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
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
15 de septiembre
Tuesday was El Salvador's independence day! It is always a huge deal here and the celebrations, which include a parade, are so fun. Note the picture of my friend Thelma playing the trumpet in the marching band. She is the first female EVER in this town to play the trumpet, it caused quite the scandal. I am very proud of her! Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Friday, September 11, 2009
excursion!
On Wednesday, I went with 18 of the school kids, 5 parents, and one teacher from the rural school I work with to the capital to visit the David J. Guzman Museum of Anthropology and the Botanical Gardens. I received the funding for the trip from Peace Corps, and it turned out to be really wonderful. For the students, it was their first ever field trip and none of them had ever been to a museum before. In fact, I was really worried that many of them would not be able to come since their parents were so worried about letting their kids leave the community without them and especially about going all the way to the capital! In the end, every single one of the 7, 8 and 9th graders came and they all had a great time. They behaved themselves so well and I think they really got a lot out of the experience.
birthday pics
First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who called or emailed or facebooked me on my birthday this year. I had a really nice, very campo birthday celebration. My wonderful friend Candas came down to visit and my friend Stephanie also came in for the morning. In the morning we went on a boat ride on the Rio Lempa (one of my favorite activities here) and then in the afternoon I taught English in the school. In the evening we went to a friend of mine's house and we made pan con pollo, the traditional birthday meal. It was laid back and nice. That being said, it seems so strange that I am actually 25 now. 25 seems like a very grown up number and I am not sure I merit it. Especially when my dad tells me things like he was 25 when my brother was born. As a kid, I remember being certain that I would be married by the time I was 25. Nonetheless, I am very happy with where I am in life. I am proud of the things I have managed to finish and am very much looking forward to all that lies ahead. I am so blessed to have had the opportunities I have had to travel and grow and challenge myself and most of all, I am grateful for all the love in my life. The many friendships that have survived and strengthened over the years and my family and my boyfriend. So in sum, I guess I feel pretty good about being 25.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
festival de maiz
this year i danced in the traditional folk dance in the festival de maiz in Victoria. It was a lot of fun!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
swine flu, funerals, and host siblings
So ever since I've gotten back from the U.S., schools have been canceled in the whole country because of the threat of swine flu. I'm no expert or anything, but I think the reaction may be a little overblown since there haven't been that many deaths from swine flu here and I'm not sure how canceling school is going to prevent any more, especially since most places of work are still open for business as usual.
What this means is that the past week has been pretty slow. Even though I don't teach every day in the schools, a lot of my projects are nonetheless reliant on working there. For example, I am trying to get a computer project up and running in several schools. Peace Corps has a partnership with an NGO in the U.S. that will supply us with used computers for schools for $110 each, a great deal. But in order to organize the fundraising, I need to be meeting with the school directors and teachers. Same thing for the recycling project I want to kick off or the excursion I'm planning.
Though I'm looking forward to getting back to work next week, this time off has been nice in other ways. My host sisters have been back from the capital, which has been great. Carmen is 24 and studying business at the university there and her sister Reyna is 27 and a practicing lawyer. As you can guess, they are pretty different than most people here, even though they both lived here until they graduated from high school.
The family is really interesting because there are a total of 9 kids, 7 of whom are in the U.S. As they have so much money coming from the U.S. they are considered one of the better-off families here. But instead of wasting their remittances on fancy clothes and cell phones, their mom made a special effort to send her daughters to university, allowing them to become the professionals they now are. She, on the other hand, is barely literate.
The gap between generations is obviously huge, but even between the siblings their lives have been so different. I just got a chance to meet Luis, one of the eldest siblings, who is back here for a funeral. He left for the U.S. in 1988, during the civil war here when he was only 15 years old. He was not an economic immigrant, but a political refugee, forced to leave because the army was kidnapping young boys and making them fight. He left when the family was still dirt poor and went to the U.S. without speaking any English and with no immediate family. He's worked hard there over the past 20 years and now is the foreman for a construction company in the D.C. area. He has not forgotten his home, however, and frequently visits. He's the one who bought Carmen and Reyna the home they live in in San Salvador and the car they drive. As their father died ten years ago, he is like their surrogate dad. By his character, I can immediately tell he is a mix of the two cultures. He carries himself different and is more polite and formal than a lot of the guys here. It's so interesting talking to him and thinking about the America he lives in versus the one that I live in. Being here has truly expanded my perspective on my own country.
