (also, prep for my general assembly)

2. Work on gathering resources for my traveling HIV/AIDS committee another volunteer and I are trying to create

3. Go to the school and figure out what's going on with our Library

4. Talk to teachers about teaching at the school (computer classes, life skills lectures, and classroom exchanges)

5. Figure out how to get money for my women's group

Two things I'm excited about. I really like salsa and I always have a fresh batch in my fridge now --it's delicious. I think I'll go eat some now, after I chase Carmelo out of my house, the neighbors puppy, he's a wreck loose. Also, I found a Central American Lonely Planet in my room, "on a shoestring," the one for poor travelers. I'm currently planning a trip to Nicaragua for early next year. If you have any suggestions, shoot them my way.

See ya and sorry this entry was a little sporatic.

Okay, so there's this 13-year-old girl Rosa in my community and she drives me nuts! I know this is horrible, but she always comes over and never leaves and goes through all my shit and demands to use my computer, camera, or phone, even though I told her she can't and they're for work only. And then she brings her little brother. Anyway, I finally put my foot down the other day and told her she had to leave because I was working, and it wasn't time for play. It took me awhile to get that message across to her. Had to repeat myself three times, but it finally worked. And I did have work to be done. Mission accomplished. I just can't let her be in my house all the time or I'll go insane.

Anyway, this other young girl came in today, Silvia, she's 16. Today was the first time we met and she seemed much more tolerable than the other girl. She was giving me advise on how to fix up my house and volunteered to help me organize some things. I was working on my VRF this morning, but she was just hanging out checking out the place. I didn't really mind and she left after awhile because I was busy, something Rosa would never do. Here's the thing though, I think she stole money from me, Silvia that is. I went to the bank this morning to get some money for rent and the capital this weekend and now half of that money is missing. I came home from Santa Rosa with it and then she came over. She was trying on my bags and I wasn't really paying attention because I was on my computer. It sounds horrible, but it seems to be the only thing that could've happened. I'm not a hundred percent sure on this and don't know what to do except be cautious around her. She's supposed to come by tomorrow afternoon to help me organize some books, but now I have to be really careful because I don't trust her, which really makes me worry about other people in my community. This sucks, but that's reality I guesss.

(I do have one girl that I trust who lives next door, her name is Jenny and she is also 16. I got to know her first and she's awesome. Just thought I'd give her some credit for being cool).

On the bright side, I though I'd share some insight about my tattoo experience here. As all of you know I have the AIDS ribbon tattooed on my inner forearm. Well, before I came to this country I was told I needed to cover up my tattoo because it wasn't culturally appropriate and it had gang afiliations. Don't get me wrong, I was willing to do this if need be, but I don't think it was necessary. During training, when I lived in San Vicente with my family there I tried covering it up with bandages and bandanas, telling them different lies about it to "protect" myself. Yeah, well one day I gave in. I was really nervous, but finally told them I had a tattoo. I trusted them and I didn't want to have this secret anymore. They were a little shocked at first, but afterword them seemed fine with it. I think the shock came from the fact that I had been lying and I kinda felt like shit for it. Stupid Peace Corps telling me I had to. Wrong.

Anyway, I decided that when I came to my community here I would just let it be, out in the open. I mean, I couldn't possibly keep it a secret for two years when it's in such an exposed spot. Turns out, it was worth the risk. People are actually interested and intrigued by it. They're always a little suprised that this little white girl has the big bad tattoo, but it's really done a lot for me in the community, believe it or not. It gives me the opportunity to explain what it is and why it's important to me; that Americans have tattoos to signify important things in their lives (hopefully more commonly than not...I left out all the dumb reasons people get them). I get people talking about AIDS and I tell them about my travels to South Africa (very exciting news these days with the World Cup in progress --people here are fanatics). It's actually been a really positive experience. Take that Peace Corps. Although I do often have to explain that I don't have AIDS, but they get the picture. This is supposed to be a cultural exchang anyway, right? Well, it is and I've had a lot of good conversations because of my tattoo.

One last thing, a little comic relief. I was sitting in my house the other day with Jordan and Erica and this old guy came to the door. I've talked to him once before, seemed a little crazy, but harmless. Anyway he came up to the house and started telling us he had pain in his testicles and proceeded to grab himself and rub his body. Yikes. Then he asked us if we could call Barack Obama to get him some money for medicine. Jesus. We had to explain that we cannot get in comtact with Obama and that he should probably go to the clinic, but he was sure Barack could help and the clinic was useless. In so many words, looks like I need to work on some mental health issues here as well. I don't mean to make light of this, but this guy is just fine, just likes to stir up trouble now and then. I'm not too worried, but this is my reality. A little humor never hurt anyone.

That said, until next time.

Laying in my hammock keeps me sane. Cows mooing at my door at 4am, does not.

Let's review the last week:

Last Thursday was Jordan's birthday. The plan was to go visit her in her site, hang out, stay the night, and make dinner. . . but it didn't go quite like that. I met her in San Miguel (about half way between both of our sites and the closest big pueblo) that morning to help her carry some items she wanted to buy back to her house. We were at breakfast and got to thinking that it would be kind of nice if we just stayed in San Miguel for the night in a hotel there, perhaps something fancy, $40-50 a night, and have some drinks. So, we headed off to the closest internet cafe to get the numbers for a few hotels in the area. Turns out, they were all booked solid. Who knows why, but we were bummed. So, on a whim, we jumped a bus to the capital for the night, meeting up with our friend Paul in a well know volunteer hostel for $10 a night, Happy House (and yes it's "happy house" in English). Long story short, we had a great time, got some drinks and drooled over fast food. The capital is such an escape.

