the procession from the church, the compañeras, bowing as they enter, the cake (complete with a barbi on top), and the dance - this is a picture of them "brushing their shoulders" to the song "candy shop"
Monday, May 19, 2008
quinceniera madness
the procession from the church, the compañeras, bowing as they enter, the cake (complete with a barbi on top), and the dance - this is a picture of them "brushing their shoulders" to the song "candy shop"
milking cows and walks in the mañana
milking cows, the river near by, norma and me in front of the river, chela on her bike in front of the fire tree i love, and breakfast in the campo
Friday, May 16, 2008
a week in site
So today marks a week since I got to my new site! The experience of being a new volunteer is so strange, especially since we haven't received any technical training yet (that comes in July) and we were specifically informed that we were not supposed to do anything the first couple months besides "get to know people." So I have been just kind of wandering around, stopping by the major institutions in the town (the mayor's office, the schools, the health clinic) trying to be friendly to everyone I pass and find out where I can fit in and help.
One of the highlights of the week was going with my mayor to a meeting of the Millenium Challenge Corporation project here in El Salvador. My mayor is part of the board of 21 mayors who are the liason between MCC and the municipalities. It was interesting to be in the meeting and hear the process that is going on with the funding of the development projects. My mayor is pretty respected and popular among the other mayors there, which is nice. Also, I got to meet the American head of MCC in the country, who is surprisingly young, but friendly and is of course marrying a Salvadoran (it just seems to be what everyone does here). Hopefully, I will learn more about how to apply for funding from MCC to help my community.
Also, I went to the weekly cattle sale on Wednesday. The economy of this area is largely based on cattle ranching (especially for the cheese production), so there are a lot of cowboy hats and such things. I got to watch a bull get castrated after it had been sold (apparently makes them fatten up, all the better for slaughter), which was slightly traumatizing.
I also went with the team from the health clinic out to the countryside. They are currently in the middle of a year-long process of surveying the communities out here so help design future projects. I almost fainted because we were basically outside for 4 hours in the boiling sun, but it was so interesting and I'll hopefully get trained in giving the survey too so that I can help them. The countryside around here is incredibly poor, which draws a sharp contrast to the city, which is more well off. I am hoping to spend more time in the countryside and get involved with projects that are going on their too.
I am slowly meeting people and getting to know the different options for work here, but it's a strange feeling to really have no direction at all and having to figure everything out entirely on your own. It's a new, and very Peace Corps experience.
One thing that is keeping me motivated is that I had a long talk over the phone with the previous volunteer here. Like I mentioned before, Jack was extremely beloved by the community here and everyone comes up to me to tell me about him and how much they miss him all the time. He was talking about some of the projects we was involved with while he was here and they sound amazing. He was truly one of the "super volunteers" who was involved with everything, from health classes, to building greenhouses, to making murals, and even cooking classes with the women. He is much remembered for his pizza making skills (got to learn how to do that...). After talking to him I felt extremely overwhelmed, I am not sure I can live up to him and I have no idea where to even start! But I need to remember that I still have two years here and these things take time. Apparently he hardly spoke Spanish when he got here, so I'm sure he didn't start these things for a while. On a more positive note, it's nice to know that that type of work is possible here. If I am up to it, I can really accomplish a lot in this community over the next to year.
Right now, I'm trying to strike the right balance between taking things easy and not rushing into anything, and still staying engaged and motivated to participate with the community. I am greatly looking forward to the day when I have a more set schedule and know enough people to do projects, and feel secure with my place in the community. One step at a time I suppose!
One of the highlights of the week was going with my mayor to a meeting of the Millenium Challenge Corporation project here in El Salvador. My mayor is part of the board of 21 mayors who are the liason between MCC and the municipalities. It was interesting to be in the meeting and hear the process that is going on with the funding of the development projects. My mayor is pretty respected and popular among the other mayors there, which is nice. Also, I got to meet the American head of MCC in the country, who is surprisingly young, but friendly and is of course marrying a Salvadoran (it just seems to be what everyone does here). Hopefully, I will learn more about how to apply for funding from MCC to help my community.
Also, I went to the weekly cattle sale on Wednesday. The economy of this area is largely based on cattle ranching (especially for the cheese production), so there are a lot of cowboy hats and such things. I got to watch a bull get castrated after it had been sold (apparently makes them fatten up, all the better for slaughter), which was slightly traumatizing.
