Ecuador! Since Medellin, we traveled south to Cali and Popayan then north to Cartagena to meet Mariel's brother and his gf,Annie. Then we traveled along the coast to Taganga and Parque Tayron, then bogota and then quito, ecuador! The past week was amazing we went from Quito to the jungle in Cuyabeno National Park To get there we took a bus from Quito, a van to the riverbed and then a two hour ride in a motorized canoe. From the moment we got in the canoe, the jungle was surrounding us with its different shades of greens, vines weaving through the trees, birds howling,churping and singing, and monkesys! There were squirrel monkeys playing in the trees above us jumping from tree to tree! That night we watched the sunset over the lake and went swimming in water where pink dolphins, anacondas, piranhas and other wonderful creatures lurk.

From The Jungle, Cuyabeno, Ecuador

The next day we went to an "indigenous village"...aka a small river town of rural people just working for tourist. It was pretty much more developed than my site in El Salvador...we get off the boat and people are weed wacking with weed wackers, like really?! Anyways, we watched some woman make yucca bread and she explained about yucca...def wasn't as good as the yucca in my site. BUT there was a monkey named Nacho we got to play with. It was so weird because I had never like held a monkey or seenone reallyup close and its ears and hands are so human-like. Also, besides playing with Nacho, we saw pink dolphins on the boat ride back! Yes,pink dolphins are real. They would stick their noses and dorsal fin up over the water as they were swimming by!

From The Jungle, Cuyabeno, Ecuador

the next day we went fora walk in the jungle. It was cooltosee some of the trees that are used in many common medicines or food products that we don't really associate with coming from the jungle. Also, we crossed a swamp and i sank into mud until my upper thigh it was hilarious watching and listening to everyone in the group cross. On the other side, our guide found a poision dart frog! I was so exited to see one because I use to think they were the coolest thing when I was little,largely in part to their coloration. After everyone trying to capture its colors on film, we walked around some more and then canoed backed to the lodge.

From The Jungle, Cuyabeno, Ecuador

That evening we went piranha fishing, which was cool to see a piranha. Also, we saw a three toed sloth, a small anaconda, and later that night we went walking throuh the jungle. Now, I was a bit scared walking into the forest at night because their are snakes, spiders, insects, fungus, and plants that are poisionous and/or harmful in someway. We found various insects, including a huge poisionous spider which i held by its leg! As we were walkning in the dark, the sounds of the jungle were incredible. It was like a nature cd, with all kinds of clicking, churping,howls,croacks, whistles and more. We finally ended the walk at a laguna area, where there were baby crocodiles!

From The Jungle, Cuyabeno, Ecuador

To see pictures from the jungle go to the linkto my picasa account. Actually, all my pictures are there and also, there is a link to Mariel's pictures too https://picasaweb.google.com/115684579163990248499/TheJungleCuyabenoEcuador

Medellin

Since arriving in Colombia, Mariel and I have spent our time In and around Medellin. I loved Medellin! It is a huge city with around 2.5 million people who live in a central valley and the high mountains that surround the city. The part where we stayed, El Poblado is awesome. It has bars, restaurant, warm, friendly people, is clean and like 80 degrees at all time. Also, it is really bike, running, being fit friendly with public gyms, hours where they close down main streets for people to exercise and more. We explored the city a few days and then also took a day trip to El Penol y Guatepe which are two small towns about 2 hours away. El Penol is a giant rock you clib up, 740 stairs, to see all the surrounding hills and lakes. All these lakes and inlets are from a dam that was built miles and miles away. Themain town nearby is called Guatepe which is right on the water and has colorful buildings and a tiny main square. Another day we went Paragliding! This has been my favorite thing so far...yes, its only been a week. But, I was a bit nervous thinking it was going to turn my stomach or something while we were flying, but its sooo smooth and you are just gliding along overlooking the city at the same levels as the birds. I felt like it was lik sailing but only being thousands of feet in the air.

To Colombia

On to Colombia! After being home for about a month after I finished my Peace Corps service in El Salvador, I'm headed to Colombia and to South America. I'm traveling with my friend, Mariel, who did Peace Corps with me in El Salvador. Our plan is to travel Southwards from Colombia; meaning Colombia to Ecuador, to Peru, then Bolivia, Chile, Argentina or something like that. Now, some or all of you are thinking what am I doing or why am I leaving? Well really it's because I want to see and travel South America before I have any real responsibilities. When else am I not going to have any real strings attached? So, I'm starting off on another wonderful adventure to see beautiful things, meet, see, do and experience whatever may come my way! I'm excited for the journey. I have put a map below of at least Colombia and our route. Also, I'm planning on writing some in Spanish= roughly translating so if you see Spanish below that's why! A Colombia! Despues de estar en mi casa por mas o menos un menos despues de cuando termine con peace corps en El Salvador, estoy yendo a Colombia y Sudamerica. Estoy viajando con mi amiga, Mariel, quien hacia Peace Corps conmigo en El Salvador. Nuestro plan es viajar de Colombia hasta al sur; eso significa que vamos de Colombia a Ecuador, a Peru, despues a Bolivia, Chile, Argentina o algo asi. Ahora, algunos de ustedes piensan que estoy haciendo o porque salgo otra vez? Pues, la razon es que ahora no tengo compromisos y cuando en mi vida a demas de ahora que no tendre compromisos? Entonces, estoy empezando otro viaje increible para ver, conocer, hacer cosas lindas! Estoy muy entusiamada! Abajo hay un mapa de Colombia y nuestra ruta alla.

