More Pics

This is the volcano I climbed in Feb.

Some chickens here look like this, diseased. Just another reason I hate chickens

One of the little boys of the School Director

On my weekend in Usulutan. They loved taking pictures, they all wanted a turn usuing the camera.

Killing chickens, my host mom does it every week and sell the meat

He had a hard time killing this one, his mom had to come over and help

Pucking the feathers and cleaning of the chickens

Semana Santa

So the week of Easter is called Semana Santa, It is a week of vacation. There is a lot of processions, and viacruzes which are where they walk around the community and do the stations of the cross stopping at crosses decorated in front of different houses. The week before my school director (who I don’t really know that well) was talking to me (she talks super fast so I usually only have an idea what she is saying). She invited me to do something, I didn’t understand, on Wednesday of Semana Santa. I figured that she had invited me for lunch. On Sunday before that week she came over to my host families house and told me that she was going to move it to Monday. After she left my host family said that it wasn’t lunch that I had agreed to, but a two night stay at her sister in-law’s house in Usulutan (a department south of Morazan).  Oh…okay, I said. So that next morning I went to Usulutan with her and her two kids (ages 7 and 8).

Highlights:

1.      Went to Stations of the Cross in which they act them out. The actors were really into it, so it was pretty good.

2.      First night shared a bed with the eight year old. He slept diagonally across the bed and continually rolled into me throughout the night…didn’t sleep much.

3.      Ate like 10 mangos over a 72 hour period.

4.      One morning I was brushing my teeth, and the little girl (daughter of sister in law) asks me why I am brushing my teeth. I tell her that I brush my teeth every morning and night. She looks at me like I had just told her aliens had landed out back.

5.      Learned how to make tamales and pan dulce (which is baked in a wood burning oven).

6.      Second night I got my own bed, but was terrified that a rat was going to fall on me (which has happened to many volunteers). Rats like to run/live in the roof tiles.

7.      Was fed about every 2 hours, even though I said I wasn’t hungry. I thought I was going to puke from being so full. Luckily they had like 8 dogs, so I could sneak some food to them.

The vacation wasn’t horrible,but most of my time there I sat around trying to keep up on their conversations without success, watch cartoons with the kids, or sat in the hammock and took a nap. Needless to say, I was really ready to go back on Wednesday, however that morning I was told we were going to stay another day, I was not happy. The whole morning I was thinking of ways that I could get out of staying there for another full day in a culturally sensitive way. So I told her that PC doesn’t let us be out of our site for more than two nights without permission (which is mostly true). I said I could take a bus back, she told me there weren’t any buses, which was a lie. So no longer able to come up with anything to say in Spanish I said I would call my boss. I pretended to call him and said that it would be okay.

So when I finally came to terms that I would have to stay another night, they start packing things up. They don’t even bother to tell me that they changed their minds and that we will be returning that day. I was so happy to be back in my community where I know people and they know that you have to talk slower for me to be able to understand, and back in my little room.

So I went to church the Saturday night before Easter with some community members in a town about 20 mins away. I wasn’t feeling that great but I thought that it would pass. It didn’t, so during church I stepped outside to get some air. The mayor’s wife saw me walk outside and came out to make sure I was feeling all right. When I told her my stomach hurt she was really sweet and began to fan me with her little towel, which all Salvadorian women carry around when going out in public. Then she thought it would be good for me to go get something to drink. I was thinking water would be best, she thought a vacanegra (a root beer float but with pepsi) would be best. Even though I told her I didn’t think that ice cream would be good for my upset stomach, she was convinced that it would help me. I took little sips, but it made it worse so I just held it. Then she thought it would be good for me to go rest at someone’s house. The mass was at 8 pm, didn’t start until 8:30, and was about 10 pm at this point. Most people go to bed at around 8. So we woke up this poor lady so I could lie in her hammock for 10 mins. Then they wanted me to take some Alkercelser (not sure how it is spelled) but really I just didn’t want to eat or drink anything for fear of puking it up. Still thinking that I needed to eat something the mayor’s wife began to spoon feed me baby food from a jar. I gagged two spoon fulls down and told her that I didn’t want anymore. Now my stomach was really hurting and all I wanted was to go home and go to bed, because for the past three months I have been going to bed at 8 and it was almost 11. The mayor’s wife was super nice trying to make me feel better and held my hand so I didn’t feel alone (as she said), and it was hard to tell her that her remedies were not want I wanted/needed. Mass finally ended and we were able to return to my community and I was in bed at 11:30. It’s funny, in college I went to bed between 11 and 12. Things have changed a bit.

Other random things:

1.      Chicken will eat anything! Chorizo, chicken (I know…but there aren’t trash cans and so you put it on the ground and there are chickens everywhere), vegetables, shrimp shells, etc.

2.      On most of the roads here there are no lines. This can be very scary in the city when there is apparently two lanes going each way but it isn’t really clear. It gets really interesting at night.

3.      I think I might be being courted by my host mom’s son, who is probably about 40 and has 4 kids, one of them is a few years younger than I am. Pretty gross.

