recession special

First of all, I wanted to thank all of you who posted kind comments and wrote me emails about the girl who died in my town. It meant so much to me to hear from you and I have passed your prayers on to the girl's family. Unfortunately, I wasn't there for the girl's "reso," which is the recitation 10 days after her death, as I was just getting back from the United States, which is what I'm going to post about now.

I had it in my head that I wanted to avoid going back to the U.S. for a full year, just to see if I could, to experience what the world would be like without seeing the modern Rome for a full 12 months. But because of the LSAT date, I had to come back a little earlier than planned (March 9th would be a full year, but I came back February 5th), but it was nonetheless enough time to feel the distance and the full force of the duration elapsed since my departure.

For various reasons, I hadn't really had time or energy to think about the visit or prepare myself. For example while packing I realized that not only did I not have a single pair of real shoes (I only have the ballet flats style, flip flops and my running shoes), but I barely have any t-shirts or long sleeve shirts (I mostly wear tank tops here because of the heat). So when I arrived in New York wearing my ballet flats without socks and a t-shirt, the full force of the weather reminded me very quickly that I truly was not in El Salvador anymore. But in many ways I had anticipated the change in weather more than the million other differences that I had forgotten about. When I got to the airport, one of the first things that stood out dramatically was the diversity of the city. And really, there are few places more diverse than JFK. After a year of being the only person around me that looks different, of hardly seeing any faces that are not mestizo and hearing only Spanish, the assortment of languages and features that confronted me at the airport looked so beautiful to me, it actually brought tears to my eyes. This feeling didn't leave me the entire time I was in the city.

As I said to a few of you, coming back to New York this time was like seeing the city through new eyes. Everything was enchanting and amazing to me. Other things I couldn't stop noticing besides the diversity were how beautiful and stylish everyone looked and how many young people there were. To be fair, I was staying in Vivian's apartment in Union Square where the NYU students tilt the average of the population toward being young and stylish, but even up at dumpy Columbia I enjoyed observing the latest developments in fashion that have yet to wash up in El Salvador. I loved looking at all the people and how they put themselves together, how much thought and art they put into how they looked, even it did make me feel a little ashamed at my Peace Corps chic :). NY style can be quite artistic and enjoyable when you don't feel pressured to keep up with it yourself.

And I haven't even started to mention the food, ah the food. How much I have miss you Asian food. The first meal I went out for was Vietnamese food with my mom, and it was amazing. And I basically didn't stop eating Asian food the entire week I was there until I left, and I miss it already, ha. The variety of flavors and options available to you in New York was like a dream. Here the flavors are so limited, and there is no such thing as variety. I will be dreaming of those meals for weeks to come.

Generally speaking, it was also just wonderful to feel the rhythm of the city again, to walk through the streets in step with other people and feel like everyone is going somewhere doing something. Life can seem so slow here, it was exciting to be in a place where just being outside seems to give me energy.

And speaking of the people, seeing friends and family was the most important part of the trip (even beat out the food!). It was strange and wonderful to enter back into the reality of life in New York, the different priorities and perspective that everyone has there. As the title of this blog post demonstrates, life is different in New York these days. All the store shops advertise their "recession specials," there are many stories of people being laid off, and this year's Columbia grads are no longer being hired by the i-banking world. I was a little nervous to see what New York would look like post financial crisis; I had visions of i-bankers on the streets begging for change, abandoned, crumbling buildings, and empty restaurants. I was happy that that was decidedly not the case. Nonetheless, there did seem to be a more somber atmosphere in the city and everyone was talking about the changing economy.

