ima's visit - only two weeks late :)

My mom wanted to know why I hadn't posted anything on my blog about her visit, so I am now doing it a little late. The problem was that the day before she left was the day of the flooding so I was busy posting about that problem. Anyways, my mom came to visit me here in El Salvador for 10 days and it was truly amazing trip. I was a little nervous before she came about what we could do together in the community since she doesn't speak Spanish. Also, despite her promises that she would be a low-maintenance guest, I was unsure she could really handle taking bucket baths and the other realities of life here. Suffice it to say, I was extremely impressed with her. She was an amazing guest and was very interested in the culture and history of the country. She fell in love with my friends in the community and was so impressed with their genorisity. Despite not speaking Spanish, she learned enough to say "muy rico!" after she ate all the variety of food that was placed in front of her at the various houses. Also, I put her to work with me on a world map project I was doing at the school. She was a huge help and support (including a sponser!), and in the end the result was quite beautiful (see the pics). It was a great trip in all.

boat project!

Here are some pictures from the inauguration of the boat project that I have been working on with the fishing community that was affected by the flooding. With this project, the fishing cooperative (run by Don Edilberto, the man in the cowboy hat) will be given 4 boats, 3 canoes, and 4 motors. 25% of the money for the project came from the community itself. I am very excited about this project because I have been working on it with the community for the past year and a half and it's so wonderful to see it come to fruition. The idea for the project came from the community itself. They approached me and asked if I could help obtain boats for the cooperative. Of the 20 members of the cooperative, only 3 currently have boats. This severely limits the economic productivity of the members without boats, as they can only go fishing on days when they can find someone to lend them a boat. This project allows all members more regular access to boats. The cooperative will charge $3 to rent a boat and motor (or $1.50 for just a boat). The money will be saved by the cooperative to help repair boats in case of damage and hopefully buy more boats in the future.

Uncle Noel!

My uncle Noel is currently in El Salvador working with the foundation Shelter Box International, which sets up temporary houses by people displaced by natural disaster. He is here working in San Vicente and La Libertad with people affected by the Hurricane Ida. I am incredibly impressed with the good work he has been doing, what a great thing for someone to do when they retire! I was even more impressed, however, when he called me yesterday while on the bus, half way to my town, He managed to arrive in my site, without any problem without speaking Spanish or directions from me! The route is particularly complex now too because the flooding has washed out several bridges on the way so their are lots of detours. If you know anything about the bus system in El Salvador (there are no signs or posted routes), this is a feat very few people I know could do, and I can't believe Noel pulled it off! He was a great guest in my house too. He came in and within the first hour was fixing the toilet that has been broken and hanging the curtains I've had sitting in my room for the past 3 months. My host mom was overjoyed and very sorry to see him leave this afternoon.
Above are some pictures from his visit. We went out for Noel´s first pupusa and we also went on a boat ride to go see the ruined bridge.

graduation

yesterday were the graduations from kindergarten and 9th grade from the school that I work at. It was very sweet, I was asked to be the "madrina" or godmother of the 9th grade class and the school honored me by giving a special diploma to acknowledge the work I do there (diplomas are big deal here). 9th grade graduation is a big deal because it is very uncommon for kids from the community to reach 9th grade and even less common to continue their schooling after that point. The teachers were very happy because this year 8 students finished 9th grade, double last year's number.

I finally got back to my community yesterday. I went with the mayor to distribute food and clothing that was donated by the government to the fishing community who was affected by the flooding. Many of them lost their nets and boats, which are their livelihoods. Hopefully, PLAN international will help them get more nets and I am working on a project that was already in the works to get the fishing cooperative some boats. I work very closely with this community and was very worried about the people there, but I was heartened to see the work that the mayor is doing and I think they will be OK.

The other pictures are of the bridge that used to be between my community and the neighboring town. It was completely swept away in the flooding, I could not believe it.

For people interested in helping those in El Salvador, I recommend making a donation to Aid El Salvador, at the website aidelsalvador.org. Here is the message from my boss at Peace Corps:

"Last night, Aid El Salvador held an emergency Board of Directors meeting to discuss how to set up a disaster relief fund so that interested parties could make direct, quick donations to the families of Verapaz and Guadalupe. Donations can be received via Pay Pal from a link on the website aidelsalvador.org. In the message section, please note 'disaster relief'.”

Thank you all for your support.

floods

Hey everyone,

I wanted to thank all of you who wrote me concerned about the flooding in El Salvador. I am safe and in the capital now, but many have lost much in this country. Yesterday we had a meeting in the office and I heard from other Peace Corps volunteers who had some pretty traumatic experiences. One of the most affected communities, Verapaz, was a Peace Corps training site so I had many friends that lived there during the two months of training. One of the host families that my friends lived with during this period were killed by the mudslides. Another friend of mine (Jimbo, some of you know him) lives on the volcano that was the source of the mudslide and was woken by his room being filled with mud. He fled his house at 3am and waited out the rain in a neighbors, while he listened to the earth move (it sounded like ice cracking he said), not knowing if he would be next. In the daylight, he decided to leave and walked three hours down the mountain to get to safety. It was incredibly frightening.

I was lucky because I was in the capital with my mother, whose flight was yesterday morning. My community was relatively lucky since we had no deaths. However, the fishing community where I do most of my work was badly affected. Many of the fishermen lost their boats and nets, which is their livelihoods. Several lost their homes, which were carried away in high river water. They are in need of clothes and food. I am anxious to get back today to see what I can do and show my support, so I will end my blog post here for now. I will try and update you guys later this week with what has happened.

Here is a link to the bbc picture of the flooding in el salvador - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8349698.stm

Best, Elian