Expect the Unexpected

Expect the Unexpected is one of Peace Corps slogans. I had thought of it as pretty true due to the pleasant or not so pleasant everyday surprises, but now it is definately true.

I will be COSing (close of service) on or before April 30th. Surprise! The past few weeks have been crazy and rumors have been flying around about what Peace Corps is going to do in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. In December, they first decided not to have any new volunteers come in 2012 in order to restructrize the program here in El Salvador. Just a few days ago, we got new news about how the group before me will be leaving before Feb. 20th and that we have new rules such as restrictions on going to San Salvador, etc.

All of these changes are being made due to safety and security issues that have been happening in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Mostly, these issues being violence related to gang activities. However, I do not want you to worry. I feel safe in Yayantique! I could say a lot about the whole thing, but the most important thing I feel is that you all know that I am safe. There has been a lot of talk and comments. But the best article I have see is this from a PCV in Guatemala, whose feeling I share.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-metzker-peace-corps-in-central-america-20120116,0,5317022.story

I am kinda studded about the whole thing and vary worried about my community, all the PCVs communities and El Salvador. I know that PC wants to avoid any incident but I know that leaving early will/ has affected my work and my community...
I can't help but think of the bright future and happiness the 3 kids in my community who have won scholarships at the chance to study. I just hope this doesn't effect their future. Or of the ADESCO group who has had so many ups and downs but keeps fight and learning more and more about community development, leadership, team building, project planning and management. I hope they continue to luchar! Or the English teacher who is so excited to work with me and put into place many of the dinamicas (dynamics) and interactive learning techniques he has learned from the workshops we have gone to or the classes I taught last year. Or the recycling program we hope to start in the school...so many places and people who I hope will continue on the path that they have started to improve their lives of their community. My goal is to do the best I can to make impower them and make the current projects and work I have more sustainable and hand it over to my community.

Rain, Rain

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!! and don't come back!

In case you couldn't tell, it's been raining here like crazy for a week straight. Two tropical storms have come through and have decided to let open the flood gates on El Salvador.

PCVs, we have been on stand fast since Wednesday meaning that we can not leave or travel anywhere. This wonderful weather has not only brought down tons of rain, turning streets into rivers, turning soil to mud, destroyed homes, flooding, and more.

Yesterday, I decided to go for a walk in the rain and I walked up my street as far as a could. A small river had emerged and stopped me from continuing. It was more than 5 feet wide and was carrying water, trash, mud and god only knows what else. On the other side of where the street normally is there is a yard where kids play soccer and behind that an adobe (hard clay) house. This river was running right through this yard and through this person's house. They had put wood and plastic outside their doors to try to stop the water but I imagine they still had a few inches of water and mud on their floor. But I could see someone swinging in a hammack. And just kinda accepting there's nothing he can do just relax and wait it out.

It's so interesting how here people are just like yep its raining staying inside and try not to get wet. They aren't really upset that they can't do anything nor are they panicing. Yet, when we have like a baby storm in the US people freak..the world is going to end, buy all the food you can and batteries you can before anyone else. Watch the news 24X7 and increase the panic and fear and doomsday like theather. Yet most people are fine in their well (or at least not clay) constructed houses with cars, blankets and food. Maybe we need to learn a lesson or two on how to just chill, accept and wait that the storm will pass because it always does. We should just be thankful that we pass it safely and dry.

Since my walk, I haven't really left my house. No one wants to travel anywhere or step foot outside their house (myself included), but I am going a little stir crazy.This lovely weather has given me a cold :( and has made everything mold and damp.

So here are two links one is in Spanish but ya can see the pictures amd the other in english.
The towns below me on the hill are some of those most effected in the eastern part of the country! I'm very happy to be living in the pueblo on the hill!

http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-salvador/social/224152-lluvia-afecta-a-oriente-este-fin-de-semana-en-el-salvador.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/ap/latinamerica/main20120357.shtml

2 de octubre

I’m back in El Salvador after going to the states for a few weeks for Beth’s wedding! I’m sorry for those people I didn’t get to see or call.

But yes, since being back I’ve been working on trying to get the Adesco legalized, which is a community development association (kinda like a town association). I have been super impressed with them because while I was gone they had various meetings, recruited more people and have gotten serious about it! Hopefully, in the next few weeks they will be sworn in as an official legalized!

In the school, I have been trying to get this environmental mural done. Unfortunately, the school is going to be going under reconstruction and many walls are going to be destroyed and so where we had originally planned to do it we can’t. But the other day I was like damnit I want to get this doneee so I went out and bought the base coat and tomorrow hopefully we will start!

