Just a few pictures of San Luis La Magdalena. The first two are the inside of my house and my front door. The next three are just views of the road heading into San Luis.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Just A Few Pictures From San Luis
Just a few pictures of San Luis La Magdalena. The first two are the inside of my house and my front door. The next three are just views of the road heading into San Luis.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
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
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.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Get Excited...Its Salvadoran Independence Day!
Well, the time has finally come for me to actually move out on my own and legitimately start my Peace Corps service. I received my site last Thursday, will be sworn in tomorrow, and am taking off for my new home for the next two years Friday.
I have been placed in the far west of the country. Apparently, according to one of my bosses, I will probably be able to walk into Guatamala in less than an hour if I ever feel the urge. Since I have never even really been to the western half of the country I don’t know much about my future home, but it is called San Luis La Magdalena (good luck finding it on a map…). The closest sign of actual civilization is a small pueblo called Chalchuapa. That should actually be google-able since there are supposed to be some semi-famous Mayan ruins there. Again though, I really know next to anything about my site, so I don’t feel like I can really talk about it much right now. The little I do know is the elevation is pretty high (at least for El Salvador), it is cool (again, at least relative to the rest of the country), very poor and rural, and the farmers grow sugar cane, beans, and corn. Peace Corps has assigned me two counterparts, both of whom are local farmers in the area, and one of whom I will be living with. I will be meeting them Friday morning in San Salvador then heading out to San Luis with them to truly start my adventure. Hopefully with my next post I’ll be able to describe my new home quite a bit more.
Until then, due in possibly equal parts to my laziness and also to just not having too much time recently, I am just going to leave ya’ll with a few pictures from my time in San Esteban Catarina (my home for the last two months). It will definitely be a tough place to leave and I can’t wait to come back and visit all my friends here multiple times over the next two years.
Playing basketball in the local school.
Activities with the environmental youth group.
More youth group time.
The view from San Esteban
Another view from San Esteban. There is a huge volcano behind that cloud.
Typical San Esteban street.
Working in the corn fields.
Visiting the neighbors.
Pictures from the beach.
More from the beach.
The truck I ride to San Vicente a few times a week.
Typical San Esteban.
Nina Hilda, the woman I live with and my best friend down here.
I have been placed in the far west of the country. Apparently, according to one of my bosses, I will probably be able to walk into Guatamala in less than an hour if I ever feel the urge. Since I have never even really been to the western half of the country I don’t know much about my future home, but it is called San Luis La Magdalena (good luck finding it on a map…). The closest sign of actual civilization is a small pueblo called Chalchuapa. That should actually be google-able since there are supposed to be some semi-famous Mayan ruins there. Again though, I really know next to anything about my site, so I don’t feel like I can really talk about it much right now. The little I do know is the elevation is pretty high (at least for El Salvador), it is cool (again, at least relative to the rest of the country), very poor and rural, and the farmers grow sugar cane, beans, and corn. Peace Corps has assigned me two counterparts, both of whom are local farmers in the area, and one of whom I will be living with. I will be meeting them Friday morning in San Salvador then heading out to San Luis with them to truly start my adventure. Hopefully with my next post I’ll be able to describe my new home quite a bit more.
Until then, due in possibly equal parts to my laziness and also to just not having too much time recently, I am just going to leave ya’ll with a few pictures from my time in San Esteban Catarina (my home for the last two months). It will definitely be a tough place to leave and I can’t wait to come back and visit all my friends here multiple times over the next two years.
Playing basketball in the local school.
Activities with the environmental youth group.
More youth group time.
The view from San Esteban
Another view from San Esteban. There is a huge volcano behind that cloud.
Typical San Esteban street.
Working in the corn fields.
Visiting the neighbors.
Pictures from the beach.
More from the beach.
The truck I ride to San Vicente a few times a week.
Typical San Esteban.
Nina Hilda, the woman I live with and my best friend down here.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Just a little fun with guns...
This is a picture from a few weeks ago when I visited a museum on an army base. Another trainee just gave it to me. Just wanted to make sure no one thought it was all hard work down here...