I also went with the team from the health clinic out to the countryside. They are currently in the middle of a year-long process of surveying the communities out here so help design future projects. I almost fainted because we were basically outside for 4 hours in the boiling sun, but it was so interesting and I'll hopefully get trained in giving the survey too so that I can help them. The countryside around here is incredibly poor, which draws a sharp contrast to the city, which is more well off. I am hoping to spend more time in the countryside and get involved with projects that are going on their too.
I am slowly meeting people and getting to know the different options for work here, but it's a strange feeling to really have no direction at all and having to figure everything out entirely on your own. It's a new, and very Peace Corps experience.
One thing that is keeping me motivated is that I had a long talk over the phone with the previous volunteer here. Like I mentioned before, Jack was extremely beloved by the community here and everyone comes up to me to tell me about him and how much they miss him all the time. He was talking about some of the projects we was involved with while he was here and they sound amazing. He was truly one of the "super volunteers" who was involved with everything, from health classes, to building greenhouses, to making murals, and even cooking classes with the women. He is much remembered for his pizza making skills (got to learn how to do that...). After talking to him I felt extremely overwhelmed, I am not sure I can live up to him and I have no idea where to even start! But I need to remember that I still have two years here and these things take time. Apparently he hardly spoke Spanish when he got here, so I'm sure he didn't start these things for a while. On a more positive note, it's nice to know that that type of work is possible here. If I am up to it, I can really accomplish a lot in this community over the next to year.
Right now, I'm trying to strike the right balance between taking things easy and not rushing into anything, and still staying engaged and motivated to participate with the community. I am greatly looking forward to the day when I have a more set schedule and know enough people to do projects, and feel secure with my place in the community. One step at a time I suppose!
Monday, May 12, 2008
swearing in
the FAO rep to El Salvador (our keynote speaker), the US ambassador and the PC country director
peace corps girls with the US ambassador, he asked to be in this picture
swearing in and first days in site
and so all of a sudden, training ends and I am at my site!
Swearing in (which I keep wanting to call graduation, but it's not the same I know), was quite the whirlwind. One day we're with our host families (who have become like our real families) and the next day we leave at 6am to get to San Salvador, where we meet out new counterparts, then have swearing in, go to the hotel, have a big taco dinner with the group of volunteers who swore in in September and then have a giant party with all the volunteers at a salsa club downtown. The next day we wake up very hungover and head to our sites on our own, it's all quite overwhelming.
Well here I am in my new site. The area is really beautiful. It's about two hours or so from San Salvador, and is in the green hills here. The town itself is very pretty and well maintained, I haven't had a chance to go into the rural areas yet, but am looking forward to doing so. It's also very, very hot. Everyone in town keeps commenting on how I am sweating all the time! Hopefully I will get used to it.
I'm lucky because I happen to be following a previous volunteer who was apparently a rock star. Everyone in the town is obsessed with him, and as such, they are all really excited to have me here too. Though it can be a little overwhelming at times hearing ´well jack used to do this, and jack used to do that´ all day long, it is nice to have people be so welcoming to me and to be guided by the type of work he did (though he worked with youth, not the municipality like I hopefully will). Already one of the families he was really close to have really taken me in. The father is actually my official counterpart in the office (though he didn't come to San Salvador for counterpart day), which is great. He has 5 daughters, two of them took me into the closest city today to go grocery shopping, which was really helpful as navigating the mercado for the first time can be quite overwhelming.
Also, they found me an amazing place to live. I am living with an elderly couple who have a giant house in the town. The house is used for all the town's gatherings. For example, when I first arrived there there was a group of 15 teenagers practicing their dances for this Saturday's quinziniera (basically like the Latin version of a bar mitzvah, except it happens only for girls when they turn 15). Since I'm living in the house where it's being held, I get to go, I'm really excited. Oh, and did I mention the house has a swimming pool? I almost feel guilty because I have friends who are living in towns without running water or electricity and here I am with a swimming pool! Should make it easier to bear the heat.
In any case, today is my first day of work. You may ask, why are you updating your blog while you're at work? Well, I was supposed to have a meeting with the social promoter, the man who works with community development organizations and we were going to go out into the country side to see a new housing project they have out there, but when I showed up this morning it turns out he left over the weekend to go illegally to the U.S. so he's no longer here. Oh the problems with trying to work in El Salvador...