Last week, Nicole and I started a vivero (a nursery). We planted like more than 50 tree seeds, which we hope can turn into something big poco a poco that the community can take over! Another environmental/ green thing I’m working on is a community garden! This woman Emerita and her husband approached me about making an exemplary community garden in the church to teach and motivate others to grown. The past few days we have cleared the land and started to till it. The land is fertile but holy it was filled with weeds, grass, trees, plants, bean vines all at least up to my waist. On top of it, for the past who know how many years people have thrown random junk there or burned plastics. And the nice little creatures we have come upon…. Biting ants, termites, poisionious spiders, millipedes and other things. But I have a feeling that Emerita and Santiago are going to work with me and we are going to have an awesome garden!

Speaking of creatures…the other night I came home from Ana’s house. I turn on the lights, get some water and am putting stuff away to go to bed. And holy shit right near my water/ kitchen area a GIANT tarantula. I jump onto a chair and think what am I going to do. I wanted to like drop a cup on it and capture it because I didn’t want to get close to it to like attempt to kill it. However, all my cups are ceramic so I couldn’t do that. Eventually, me moving my chair scared it and it ran away but I’m a little bit scared of where I may find it next.

So Julie the kids asked for pictures…so while I was on top of the chair I got my camera and took a picture of the tarantula.

Rigo

In my community, my best friend is named Ana and she is great. She is this tiny 24 year old who has lots of spunk, likes to joke around, is very curious about the world, is an extremely hard worker, got a little bit of an attitude and well is awesome. Ana works her butt of and is a superviser in a tuna canning plant. She lives with her sister Claudia, 27 who is also wonderful. She's a bit more shy at first and more independent and a bit more rebellious i think. She has a 20 month year old baby, Gabriel who is one of the few babies I like. He's a pretty cool little guy. Also, Ana's mom and aunt live in her house.

Pretty much every night I go to their house to hang out. We talk, play with Gabriel, do errands, do some chores and then around 8 watch the telenovela "triunfo de amor"...i didn't really like telenovelas but i have to say im kinda into this one. Anyways, at night Ana's brothers usually come over too, Riego and Carlos. Carlos is more quiet and has 2 kids who are cute and we have like basic interactions. Riego on the other hand loves to talk and at first I literally didn't understand a word he would say to me. He spoke spanish with most caliche words. Ana would be like Riego stop laura don't understand and she would have to translate for me haha. He liked to tell me stories about his life (his teacher he loved, his believes on life) and lots about construction. He is a brick layer, carpenter and like did tileing. Very knowledgable and skilled in his craft especially for his age, 33. He was very friendly, funny and willing to talk and learn.

So about 2 weeks ago when I went over there Rigo was just laying in the hammack and not looking so good. His face was puffy and his skin had a yellowish tint. He went to the doctors and they told him he had anemia. Every night for about a week he just laid in the hammack not really talking much and not eating dinner either. Claudia took him to various doctors and they told him he had fluid in his lungs and problems with his kidneys. One doctor said he needed diaylsis, another natural doctor said herb medicine. He was sick, but with the medicine, his youth and his strength i just figured he'd be better in a month.

Monday after the bus charlas and soccer pratice I was walking home and Ana's aunt told me to go to Rigo's house because he wasn't doing well. I ran home changed and then went to Ana's house because I didn't know where Rigo lived. When I walked into Ana's house, a group of older women were praying and Rigo's body was lying on a cot. Rigo, the hard working, friendly, outgoing, warm, funny, young guy I knew had died.

Since monday, I have been with Ana and her family helping them cook, hand out food, go shopping and basically anything they need. Here after someone dies that night they pray, give bread and coffee to everyone and stay up the whole night. After 24 hours they bury the body. However, since Rigo died at like 5:30pm they had 2 nights of praying, food, and visitors. Ana and her family have been so strong especially since they have already lost their father and 2 sisters, all in the past 10 years or less.

I'm shocked how quickly Rigo died and how young he was. Also, that someone so young had could have such complications from their kidneys without any previous symptoms. Death is so close to life here. Also, I know I'm not the best at communicating from here sometimes but everyone at home especially my family (Dad and Beth especially you are wonderful) and friends I miss you and you all mean very much to me!

To Rigo, thank you for teaching me caliche, about yayantique, your trade and being so welcoming and friendly to me. You will be missed and very much remembered.

Buses y basura

A martian, Jesus/Campesino/Rat, Plastic Bag, Banana Peel and a Coke Can all were waiting on the side of the road to take a bus to well anywhere. Brenden, Megan, Nicole, Keri and I decided to do some bus charlas about trash and throwing trash out the bus window on Monday!

We took various buses going to Santa Rosa- Joroco- San Miguel route. Brenden and Megan would hop on the front of the bus. Brenden, the martian, didn't know what to do with his chip bag and so he decided to throw it out the bus window (common practice here) when all of a sudden a campesino ref comes up to tell him that he shouldn't litter or burn his trash. Then pops up Nicole, a "sexy" bolsa aka super selectos bag to talk about how plastics need to go in a trash can. Megan sneaks up on the bag as a rat and talks about if ya throw trash wherever rats, mosquitos, cockroaches and other lovely creatures will come with their diseases. After this encounter, the martian thinks he's got it all figured out and that all trash goes in the trash can. But it doesn't! So I, the coke can tell him about recycling cans, glass, plastic bottles and how ya can earn some $ for it too! So now we got waste and recycling...until the martian eats a bananna. This bananna happens to be Keri, the bananna peel's "rica" little sister. She explains about organic vs. inorganic trash. At the end, the martian gets what to do with trash BUT he wants to know THE TRUTH of the universe. Luckily, Jesus Cristo (aka Megan, the campesino and rat) is on the bus and says how God created the earth and humans and he didn't create it for humans to just trash it. At then end, Jesus asks for a donation of trash! And that was our trash skit!