Coming back to my site on Wednesday was hard. I didn't want to see anyone and only wanted to curl up in my room with my new DVDs and extend my post-NYC glow as long as possible before the heat sweated away any lingering aura of the world's best city. It's always a little difficult to come back here after being away, so I am not surprised at the culture shock, but I'm trying to ease myself back in and I am getting used to it again. To be fair, being in New York has also reminded me why I decided to leave and pursue something like the Peace Corps. Not for one moment did being back there make me doubt my decision. Indeed, it is only because I am here right now that I appreciated and savored every moment I was there. But that doesn't mean I don't want to go back to visit again soon...

sad news

Yesterday morning I went over to my friend Juani's house to learn how to make "arroz con leche." In the middle of washing dishes, Juani called me outside to peer over the neighbor's fence at the scandal that was erupting on the other side. One of the family's many children had just fallen out of a very tall mango tree, and the mother was carrying the girl back to her house. We rushed over to the neighbor's house, along with a large group of people who had just witnessed the accident. Juani started applying alcohol to the girl's stomach, which was hurting. I was relieved to see that she was moving and thus was not paralyzed and hadn't broken anything, meaning she was probably going to be fine. Nonetheless, I called the mayor, who rushed over and took her to the hospital right away.
The girl who fell was 13 years old and was part of a band of 4 sisters who are always out playing in the street and are quite out of control. Their hair is always unkempt and their clothes dirty and they always ask me for a quarter when they see me, but they are truly very sweet and always rush to give me hugs and yell "elli!" when I pass. I've made each of them little bracelets, and they constantly ask me for another one. The girl was the oldest of this band of sisters, and was probably a little slow. I remember she could never understand what I was saying and that her sisters called her "africana," which is slang for stupid here (a strangely racist term of which I'm not sure of the origins). She fell out a tree while trying to collect green mangos to sell. The reason why she and her sisters are always running wild is that they are part of a family of 12 children, the parents give them almost no supervision and they are extremely poor.
Anyways, after the girl was taken to the hospital, I finished my arroz con leche and left for the capital where I had planned a meeting that afternoon with fellow PC volunteers to organize a girls' camp this year. As I left I asked Juani to text me any updates of the girl's condition, confident she'd be fine. Juani walked out the door with me and immediately repeated the scandal to the neighbor across the street and I was amused at how quickly sensational stories spread from house to house in these small towns.
Later that day, after the meeting I got a text from Juani saying that there was something wrong with the girl's liver and they were taking her to Rosales, the hospital in San Salvador. I began to realize that the condition must be quite serious. An hour later, she wrote me to tell me the girl had passed away.
I was in shock and didn't know what to do. I called my friend Claudia, who had spent the past year in my town fulfilling her "service year" requirement to become a doctor. She knew the girl, because her aunt was their neighbor, and she was currently working at Rosales, the hospital where the girl had died. She agreed to go with me to the hospital to see if there was anything we could do to help the family.
Going to the hospital was quite overwhelming. Rosales is probably the best hospital in El Salvador, but it is so acutely under-staffed and under-funded. Patients are held in giant, dreary rooms, which smell bad and carry a strong air of sickness. There are so many grieving families who have obviously come from the countryside so far away.
I didn't know the elder brothers or sisters who were there, but identified them by their conversation about the girl. They were waiting beside her body, which was only covered by a sheet. I will never forget that girl's pale face, which I had just seen alive earlier that day. Her body was one of three on stretchers in the entryway, awaiting pick up. The elder siblings were waiting for their mother to arrive, who was en route with the mayor, who was not only driving her but had bought a coffin for the girl, who he hadn't even known. Though I've had problems with him in the past, the generosity the mayor showed yesterday is something I will always remember.
Finally the girl's mother and an older sister who I knew arrived to take her away. The whole thing was so sad, so tragic. It made me think a lot about death and the differences in the way people deal with it here and in the U.S. In America, death is such a foreign concept for a lot of us. When it happens, it comes as such an extreme shock; I think in some ways we believe ourselves immune to premature death. Here, death is more common, less unexpected. I've seen more funerals in the time I've been here than in my entire life in the United States. Funerals here are a lot less sad, sometimes they feel just like any other lively gathering of people with cake and coffee.
I didn't go back today for the funeral, but I did give the family some money to defray the costs, I didn't really know what else to do.
I can't stop thinking about that girl, and I wasn't sure if posting about it was a good idea, but I wanted to do something to perserve and share the memory of yesterday, a day I will never forget.

elecciones!

