Gender Day

Real quick...this was a day that we explored gender roles in El Salvador...I only mention it to thank Barbara (the trainer) for lunch. She made this awesome meat sauce with spagetti and salad and garlic bread and three types of cake! It was to die for! So...thanks!

Oh...and gender roles are apparently going to make a huge impact on my service. More about this at a latter date.

La Playa! (the beach)

If I closed my eyes it felt like I was on the beach in Montalk. There was a slight breeze to help with the strong sun and the sound of waves crashing in the backround....but let me start at the beginning.

After training on Friday we hopped onto the 'party bus' and crusied our way to the beach, actually an island named Tasajara. Once we got there we hopped (i know, we're doing a lot of hopping) onto the boats and made our way over to the island. Now, when we got there I took off my shoes when I got off the boat and walked around. There are fire ants on islands down here and they hurt. Really hurt. After a hearty dinner we just kinda chilled. There was a pier that extended over the water where we could watch an awesome lightening storm. No rain, no thunder....just lightening. When I went back to my room to get ready for bed, i found that ants (the evil variety) had invaded my bed. So, I and the girl I was splitting a bed with (there were two people per bed...what do you expect, we´re on a budget here) went on the hunt for a new room. Thankfully, we were takin in by another group....we just had to ignore the bats (no, not the sport quipment) that were flying around.

The next day was spend at the beach....at least the majority of it. After a fruit/granola bar breakfeast, we all ran off to go soak in the sun. To get to the beach with the waves (we were on the bay side of the island) you had to walk down this dirt path. It wasn´t so bad except when the mosquitos were waiting for you. You could just see them swarming around the person infront of you and you knew they were doing the same thing to you. When we got there, there we´re kids with horses offering rides. As tempting as it was...those horses looked really sketchy, as in probably having no training. So yes...i passed on the opportunity. I thus spent the morning playing freesby, body surfing (big ass waves) and just taking in the sun. It also included eating a peanut butter sandwich...sand included. This continued till lunch time. After being served a wonderful lunch, I read and chilled in the hammick for a while till the midday heat had subsided. Then it was back to the beach! More surfing (bigger ass waves) along with some quality sand castle construction. I also think i took a nap...it was all good. That night was the drinking night...sweet. There is nothing like chilling on a island with a cool breeze and a refreshing drink. But, it was also when Adrianna and Will announced their departure from Peace Corps. I haven´t mentioned them before, but they are a couple that lived in my training town with me....I´ll miss you guys!!

After sleeping in, i headed back to the beach on sunday. It went by so quickly! The waves were even larger...hard to believe...and it came to the point where I wasn´t even comfortable hanging out to far. After being pummlled and napping on the beach it was alas time to leave. Of corse they (the hostel) waited till then to spring additional charges on us and wouldn´t call the boat till we coughed it up. I hate it when shit like that happens at the end of a trip. It just leaves a sour taste in your mouth. When we got back to the main land more mosqitos were waiting and they were vicious! But that´s about it.

Overall...it was a sweet trip and I´m glad I went on it. A little less white and a little relaxed.

Photos!

Alright...I finally got on top of the ball and organized my photos on Snapfish. In order to see them you will need to open an account...sorry. The good news is that the account is free...yey!

Copy and paste the link below to a new window:

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=276171153173328521/l=111162687/g=11114116/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB


Hopefully this will work as planned.

side note

Hey

...if you don´t write your name at the bottom of posted messages, I don´t know who you are! I can make guesses.....but that could turn ugly. Otherwise, just e-mail me directly!

Hasta Luego!
Barbara

Field Based Training

FBT: Field Based Training... it´s basically when you and a bunch of other trainees go visit a volunteer at their site for a few days. A coordinator and a spanish teacher also accompany you.

We went and visited a volunteer named Nathan. He lives in a little pueblo in La Libertad where there are beautiful views and cool temperature. Basically, we were bitter.....all of us would love a site like that. Anyway, we arrived on Wed and immediatly started in on activities. Well...maybe not immediatly. We had a nice lunch, took a tour of the Alcaldia (mayor´s office), examined the distillilary in the office (I have an awesome photo of that) and then checkedout out where we would be living for the next few days. I wound up living with a nice family, along with the spanish teacher and Whitney (another trainee).

We then started in on our first project, trash pick-up with a bunch of students. I would say about 30 or more students came out to help pick up trash. We picked up so much, but it looked as if we hadn´t even made a dent. Also, kids would grab some bags of water to drink during the activity and then just toss them where we had just cleaned. It´s hard to change an ingrained habit. But Nathan did a good job of settling everyone down for a few minutes and giving a charla (presentation) about trash and it´s effects. I´ve heard that if you want to do a trash project you pretty much have to start when you arrive at your site if you hope to make a difference.

Next up on the list, Thursday, was painting a local basketball court. About 4 or 5 older students came out to help us paint. Nathan, and our two little supervisors would just randomly leave to go get supplies. At least that is what they said, I think it was to get us to work together without direction. It was hard work, but I think the court came out looking great. My only real problem was that the paint was oil based.....I still have some on me. Thankfully, the paint fight was between Nathan and a few students. He wound up eating paint....hehehe.