The reactions to us were: indifference, picture taking, applauses, people trying to help us throw trash out the window, others telling us that americans don't litter, a grandma that thought we were just precious, a cobrador who thought we were pretty great and yeah!
It was hilarious and I'm going to try to put a video up of it.

Oh yeah, you are probably thinking why did we do this on the bus and why were we not kicked off. Well, I'm glad we didn't get kicked off or charged for bus fair. But here like people sell everything on the bus from God to toothbrushes. So people screaming on the bus is pretty common. We decided to take advantage of this and talk about the environment!

HIV/AIDs Race Winner!

The race's happy winner!

HIV/AIDS Race

Last Thursday I had my first big event that I planned! I got a VSAT grant to do various workshops and a road race for HIV/AIDS awareness. During last week was El Salvador's National HIV/AIDs Awareness Day and so the health workers were doing free HIV testing throughout the country. I worked with the health workers to plan and organize this event! We advertised with flyers, word of mouth, in the schools and the best was the ambulance! The ambulance driver, Elias, who is 23 and lives in my town and I drove to a neighboring town blasting Merengue, Bachata, and Salsa music along with the siren. Every few miinutes one of the two of us would announce about the event...I think we got people's attention or at least got a laugh at us zipping around in the ambulance.

The day before the event I was stresssingggg. No store had medals or enough medals for all the winners so I had to buy little prizes and make prize bags. Also, no place had face paint, but the guy at the libereria said that watercolor colored pencils work. I was a little skeptical, but it's true they work. Also, Coca-Cola had told me that they would provide water, poweraid, announcing and trash cans. However, I called them like a stalking girlfriend all day, and by 5 o'clock still had no answer. I was a bit worried. At 7pm they had called and were on their way to my house to drop stuff off!

On the day of the race, the morning was a little hectic. The school was suppose to let kids leave who wanted to, but 4 teachers, the principal, and vice principal decided not to show up that day and kids aren't suppose to leave the school without a teacher. However, there wasn't a teacher to go with the kids. That was kinda a bummer because like 20-30 kids were ready to go when we arrived. But anyways, the health promoters, nurses, Megan, Nick and I set up for the race, and some other clinic workers went to the start of the race to begin!

I waited at the finish line hoping their would be more than like 2 people and there were! A guy from my town won and then this like 11 year olf boy who I asked to run earlier in the morning, but who told me he was "too busy" with errands that he couldnt shows up at the finish line as the 2nd place winner. Glad his errands included the race haha. Also, there were a bunch of young girls which was awesome to see, and then 1 middle aged woman and 1 older woman came walking and then with all the clapping and cheering came running across the finish line. Nicole with some girls from her school came too! Overall, there were like 20 participants!

After the race, there were 4 booths set up. Nick talked about and did condom demonstrations which was a big hit and HILARIOUS to see. Megan gave info and asked people how you can contract HIV and some myths about contraction/ around HIV/AIDs. Nicole had the patience and artistic skill to paint little kids faces and hands. And the nurses, took blood tests!

To end the event, we announced and crowned the winners. Yes, I bought and made them wear silly plastic crowns. And then it wouldn't be El Salvador without 2 pinatas (one for girls, other for boys) and the mad dash, pig pilling action for some candy.

I am very happy and glad that it turned out okay! And hopefully, the workshops will go just as well.

Caminatas!

The past few weekends we have been going on caminatas (hikes) to various parts around my town. The first week we went to this place called la corquinta, which is this cave where the indigeous use to come to make sombreros and brooms from palm leaves. To get to the cave we hiked around this river bed, and water pools and tiny caves. When we stopped for a minute at this watering hole, we started this beautiful white owl from the cave. It looked like Hedwig from Harry Potter....why a white, furry owl is in El Salvador no idea but I understand why it was hiding. Anyways, when we reached the cave we had to climb down slowly and quitely because above us were these holes in the bedrock where tons of bees were swarming around their nests. The cave was so quiet and cool. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see the alleged cave paintings of a serpent, sun and moon. However, one wall of the cave had shattered and falled down into large turned over boulders. Apparently, on that wall was where the paintings were.

The second week, we went to Cerro Capulin. It is the cerro above my town. Our "tour guide" Guillermo took my friend Ana Ruth, Nicole, Mya, Narciso and I to the very top. Literally the vary top..top of the antenea! The pictures are of Ana Ruth climbing up to the top and the zoomed in shot from the top of us waiting at the bottom. I only went up like a 1/3 of the way. Just enough to see the Gulf, Nicaragua and all the way to the volcano of San Vicente! It was an amazing view! On the way up and down Guillermo told us about the history of Yayantique and some other stories.