Yesterday came an event I have been anticipating since my first day in site - the mayoral elections. This year is especially important because the current mayor, who has been in charge for the past 18 years, has finally decided to step down. There were two major candidates, one from the right wing ARENA party (the woman pictures above), which has been in power basically since the end of the Civil War, and one from the left wing, FMLN party, who were the former guerrillas. FMLN's strong showing in this election was an interesting sign of the times, since this municipality has always been a stronghold of the right wing, owing to the fact that they suffered greatly at the hands of the guerrillas during the war, being situated as it was on the border of the army controlled-area and as such it was a frequent battleground during the war. Significantly, a lot of the FMLN supporters in the town were under 25, meaning that they themselves had not lived through the war. My host mother, who is now in her 70s, made it very clear to me that she could never vote for FMLN after what she had survived. I find this perspective very interesting as it's quite the opposite of what I was expecting to hear before I had come down here, since most of the history I had learned about El Salvador referred to the atrocities committed by the U.S.-backed military, not by the guerrillas.
To return to the elections, the candidate running for ARENA was unique for several reasons. First of all, she is a woman, which is quite unusual for a mayor in El Salvador. I remember hearing somewhere that of out of over 200 municipalities or so, only about 20 have female mayors. Secondly, she was actually the candidate in the previous election for PCN, which is a minor right wing party in this country, and lost by only 8 votes (which of course aroused suspicion). This time round, the ARENA party, who were her previous rivals, asked her to run on their ticket, which she agreed to do.
Anyways, I know you're all dying to know what happened, so the exciting news is that she in fact won. I am happy because I will be working with her come May 1st when she swears in as mayor and I think she will be an excellent counterpart. First of all, she has committed to including many women in her municipal council and furthermore, she seems like she has a lot of energy and excitement about working to improve the municipality, just like me :).
A word on the elections themselves: Above I've posted a few photos from the elections. You can see what the ballots look like - they're quite different from those in the U.S. as they don't have words, just the party symbol. This is to help people who are illiterate and helps explain why the parties here put so much effort into advertising their emblems. As Ben, my brother, noted when he was here, the three biggest "brands" in El Salvador are ARENA, FMLN, and Tigo (which is the biggest cell phone company); you see their symbols on every lamp post, car, and house.
Also, I have a picture of the election monitors, there is one of each different party in every voting room. Additionally, the table is manned by people from every party. Initially, I thought it was quite strange that the people handling the election were out-right partisans, but having one from every party does seem to balance itself out in some strange way. Besides, I don't think it would be possible to find enough dedicated, local volunteers who weren't involved in one political party or another, everyone seems to be caught up in it here.
Lastly, I wanted to say how smooth and uncorrupted the elections here were in comparison to what I saw in Guatemala last year when I was there with Charlie Clemens on the election observing trip. To be fair, I did hear of some scandals in neighboring towns, and the losing side was grumbling about vote-buying, but generally speaking, there was very little of that going on. The candidates did spend enormous amounts of money giving away food and paying for discos on the campaign trail, but the day of things were quite subdued, a huge change from the long food lines and craziness of Guatemala. So that I think is a good sign.
Oh and that last picture is of the voting center (AKA the local school), with some oxen passing in front of it, just to give you a little taste of the campo :).

saliendo como indio

Yesterday was the saint's day of saint Guadelupe, the patron saint of Mexico. I'm not entirely sure why, but in my town this is celebrated by dresssing up like an indigenous person and doing a procession around the town. It was pretty fun and the outfits were so sweet, though I have to admit I skipped out on the mass afterwards. The priest in my town is young and super conservative, and I really can't stand what he says a lot of the time. He rails against things like dancing and birth control, this in one of the poorest counties in the country where people regularly have 11 kids and can´t feed them all! Anyways, besides that little rant, I hope you enjoy the pictures! These are the only ones I have with me on my memory stick at the moment, but will add more later...

