Immersion Weekend

This post I’m going to do a little differently from past posts by trying to incorporate as many pictures as I can. I figure that if it is true that each picture is worth 1,000 words, than this will be a much better way of describing the amazing weekend I had on top of a volcano while experiencing what life is really like for a Volunteer one full year into his service.

My adventure in El Volcan got off to a quick start when after just 10 minutes in my host Volunteer’s cabin, and while still working to regain my breath after hiking for two hours up a volcano to reach his house, a very excited Salvadoran man burst in the front door and proclaimed that he needed our help to castrate the neighbor’s pig. The pace of adventure didn’t slow down much for the rest of the weekend.

Personally, I was in favor of using one of my new machetes to do the job, but it proved to be too big and cumbersome so we ended up using a razor blade. This last shot from the "down & dirty" surgery we performed is of the pig and one of the dogs licking up the blood that was dripping after we were done…kinda weird. Also, in another strange twist, I was in charge of disinfecting the cut after the castration was complete. To do this, they didn’t use alcohol as I was expected, but instead I was ordered to spray gasoline on the wound then cover it with ash from their fire.

These two pictures are of the Volunteer’s house. Although probably not too much to look at in the states, it was a pretty sweet place and I wouldn’t mind at all ending up with a house like it in my site. The volunteer who preceeded him in El Volcan had it built for $500 and he inherited it when the earlier Volunteer left.

The lower left picture is of the front of the house and the picture to the left shows the back of the house. It has two rooms—a kitchen/living room and a bedroom. If a Salvadoran family was living in the same house it would undoubtedly have at least 4 residents, so all the locals view it as quite the mansion. Also, since men in El Salvador never do any household chores due to the incredibly strong sense of machismo in their culture, they are also flummoxed by how a single man manages to live there while having no one to cook and clean for him.

My hands–down favorite part of the house was the bathroom. The latrine was located 30 or 40 feet from the back door and was right along the edge of the cliff,. Because of this, there was no need for walls. Walls around a latrine are basically what makes latrines in this country so miserable, since it means they will be hot, humid, very smelly, and swarmed by more species of insects than any human can identify.

The following pictures are examples of the awesome views from the toilet. At night you can see the lights of San Miguel (one of the largest cities in the West) and on a clear day you can see to the ocean and even to a few islands out in the Pacific. I ended up spending at least an extra 5 or 10 minutes every time nature called just enjoying the views and the refreshing mountain breezes.

We also went on a pretty awesome hike through miles of jungle and farmland surrounding the volcano. Although we got a little lost and ended up spending about 7 hours trekking up and down ridges and through jungle, we had a great time. We got to see some old rock carvings from the time of the Mayans in El Salvador, found the world’s greatest climbing tree, and spent some time at a swimming hole known as "La Brouha" ("The Witch" in Spanish), and I got to investigate quite a bit of the surrounding agricultural areas.

Above is a picture of a corn field we stumbled upon. In the States a farmer would laugh you off his farm for growing corn at inclines of more than 15-20%. If you can´t tell from the picture, this enterprising Salvadoran farmer has a field of corn growing on what is basically a cliff. This is definitely not the exception in the country. Farmers here do some pretty amazingly ridiculous things to survive, but they always often make it work, without any of the technology the rest of the world takes advantage of. I can´t wait to start working with guys like this even more once I get to my permanent site.

Sorry about the placement of most of these pictures, sometimes I just can´t work them into this website too smoothly, especially on these highly suspect Salvadoran computers. Also, I can´t figure out how to get pictures deleted once I´ve inserted them, or flip them around, but the picture below is one of the swimming holes we spent an hour or two at.



Another highlight of my immersion weekend was meeting more people--especially extremely rural, poor people more similar to the people I´ll be living with for two years than the people I´m currently living around. For example, I spent one night in the house of a man who spent 8 years in prison for a murder--a murder his brother, who couldn´t be found following the Civil War--was convicted of. I also met a woman who was widow four separate times, all by machete, during a 13-year period of the Civil War here. Those are the kind of stories that make working with the people here so unbelievable and so interesting, especially since it is all so fresh in their memories.

Immersion Weekend

Tomorrow morning I´ll be taking off bright and early for the most adventurous part of training so far: immersion weekend.

Getting to my site for the weekend is certainly going to be my most exciting task yet. Partly as payback for the mansion I´m currently living in, which is hands-down nicer than any other trainee´s home, and also partly because I´d already requested of my Program Director a future 2-year site as remote as possible, I´m being sent to the most remote volunteer site in El Salvador. My journey will begin with a bus heading east towards the large city of San Miguel, but I will be getting off in Moncagua, before the bus actually reaches San Miguel. That is where it really gets interesting. My site, a very, very small community known as El Volcan ("The Volcano" for you non-Spanish speakers) is only connected to the rest of the world (by pick-up truck, no less) two days a week, and Thursday happens to not be one of those days. These means I´ll probably be hitching a ride from Managua heading north to either Chapeltique or Guatajiagua. GoogleMap that if you want...good luck. From one of those towns my adventure will continue, with a walk up a volcano that will take anywhere between one and two hours, depending on, according to my Sustainable Agriculture Program Director, my "level of determination." I´ve decided I´m definitely going to be bringing two of my machetes to insure my security doing the second half of my journey. In all seriousness though, I am real excited to get to meet some different Salvadorans and spend time talking to new people and testing out just how good my Spanish has gotten.

