The Last Few Weeks

Sorry for the extended halt to my blogging and updating—it has been quite the hectic and unexpected past few weeks. However, this really just means I’ve got more than ever to pack into one blog entry. From two packed weeks of training, to a quick trip back to the States, to a big move into a house of my own here in San Luis, I’ve still hardly had time to catch my breath and process everything that has happened.

First, in early November, I returned to my original training community, San Esteban Catarina, for a few days of more advanced Spanish training designed to answer any questions that may have arisen through our first six weeks in our site. This was followed with a week of technical training. Since my original host family had gone to the States, I was placed with a new family, but my luck had remained. While my home during my first training session was undoubtedly the nicest house all of San Esteban and is quite luxurious even by American standards, my new host family had what is possibly the second nicest home in the entire pueblo. During my week of training in San Vicente that focused on the more technical aspects of life as a Volunteer, my group of Sustainable Agriculture Volunteers took daily trips to sites of current Volunteers to see and learn from the projects they are currently involved in. A favorite of mine was a chicken project in which the Volunteer had received a $2,500 grant to cover the costs of 30 hybrid chickens along with all the food, vaccines, and chicken coop materials his group of 25 women would need for the first 6 months with their chickens. Currently Salvadorans raise chickens in a much easier, but much less productive manner, and do not use hybrid chickens, which require quite a bit more work, but can supply more meat and three or four times as many eggs. I definitely am planning on trying to get this type of project going in my community and can not wait to get a chicken coop of my own cranking out eggs in front of my new house. Not only is it a project that will increase the amount of protein in the diets of the people of San Luis and provide another source of income, I figure my time in Peace Corps will definitely be better than any other to finally have my own chicken coop and learn all about chickens.

After a week of visiting the projects of other Volunteers, I spent a week at ENA (Escuela Nacional de Agricultura—El Salvador’s agricultural university) where I learned a ton more about plenty of cool and helpful new topics—composting, fruit trees, forest trees (reforestation projects), hydroponics, bee-keeping, vegetable gardens, tree-grafting, pesticide management, and organic fertilizers.

Next came a quick trip back to the States. I ended up being really surprised how quickly I missed El Salvador, especially the rural life and people of San Luis to which I had apparently quickly become very accustomed and comfortable. While the comforts of being home certainly were nice and I would not trade anything for the time with family and friends, it left me realizing I’d gotten a lot more used to El Salvador that I thought, that I’d never really felt normal back in the States, and how much I had been enjoying my time here in El Salvador.

I returned to El Salvador just before Thanksgiving. The next few days were a true whirlwind. I traveled across the country, moved most of my stuff into my new house, traveled back across the country to San Salvador, discovered the $9 all-you-can-drink-champagne and all-you-can-eat-appetizer deal at the Sheraton, played football and swam with Embassy employees at the US Embassy (I’d almost put this place up against Versailles in terms of size and beauty), and enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with an Embassy family that was made much tastier just by the fact that it took place in a country where all I’d eaten for a few months was tortillas, eggs, and beans. Additionally, two friends and I had been invited to celebrate Thanksgiving with a couple who had actually met while doing Peace Corps is Eastern Europe from 1998 to 2000 and were absolutely great hosts (they had served in Eastern Europe with a friend of mine from Washington who I worked with on Capitol Hill).

Following Thanksgiving, I quickly trekked back to my site finished making the move into my new house. While it doesn’t have water, my community had actually done some work to it while I was gone, cementing the front porch (which had previously just had a dirt floor) and giving it a fresh layer or paint. It has two rooms, which automatically makes it bigger than most of the homes here in San Luis, along with a great location in the middle of San Luis right across from the biggest church and next to the home of the health promoter and the only store. While I’ll have to wait till the rainy season to see how many leaks the roof currently has (I’m counting on quite a few…it may lack any windows, but I don’t lack for daylight during the day due to quite a few unintentional “sunlights”), my walls (made of mud) are at least a foot thick (don’t worry Mom—the Salvadorans repeatedly show me how thick my walls are and tell me that means I’m very safe.) Also, though I know the house had bats when I first moved in, I have yet to have any real run-ins with them. Despite all this, I really am loving the freedom the new house allows me, especially late at night and early in the morning, since I can finally have a little bit of time to myself when I’m not always being watched and/or stared at. So far, the house contains two hammocks, my bed, tomato crates I hung from the rafters to serve as bookshelves, three plastic chairs, another bookshelf I fashioned out of planks of wood and adobe bricks, and a wooden table. While I still have a little bit of work to do, I already completely feel at home here. I’ll try to get some pictures up as soon as I can.

Life back in San Luis has also even gotten even more exciting now that I’ve really been able to start my projects. Before my second round of training it was impossible to start anything permanent since I was going to be leaving for almost a month, but now that I’m here for the long haul, my work has really started and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. I’ve suddenly become much busier than I ever imagined, leaving my house to go get breakfast a little after 6 am and often not returning till after 6 or 7 pm. In my next blog I’ll try to include a lot more about the kind of work and projects I’ve been starting.

Thanks again for putting up with the occasional long breaks in between blog entries, hopefully I’ll be able to keep them a little more consistent from here on out.