I decided to use the opportunity of free internet to update my blog but I should probably get back to work soon, or rather try and find out what my work will be. Hope it all works out!
Swearing in (which I keep wanting to call graduation, but it's not the same I know), was quite the whirlwind. One day we're with our host families (who have become like our real families) and the next day we leave at 6am to get to San Salvador, where we meet out new counterparts, then have swearing in, go to the hotel, have a big taco dinner with the group of volunteers who swore in in September and then have a giant party with all the volunteers at a salsa club downtown. The next day we wake up very hungover and head to our sites on our own, it's all quite overwhelming.
Well here I am in my new site. The area is really beautiful. It's about two hours or so from San Salvador, and is in the green hills here. The town itself is very pretty and well maintained, I haven't had a chance to go into the rural areas yet, but am looking forward to doing so. It's also very, very hot. Everyone in town keeps commenting on how I am sweating all the time! Hopefully I will get used to it.
I'm lucky because I happen to be following a previous volunteer who was apparently a rock star. Everyone in the town is obsessed with him, and as such, they are all really excited to have me here too. Though it can be a little overwhelming at times hearing ´well jack used to do this, and jack used to do that´ all day long, it is nice to have people be so welcoming to me and to be guided by the type of work he did (though he worked with youth, not the municipality like I hopefully will). Already one of the families he was really close to have really taken me in. The father is actually my official counterpart in the office (though he didn't come to San Salvador for counterpart day), which is great. He has 5 daughters, two of them took me into the closest city today to go grocery shopping, which was really helpful as navigating the mercado for the first time can be quite overwhelming.
Also, they found me an amazing place to live. I am living with an elderly couple who have a giant house in the town. The house is used for all the town's gatherings. For example, when I first arrived there there was a group of 15 teenagers practicing their dances for this Saturday's quinziniera (basically like the Latin version of a bar mitzvah, except it happens only for girls when they turn 15). Since I'm living in the house where it's being held, I get to go, I'm really excited. Oh, and did I mention the house has a swimming pool? I almost feel guilty because I have friends who are living in towns without running water or electricity and here I am with a swimming pool! Should make it easier to bear the heat.
In any case, today is my first day of work. You may ask, why are you updating your blog while you're at work? Well, I was supposed to have a meeting with the social promoter, the man who works with community development organizations and we were going to go out into the country side to see a new housing project they have out there, but when I showed up this morning it turns out he left over the weekend to go illegally to the U.S. so he's no longer here. Oh the problems with trying to work in El Salvador...
I decided to use the opportunity of free internet to update my blog but I should probably get back to work soon, or rather try and find out what my work will be. Hope it all works out!
Friday, May 2, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
cabañas it is!
so i finally found out where i am going! I will be spending the next two years in the department of Cabañas, which is in the northern zone of El Salvador, actually not too far from where i am now (I will post a picture with the map and me tomorrow).
To be honest, when we found out yesterday I was really, really upset. I had been hoping for a bigger site, where there currently was a volunteer I would be replacing, and most of all, to be close to people from my peace corps group, or at least other PC volunteers. As I watched the giant map on the wall get filled up with clusters of stars (representing volunteers) in Morazan and Santa Ana, I grew more and more worried as no one was placed close to me. Also, I found out that the last volunteers in my site were a married couple who had left after a month and that it was supposed to be extremely hot. Did not seem to be what I was hoping for at all. Unfortunately, the woman in charge of my program is new and as such was not familiar with our site placements and so couldn't really tell me much and the guy who was heavily involved wasnt there. I left the training center sorely disappointed and extremely anxious about the next two years. It helped that Betsy and I (she was also a little disappointed) went to comiserate over pizza, licuados (delicious smoothies) and shopping, making me feel a little better.
I am feeling much better today though. The main reason is that I had a chance to talk to Bri, the coordinator of the health program and she gave me some great info. First of all, the mayor is supposed to be awesome. He's on the board of the FoMilenio project in El Salvador, which is wonderful because I specifically requested to work with it (probably why they placed me there). For those of you who don't know what it is, FoMilenio is the Salvador organization formed to administer the Millenium Challenge Grant that El Salvador won in 2006. The grant, by the Millenium Challenge Corporation (http://www.mcc.gov/) is for $400,000,000, which makes it one of the largest of these grants won by any country in the world (second only to Mali). The grant is given by the US govt and is meant to be a new type of aid giving, it's pretty interesting. All the money will be spent in the north, half goes to building a new highway, which will connect the north (all the roads currently basically lead to San Salvador) and the other half will go into development, including microfinance, crop productivity, capacity building, access to clean water, electricity and other good stuff. It makes me really excited to be involved in this type of work, I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to be in the Northern region at this time.