While in El Volcan for the weekend, I´ll be mostly just hanging out with the current volunteer who is already there, following him around and seeing more of what actual life in Peace Corps is like, and testing out a truly remote post to see if that is really what I want. I´ll probably stay with the volunteer one night, but I´m also going to be staying with one or two other families for a night or two. The region I´m visiting is known for mostly bean and coffee growing, so I´m excited to get my first chance to work with and talk to farmers of those crops.

It´ll also be a great chance to meet people in another part of the country. Their accent is bound to be different as well as their political leanings and philosophies. Morazon, the department (equivalent to states in the US) I´m visiting, is located in the northeast corner of the country and historically is known as one of the homes of the FMLN and guerrilla movement during the civil war and as the site of most of the worst massacres that took place during the fighting.

I´ll be sure to take many pictures...I´m sure I´ll have plenty of chances during the plenty of walking I´ll be doing. Also, as could be expected, El Volcan is located very literally on the lip of a huge volcano, so I´m sure I´ll be enjoying some great views. I´ll probably be returning to the relative civilization of the San Vicente area by Monday, so hopefully I´ll get a chance to update the blog with some pictures and stories.

Also, in probably my proudest moment as a Salvadoran, I officially reached VIP status at my favorite little bakery yesterday. The ladies who live there greeted me with two extra free pastries. This meant in addition to my usual haul of three pineapple cakes for $.25, I also got a banana pastry and some other thing that still has yet to be identified. I couldn´t of been happier.

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:

My Salvadoran Mansion

At this point in the training process, all 30 trainees are spread around the San Vicente area among the surrounding communities. In the morning when I need to get to San Vicente, I simply catch a ride in the back of a pick-up for $.30.

One of the main goals of Peace Corps during this time is for trainees to get used to the local culture and gain experience living on the level of typical Salvadornas. This means rudimentary cinder block or sheet metal homes, tin roofs, latrines, very little electricity, and especially large families. For 29 of the 30 trainees, this is the case.

I, however, currently reside is what is a Salvadoran mansion with just a single old lady. I´m not really sure exactly how this happened. And I don´t think Peace Corps is either from the looks on their faces when the staff sees where I live. However, I pay the same rest as everyone else, which Peace Corps supplies, so I guess it works out just fine.

Since I live with only one other person in a compound with two cuildings, I basically have my own house, which has three bedrooms and a bathroom with a shower and flush toilet (two more things barely any other trainees have). A personal favorite aspect of my new temporary pad is the presence of multiple hammocks, which I definitely have spent a few nights in.

While I do have to go to other trainees´ houses to get practice speaking Spanish (since I don´t have tons of kids running around the house) and to learn other basics like how to do laundry the Salvadoran way (pretty sure my washing machine is the only one in town), I´m definitely not complaining. Me and my new best friend, the elderly lady I live with, eat three meals a day together, take day-trips to the markets on the weekends, and religiously watch her two favorite telenovelas nightly. While I´m not yet ready to admit I actually like them, they are great for practicing my Spanish comprehension and being able to measure my improvment by how much more of the riveting drama I understand night by night.

Among the other interesting facets of my new life are the pretty insane hallucinations, nightmares, and dreams that have become standard nighttime fare for me since I arrived and began taking my Malaria medication. Apparently it is a pretty standard side effect, but since I´ll be taking these pills for the next 27 months, I´ve decided to just try and enjoy the crazy rides. And what a ride...anyone else who has had to take malaria medicine for long periods of time probably knows exactly what I´m talking about.

Also, as I´ve continued to work in the fields with local farmers to carry on my learning about their agricultural practices, it has slowly but surely continued to sink in just how weird it will be to be the long gringo around for the next two years. While I was working pretty hard a few days ago, basically on my hands and knees with a large machete weeding in a corn field, I looked up to realize there were 4 or 5 Salvadoran men watching me intently while occassionally pionting, laughing, and generally have the times of their lives. The local Salvadoran farmers seem to think it is among the most entertaining things they´ve ever seen to watch a young gringo American kid sweating buckets while working in their fields for free. This means there are usually crowds that show up to watch whenever I head out to work in the fields. Other Sustainable Agriculture Volunteers have told me to just get used to this, it never ends...they even refer to it as Gringo TV, which seems to be a favorite of the locals.