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.
You should know that the picture of the cows grazing on the beach is my new desktop background. MISS YOU!! - Nina
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the move man. I'm jealous of you. Are you going to miss your abuelita?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update Max, pics are great! I was figuring you had left for your posting and it would be a long time till we heard from you. Everyone misses you, asks and thinks of you often and sends their love. The holidays passed, I didn't make the pilgrimage down to the holy land (Laredo) and I have everyone volunteered to help me with my task of being in charge of putting up all the directional signs for the upcoming MammaJamma ride this Sat. We set out around 4 am in order to get all the signs up by post time. 100 mile riders take off at 7:30 am, rest at 8:00 - you can imagine how many left turns, right turns, stop ahead signs there are over 100+ miles. Should be interesting. Hayden, father Scot, are signed up, have to register as a volunteer. Hannah and Ian have offered but not yet signed on the dotted line. I screwed up my back a couple of weeks ago and not sure I'll be back in the saddle to ride but will be out putting up signs. Take care down there, have a good time, be nice to the natives. Love ya, dad
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