Yayantique is named after an indigenous named Yahyai who fled from Civil War in Guatemala to this area. He led a serious of protests that led to the authorities to finally name the land after him. Yayantique use to me one of the largest and most important lands in the East of El Salvador!

Other less believable stories included a plant that looks like any other normal plant and when you look at it you immediately get lost. The trick is because it is an ordinary plant you don't know if you saw it or not only if you get lost than you did. Apparently, some guy got lost till like 8 o'clock on the hill because he saw it.

Another believable or no so believable story was about how a guy got stung by these african wasps and had a temperature of over 200 degrees.

But Guillermo is awesome and always is willing to talk to me, help me and wants to better his community. And has some factual and other interesting stories to tell!

Oh yeah, this past weekend we hiked to El Raton, which is like a cave/ little water spring. It was a very muddy, slippery and a bit difficult climb down to it. But we all made it and where we were was so green and lush with these giant vines coming down. The birds were all singing and the water was slightly trickling down the rocks. It was like a george in the jungle scene minus george, and monkeys. (we did have the screaming scared Jane role covered by the three gringas: Nicole, Mya and I) haha jk. After El Raton, we hiked up to this other hill where you could see the other cantones of my town, and then we hiked down to this natural watering hole called El Hobo. El hobo apparently is a type of tree that use to be there...I saw it was a homeless man haha.

This weekend we are going to go to a "lake" in El Socorro which is a canton (smaller town/part) of my town.

Eco- Camp

About a month ago now (wow time flies, sorta) we had an environmental camp! It was awesome and the kids were great. For me it was like a mini summer camp, but even better. These kids have never really left their towns and especially not without their families. Nor have they had the opportunity to know kids from other places. The kids were so happy, fun, energetic and BOLD! Yes, here kids are usually too embarrassed to do anything (fucking pena) and kids are very harsh on anyone who is different or does anything new. Kids are tough on each other here. But at this camp we told them that pena doesn't exist and it was a place for everyone to be themselves without judging or making fun of others. It worked!

These girls here were amazing. They made these creative outfits from recycled material and then weren't embarrassed to walk around with it. The were models in the fashion show we had at night! Hopefully, they can remember that they are beautiful and can be bold back in their communities.

Duck

Yes, this is a picture of a dead duck. It was alive about 1 minute before this picture was taken. So one afternoon my friends Brian and Karl bought a duck for $2.00 from a friend. This was a pretty fat little duck they got. Anyways, so the boys killed the duck. I couldn't watch all of it, but I had to document it. I have never witness an animal being killed, chopped up, cooked and then eaten. Also, I'm in El Salvador..people do this stuff all the time here but I'm usually too much of a baby to witness the killing part. It was something that I felt I had to do while being here.

SO the boys killed it, cleaned it (what a bitch it was to get the feathers off), cooked in and then made a gumbo. It was delicious!

*Now, I know at home and even here I try not to eat that much meat, nor do I really like meat. But if I'm going to eat it, I like it fresh and local...I couldn't have gotten it much more fresh or local.

Teacher Taller

The past two weeks three other volunteers and I did a teacher workshop in and around San Miguel. We taught them these lessons called APA- Actividades Participativas Ambientales or basically Participatory Environment Activities. They are a series of Science lessons that gets kids active, thinking, experimenting and then reflecting on the activity. We gave and taught 21 teachers some of these activies and brought them on field trips to show how you can teach outside the classroom. It was awesome and I think the teachers really appreciated it and learned a lot. Here, most teachers just teach by dictating to studies or having them copy down information. Hnads on, analysis and reflection aren't incorporated that much, but hopefully some of these teachers will now start to include these techniques.... Actually 2 of my teachers that went last week asked me yesterday if we can go on a mini field trip to a river and do one of the activities that we taught them in the workshop!

3 de marzo

The other day I step out of my house and my vecina, the landlord, la senora (lots of names for her) anyways she is outside my house and we start talking. She tells me how good it was that I had visitors and that I must feel lonely now...yeah thanks for the reminder. Anyways, she has 2 daughters in the US that see misses a lot, and one is a citizen/has papers. So anyways we start talking about why she and her husband don´t want to go to the US. The Conversation goes something like:

La senora: Here, I can be outside all the time. The doors are open. I can feel the breeze and fresh air, but there you are closed in all the time. It´s cold. Theres snow and hail. I´d die.

Me: Ah, yeah it is cold there. ANd it is nice here. I like that its warm all year round and I can be outside a lot.

La senora: yes, yes exactly. My husband was going to go to the US too, but you know what?

Me: What?

La senora: People live in small apartments in Washington (aka DC). You can´t hang a hammack. And its cold so you can´t sleep in a hammack either.

Me: Yeah, apartments are small and hammacks aren´t that common there but you could hang one up.

La senora: Oh no. My husband he told me he could never leave here. He can´t sleep anywhere but his hammack. He said he would rather be here swinging in his hammack all afternoon then be in el norte (US).

......moral of the story is that well hammacks are pretty great. I can´t lie, but to sleep in everynight, nah. haha i thought it was funny that the reason why her husband didn´t want to go to the US was his love for his hammack!

Love and miss you all!