That night we checked out a local ADESCO meeting. ADESCOs are local self development groups. We asked them about their structure and what projects they were working on. Also their relationship with the local Alcaldia. These groups are suppose to remain apolitical...but apparently that is impossible. So they had some comments on the local mayor and his practices. I´m told this is quite common here.

Friday was el dia de las charlas or the day of presentations. In the morning we talked about communication with a bunch of 3rd graders. It turned out to be really fun. We mostly played games demonstrating the different kinds of communication. Telephone, Simon Says (person to group communication), giants/elves/wizards (like rock paper sissors, but in groups...group communication). On the whole, it went over really well. The second charla was meant for older kids who were on their school council...8th or 9th grade. It was a leadership charla. Unfortunatly, the principal invited all children council members....even those from the first and second grade. it was a grade mix of everyone. So, we tried to dumb down parts but keep it interesting. It actually didn´t go that badly.

After all that we just kinda chilled and invited all the families to dinner on the Peace Corps. It was nice to chit chat and get to meet the differt familes.

The following morning, we hiked up a hill.....well, not a hill, but not a mountain. All´s i know is that it was freaking steep. We checked out a cross that had been placed near the top and then headed back down. I was exhausted. I´m not sure how climbing the volcano is going to go in a few weeks.

Overall it was a good experience. I got to see how intergrated Nathan was in his site. I also got to see how frustrating some of the work of a volunteer can be. How does that song go...you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and you´ve got the facts of life? whatever.

Part III: And then I went to the hospital

After that wonderful shower, my headache really kicked in. Over the next couple of hours, I became more and more ill. I´m talking joint pain, fevers, body ache, chills and an unimaginable headache. So, as everyone else was enjoying their night of debauchery....I was dying in bed. Through I will say it was a very nice, soft bed. Finally, at about 11:45pm, I called the nurse on call. She instructed me that I should head over to the hospital. YEY! Angie and Erin accompanied me there. Along the way we got to see the ´night life´here. Nobody really stays out late here, not as safe to do so. Except that prostitute we saw, well....i think she was a prostitute. She was wearing tall heels and a bikini on a street corner, but maybe I shouldn't be so judge mental. The hospital wasn´t as sketchy as I thought it would be, nor was it to busy. My companions stayed with me until the doctor said I would have to spend the night. Surprisingly, the taxi waited for this information as well. This way, my amigas used the same, safe taxi. I guess he didn´t have that many other fairs going. So they headed back to the hotel while I got checked into the hospital. This was probably the most traumatic part of the whole experience. First of all...try never to get an IV while in El Salvador. It was extremely painful. I kept flinching and she kept saying she was done, but was she...no. She just kept going. I would have killed for one of those Red Cross volunteers. Next was them drawing blood. I swear it was one of those cartoon sized needles. She just stuck it in my other arm and drew out some blood. After all this trauma (and a little more since they had to weigh me), I finally was brought to my own room. I can´t say I slept to well, but at least it was cool and comfortable.

The next day was alright. It started off with the doctor telling me that I had a urinary tract infection. I was kinda hoping that it was something cooler then that, but apparently not. He also wanted to run some more tests and to stay in the hospital till Monday. I will not go into the size of the specimen cups, but lets just say they were less then adequate. I then spent the morning watching TV (they had english channels...the food network, HDTV and news). I also surfed for some shows that had subtitles, and weren´t daubed. I also tried to call home, but apparently the operator didn´t know how to place a call to the US. As you could imagine, this became very frustrating very quickly. Nobody at home knew I was ill, and I was alone in a scary hospital. Thankfully, Bryan (the guy in charge of us munis) came and visited me. He´s awesome! He brought me some poweraide, brought my bag and let me call home on his cell phone. He also just chilled and chatted for a while. Talking to my parents was such a relief.....though I think i charged my mom up a bit. Apparently she left some fun voice-mail´s for siblings who didn´t pick up their phones. She´s even going to send me a package! After them, my siblings/grandma/aunt called. After each one I felt a little better and regained some sense of humor. Some accused me of becoming ill for attention...........
Otherwise, I slept better and felt better that night.

Monday morning I was freed. They brought me to the office (where I wrote part I of this series) and gave me a certificate for the hostel. Apparently a lot of volunteers were sick, b/c that place was packed. I basically spent Monday watching movies and talking with volunteers. I also learned where the different food spots were. I miss flavorful food. I learned of scary bugs I hope never to encounter. Did you know there are tarantulas in El Salvador!! Anyway, after flipping my mattress, I slept well. (I had to flip it b/c a metal spring was poking through the other side.)

On Tuesday, I made it back to my host community...finally. The only fun part of the day was when Irma (the nurse) kept calling the hostel to see if I was there....the owner thought I had left and told her no. Apparently, this set her for quite a loop. She was calling everywhere! It was only when the owner came out and asked the girl next to me if Barbara was here was the truth discovered. Thus ended my exciting week!

It is due to this experience that I will be buying a cell phone muy pronto. I´ll make sure to send the number out to a lucky few. :oP

Part II: July 1st!