4.      Women here aren’t really into using utensils for stirring when making bread, its all hands all the time.

5.      My community guide’s son is a 45 lb, two year old little devil that only knows two words: mama, mio (mine). How do i know that he is 45 lbs, well thats because everytime we walk past someone in the community they comment on how gordo (fat) he is and ask how much he weighs.

So I have been in my site for about three weeks now. Its in a little village in the south of the department of Morazan. I have been pretty busy getting to know the community by making house visits introducing myself and Peace Corps. Sometimes the families are really welcoming and thank me for being here and other times they just look at me like I am an alien and seem to not have understood anything I had said. The first house I went to was to this really old lady’s house and she could not understand anything I said and my guide that shows me around the community had to repeat everything I said, not very encouraging.

Most of the community is really friendly and is familiar with Peace Corps Volunteers because there was one in a bigger town 20 min away in car. I am living on the property of a lady who owns a tienda (little store) in a room that has a shower and toilet, however water only runs in the morning a certain time so I usually take bucket showers anyway, and you have to dump a bucket of water in the toilet to flush it. Also my room has rats! One ate through the rope that holds up my mosquito net during the night…gross! I caught it on this little sticky pad that I bought at a grocery store, but I can hear others in the night! I think I can live with them as long as they are not eating through anything else, so far so good.

The ADESCO (community government) had a welcome to the community dinner for me, which was really nice. They decorated with balloons and streamers and even gave me a gift. It was pajamas (tank top and shorts) which was kinda funny but nice.

Everyone here really likes their injections. Most of them I think are vitamins but they give them to themselves. One day I was walking by this little store and there is this guy sitting at a little table with a syringe in his hand ready to inject something, and everyone walks by saying hi to him like its normal.

My host mom has a ton of animals: cows, huge pigs, and over 100 chickens. This makes her house smell really bad. There are always chickens running around pooping and squawking. I hate chickens! Funny story about chickens, I was in the capital of Morazan, walking to the market. I pass this little place where they are making and selling pupusas and this lady is holding three large chickens in one hand and eating pupusas with her other hand. You would never see that in the states.

One of my counterparts is the doctor at the clinic here and she speaks some English so that is nice when I need things cleared up. My other counterpart is the heath inspector. So far the weekdays go pretty fast because I have things to do and things are good. The weekends are harder because I only know a few people and I don’t have much to do other than hand wash my clothes (which takes about an hour and a half) so that’s when I start really missing home! When I start getting to know more people here than things will get better.

The Salvadorean government has started this new program where doctors have to go out into the rural towns and treat the people there once a month. It’s a good program and its great that people are able to see a doctor, but it still very limited. The doctor sees about 30 patients in 4 hours. The medications that are handed out are very limited as well. Sometimes she will make house visits, this one house we visited was made of grass and banana tree leaves. It was the poorest house I have seen yet.

My Spanish is improving now that I can only communicate in Spanish. Sometimes I have no idea what someone is saying to me, and other times I have an idea of what they are talking about and have to guess what it is they are saying about it. I am really good at smiling and nodding!

Food: so Salvadoreans love oil, salt, sugar, beans, eggs, rice, and tortillas. EVERYTHING is fried in oil: eggs, meat, beans, rice, pupusas. I had soup the other night, they used ½ water and ½ vegetable oil. When people were drinking the “broth” I lost my appatite. They also use salt like crazy! I usually eat more tortillas just so my food isn’t as salty. For how much fruit there is in this country, you cannot find just juice anywhere. It all has tons of sugar and artificial flavoring and colors in it. They make this really great refresco drink with juice, but never watch them make it! Watching them put the sugar in made my teeth hurt. I really need to start making my own food, but I already paid for meals for this month, which was $40 (pretty good price).

And finally here are some pics of what we did during training and some pics of my new abode. 

this is the "witch doctor" she is taking us to Las Vegas river

the river was really warm because of the volcanoe near by

a beautiful waterfall

they like to dye little chicks, so sad

this is our spanish classroom, and our teacher Esmerelda. In the background is Chelseas host familys house

for our community project we painted the community house with paint donated by a community member

this is my host mom pealing a mango at the pila. the little girl is a neighbor who i have played a lot of soccer and softball with

this is my host familys pila and shower

this is the back yard, the green structure is the kitchen. outside you can see where they cook things over a fire, they only do that with things that cook for a long time

this is the inside of the house looking to the back, on the right are curtains into two bedrooms

this is looking to the front

the front of the house, there are orange and mango trees on the left

the letrine across the street

this is a map of el salvador and where everyone is going for their final site. My star is lime green on the upper right

the girl in the center smiling at the camera is my host sister. This is at a family party before we leave for our sites, they have to eat the cream on the plates without thier hands

this is my site, my new room looking out the front door

looking to the back, and my beloved fan

picture of family and friends and letters they have sent. If you would like to make it up on this wall, send a letter my way

my pila

my shower, but water doesnt run all the time so i use the red tub to take bucket showers. I have a toilet too but it constantly stinks because i think the septic tank thing isnt very deep

my community had a welcome dinner for me