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Greased Pig Chases, 24/7 Reggaeton, and Mud Fights
So I don’t have any cross-country hitch-hiking adventures to report on this time, as I have been primarily just working around my host community of San Esteban Catarina, however, it still has been a pretty exciting past week.
Last Wednesday I taught my first English class in the school around the corner from my house. Just about every Volunteer ends up teaching English classes at their local school at least a few times, no matter what program they’re in or what they want to focus on with their projects. Surprisingly, it actually helps your Spanish skills a ton having to explain the English language using Spanish vocabulary, is a way for you to meet the kids in your community (something you’re inevitably going to have to do), and helps expose Salvadoran teachers to new teaching techniques. Teachers here rarely ever incorporate students into class, lecturing almost the entire time, which I have found to really stifle creativity. It is just the way teachers are taught to teach here and the way things have always been done. However, when Peace Corps teaches us how to teach classes in Salvadoran schools, they put a huge emphasis on relying primarily on getting students to speak and think creatively. The thought is that teaching this way is a much more sustainable way of development because if Salvadoran teachers begin to incorporate these more interactive ways of running classes into their lesson plans, the difference a Volunteer makes will be multiplied throughout the rest of that teacher’s career. Anyways, my English class was pretty fun, as the kids here are always extremely excited to have a new gringo teaching class for a day. I taught on the day they were supposed to learn about adjectives and adverbs, and once I had actually re-taught myself what in the world an adverb was in the English language, it was a real breeze.
Last Friday I marched in some sort of “parade” with the 7th through 11th grades of the same school. This is the month of El Salvador’s independence, so every day they do some sort of activity to commemorate it. Friday we walked for over 90 minutes through what can hardly be called roads (though we did have a police escort) in the pouring rain and mud to the neighboring village of Calderitas. When we arrived, the group of about 500 kids sat down in the middle of the soccer field (a glorified mud pit) to listen to what was one of the more bizarre lectures I’ve heard in my life. Four women came from the Ministry of Education to lecture the students about sex and relationships. Though this is definitely a pressing issue in El Salvador, as there is really no birth control and most girls, especially in the rural areas, don’t get close to finishing high school because of pregnancy, it was certainly a strange environment to choose to talk about the subject. I never thought sitting 500 rambunctious teenagers in the middle of a mud pit during an epic rain storm would strike someone as a good time to talk about the birds and the bees, but that wasn’t stopping anyone last Friday. Although I didn’t pick up all of the lecture, I did completely understand one section when the women stridently declared that homosexuality was a sign of mental illness and that anyone who took part in homosexual activities should immediately visit a psychologist and was “highly abnormal.” I guess in a still-developing country where Catholics are an immense majority and the only other people are very strict Evangelicals lectures like this are something I’m just going to have to get used to. After the sex lecture, the school director put me in charge of 60 kids for two hours, and although I tried to run about 5 or 6 activities, just about anything I tried quickly evolved into huge mud fights. Within 20 minutes, everyone anywhere near the soccer field, including the school administrators, teachers, police escort, and Ministry of Education speakers, were completely coated in mud. Although I was worried people would be unhappy with how the day turned out, it seemed everyone was extremely pleased with the day’s results and they told me they want to schedule another “parade” for later in the month.
Also, for the last 5 days, San Esteban Catarina has been in the midst of their annual September carnival. This means that the central square and park (just one block from my house) has been the scene of numerous rides, countless food and candy stands, DJs blaring music 24/7 (a personal favorite, led my to buy my first Salvadoran CD, it has the top 130 Reggaeton hits of 2004 and cost just $1), soccer games, marching bands, shooting booths, gambling, what must certainly be the world’s sketchiest Ferris wheel (made at least a few of my fellow trainees nauseous and caused one to puke…I personally loved it), roving Salvadoran drunks at all times of the day, greased pig chases through the streets, horse races (also through the streets), some sort of horseback ring-jousting activity (I’m not even going to try to explain), and general merriment and huge crowds literally around the clock. Despite the fact that the presence of all the carnival rides meant the rest of San Esteban lost power every night, I still have to say I am definitely looking forward to my next Salvadoran carnival. A personal highlight was my first Salvadoran dance. It featured the apparently “world-famous” Salvadoran DJ Sonido Lasser, multiple huge TV screens to show music videos, pounding Reggaeton music till 3 in the morning, fights, smoke machines, clouds (San Esteban is high enough in the mountains that the clouds are consistently at ground level, limiting visibility to about 10 feet), drunks peeing in corners, people of literally all ages dancing their hearts out, $.50 beers, approximately 3 English songs (Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Lady Gaga), and security guards with automatic machine guns (what more could anyone ask for?).