justin's visit to el salvador

My old friend Justin came to visit over thanksgiving weekend. it was so fun to have him here. He was a great sport about taking the long, crowded, hot bus rides all over the country, though he did remark that it was rather different than flying business class on Virgin Atlantic. Indeed both have their advantages - I'm sure Virgin Atlantic doesn't have a million different fruit vendors offering sliced jicama, watermelon, or jocotes - all for a quarter (or "cora" as they say). In any case, it was great to show him a little of my life here. He saved thanksgiving dinner by bringing pecan pie and pumpkin and pie crusts, which were delicious. The meal was quite a success, with various volunteers bringing their own specialties. Justin also co-facilitated my art class with me. All the little girls fell in love with him and wrote him various love letters as he patiently explained to them the difference between "chino" (which he is not) and "filipino" (which he is). We also managed to squeeze in some time at the beach for surfing and relaxing. All in all, a wonderful 5 days!

san miguel university visit

The weekend before last, I went to San Miguel, the 3rd biggest city in El Salvador, and the main hub of the "oriente," with my friend Cecy and Norma (pictured above). Cecy is my host sister and Norma is probably my closest friend in the town. The purpose of the trip was to visit the university there. Cecy has decided to study tourism and was ready to to register when we got there. Norma has dreams of studying nursing, but unfortunately her parents are not excited of the idea of her continuing her education and will not support her. Lucky for her, she was good friends with the previous volunteer in the site, who has wonderfully agreed to finance her education. The total cost of a private university here runs between $50-100/month, so it actually isn't so much for us coming the U.S., but it is a lot for here. Cecy is able to afford because of the help of a very generous uncle, who lives in the U.S. working and works in a car wash. He is extremely conscientious, however, and has managed to save enough money on a small salary to build a beautiful, big house here, and to pay for his nieces schooling. I love hearing stories about emigrants from this community like him who are truly taking advantage of the opportunity to make a difference in the community and help develop this country.
In any case, I was happy to encourage her to come to San Miguel with us and see the university to get a sense of what it would be like. It was Norma's first night out of our town, away from her family. I took the two of them to the movies too, which was so sweet as neither one had ever been to the movie theater before, even though it's only 3 hours away. It was a really wonderful stay and I am so excited for the two of them to embark on these new adventures and hope the best for them.

gana obama!

History was made on November 4th. Us Peace Corps volunteers in El Salvador celebrated in our own special way with an election watching party at TGIFriday's (yes they have that here!) in the capital. The pictures above are from the event - Betsy and I with our Obama pins, CNN en espanol, excited Peace Corps Volunteers after his win. It was an amazing night that I will remember my whole life. The feeling of hope and excitement as we watched him win Virginia and Ohio, and the beauty and eloquence of his speech. The next morning I woke up early and was reading all the reports and started tearing up, as I thought to myself "I am so proud of my country." It sounds cliche, but it's true. Over a week later, I can still hardly believe it and was incredibly touched to see the recent pictures of the beautiful Obama family on their first White House visit. One of the amazing things about Obama is how he has really managed to connect to so many voters, I feel so personally invested and affected by his win.
As reported on the news, people all across the world were moved by the election of America's first black president. But the funny thing is here in my town, no one even seems to realize he's black. They simply refer to him as "el morenito" (the dark one). McCain is "el viejito" - the old one, haha. People here are generally pro-American and have been throughout the Bush presidency so there wasn't quite the same outpouring of emotion and relief as they had in other countries. Still, they leaned to be more pro-el morenito because they heard he'd be better for immigrants; rumor here is that he will soon grant an amnesty to all illegal immigrants - a rather high expectation that I am not sure will be fulfilled.
The one interesting thing I heard though was a commercial on the radio put out by ARENA, the right-wing party, which talked about how Obama was not a friend of the Latin American left, just in case anyone thought otherwise. Salvadorans are by and large very worried about their relationship with the U.S. and the right-wing party is trying to scare people away from voting left by associating the candidate with Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales and a generally anti-American stance. I guess they wanted to make sure that no one thought that Obama was going to be any more friendly to these leaders than Bush.