This is my life...

With my recent visitor, I was able to catch a glimpse of my life in El Salvador through his eyes. I was eased into my current situation through ten weeks of training, which, I think, led to me overlooking some of the drastic changes I have undergone. What follows is a brief list of things that constitute my daily life, that to him were surprising. I hope you will either excuse or enjoy my attempts at humor.

I have chickens in my backyard from 4am until 6pm. I also, periodically, have tarantulas. I have learned that chickens eat tarantulas.

My next door neighbor has a huge pig tied to a rope in her backyard. Pigs are the most disgusting animals I have ever seen. Don’t let Disney fool you with Babe the talking, sheep-herding pig or Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web. This pig can’t speak except to squeal for food, and even spiders are disgusted by it. Rather than Charlotte writing “Amazing pig” in her web, I woke up the other morning with a message in a freshly spun web saying “Aren’t you hungry for some bacon? Please butcher this nasty pig for its delicious meat.”

A recent soccer game was stopped twice: the first time to ask the opposing fans with machetes to scoot back from the field, and the second time to shoo two cows off the field. In their flight, the cows ran directly at my friend Eddie, providing entertainment for everyone.

In a more recent soccer game, a ball that was destined to roll out of bounds hit a chicken and remained in play.

Last week I was invited to go hunting for rabbits, iguanas, and armadillos with some folks from my community. The plan was to leave in the middle of the night—six of us with one gun—wearing long sleeves and long pants so that the spiders and scorpions wouldn’t bite or sting us. Unfortunately, our little safari never came through…maybe next time.

Eddie plans on bringing his favorite Salvadoran greeting back to the States in its translated form. If you do not know Eddie and get the privilege of meeting him, you will get to hear “Edward Johan Powers at your service.”

Bolos (read drunks) have an uncanny knack for finding gringos in a crowd. During an AIDS awareness day in another pueblo, Eddie was spotted by the local drunk. He sat, staring at Eddie for 15 minutes straight, opening and closing his mouth but saying nothing and blinking his eyes incessantly. He then, without warning, flopped to the ground for a 5 minute nap, woke up and continued staring at Eddie. This was repeated three times consecutively.

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This is my second blog post of the day (a record for me) so make sure you scroll down to read the one below...it's the better of the two.

Big Ed's Post

So I asked my friend Eddie to write a post that I could put up on my blog...here it is in all it's unedited glory. (I'm actually reluctant to put it up, because I think he writes better than I do).
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The most important thing to know is that the people in Mike`s town are all incredibly friendly and they all like Mike a lot. Especially the doctor in the nearby town who is shamelessly pursuing him. But, it is not only the females who are enamored with Mike. The old men who carry machetes at all times are thrilled when Mike stops to talk to them. As are the little kids. Some of the guys on the soccer team like nothing better than for Mike to join them as they sit around, drink some painfully strong alcohol, and tell jokes. Mike has become very adept at handling all these situations, courteous yet distant with the doctor, very complimentary towards the old men, and patient with the young ones who have a knack for coming over as soon as you settle in the hammock. Sitting and telling jokes with the guys from the team is endlessly amusing, yet much more difficult than it sounds. Mike manages quite well, but I somehow ended up hurting some feelings by not laughing hard enough at jokes I didn`t understand and by refusing my third helping of tomato-radish salad.

There are many things that Mike may have already mentioned that are worth mentioning again, mainly the soccer games. The fields are lined with a couple hundred men with machetes, vendors selling pupusas, little kids lighting off extremely loud fireworks, and usually some cows or horses. The quality of play is not of the highest level, but is more than made up for by the environment. The opportunity to play for Mike in one game was incredible, even though due to some questionable referring and poor finishing I was unable to forever cement myself in the town`s lore. Perhaps even more enjoyable than the game itself are the rides to the away games. Everyone piles into the back of the pick-up trucks, all the guys make kissy noises at the girls, and you are treated to some rather spectacular views of the volcanoes and the ocean. There really are few things better.

Another point worth reiterating is the merits of hammocks. The purchase of a second hammock was a much needed addition to Mike`s shack. If you do visit, though, make sure you get the old one as Mike has yet to master the skill of successfully hanging a hammock.

It is not all sunshine and daisies in El Salvador though. The roosters and cows have a tendency to start making lots of noise at about 4 in the morning, and the 6 am bus likes to honk its horn loudly.The buses have a tendency to get really crowded and are not made for people taller than 5`6. Fortunately, if you are tall and don`t have very good balance the old ladies will give up their seat for you. It is also very hot and there is a lot of dust. The dust gets all over your clothes and you have to wash them by hand which is not very fun. I would recommend having Mike wash them for you as he has mastered that skill.

The trip was really quite nice. If you want to pretend you are in the Peace Corps without actually having to do it for two years, I would go visit Mike. Especially, now that he has a second hammock.