This Thursday (2 days from now) I will be receiving my site placement and I am extremely excited to finally found out where I will be living for the next two years. From there, I have one more week of training, then Peace Corps officially tosses us out on out own for the next two years. While I think it will be great moving to a new place and seeing more of the country, it is definitely going to be hard to leave San Esteban Catarina. While I am far from knowing everyone in town, I definitely know every single person whose home or business I pass in a standard day and really have begun to feel like a part of the community. The Salvadoran culture is extremely welcoming and as a result everyone here feels an overwhelming responsibility to make sure the non-Spanish speaking gringo in town is well-taken care of. I will certainly miss having to deal with the impossibility of getting anywhere on time because I have to stop and talk to someone at every house I pass, but I am sure that within a few weeks of living in my new community it will be much the same.
In a few other interesting tidbits from my last week, I am proud to announce my Spanish is now good enough that I successfully convinced someone I was from Argentina and not the United States. With just a quick change of accent, I had them completely fooled and thinking that I was, in fact, not a gringo, which I’m sure will come in handy more than a few times in the next two years. I also attended my first Salvadoran funeral this weekend. The 17-year old daughter of a Peace Corps staff member was very violently killed in what was definitely gang-related violence. Hearing about the crime, attending the funeral, which was one of the strangest atmospheres I have ever experienced, then walking with the casket through the streets to the cemetery and finishing the burial, was definitely the most intense moment of Salvadoran culture I have experienced. Though I hope it won’t occur again, with the current gang situation here, I am positive it will not be the last funeral I attend.
I’ll try to update the blog again sometime soon after Thursday so I can let everyone know where I’ve been placed. I don’t always remember to mention it, but thanks again for all the emails and comments, they are always great to have whenever I actually get on a computer.
Last Wednesday I taught my first English class in the school around the corner from my house. Just about every Volunteer ends up teaching English classes at their local school at least a few times, no matter what program they’re in or what they want to focus on with their projects. Surprisingly, it actually helps your Spanish skills a ton having to explain the English language using Spanish vocabulary, is a way for you to meet the kids in your community (something you’re inevitably going to have to do), and helps expose Salvadoran teachers to new teaching techniques. Teachers here rarely ever incorporate students into class, lecturing almost the entire time, which I have found to really stifle creativity. It is just the way teachers are taught to teach here and the way things have always been done. However, when Peace Corps teaches us how to teach classes in Salvadoran schools, they put a huge emphasis on relying primarily on getting students to speak and think creatively. The thought is that teaching this way is a much more sustainable way of development because if Salvadoran teachers begin to incorporate these more interactive ways of running classes into their lesson plans, the difference a Volunteer makes will be multiplied throughout the rest of that teacher’s career. Anyways, my English class was pretty fun, as the kids here are always extremely excited to have a new gringo teaching class for a day. I taught on the day they were supposed to learn about adjectives and adverbs, and once I had actually re-taught myself what in the world an adverb was in the English language, it was a real breeze.