Also, Bri was telling me that the town is pretty close to the capital, you can get there and back in one day. Which is great, because then I can meet up with friends there. And she said that there are a lot of great volunteers in Cabañas and they have a pretty solid network and do activities together, which is great.
The last thing she told me which made me feel good is that apparently before the married couple that left early was another volunteer who was apparently amazing and the town loved him. He got a lot done in the town, and is the town's motivation for requesting a new volunteer. It means I have big shoes to fill, but also that they have a lot of confidence in me that I will be able to follow in his footsteps.
Oh! and the town I am going to apparently makes awesome cheese, famous throughout El Salvador. Can't wait...
Plus I decided to stop listening when Salvadorans say that places are really hot or really cold. This country is so tiny, and as far as I can tell, it's generally been pretty hot everywhere I've gone. Thankfully, it's still less humid than NY in the summer, and this time of year is supposed to be the worst it gets so I should be fine. I guess I will just spend the next two years wearing tank tops, and that's OK.
So all in all today, I am feeling much better about the placement. In any case, I will be there in a week (!) so I will be able to see the place for myself finally!
To be honest, when we found out yesterday I was really, really upset. I had been hoping for a bigger site, where there currently was a volunteer I would be replacing, and most of all, to be close to people from my peace corps group, or at least other PC volunteers. As I watched the giant map on the wall get filled up with clusters of stars (representing volunteers) in Morazan and Santa Ana, I grew more and more worried as no one was placed close to me. Also, I found out that the last volunteers in my site were a married couple who had left after a month and that it was supposed to be extremely hot. Did not seem to be what I was hoping for at all. Unfortunately, the woman in charge of my program is new and as such was not familiar with our site placements and so couldn't really tell me much and the guy who was heavily involved wasnt there. I left the training center sorely disappointed and extremely anxious about the next two years. It helped that Betsy and I (she was also a little disappointed) went to comiserate over pizza, licuados (delicious smoothies) and shopping, making me feel a little better.
I am feeling much better today though. The main reason is that I had a chance to talk to Bri, the coordinator of the health program and she gave me some great info. First of all, the mayor is supposed to be awesome. He's on the board of the FoMilenio project in El Salvador, which is wonderful because I specifically requested to work with it (probably why they placed me there). For those of you who don't know what it is, FoMilenio is the Salvador organization formed to administer the Millenium Challenge Grant that El Salvador won in 2006. The grant, by the Millenium Challenge Corporation (http://www.mcc.gov/) is for $400,000,000, which makes it one of the largest of these grants won by any country in the world (second only to Mali). The grant is given by the US govt and is meant to be a new type of aid giving, it's pretty interesting. All the money will be spent in the north, half goes to building a new highway, which will connect the north (all the roads currently basically lead to San Salvador) and the other half will go into development, including microfinance, crop productivity, capacity building, access to clean water, electricity and other good stuff. It makes me really excited to be involved in this type of work, I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to be in the Northern region at this time.
Also, Bri was telling me that the town is pretty close to the capital, you can get there and back in one day. Which is great, because then I can meet up with friends there. And she said that there are a lot of great volunteers in Cabañas and they have a pretty solid network and do activities together, which is great.
The last thing she told me which made me feel good is that apparently before the married couple that left early was another volunteer who was apparently amazing and the town loved him. He got a lot done in the town, and is the town's motivation for requesting a new volunteer. It means I have big shoes to fill, but also that they have a lot of confidence in me that I will be able to follow in his footsteps.
Oh! and the town I am going to apparently makes awesome cheese, famous throughout El Salvador. Can't wait...
Plus I decided to stop listening when Salvadorans say that places are really hot or really cold. This country is so tiny, and as far as I can tell, it's generally been pretty hot everywhere I've gone. Thankfully, it's still less humid than NY in the summer, and this time of year is supposed to be the worst it gets so I should be fine. I guess I will just spend the next two years wearing tank tops, and that's OK.
So all in all today, I am feeling much better about the placement. In any case, I will be there in a week (!) so I will be able to see the place for myself finally!
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