I feel as though I’ve been living here for way more than 6 weeks, but at the same time I can’t believe its already been 6 weeks. The sense of time has changed very much since arriving here and trying to adjust to another culture that isn’t as fast as the American culture. I know for some of you this is hard to believe, but I have had to slow down a lot here, and (the surprising part) it hasn’t been that difficult so far. We’ll see when I have less of a set schedule and am on my own trying to complete projects – but its been a great learning time. But getting back to the title …
Since it’s been a while since the last post, I will try to catch up on everything. I have about a week left in my current community, and it will be very weird and hard to leave this place. I will miss my family a lot because they have helped me so much with learning the language and the culture. I will also miss my fellow trainees, but I will get to see them again soon. I will return to my current community later though, so that does make it a bit easier.
Since we’ve been in our communities, we have had Spanish class everyday or some sort of training something to do everyday but Sunday, which we usually end up playing soccer and doing something fun. We also have had a community service project. We were working with a group of teen from the local school, and we were going to go house to house to give a chat about how to get rid or reduce the risk of Dengue, since it is a growing problem here in El Salvador. However, no one showed up to give the chat, so we didn’t complete anything on that front. However, we were told by one of the bosses that if we fail, we will learn more than if we succeed. I guess that’s good news. We did learn, which is good, so hopefully this won’t happen in our permanent sites.
Also, currently, there is some political unrest in the country. The gangs have sort of started an uprising because of a law that took effect that said a person can be put in jail for associating with a gang member or for looking/seeming like a gang member. The public transportation has been sort of stalled because a micro bus was burned about two days ago and a taxi driver was killed in San Vicente by the gangs. Also, there have been prison riots in San Miguel, and the market has been closed in San Salvador because the gangs were robbing the store owners in broad daylight. We are in a very safe area, and the military is out in strong force to protect the public, which they will do. Also, Peace Corps is very aware of the situation and making sure we are safe.
Some other sad news is that the janitor at the Peace Corps office, his daughter was murdered last week. She was 17 years old and they only daughter of the man, so it was very sad. It is a very sad story, but it was also very difficult for us because it hit much closer to home than I thought. I wasn’t expecting to know anyone who would be murdered or know anyone who’s family member had been murdered, so it made me much more aware of the situation in El Salvador. El Salvador is the fourth dangerous Peace Corps country, so we are told of the dangers frequently and how to handle situations, but this was never mentioned, so it was very sad. We did go to the funeral, which was nice to be able to do, and I was very glad to be able to be there for him.
On a happier note … we have done and seen some very cool things. We went to an ecotourism park, which was fantastic. It is the first one in El Salvador of its kind, it is non-profit, and the people running it are trying to make it an educational park as well. There are trails to different places with amazing views, two of which were closed because it had been raining so much. There is also a huge ruin (I think Aztec, but I’m not sure), but it’s on private property. Apparently you can see the ruin from the park, but you can’t get too close because it’s on someone else’s land. Also, the park is growing native trees to reforest the rest of the country since so much of it was been cut down in the last 30 or so years.
We also had a weekend where we went to the beach with just the other volunteers. This was very fun, and it was so nice to be able to relax. We stayed in a private house with a pool, which was also very nice because we got to cook our own food, and the pool was nice because the current were really strong in the ocean, so it was a little dangerous to go swimming or go out very far in the ocean. We all had a blast and want to return at some point to visit again. I was able to go running on the beach, which was wonderful since there isn’t really a place to run in my current site. The only road in town is a highway, and its dangerous to run on, and I can’t go very far. We, (myself and the other girl trainees in my town), go to a soccer field in the morning to do a bit of exercise, but it’s nothing difficult, which I miss. But, I digress, it was wonderful to be able to go running on a black sand beach and have a change of scenery.
I also made pupusas the other night. Pupusas are the national dish of El Salvador. It is a tortilla (a thick one) with typically bean, cheese, and lorocco (a plant) inside with curtido (sort of like sauerkraut) and a tomato sauce to go with. In reality, you can put whatever you want on the inside. They are very delicious and my mom taught me how to make everything needed for pupusas and how to make them, which is much harder than you might think. It was a ton of fun, since I love cooking and love learning to make ethnic foods – and I love pupusas.
Well, that’s all I have for now. I’ll try to keep this more updated – but it will depend on my internet availability. Anyway, all’s well here – sending my best to everyone else!
