Staying Strong

At the beginning of the month we had an All Volunteer Conference in La Palma. La Palma is up in the mountains, so a great vacation from the heat. Many people from Peace Corps Washington came to talk to us about the security issues here in El Salvador. We didn’t really learn anything new, but it was great to see everyone before most of them head back to the states. The two groups in front of me are being forced to leave early. They are trying to reduce our numbers here in order to restructure the program. They want to introduce a transportation system for the volunteers, because travelling on buses is our biggest risk. The buses that travel from our sites to where we shop are safe, and I really hope that they continue to let us ride those. I can’t see how we can work here without that freedom. They expect us to integrate into the community and if we had to have private transportation, it would severely interfere with that. How would I explain to my community that because I am American I couldn’t ride the buses that everyone else in the community rides. If they take away all buses, they may as well shut down the program. But as of right now we are able to ride our local buses. Security people from Washington are doing a review of the country right now, and we will know next month what the new changes are. We are told we will be clustering in a safe area in the country, as in the area where I live. This would mean that volunteers would have to move sites. Many are not willing to do so because of the amount of work and time it takes to become integrated enough to start projects. And to start that all over again after being in your site for a year would be awful! With two groups leaving in April we will only have my group of 22 and the 12 in the group after me. After people learn that they will have to move sites I believe we will end up with less than 20 volunteers in country. Right now we have 120. It is going to be a very different Peace Corps than when I came in a year ago.

Because we are waiting for the results of this review, all the grants are on hold. So my stove project and nutrition group can’t continue until mid March. Tomorrow I am starting classes in the school. I am teaching out of this book call “How to Plan my Life.” The activities are supposed to help kids in 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade think about their future and reach their goals. I am very nervous to work with the older kids. Last week I went to translate for some eye doctors. It was so awesome! I have translated for some doctors before, but I felt that they didn’t make much of an impact on the communities that they went to and were really just there to take pictures. This group of doctors were giving eye exams, eye glasses, and cataract surgery.  They were here for two weeks and seeing hundreds of people a day. I helped translate for the eyeglasses station and it was so much fun.  People were so excited to get glasses, I got many hugs and kisses. The glasses were donated and people were unable to pick their frames. Most people didn’t care, and were just thankful to be able to see. This one very old man was given sun glasses with sparkles on them and the doctor said, “I don’t think he will like these, we can try and find some others,” but as he gave them to the old man his face lit up. He loved the sparkles and took that pair home. I found it very rewarding to help them out and hope that I will be able to translate again when they come next year.

There is a water project going on in my community, which means that we rarely get water because they are replacing the tubes. We get enough to drink but not enough to wash clothes, dishes, or sometimes bathe. The other week I was forced to wash my clothes in the river. I hated seeing all of the soap just run into the water where all the little fish were swimming, however it was much easier and quicker than washing them in my little pila. I had pictures but I accidently left my camera in the hotel at the All Volunteer Conference so they seem to be gone. As for bathing, I refuse to bathe in the rivers, because they are very dirty filled with sewage, soap and trash. So with limited water resources I have been forced to replace some showers with baby wipe baths.

I now have internet in my site. My friend Brenda and I are sharing a Claro modem. In order to get a good signal we have to tape the USB to the end of a broomstick and prop it up sticking out of a hole in the roof as far as it will reach. I am very excited because the signal is good enough to skype. So let me know if you want to skype.  

I am happy to say that I am very comfortable with my Spanish. I can understand almost everything that people say. I have even received many compliments on my Spanish from my host family and teachers at the school. I do have more problems speaking but people understand what I am saying. Our Spanish teachers from training are offering to give more classes so I signed up for more classes. Hopefully I will be totally fluent by this time next year when I am headed home.

Funny animal things:

• If you want to make a dog go away (which people here always do) they make kissing noises. Which is funny because if we wanted a dog to come we would make the same noise.
• I think I have mentioned this one already but I’ll say it again. When you are herding your cows to make them move/go in the direction you want them you say “vaca” in a loud low voice. Vaca means cow, so just imagine someone herding cows yelling, “cow” in a deep voice.
• This one is a little hard to explain without making the sound. If you need to feed chickens all you have to do is roll your tongue singing a high note. When you do this all the chickens will come running to where ever you are.
• There are about 12 different names for pig, and they use them all. If they are talking about animals and I haven’t heard the word before I usually just assume that they are talking about a pig.