Last Friday I marched in some sort of “parade” with the 7th through 11th grades of the same school. This is the month of El Salvador’s independence, so every day they do some sort of activity to commemorate it. Friday we walked for over 90 minutes through what can hardly be called roads (though we did have a police escort) in the pouring rain and mud to the neighboring village of Calderitas. When we arrived, the group of about 500 kids sat down in the middle of the soccer field (a glorified mud pit) to listen to what was one of the more bizarre lectures I’ve heard in my life. Four women came from the Ministry of Education to lecture the students about sex and relationships. Though this is definitely a pressing issue in El Salvador, as there is really no birth control and most girls, especially in the rural areas, don’t get close to finishing high school because of pregnancy, it was certainly a strange environment to choose to talk about the subject. I never thought sitting 500 rambunctious teenagers in the middle of a mud pit during an epic rain storm would strike someone as a good time to talk about the birds and the bees, but that wasn’t stopping anyone last Friday. Although I didn’t pick up all of the lecture, I did completely understand one section when the women stridently declared that homosexuality was a sign of mental illness and that anyone who took part in homosexual activities should immediately visit a psychologist and was “highly abnormal.” I guess in a still-developing country where Catholics are an immense majority and the only other people are very strict Evangelicals lectures like this are something I’m just going to have to get used to. After the sex lecture, the school director put me in charge of 60 kids for two hours, and although I tried to run about 5 or 6 activities, just about anything I tried quickly evolved into huge mud fights. Within 20 minutes, everyone anywhere near the soccer field, including the school administrators, teachers, police escort, and Ministry of Education speakers, were completely coated in mud. Although I was worried people would be unhappy with how the day turned out, it seemed everyone was extremely pleased with the day’s results and they told me they want to schedule another “parade” for later in the month.
Also, for the last 5 days, San Esteban Catarina has been in the midst of their annual September carnival. This means that the central square and park (just one block from my house) has been the scene of numerous rides, countless food and candy stands, DJs blaring music 24/7 (a personal favorite, led my to buy my first Salvadoran CD, it has the top 130 Reggaeton hits of 2004 and cost just $1), soccer games, marching bands, shooting booths, gambling, what must certainly be the world’s sketchiest Ferris wheel (made at least a few of my fellow trainees nauseous and caused one to puke…I personally loved it), roving Salvadoran drunks at all times of the day, greased pig chases through the streets, horse races (also through the streets), some sort of horseback ring-jousting activity (I’m not even going to try to explain), and general merriment and huge crowds literally around the clock. Despite the fact that the presence of all the carnival rides meant the rest of San Esteban lost power every night, I still have to say I am definitely looking forward to my next Salvadoran carnival. A personal highlight was my first Salvadoran dance. It featured the apparently “world-famous” Salvadoran DJ Sonido Lasser, multiple huge TV screens to show music videos, pounding Reggaeton music till 3 in the morning, fights, smoke machines, clouds (San Esteban is high enough in the mountains that the clouds are consistently at ground level, limiting visibility to about 10 feet), drunks peeing in corners, people of literally all ages dancing their hearts out, $.50 beers, approximately 3 English songs (Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Lady Gaga), and security guards with automatic machine guns (what more could anyone ask for?).
This Thursday (2 days from now) I will be receiving my site placement and I am extremely excited to finally found out where I will be living for the next two years. From there, I have one more week of training, then Peace Corps officially tosses us out on out own for the next two years. While I think it will be great moving to a new place and seeing more of the country, it is definitely going to be hard to leave San Esteban Catarina. While I am far from knowing everyone in town, I definitely know every single person whose home or business I pass in a standard day and really have begun to feel like a part of the community. The Salvadoran culture is extremely welcoming and as a result everyone here feels an overwhelming responsibility to make sure the non-Spanish speaking gringo in town is well-taken care of. I will certainly miss having to deal with the impossibility of getting anywhere on time because I have to stop and talk to someone at every house I pass, but I am sure that within a few weeks of living in my new community it will be much the same.
In a few other interesting tidbits from my last week, I am proud to announce my Spanish is now good enough that I successfully convinced someone I was from Argentina and not the United States. With just a quick change of accent, I had them completely fooled and thinking that I was, in fact, not a gringo, which I’m sure will come in handy more than a few times in the next two years. I also attended my first Salvadoran funeral this weekend. The 17-year old daughter of a Peace Corps staff member was very violently killed in what was definitely gang-related violence. Hearing about the crime, attending the funeral, which was one of the strangest atmospheres I have ever experienced, then walking with the casket through the streets to the cemetery and finishing the burial, was definitely the most intense moment of Salvadoran culture I have experienced. Though I hope it won’t occur again, with the current gang situation here, I am positive it will not be the last funeral I attend.
I’ll try to update the blog again sometime soon after Thursday so I can let everyone know where I’ve been placed. I don’t always remember to mention it, but thanks again for all the emails and comments, they are always great to have whenever I actually get on a computer.
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