Oh and I forget to mention the funeral he is back here for is the uncle of the family. He was murdered two days ago in the early morning at his cow corral. Apparently, a woman from the next town over had him killed over a land dispute. As I have talked to Selena, my teacher from high school, there is a a profound lack of constructive engagement of conflict here, a probable effect of the civil war. It's so tragic how quickly people resort to violence.
I have been to more funerals here than I have been to in my whole life in the U.S. This man, Oscar, was a prominent man in the community and people have come from all over to attend the funeral. Both nights for the last two nights my host family has been out until 1am in front of the deceased house, drinking coffee, eating cookies, and praying over the body. Outside the house a ton of people sit and gossip, it's like a community gathering. Today the will bury the body in the graveyard. As this family is better off, they were able to afford a nicer coffin and a professional videotape of the event. The cameraman was there last night filming the people and the grieving family as they wailed over the open casket, screaming "why are there such bad people in the world? these people don't have the right to exist! my brother was a good man! a good man!" The whole experience was so different than what we do in the U.S.
What this means is that the past week has been pretty slow. Even though I don't teach every day in the schools, a lot of my projects are nonetheless reliant on working there. For example, I am trying to get a computer project up and running in several schools. Peace Corps has a partnership with an NGO in the U.S. that will supply us with used computers for schools for $110 each, a great deal. But in order to organize the fundraising, I need to be meeting with the school directors and teachers. Same thing for the recycling project I want to kick off or the excursion I'm planning.
Though I'm looking forward to getting back to work next week, this time off has been nice in other ways. My host sisters have been back from the capital, which has been great. Carmen is 24 and studying business at the university there and her sister Reyna is 27 and a practicing lawyer. As you can guess, they are pretty different than most people here, even though they both lived here until they graduated from high school.
The family is really interesting because there are a total of 9 kids, 7 of whom are in the U.S. As they have so much money coming from the U.S. they are considered one of the better-off families here. But instead of wasting their remittances on fancy clothes and cell phones, their mom made a special effort to send her daughters to university, allowing them to become the professionals they now are. She, on the other hand, is barely literate.
The gap between generations is obviously huge, but even between the siblings their lives have been so different. I just got a chance to meet Luis, one of the eldest siblings, who is back here for a funeral. He left for the U.S. in 1988, during the civil war here when he was only 15 years old. He was not an economic immigrant, but a political refugee, forced to leave because the army was kidnapping young boys and making them fight. He left when the family was still dirt poor and went to the U.S. without speaking any English and with no immediate family. He's worked hard there over the past 20 years and now is the foreman for a construction company in the D.C. area. He has not forgotten his home, however, and frequently visits. He's the one who bought Carmen and Reyna the home they live in in San Salvador and the car they drive. As their father died ten years ago, he is like their surrogate dad. By his character, I can immediately tell he is a mix of the two cultures. He carries himself different and is more polite and formal than a lot of the guys here. It's so interesting talking to him and thinking about the America he lives in versus the one that I live in. Being here has truly expanded my perspective on my own country.
Oh and I forget to mention the funeral he is back here for is the uncle of the family. He was murdered two days ago in the early morning at his cow corral. Apparently, a woman from the next town over had him killed over a land dispute. As I have talked to Selena, my teacher from high school, there is a a profound lack of constructive engagement of conflict here, a probable effect of the civil war. It's so tragic how quickly people resort to violence.
I have been to more funerals here than I have been to in my whole life in the U.S. This man, Oscar, was a prominent man in the community and people have come from all over to attend the funeral. Both nights for the last two nights my host family has been out until 1am in front of the deceased house, drinking coffee, eating cookies, and praying over the body. Outside the house a ton of people sit and gossip, it's like a community gathering. Today the will bury the body in the graveyard. As this family is better off, they were able to afford a nicer coffin and a professional videotape of the event. The cameraman was there last night filming the people and the grieving family as they wailed over the open casket, screaming "why are there such bad people in the world? these people don't have the right to exist! my brother was a good man! a good man!" The whole experience was so different than what we do in the U.S.
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