random glimpse of life

last night i promised my old host siblings (the ones who i lived with before) that I would come over and make crepes with them, one of our favorite activities that I introduced them to when I lived there. I brought over the peanut butter and nutella i had bought in San Salvador a couple weeks earlier, my carton of long-life milk, and some flour and bananas I bought in the market that day (wednesday is market day in my town). The kids collected eggs from their chickens and we set about to mix it all together in their blender when the power went out thanks to the big thunderstorm that had come in. I tried mixing the flour in with the milk and eggs but unfortunately my hand-mixing skills were not good enough to get rid of the clumps. Luckily my old host mom had a solution. She found the little strainer they use to make coffee and I slowly powered the flour into the eggs, milk and sugar as she mixed it in with her expert hand. This was of course all done by candlelight, since the power did not come back on all night.
About 45 minutes later it was all smoothly beat together and we heated the skillet over the gas stove. I made my host sister Aminta help me flip the crepes - her hands are hardened to the heat due to years of making tortillas. The rest of them were eagerly awaiting the crepes and expertly spread the nutella, chocolate and bananas over the crepes before they rolled them up and devoured them.
Anyways, I realized I just wanted to record more of the little experiences I have here every day, instead of the only writing the major events, as these are what keeps the glue of my days together.

home

culture shock?

As most of you know, since I probably saw you in person, I was just in the U.S. for 11 blissful days of vacation. This was my first time back to Seattle since I've been here, and was very different than my trip to New York- I had just gotten back to my site when jonathan stopped by for a two day visit (why not?) on his way back from Panama, which helped delay the in-site blues, but now he's left again this morning and there's no denying it, vacation is over. It's not like my life is very hard, it's not, and I do enjoy it on the whole and I am so happy to be here, but coming back from home this time has been very, very difficult. I didn't really have culture shock on the way there, it was more just culture appreciation, thinking things like "oh my God, how amazing it to have your own apartment with a TV with English shows on it?" or "how fun is it to live in a city with friends and go out to restaurants that serve really good food?" and simply revelling in the fact that it was sunny outside and you could see beautiful mountains and i was not sweating and did not have a terrible headache for being in direct sunlight for more than five minutes. And it's not that i really mind taking a bucket bath, or being constantly bitten by mosquitoes, or constantly being the center of attention while walking down the street, or having my kitchen covered in flies, or having to sweep my floor every five seconds because the roof sheds dirt and leaks water. All of those things on their own are actually fine and I feel like a big baby complaining about them, but the problem is that when you come back to it all at once after being home and so happy and loved, it's hard. And it's especially hard when you feel lonely because your boyfriend just left this morning. And the answer is of course to put myself out there and go over to friends' houses and reintegrate myself in the community, not run away to Sensunte on a whim so I can use the internet and feel connected to the world (which is of course what I did). The problem is precisely that the longer I am away from my community the less I am part of it and the less I am part of it the less I feel like I belong there and the more I want to be away from it. Tomorrow I will start my reintegration project, it's decided. But for the moment I will round out my day by daydreaming on the micro ride back about all the beauty that I saw this time in America. The spectacular landscape, the wonderful, amazing friends I have that welcomed me back with open arms even if i've been out from their lives for the past year and a half, my special family, and the sense of peace and ease which seems to surround life there and is so absent from life here. I know that once I go back I will inevitably forget all those things and be stressed there in different ways but perhaps javascript:void(0)of equal level to the stress i feel here, but for the moment, I just want to record what a paradise home seems like to me. I was sad to realize that I wont be able to go home again before finishing the Peace Corps in April, but to be honest, I am not sure I could handle the transition again. America in all her glory indeed.

Girls Camps!

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've posted. This past month has been pretty crazy. I just got back from Guatemala, where I was in Antigua with my mom, my sister, dafna's mom Michal, and Jonathan. Let me just say Antigua is one of the coolest places I've been. Maybe I'm just saying that because I've been in El Salvador for too long, but I was so impressed with the beautiful old buildings from the 1500 and 1600s and how well perserved, clean, and friendly the town was. Not to mention the millions of little restaurants and stores. There is really no place that comes close to that here, and it was a wonderful vacation.

Before Antigua, I was busy with the two girls' camps that I put on with 13 other female Peace Corps volunteers from my group. I started planning this project back in January when things were slow and I was trying to think what I could do. I talked to a friend of mine from my town who had attended a camp with the previous volunteer here. Though almost 2.5 years had passed, she remembered every detail of the camp, including the names of the other volunteers who had participated and all the talks she had received. I decided that I really wanted to give the opportunity for more youth to attend these camps.

The group of volunteers before me had recently put on a gender-focused camp and I found out that there was money available from Peace Corps to do a camp with that theme. I invited all the interested female volunteers in my group to come to a meeting to see if there was interest. Thirteen other volunteers showed up and over the course of the next 5 months we began to put together the camp. It was a lot of fun to do a project with the other volunteers, since we haven't done this kind of thing all together since training.

When the dates of the camps finally arrived, I was nervous how everything would turn out. I say camps because we did two, one in the east and one in the west. Each volunteer would bring girls to only one camp, depending on which was closer, though all volunteers were required to attend both camps. Every volunteer was also responsible for leading a talk or activity, which included: self-esteem, creative thinking, HIV/AIDS, sexual health, gender stereotypes, body image, dance, self-defense, and jewelry making. Dividing it up like that made it so that it was not too much work for any one person.

I'm running out of time, but to sum it up the camp was a huge success. For all 5 girls that I brought, it was the first time they'd spent a night away from their families. For many, it was the first night outside their community ever. They were like sponges, the experience was so unique for them. They participated in all the activities with enthusiasm and awe. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I've done in the Peace Corps.