Christmas in El Salvador

Christmas in El Salvador was an experience that wasn't as bad or dismal as I had heard it was. Here, they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. Basically, the christmas celebration includes first making "special food." Special food included tamales (corn batter cooked with chicken, duck, pork, and sometimes beans wrapped in banana leaves then cooked in a giant black pot for a few hours), panes/sandwiches (gross white bread sandwiches with mayo and meat..no me gustan)and pan dulces (pastries/ sweet bread). I luckily avoided the sandwiches!

On the morning of Christmas eve, I woke up early to go to my friend Mari's house. She owns the "chalet" or little restaurant in my town, and has received some training in baking. She was fortunate enough to save up with help from people to the states to buy an oven. Anyways, so she was en cargado (in charge) of making a pineapple bread/cake called volteado. It is like a layer of caramel, pineapple on top of a bread that tastes sweet kind of like a muffin mix. Anyways, so we spent all morning cooking, cutting fruit and mixing matter. She was in charge of making about 20 of these cakes and mixing the batter so it was smooth was ridiculously hard and tiring. Imagine a bowl that was as big as me making a circle with my arms full of matter that you had to beat with your hands until there were no grains of sugar or lumps of flour. But all the hard work was worth it cause it was delicious.
After cooking all morning, I stopped by the house of the lawyer, Matias in town. He's like 27ish and is great to just have a higher intellectual conversation with. Also, his sister is super sweet and has 3 girls ages 12,7 and 3 that are really cute. So I went there and we talked about our christmas rituals, differences in schooling in El Salvador and the United States, differences between life in the campo and San Salvador, what I possibly want to do in the future and what he wants to do with his practice, and mas. It was good talking to him after cooking all morning and talking about housework and the weather. Well I was there for a good few hours because you just get sucked into staying places and its hard to leave.
When I could break away, I went to my best friend in my site Ana's house. She was still sweeping so we listened to music, danced, sung and did the housework. She made me dinner of scrambled eggs with tomates, beans, cheese and tortillas. Afterwards, we waited for the posada to pass by. The Posada is a statue of Mary and Joseph they carry on wooden beams on the shoulders of 4 boys (think of like how they carried pharoahs on those bed things. They bring the statue into the houses and then a chorus comes in to sing to you. It's kinda like christmas caroling except they are singing about baby jesus and the 3 kings and stuff. After they sing 2 songs they move onto the next house. When they finish going to all the houses, they enter the church and mass starts. I went to mass with Ana and her family. It was nice and I got to see a lot of people and at the end you shake everyone's hand and say feliz navidad y paz (merry Christmas and peace). After the mass, a guy in the band was hanging around with his guitar singing. We went to join him, and we sung christmas carols...feliz navidad and rudolph the rednose raindeer. They sung in Spanish and I in English. We sung feliz navidad a bizlion times because they wanted to learn the English part and also because it was my FIRST song on the guitar that I could play!!! I was happy to try to play, teach them some english and sing with friends.
After our session of christmas carols, the jovenes (youth) in the church had made food baskets for the poorest families in town, and so we went throughout the town giving them out. It was around 11:00pm, which is super late for people to be out, but for Christmas eve everyone tries to stay up until 12pm. When we finished giving out the baskets, I went back to Ana's for a bit and then came home.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas Day arrived! I woke up to go paint my friend, Ruth's wrought-iron doors. Ana Ruth is 17 and is super sweet, loves the environment, animals and is a vegetarian! A salvo vegetarian is really rare. She's awesome and super sweet, but doesn't like painting that much so I helped her. Then we had breakfast of beans, tortillas and a carrot smoothie. Carrot smoothie or liquado doesnt sound that good but trust me they're delicious. After breakfast, I showered and then left to go meet Nicole, the volunteer near me. We walked to meet each other, and then went to another little town called El Pastor to give the Christmas cookies we made a few days before to our friend Chevy who is super helpful and generous. He lived in the states for like 20 years and is a US citizen and very grateful for the opportunities and money he made in the states. While he has an America house...I walked in and was like, "oh hello America!" he is very humble and giving to his community. After our visit, Nicole came up to the pueblo with me to spend Christmas.
We had our little Christmas with christmas music, banana bread that we made, guacamole, hot chocolate (thanks to beth!), some red wine, cuajada (type of cheese) and crackers. I also open up my gifts from Dad and Julie, Beth, and Nana Dee and Ed! Thank you guys! It made my Christmas! Nicole and I both talked with family and friends and just hung out. I definitely missed everyone when I talked to them, and I wish I could have been there celebrating! Hopefully, everyone had a good christmas!

Overall, I'm glad I got to see Christmas from the lives of others...it was less stressful then in the US and kind of like an ordinary day here with some different food. But lacked friends and family from home!

Middle Ages Meet Cowboys and El Salvador

The other day my friend Claudia invited me to go to the Carrera de Cinta in the canton above where I live. I was told its this horse race sort of thing. I agree to go and am kinda excited to see what this is all about. When Claudia and I get to her house there are all this high school girls from my town all dressed up and done up. Like lots of eyeshadow and by dress up I mean like 7-8th grade kinda cheesy/little bit trashy, usually a little too tight, sparkly/bling bling clothes. Claudia and Rosanna go and get all done up to and after about an hour of prepping, hair-doing, make up and all that we are finally ready to go. We walk to the field and when we get there there are people sitting around talking, ranchera music playing (spanish country music), a guy selling burgers, beer and soda, and then this row of chairs with 50 girls sitting there all prim and proper with gifts.

