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