Friday I was back in site, doing some prepping for the library training I would be attending on Saturday. Missy had started a library project for our school with Rotary International, a literacy NGO. What I was attending was a training on how to run and organize the library. Rotary will be donating 500-1000 books soon, and it was my job to bring some community members with me to this training program; I brought, the school's English teacher, an involved student mother, and two alumni. We attended the workshop and I think it went quite well. We learned organizing techniques and tackled important questions that would come up in the process of establishing the library. I was able to work with my community members, hands on, which really seemed to motivate them to get this project moving. I hope to go talk with the school director this week about the session and give him some new ideas for the library itself.

Sunday morning Jordan was on her way to my site. We were planning to attend another volunteer's, Emily's, food fair that she holds in her site, in northern La Union, every month. We go to support her community project and to eat a lot . . . well, mostly to eat. Anyway, thanks to tropical storm Alex, the food fair got canceled. So instead, we invited the closest volunteer to me, Erica, to join us at my house for the night to make tacos and hang out. It was awesome to have some good food and other Americans around. It rained a lot too, in fact it hasn't really stopped raining. Jordan got stuck here for another night because of the rain. Peace Corps sent us into "standfast" phase, part of an emergency action plan to keep us safe in case of danger, in this case hurricane Alex. But, from what I've read, the hurricane is past us, moving north to Mexico. The rains are still coming though, so no traveling for the peace corps volunteers for the time being. Hopefully this rain will let up soon and not ruin the weekend plans.

This weekend there's a big celebration for the 4th in the capital. Saturday, the 3rd, the Embassy is holding a party at the Sheraton hotel for their employees and Peace Corps. It should be a blast. I originally wasn't planning on going because of all the other events that I'd been attending, but I didn't want to miss this opportunity to visit with the volunteers coming out for this. I'll be back to real peace corps life next week.

Anyway, I should get back to working on my VRF (volunteer reporting form); bureaucratic paperwork for Washington. It's a quarterly report we fill out on what activities we're doing and how we're assimilating. Should be fun, considering I was only present for a few weeks of the period we're reporting on now. At least, that means less work for me this time.

The rest of the week I'll be cleaning my house and doing laundry. I also need to find someone to help me fix up my house so rats and bats aren't taking over anymore. I have a lot of space between my walls and my roof, where the little fuckers sneak in. A rat ate through my loaf of bread last week, but now I store my dry food in a container that can't be eaten through. I would also like to keep the scorpions out, but we'll see what I can do about that. A few creatures at a time here.

I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in El Salvador, working for the Rural Health Sanitation program. I make $300 a month. Cheers.

And . . . I finally decided to start a blog.

Just for a quick overview, I arrived in El Salvador on February 3, 2010 in a training group of thirty-six volunteers. I spent seven weeks in San Vicente in training while living with a host family in a neighboring community. I lived with a family of four. The parents are Ulises and Alma, and the kids are Ever and Krissia. Ever just turned twelve and Krissia is nine. They established my existence in the country and helped coach me through speaking Spanish at the beginning. Then, real Peace Corps started. We were sworn in at the American Embassy and sent off around the country to our sites. I live in the department of La Union, in the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima, and in the cantón of the La Chorrera. It's possible to find me on a map, even though El Salvador is a small country. Anyway, I left the states for six weeks after three weeks in site because my father was dying. Then, I came back to El Salvador on May 30th and returned to another two and a half week training course in San Vicente, once again living with my family there. On June 16th I got back here to my site, bringing us to the present.

I just moved into my own house which is incredibly exciting! Privacy doesn't really exist in this country, but I finally found it. Everyone thinks it's weird that I live sola, but I tell them it's just what we gringos like; they seemed to be satisfied with that answer.

In the last couple of days my house has pretty much turned into a daycare. Some of the kids who live by me discovered coloring books in my house that the previous volunteer Missy had left. It's nice having company around though. Plus, kids don't judge my Spanish skills.

Yesterday I went to San Miguel to meet my friend Jordan and do some shopping and eating. We found this awesome dispensa at Centro where I bought olive oil and peanut butter . . . with protein! This is very exciting. To start, people here cook EVERYTHING in canola oil and then add lots of salt or sugar. Butter doesn't really exist and the other option is lard. And naturally, you can find these four ingredients everywhere. Olive oil was an amazing discovery in this country and well worth the hour long bus ride. Also, at the fancy (and I use this term loosely) supermarket in Santa Rosa I can buy peanut butter, but come to find out the peanut butter there doesn't have any protein in it, go figure. On the bright side though, because El Salvador has such a temperate climate, fruits and vegetables are abundant in the local markets. I would just be weary of the poultry and fish that's there, sitting out in the heat all day, covered in flies.

Today, I was planning to meet with my ADESCO to organize the general assembly I was supposed to have after completing my health census in April, but alas they canceled the meeting for another two weeks. Typical. Most of the day I spent in my hammock attempting to start a new book, but I was sick so didn't get far. (Just finished Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. I've got a good stash of books left to read, so I just need to choose the next). I think today was a dehydration day and hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better. If not, off to San Miguel for a stool sample to find out what's crawling around inside me. Got to love this job.

Overall my community is very welcoming and really happy to see me back after my stint in the States. I'm enjoying it here for the most part, getting used to the slower pace of life. I often seek refuge in the capital, San Salvador, to get together with other volunteers. It's not appropriate to drink in the rural communities and it's a definite no-no for women, so one can see why I need that time in the capital every now and then.

Alright, that all for now. And don't worry, I'll try and provide some humor in the future, because there's plenty of weird shit that happens to me in this country.