Then these men ranging from 18 years old to 75 come riding in on horses. I'm talking good looking horses with nice leather saddles, decorated face things for the horses, and I say good looking horses because some of the horses here are so frail, boney and just unhealthy looking and even worse when someone is riding them. So the horsemen go to one side of the field, and in the middle there are these two big poles with a string between them. On the string there are these rings with numbers on them. The horsemen all have a little sick (miniture josting sorta thing) and they have to get the stick through the hole as they gallop through. It was a process of about an hour until they got all these rings. Some guys were great at it others missed it almost everytime. But it was such a weird setting to have this like medieval sorta horse game in front of me and then behind me people cooking like greasy, giant burgers. Then, at the end, each guy reads all the numbers of the rings he has. Each number corresponds to a girl. When their number is called the girls usually shyly walk up to the guy present their gift to him and give him a hug. But there were some guys and some girls who were bold and went in for the kiss on the cheek! After all the girls had been called, the event was over until the dance.

The dance was like a 7-8th grade dance except with bollos (drunks). All the girls against one wall of the plaza sitting, the guys on the other side and the bollos on another side. The guys were creep over to the girls and ask them to dance, and the girls would either say yes or lie and say their feet hurt. It was all like partner dancing which was kinda awkward. I danced with a few guys because I wanted to dance and it was fun. You dance like arms length apart and some of the guys could not dance and then other times they'd ask me a question and loose the rhythm so we'd end up stepping on each others feet or something. Also, there were the creepers who asked me to dance and I got all flustered to think up an excuse. So instead of saying my feet hurt I accidently said my bones hurt..oops. It was kinda funny and after i said it all the middle age women who were just watching died laughing.


So I've been only telling my fun stories and non of what I'm working on and stuff. Right now I'm trying to form a town council, but its been and is going to continue to be a battle due to the politics here and each side thinking the other side is out to get them and the inability of both to come together. I mean to me I think its kinda silly because they are all poor and all want the same thing but refuse to kinda unite. Hopefully I can get more people to come...righ now we have like 30 solid people and another 50 who come to the meetings occasionally. I did successfully teach them how to make shampoo, and sold most of it! We will see though what kinda profit we have from it.

Thanksgiving and Carnival

When I think of thanksgiving I think of well obviously lots of delicious food, family, seeing friends I haven't since the summer, lounging around watching tv, and coldness.

Other than the good food thing, thanksgiving in El Salvador was very different, but fun! First, Rebecca, Catie (2 volunteers in my group) and I stayed with this wonderful embassy family in San Salvador. Thanksgiving morning we went to the beach! We went to this beach called El Tunco. It is pebble beach made from volcanic rocks that have been smoothed out over the years, and has these two giant boulders with tide pools around it. On one side of the beach there are the good surfers and on the other side there are the beginners. There are surfers and travelers from all over the world! We met a lot of Canadians. The downtown area has coffee shops with paintings and Polaroids all over the walls, open air restaurants and bars that overlook the beach. Basically, it was my type of scene and I'm going back there for new years eve. Hopefully to see the bonfires and fame throwers they have at night and maybe learn to surf?

When we came back from the beach, we went to the embassy to swim, hang out,and watch the peace corps guys play flag football against the embassy guys. Then after this day in the sun we came back to Kathy and Ron's house to have Thanksgiving dinner all ready for us...we were so spoiled. We ate all the normal thanksgiving food and enjoyed all of it!

The next day we had a field day with all the peace corps volunteer after our embassy family brought us to get Starbucks..I have such a love/hate relationship with Starbucks but it was wonderful to have actually good coffee and not gross instant coffee that you have to put sugar in to be able to drink it ehh. Afterwards, I attempted to play soccer and basketball, but neither one are really my forte but hey! That night we had our swearing in party at this club Four...lots of dancing, more dancing.

The next day was a little tough after coming home at like 4am...oohhh I forgot to mention my friend Carrie who is in the Peace Corps in Guatemala was in El Salvador and we got to hang out and dance! It was so cool to see her and hang out with her here. Anyways, the morning was awful because I had to go to centro to get supplies to make shampoo. Centro is crowded, dirty, weird funky smells, lots of piropos (cat calls) and not so safe. Also, on the bus ride there this fucking weirdo was begging us for money and ended up being a sketch ball and cut my friend on the arm with a paperclip and hit my legs as I was getting off the bus. It was a miserable few hours running around in the hot sun, and I wasn't looking forward to getting on the 3 hour bus ride to San Miguel. But I made it and got to San M to go to Carnaval!

So Carnaval...the first event of the night a parade with floats of everything from ronald mcDonald to girls in tiny shorts shaking their asses. Meanwhile they were setting up stages throughout the city for all the bands that were going to play. After the parade finished and the crowd kinda cleared we started walking, and dancing to the music. We kinda hopped around to the different stages, stopped and ate papas fritas and pupusas, and then went to the main stage that had some group from Mexico. (For better details of carnaval because it was pretty crazy asked me..I think you are probably getting bored reading this) Afterwards, we wondered more to this gas station and there were all these like 15 year old kids sooo drunk and getting sick. At that point we were so tired from the night before and called it quits and went back.

