San Salvador, Machetes, and Pet Cows

The last week has been quite a busy. The picture to the left is of me and my favorite farmer, a man named Adelmo. I´ve worked with him a few times, and actually helped him out with his plot of green chiles this morning. He grows celery, corn, tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, mangoes, lemons, green and red chiles, and beans. Quite the guy and he has a ton of great stories and is definitely more knowledgable than the average farmer around here. Also, he has more teeth than most other farmers, so I have much better luck understanding his strong accent, which all the country farmers have. This is a little of whats been going on for the past week:

- Many volunteers get a pet, usually a dog or cat. I´m not really much of a dog or cat person and I´d been thinking about getting a horse eventually, once I get settled into my permanent site, but I now may be the proud owner of a baby cow sometime next week. I´v entered the village raffle for the 7-month old calf and the drawing is schedule for next Wednesday. I´m not sure exactly what I´ll do with the cow yet if I do win, but I am sure I´m going to rename it "Austin."

- This past weekend I ventured into the big market in San Vicente with my friend Ignacio (awesomest Salvadoran nickname ever: Nacho) to buy a new machete. Just about all the men around here, especially in smaller farming communities like the one I live in now and the one I´ll have for a permanent site, wear their machetes all the time. I´d been getting pretty jealous, so I went ahead and bought just about the biggest one in the market for the great price of $15. It also came with an awesome beaded, leather sheath to hang from my belt and a sharpener. The next day I spent an hour sharpening it with an old man I know who lives near the park. Afterwards we tested it out and were able to cut down a medium-size tree in only three swings. It is definitely my new favorite Salvadoran toy. The picture below shows my machete collection. The long straight one is called a "corba" and is usually for bigger jobs and especially when working with corn. The smaller, curved one is a "cuma" and is used for weeding and more intricate chopping closer to small plants like cabbage or chiles. The shank-like thing on the far right is my sharpener, known as a "filo."

- Two days ago was officially the first day since I arrived in El Salvador that there has been no rain. It was definitely nice to be able to dry out for a day. However, it really isn´t as bad as it sounds, since it almost always rains at the same time, between 5 and 7 pm, and last for only an hour or two. Most days, that is exactly the time I get home, so it ends up providing some great background noise while I take a nap or read in my hammock. I´ve also been racing through books in the last week or two. I´ve finished The Sun Also Rises, Into the Wild, and Catcher in the Rye.

- I generally have really loved Salvadoran food. My diet has consisted mostly of tamales (either chicken, which strangely usually still has bones in it, or just plain, which means its just an empty tamale--both weird, but not bad once you get used to them), beans, rice, corn tortillas (really thick, definitely difficult to eat without something to fill it with or dip it in), papaya, pineapple, fish, and this white, really salty type of cheese that comes in huge blocks (that is the only thing I´m getting slightly tired of). I also tried "sopa de pata" once: it is a traditional Salvadoran soup made from the ankles of a cow...it was about as bad as it sounds.

- Also, my suspicions of the other internet cafe in my village have sadly proven true. The host brother of a friend of mine told me that is a popular place for local teens to go to have sex...definitely going to avoid using that place if I can.

- I went to San Salvador for the first two times this week. Wednesday I visited two museums, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. While both were about the recent civil war, they provided very different experiences. The museum in the morning was located on an army base and definitely was a very right-wing, pro-government, pro-United States involvement presentation of history. My museum guide even referred to the civil war as the time "we had some problems with the guerrillas" then let me pose with some of the huge machine guns on display, which he referred to as "guerrilla-killing machines." However, in the afternoon I visited a very different museum which was originally founded by the man who was in charge of operating the secret, underground, rebel radio station which played a pivotal role in the war for the FMLN and the guerrilla forces. It was a very left-wing perspective, which was extremely critical of the School of the Americas (which my morning guide actually attended) and the millions of dollars and arms the United States supplied the Salvadoran army and government with. I thought it was a very interesting way to learn about Salvadoran history, especially since the war was so recent and during my Peace Corps service I will inevitably have to work with people of extreme views in both directions. Unlike museums in the States, which usually take a more centrist perspective, it was refreshing to see two very strong perspectives then be able to make up your own mind about the civil war. I also get a great tour of the US Embassy yesterday and was able to meet and talk with the acting ambassador and see his residence. He is an ex-Peace Corps Volunteer and apparently routinely invites Volunteers to events at his house. I´m thoroughly looking forward to that, since it was one of the nicest places I´ve even been and about as different from the rest of the country as possible.

- This last picture is a view out of my bedroom in the morning. Quite the way to wake up every day: