The Last Month (In Photos)

As a part of my new position as Regional Leader, I try to organize "wilderness" excursions, usually combinations of hikes (to rivers, waterfalls, and great views) and camping, to places all over Eastern El Salvador that all Volunteers in the country are invited to.

A few weeks ago a group of 6 of us hiked to this amazing, two-tiered waterfall in north-eastern El Salvador near the small town of Joateca. The waterfall was just a 45-minutes hike from a riverside campground where we all spent the night.

 Earlier in July a delegation of doctors and medical students from Long Island came to Eastern El Salvador as a part of their coursework and to get data for an investigative research project on a tropical disease called Chagas Disease. I, along with a few other Volunteers, spent many days translating for them while they took blood samples and electrocardiogram heart scans from patients in three different community health clinics as well as accompanying them to a few rural schools where they would give trainings on the importance of oral health, exercise, and sexual education.

I particularly enjoyed being able to visit a community called El Volcan with the medical group. I had first been to El Volcan during the "Immersion Days" of my initial Peace Corps training and had later returned again as I had become close friends with the Volunteer posted there. With the medical brigade, we went to the community's school to give a series of lectures on general health care and I got a chance to catch up with a lot of the community's children I had previously met but hadn't seen in almost a year. The nearest town, Guatejiagua, was having it annual "Black Clay Festival" the following weekend, so many of the students were busy working on their art projects they would be displaying during the festival.

Above, me with two other Peace Corps Volunteers and the group of visiting doctors and medical students from Long Island outside the school in El Volcan.

Above, a mural devoted to the memory of El Mozote, the site of one of the most heart-wrenching and notorious massacres that took place during the Salvadoran Civil War. Below, I'm crossing a rather-questionable bridge in a recreation of a guerrilla camp from the Salvadoran Civil War.

The above waterfall, El Chorreron, is located right on the Salvadoran-Honduran border, about an hour-and-a-half hike from the small town of San Fernando in northeastern El Salvador (literarlly, if you get out of the waterfall on one side you're in El Salvador and on the other side you're in Honduras). It was the final destination for another weekend excursion I organized and is certainly one of my favorite places in El Salvador--it wasn't the first, or will it be the last time, I visit El Chorreron.

Above and below are views of Lake Suchitlan from the touristy town of Suchitoto. It is generally recognized as the cultural capitol of El Salvador and was home to an HIV/AIDS awareness and education training I helped organize and run last week.

Below, the church and fountain in the central park of Suchitoto. Suchitoto is full of many small art galleries and charming restaurants and hotels. The first night we were there the city had even organized a movie screening in the central park.

A group of 20 community leaders (high school students, school faculty, and staff from the local health clinic, mayor's office, and Red Cross) from a town called El Rosario came to be trained on how to lead HIV/AIDS awareness and education sessions. This "training of trainers" activity lasted 4 days, during which we demonstrated 10 to 15 different potential educational and interactive activities oriented to teach youth about HIV/AIDS, then trained the community leaders to run the sessions themselves, and to conclude the week, returned with them to their community to oversee them as they gave the training sessions to all the students in the local high school.

Above, a group shot of me and the other Peace Corps Volunteer and staff members who ran the training with all the participants. The training took place in a conference center/art museum/community training center run by an American nun. Below, two photos of the participants of the training actually running their first HIV/AIDS education sessions in the high school of their hometown, El Rosario.

Below, a photo taken with undoubtedly the best dressed Salvadoran at last week's midnight Batman premiere in San Salvador, which I was lucky enough to get the chance to go to. If you haven't seen it yet, it comes highly recommended!