Beginning of Training

Following the beach weekend I was in my site for like a day before going to training. During that time I went with the promotores de salud (health promoters) and the doctor to this canton above mine called Centeno. Its like a 4 km beautiful walk through corn fields, yucca fields, rolling hills, cow pastures and lush vegetation. The promotores and the doctor weren’t too impressed by the view but were more tired and sweat from the walk up. Yeah, it was a bit strenuous, but it was a nice walk. Anyways, Centeno is a cute little canton on top of a hill that overlooks all the other parts of the municipality. It also is a lot richer, and all the houses are pretty big, and made out of cement. There are ton of rememsas to this community and one house was this huge mansion with balconies, 2 floors, and a two car garage. Other houses were empty or only had the wife or daughter living there until who was ever in the states would come back…..my question is are they actually coming back, why build a beautiful house where no one lives, but whatever there is this clinging hope and faith to those who have gone to the US.

The reason I went to Centeno was to “abatezar” the houses or give this tiny bags of pesticide that you throw in pilas or large open containers of water in order to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs and hatching. It was cool because we got to see a ton of different houses and people, who like always were very friendly, loved to talk and then give us bananas, papaya or other treats. We spent all morning doing this and then had lunch at the promotora’s house from Centeno. She is so spunky and happy. I love it. She turned on reggaeton and started dancing and then started talking to me about her boyfriend (whos in Maryland). Her and her family are not only very friendly but educated and easy to talk to which is nice. Also, the doctor is cool as shit. He studied medicine in Cuba and has traveled to Paraguay, Argentina, Nicaragua, and various other places throughout the world. He wants to next go to the Congo and work with HIV/AIDS and general health there. We talked about development and basic problems. Also, we discussed doing a garden and showing people how to do organic farming and improve their basic health with food, water, and exercise.

Training

Training was interesting. It was two weeks of learning some stuff, hanging out with those from my training group..overall it was pretty good. I spent a week back with my first host family, and they seemed to like me mas this time. However I didn’t spend much time there and there were the fiestas patronales ( patron saint parties) which consisted of 2 nights of going to a disco. They bring a mobile disco and shut down the street and blast music, throw glow sticks, sell food, drink and be merry basically. The first dance consisted of me dancing with my two friends sam and duffy, a transvestite who was most likely a skinny 18 year old boy once who was very popular and had some crazyyyyyy moves and what seemed to be most likely a large old lesbian not wearing a bra. It was an experience and quiet funny. The second dance was a bit more tame. Nicole, Duffy, Broc, and I went to the second dance and kinda just danced with each other.

Also, one weekend we went to Santa Ana, and stayed at this chill hostel. We got a bit lost walking there and walked through the like red light district…I would not pay a cent for one of them except maybe to put some clothes on or something. But anyways Santa Ana is one of the few places that has an old beautiful cathedral that wasn’t destroyed by the war. It also has people our age! Mostly cool latino hippies, which are some of my favorite types who were hanging out in the park and were at this reggae bar we went to. This place was one of my favorite places we’ve been to. They had cool music, not so creepy people hitting on you, flame throwers and bombbb pizza.

Well other than the fun stuff, we did do and learn some cool stuff during training. For example, we went to this organic diversified farm that had every type of delicious fruit and it was all organic! Also, they were trying to be sustainable and only used water from a spring near by to bathe, eat and use only what they grew or what was on their land. It was awesome because they convereted their land from a coffee farm to try an organic fruit farm. And it was working and they were making a profit and wonderful food! We learned how to make bags, wallets from chip bags, flowers from 2L soda bottles, little change holders/ ash trays or lo que sea from aluminum soda cans. Hopefully, I can get a group of jovenes (youth) or mujeres (women) or any group for that matter that will want to do these projects!

Halloween

Halloween in El Salvador was a good time probably because a bunch of us volunteers rented the beach house en la costa del sol, dressed up and partied for 2 nights. The first night everyone dressed up there were lady gagas, power rangers, campesinos el sal style, broccoli, the three little pigs, a witch, a mermaid, the ciguanaba- who is this fugly ghost woman from an el Salvadorian legend with huge breasts that lives in rivers, trees, and other areas and taunts and tricks men (usually unfaithful men. Catie, Mariel and I were greek goddesses!

The second night consisted of hanging out in the pool, going into the ocean, and a lot of dancing. Also, at one point in the night all the boys sat around the kitchen table and picked up an object and started playing various beats. It was like stompish or something and it was awesome! We all were jammin and dancin to the beats of coolers, spoons, pots, pans, cheese graters, bottles, cups and more. There were like 10 of them who performed 2 songs. The music continued with latin music and us trying to dancing salsa, meringue, reggaeton and various other latin songs with our gringo akwardness haha. Later, some of the guys started to free style rap about el salvador and our lives here.

It was a great weekend and I got to know some of the older volunteers and hear their stories, ideas, and lives since being in El Salvador. I was a bit sad that by the time I got back to my site I had missed all the events here around the dia de los muertos. Theres next year!