So, instead of celebrating July 4th, we celebrated July 1st...b/c it was on a weekend. All the trainees and a bunch of volunteers went to the American Society Fund Raiser an the Sharaton Hotel. It was awesome!

We arrived (Whitney, Andrea, and I) pretty early...I´d say around 10:30ish. We just sort of hung around the hotel. Watched some soccer (just enough to see Englad lose) and then chilled in a hotel room. A bunch of volunteers had reserved various rooms for the night and that´s where I threw my stuff.. At around 1ish, the Peace Corps Soccor Games began. It seems the teams are divided according to volunteer work....ie muni´s with muni´s, agroforesty with agroforesty.... I didn´t play, I had a pounding headache. So after watching/chating with a bunch of people, I headed back to the pool! It was huge! It even had a waterfall. Everyone pretty much spent the afternoon swimming, drinking and talking. Apparently I suck at marco polo. Dinner took forever to come, though I did throughly enjoy my hamburger and potato salad when it was served. I think it was overpriced..i know it was a fundraiser, but still! Maybe I´m just bitter that I didn´t win any of the raffle prizes. After dinner the training office decided to come and get us. 14 trainees decided it was too early to leave...so we booked ONE hotel room. How awesome it that! I took advantage of the shower....I must of taken one of the hottest showers of my life. It was beautiful.

It was after that shower that things went downhill for me......Part III: And then there was the hospital.

Fun Week Part I: Immersion Days!

So...After you run off to a new country and live with a new family for about 3 weeks, the Peace Corps sends you to live in a new town with a new family for about a day and a half. This is called Immersion Days. I went to a small canton called Los Caballeros, near Santa Anna. As we were heading over to the house, we stood in the back of a pick-up driving up a rocky dirt road, you could see the volcano in the distance and everything was lush and green. You could almost hear the Jurassic Park music playing in the background. Here I stayed with a young, friendly family from Wed afternoon till Friday morning. The house itself was one room divided by curtains. It had electricity and potable water. The potable water consisted of one faucet outside by the washing sink. There was also a latrine...Which I was thankful for b/c not everyone got one. The family itself consisted of the parents and three small children. The eldest being approximately 8 years and the youngest approximately three. There were two girls and the middle child was a boy.

When I first arrived, I just chilled with the kids. We played catch and tag before settling down for dinner. (Now, as a side note, I'm not currently eating refried beans because they were the last thing I ate before the last time I got horrible ill. Not that they made me ill, but there is the mental association. Thankfully, my mentor mentioned to my host mother that the oil in the beans made me sick....So I skirted it this time) Dinner was beans, chicken and tortillas. I tried to help make tortillas, but as previously mentioned, I seem to be in need of practice. And the chicken was tougher, since it was country chicken. They just let them run all over the place. After dinner we watched some TV. I know, TV? It turns out it's a status thing here. They barely had potable water, but they have TV's. That first night was a little long. The family was wonderful...They all shared one bed while I got my own bed. I was tired enough to sleep, but I kept hearing the rats in the roof and in the kitchen. Kinda kept me awake.

The next morning, I woke up really having to go to the bathroom...but I held it to daylight. There is nothing scarier then a latrine in the countryside at night. Plus, I would have had to stumble through the goats/dogs/ducks/chickens outside. In the morning we went out to the corn fields to spread fertilizer. Yes, I did it too. I walked through where all the bugs were. Uphill.....downhill....the whole nine yards. Afterwards, we ate breakfast and walked up to the mill by the school. This school is over the river and through the woods....uphill both ways. I should've worn my sneakers. In the afternoon I taught the kids cards. I felt bad, they didn't pick up the game very quickly. And no, I wasn't teaching them hearts. After that, I just kinda hung with a bunch of women that stopped by. Everyone just pulled out chairs and hung around. A little bit slower of a pace here. Dinner was interesting as well. She killed two chickens. I couldn't watch. The first one was quick. The second one the kids wanted to help. It was a little different there for a minute or two. Otherwise the night went quietly. After dinner we walked my host mother's sister back to her place. Thank God I had my handy flashlight. Theirs wasn't working so well. I also slept a lot better.

The next morning, Andrea came and picked me up. Whitney (the other trainee) was with her and we were ready to go. My host mother had given the kids a dollar to go get some candy so the youngest wouldn't cry when I left. How cute! The moment we got back to Andrea's place, Whitney and I took really nice long bucket baths. It was sweet. Afterwards, we headed into Santa Anna for some relaxation. It consisted of Pizza Hut and the movie Cars.....a Pixar presentation. So, you know how Pixar movies have multiple levels of comedy for both parents and children? Andrea was laughing more often then I was. I was definitely the 5 year old just barley putting it all together and learning an important moral lesson. After all that excitement, we headed back to her place for the night. We made brownies! Well....maybe they didn't come out exactly like brownies...more like a chocolate cake. But the batter was awesome!

We caught up on our telenovelas and called in a night.

So, that was basically Immersion Days. It wasn't that bad. I think it is important to expose yourself to different lives and ways of living. They may not of had much, but they were happy. The kids were always running around and playing. Everyone stopped and talked. Families helped families tend to their fields.

Next post......4th of July celebration on July 1st