Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
back to square one
Sorry it's been so long since my last posting! It's been a slow couple weeks and I have been mostly working in the same things (computer classes, teaching english, doing the census with the health clinic) so haven't had too much news to report. But now I do! :)
I'm writing this from the small internet cafe in my training community, where i am back for the two weeks of technical training. My whole training group has come back and we are once again living with our host families. It's so strange, and nice, to come back here. In most important news, my friend stephanie's host aunt had a baby and named her Estefani Eliana, yes after the two of us! The babe is adorable and I will post pictures soon.
Coming back has been really nice in some ways. One of my friends compared it to coming home from college, all of a sudden you really appreciate someone cooking for you and taking care of you and being back in a familiar environment. I love waking up in the morning with coffee in my mug and food on my plate, Niña Juanita knows how to take care of me.
I was also really looking forward to spending time with the whole group again and hearing about everyone´s sites. Those of you who know me, know how much I love hanging out with people and spending time with friends. But to be honest, this part of training has been less than I had hoped for. It's interesting, everyone's two months in sites have had really different effects, and it has really changed the dynamic of the group. With my good friends who I've met up with several times already in San Salvador things are really great, but with some people it just seems awkward and different. I think some people are having a hard time being around gringos again and being in a large group after the two months in such a different environment. It's a bit of a culture shock and you can definitely feel the difference in the group.
We spent the first two days pretty much discussing our sites and going over our experiences as a group. This actually made me kind of depressed as it seemed like a lot of my fellow munis have much better situations so far (positive, involved relationships with their counterparts, people begging them to work on projects with them) and made me feel frustrated with my site, which still does not feel like home to me.
Today was more interesting, we had a great talk from the director of the youth program about suggestions for work with youth, which is really relative to my work since there is a lot of demand and opportunity to work with the kids (as opposed to the mayor's office) so I am hoping to get more involved in some of the projects suggested. Tomorrow should also be interesting, we're going into San Salvador and will have a day workshop with USAID. Hopefully by the end of the two weeks I will have plenty of ideas and be ready to head back to my site with a positive attitude! I'll let you know.
I'm writing this from the small internet cafe in my training community, where i am back for the two weeks of technical training. My whole training group has come back and we are once again living with our host families. It's so strange, and nice, to come back here. In most important news, my friend stephanie's host aunt had a baby and named her Estefani Eliana, yes after the two of us! The babe is adorable and I will post pictures soon.
Coming back has been really nice in some ways. One of my friends compared it to coming home from college, all of a sudden you really appreciate someone cooking for you and taking care of you and being back in a familiar environment. I love waking up in the morning with coffee in my mug and food on my plate, Niña Juanita knows how to take care of me.
I was also really looking forward to spending time with the whole group again and hearing about everyone´s sites. Those of you who know me, know how much I love hanging out with people and spending time with friends. But to be honest, this part of training has been less than I had hoped for. It's interesting, everyone's two months in sites have had really different effects, and it has really changed the dynamic of the group. With my good friends who I've met up with several times already in San Salvador things are really great, but with some people it just seems awkward and different. I think some people are having a hard time being around gringos again and being in a large group after the two months in such a different environment. It's a bit of a culture shock and you can definitely feel the difference in the group.
We spent the first two days pretty much discussing our sites and going over our experiences as a group. This actually made me kind of depressed as it seemed like a lot of my fellow munis have much better situations so far (positive, involved relationships with their counterparts, people begging them to work on projects with them) and made me feel frustrated with my site, which still does not feel like home to me.
Today was more interesting, we had a great talk from the director of the youth program about suggestions for work with youth, which is really relative to my work since there is a lot of demand and opportunity to work with the kids (as opposed to the mayor's office) so I am hoping to get more involved in some of the projects suggested. Tomorrow should also be interesting, we're going into San Salvador and will have a day workshop with USAID. Hopefully by the end of the two weeks I will have plenty of ideas and be ready to head back to my site with a positive attitude! I'll let you know.
Monday, June 30, 2008
hiking through the countryside
today we went to a meeting in one of the cantones or countryside districts, appropriately named la montaña, or the mountain. It took us 2.5 hours to hike to there because we got lost. It was a beautiful hike, but very hot and if it hadn't been for the hand-held fan that jonathan had bought me i probably would have over-heated (see picture). I can't imagine having to do that hike to get to my home every time I wanted to leave. Here are some pictures from the hike, including the one where we have to stop to ask directions at the only house we can spot for miles.
my favorite chicken
this is the chicken that lives in my house. I've named her Angelina Jolie because like her namesake, she has adopted babies of all different races and colors and is raising them as her own. Unlike the real Angelina, this chicken is not aware these babies aren't actually hers, since the eggs were put in her nest she just assumed she had laid them.
Monday, June 23, 2008
a picture to make my mom happy
though I at first made fun of salvadoran women's habit of walking around with an umbrella in the sun, I have adopted it as it keeps me from getting sunburned every day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
