the beginning

As I was coming into town today, all eager to start writing in my blog because I feel like I´ve been here forever and haven´t written nearly enough and have missed out on all sorts of important changes, it suddenly dawned on me that I´ve actually only been in the Peace Corps a week, which seems crazy as so many different things have happened already. I guess I should start at the beginning.

To be honest, I was dreading the "staging" we had in D.C. I´ve started new things several times in my life and the first awkward days with a new group of people are usually so painful and slow. Sure, the lessons we had in DC about culture shock and safety 101 were definitely not the most interesting in the world, but in general, I was surprised to find that I actually had a wonderful time. Most of that was because our group of 39 volunteers were all so fun, nice, and funny and made the two days pass so quickly. Generally, most people are in their twenties, easy going, and up for adventure, not too surprising I suppose. The most obvious exception to our young group is a 70 year old volunteer (to be sure, he looks much, much younger, and acts generally quite youthful). He´s Italian and formerly worked for a major Italian network, which is now doing a documentary on his experience in the Peace Corps - which I think is very exciting.

There was just a really good feeling in the group, everyone got along. It made me so excited to know that I will be spending the next two years (well more or less) with these people. It felt very right.

So after a couple fun days in Washington, we left our hotel at 3:30 in the morning for the airport, I was very tired and slept the whole way to San Salvador, unsurprisingly. The only thing worth noting from the flight was that on the plane the flight attendent made an announcement that there was a group of 39 peace corps volunteers on their way to El Salvador and everyone cheered, I thought that was cute and felt very proud.

When we got to El Salvador, we immediately went in to the center and had our shots and Spanish tests. I was sure I was going to cry and not remember anything, but then my interview ended up lasting for half an hour and I passed the requirement we have after two months of classes so I was happy with that and pleased to know that somewhere in the depths of my mind my Spanish had somehow survived. We were greated at the airport by three smiling former volunteers who know work at the Peace Corps Headquarters and are all so tan, fluent in Spanish and so excited about and familiar with working and living in El Salvador it made me very much look forward to the day when I am like them, two years from now.

Our groups spent one last night together in a hostel in San Vicente, our town where the training is, before we were divided the next day into our host communities. Parting was actually pretty sad because we had (or at least I had!) gotten used to being together in our big group and now were placed in different villages with about 5 other volunteers. We will spend the next 8 weeks living in this village and taking Spanish lessons 4 days a week there and come into the training center all together 1-2 days a week.

When I was first placed in my town, I was a little disappointed in my home stay situation because everyone else seemed to get giant families with a million little kids running around, and I was placed with an older woman with no kids living at home. She owns a store which keeps her quite busy and I spent the first afternoon sitting in the hammock not really sure what to do, and ended up going over to visit my friend, who is staying across the street with a woman who owns a busy comedor or diner. The next day, however, I got to talking with my host mother more, and found that she is indeed a very talkative woman, with a lot to say and I think is very pleased to have someone there to talk to about, which is great. Plus, she has taken to heart my request to learn to make Salvadoran food and I have already been cooking with her quite a bit, which is awesome. I learned how to make rellenos do guaquil the other day, I think that´s how you spell it, which is a pretty typical dish. Also, I have taken to working in the store, which is fun. I love how they use the US dollar here, it reminds me of the stories you read from the 1920s when a candy is two pennies and a soda is 10 cents. I got confused the other day when someone asked for what I thought was a cola, but they were actually saying "una cora" - Spanglish for a quarter. A similar story is when my host mom was saying something about a pika, when I said i didn´t know that word she explained it was like a car - what she was saying was a "pick up" (truck), haha.

In general, my host mother is really sweet and I suppose there are definite advantages to living in a calmer household and having some quite time and privacy to myself. Not to mention that I have a shower (no hot water of course, but a shower is better than a bucket bath).

It´s funny to me that we have only spent a couple nights in our town, because I already feel quite at home there. I really have to say, everything I have heard about Salvadorans being incredibly nice and generous is true. I cannot stress how wonderful everyone has been to us. For example, my friend was on the bus yesterday and a little girl came up and gave her cookies, because she was a foreign American and she was so curious about her. No where else in the world are people that excited and interested in meeting Americans. I feel so lucky to be here.

Part of this, of course, is the fact that literally every family I have met has at least one, if not more, family members in the US. My host mom for example has a son in Houston and in L.A., which is pretty typical. The host family of another one of the Americans even has family in Washington state, in Yakima. The mom had gone to visit there and said she thought Seattle was very beautiful, so she was instantly on my good side :). It´s been really interesting though to hear my host moms stories about how people get to the US (her answer is mojados or wet), and the difficulties they face at the boarders. It´s fascinating hearing the stories from this side.

OK this post is getting really long and I still want to talk about one more thing. Today is Palm Sunday, which is the beginning of the Holy Week here. My host mom is religious so I spent this morning taking part in a procession around the town (see pictures) and went to church on Friday and took part in another procession then too. I am spending more time in Church than I have in Synagogue for a long time, haha. It´s good to go and learn though, it´s such a huge part of the community that it´s important to participate in it.

Also, for the first time, us Peace Corps Trainees are being asked to put together a development project in our village, though we only have two months there! But the people in my group are all so pumped about it, it made me really excited about it and proud about the real reason we´re here. I just keep thinking to myself, I can´t believe I´m getting paid to do this. Obviously, not getting paid very much, but still! In our training the trainer gave us this quote from Kennedy I think saying that the Peace Corps represents all that is good about America. I couldn´t agree more. The more I get to know about the program, the prouder I am to be part of it and the luckier I feel to have this opportunity to participate!

OK on that positive note, I must sign off because the internet cafe closes in a couple minutes and I want to post pictures! Please send me emails, I would love to hear all of your comments!

It now, when I am like them.