Peace Corps for Realsies

I have now been living in San Luis La Magdalena, my site for the next two years, for a little over a week, and so far I really like it and think it is going to be a place I completely grow to love.

I knew from my first few hours with my two counterparts that, at a minimum, I was at least going to love them. After a morning of meetings in San Salvador, we (me and two 70-something year old, extremely weathered, and rural men) jumped in the back of a pick-up truck and rode through the standard, daily, monsoon-style, Salvadoran afternoon rain storm that is a staple of life this time of year. Through it all, the smiles on the faces of my counterparts couldn’t be rivaled. We instantly bonded while having the time of our lives whipping down the highway absolutely soaked to the bone.

ere in San Luis I live with one of my counterparts, Don Miguel, and his wife, Niña Tina. He is a farmer and president of the local ADESCO (their version of a city council, except in this case it is more of a tribal-elders style thing, since San Luis certainly is not a city—it’s a stretch to even call it a village). Despite his age, he is one of the most forward-thinking people I’ve met here in El Salvador and is always looking to try out new ideas and proposals, especially when it comes to more sustainable and environmentally-friendly agricultural practices (an extremely rare trait here in El Salvador—when a crop is basically the entire livelihood and only form of wealth a rural farmer has, it is understandably but absolutely impossible to convince them to try something new that they have no experience with). He also is quite spry for mid-70s and has a great sense of humor. His wife is also pretty cool, but honestly, she has the most ridiculous campo accent, and I still only really understand about 15% of the things that comes out her mouth. She also constantly speaks to the chickens, turkeys, cats, dogs, beans, goats, tortillas, and hammocks that fill the house, so I’m never really sure when she is even talking to me. Nevertheless, I am completely pleased with my initial family and believe I will have an extremely tight bond with them my entire time in San Luis.

I currently live in a little “adobe” (that pretty much just means mud here) hut arguably the size of normal bathroom in the States which is located right behind the main house. I have a tiny bed (which I’m pretty sure is actually a crib), a chair, a table, a light bulb, and two planks of wood I laid upon mud bricks to form a cabinet. My furniture overwhelms the room. Absolutely no fueng-shui here. I pay $20 a month for rent, but honestly that is just because I figured they can certainly use the money more that I can. Rent for the room would actually be around $10 normally. I also pay $45 a month for all my food ($1.50 a day)—3 meals of beans, thick corn tortillas, eggs, and whatever other vegetables are picked that day in the garden. The only fruit I’ve seen since I got here is hanging in the trees and it is going to be a month or two until those bananas and oranges are ready. However, I’m starting to really like the place. Additionally, I’ll only be living here my first two months in the site then moving out on my own into an actual legitimate house, so it really is a nice place to start since I don’t have to worry about buying furniture or anything else.

San Luis is an utterly gorgeous little place tucked into a valley between a huge volcano that straddles the border with Guatemala and a few other mountains. Basically, 98% of the men here farm (beans and corn on the hill-sides, sugar-cane in the flat valley floor), 95% of the women work in the house all day, and probably only about 20% of the people over the age of 30 or 40 can read or write. This definitely makes for some interesting meetings and presentations. Absolutely no American-style PowerPoint slideshows (electricity is pretty sketchy here) and no words either—just tons of pictures and talking.

I have spent my first week meeting with people from all the local and regional institutions, including the mayor of the closest town (Chalchuapa), officials from CENTA (the Ministry of Agriculture), the police, the post office, the school, the very close environmentally-protected area (I’m lucky—there aren’t many of these in the country), the local agricultural cooperative, and the sugar-cane processing plant. I’ve also been doing between 3 and 5 house visits a day, which are always adventures, as they basically consist of a random white person walking into a house bursting with unsuspecting Salvadorans, sitting down, then not leaving for an hour or two. My plan is to have met with and talked to every family and house in San Luis within my first 6 weeks here, as this will both help me better identify where the community truly needs help and make my job a thousand times easier in the future when I already knew everyone I will be working with before I actually start working with them. It is also a great way to get a good idea of who the more forward-thinking, development-oriented families in the community are so I know who to initially approach with my ideas and projects and don’t waste as much time in my first year with floundering projects with uncommitted members (bound to happen anyways, pretty much happens with every Volunteer).

Life is definitely different here is San Luis and it is a big adjustment from training. I literally haven’t spoken a word of English in over a week, which I think does really strange things to your brain, and my living situation definitely took a big steps towards as rural and out-there as it gets. However, I’ve loved every second of it and really am thankful I got placed in a location that I can’t wait to continue to explore and learn about.

Also, I do have a new address, which is much more convenient and I’ll probably be checking just about every week:

Max Greenblum

A Lista de Correos

Chalchuapa, Santa Ana

El Salvador, Central America

Also, I had some pictures, but this computer and internet cafe aren´t really participating. Sorry, they´ll be waiting a week or two.