Youth Group Pizza

As I mentioned in the last post, Eddie and I spent the first three days of his visit getting ready for a youth group meeting that I had planned for that Saturday. Getting ready basically consisted of going door to door to invite youth to the meeting. This actually turned out to be a pretty exhausting endeavor as my community is pretty spread out. But it also turned out to be worth it. That Saturday I had about 16 kids between the ages of 10 and 16 (or so) show up in my backyard for a meeting. We sat and talked for about 30 minutes about what sorts of things they are interested in (taking day-trips, english classes, ways to make money). After the meeting, we walked to a neighbor's house who owns an outdoor oven and we baked pizza. Now, the most complex pizza either Eddie or I have ever made consisted of Prego tomato sauce, Boboli pizza crust, already shredded mozzerella cheese, and already sliced pepperonis. This experience turned out to be a bit different.

The day before, Eddie and I bought a ton of flour, yeast, two kinds of Salvadoran cheese, tomato sauce, and salami (in place of pepperoni). That Saturday morning we woke up early to make the dough while leaving ample time for it to rise. We were a bit worried that that yeast we bought was really baking soda and that the dough would never rise. Actually, we had a friendly competition on whose dough would rise more, but then we forgot which was which after leaving it out to rise. Eddie claims he won, but I'm pretty sure I did. Fortunately, the dough did rise (at least a little bit) and we were ready to make our pizza. The kids loved spreading the sauce and adding mountains of salami. Then, after my neighbor hacked down a tree with his machete to use as fire wood for his outdoor woodburning oven, we were ready to cook. Having no idea how long to cook pizza in a woodburning, outdoor oven, we guessed about 10 minutes and amazingly enough, it came out great...'Mejor que Pizza Hut y Dominos' according to some.

It was actually quite fun to make, and it was nice having Eddie there to help me. The idea is to start making pizzas to sell to fans at the community soccer games as a way to fund our youth group. That is if I can get the kids not to eat it all first.

Big Ed

My buddy from college, Eddie, flew in from Costa Rica to visit me last Wednesday. Since he wanted a taste of Peace Corps life, I put him to work immediately. The first three days he was here, we prepared for my first youth group meeting. This meant walking door to door through my community inviting kids to the meeting, buying ingredients to make pizza at the meeting, and lying on the hammock. Though that last one may not seem like a necessary chore to prepare for a youth group meeting, I have found that here in El Salvador, it is absolutely necessary to lie on the hammock in preparing for anything. And this meant buying a second hammock--one for him and one for me.

Eddie has been admired by numerous local women--his tall stature and blonde locks do him quite well here. He has also been recruited to play soccer professionally on my team. In fact, because I am recovering from a pulled groin, it was suggested that we replace my picture with his on my player's card so he can play the next game as me. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit insulted by this:)

Big Ed and I also celebrated Thanksgiving together (though a day late) and traveled to an island for two nights, and a Peace Corps party in the capital. But alas, all of these stories will have to wait for another entry in a few days.

Hope all is well.

Happenings 2...

I am writing here from the capital where I have been since Sunday evening (today is Tuesday) and will be until tomorrow. On Sunday, I went to my first (maybe ever?) Catholic mass. I had been feeling a little bit sick the night before, but I figured nothing God wouldn't be able to cure for me. About midway through the service I started feeling a nauseous (sp?) and decided it was a good idea not to puke inside of a house of the holy. I stood up and walked out the side door, got very dizzy, and promptly passed out against the wall of the church. Thankfully, my neighbor was out there making pupusas, noticed me quite quickly, and caught me and brought me over to a chair. After sitting for a while, I was able to regain my bearings and went home to rest. Later that day, I came into the capital where I have been ever since having tests and doctor's appointments. I have felt fine ever since Monday, but it's good to get everything checked out. I think it was just a virus that, combined with heat and a bit of sleep deprivation, got the best of me. Or it could have been the holy spirit that moved me. One of the two.

Another story...the best player on our soccer team can no longer play with us (at least not in the home games) because he stole someone's cell phone who lives in our community (the player lives in a different community), and will either be arrested or beat up if they see him.

I'm sure there's something else to write about, but my mind is drawing a blank, so I think I'm going to go eat at Quizno's and catch a movie--wait, am I in El Salvador? Gotta love globalization!!!

Happenings...

A few random anecdotes (not at all in any sort of chronological order)

Earlier this week, after playing soccer, I came home and went out back to shower. It was already dark, so I didn't bother wearing shorts and instead wrapped myself in my towel. Well, about halfway through my shower, I heard 'Buenas Noches.' I looked over to see an elderly woman with a plate of food standing by my back door. Not knowing what to do, I turned off the shower, wrapped myself in my towel, and with soap still dripping down my body, stepped out to talk with her. Of course this made for quite an awkward moment, but also a pretty nice one. She told me that she lives close and that she thought I might like some dinner. It's nice to be so well-taken care of here.

A couple of weeks ago, after a soccer game, I hung out in front of my neighbor's house with a few of my teammates and a few other guys as they all drank 'guaro' (moonshine) and made dirty jokes. I learned at least 10 different synonyms for various parts of the female anatomy--and most of them are the names of local food. Very educational.----That same night, I was asked how many women I would be bringing back to my house since I live alone. In this country, almost no one lives alone, and the fact that I do, in these guys' eyes, means I can have women over whenever I want. I told them I already have a girlfriend, at which point they very sincerely promised me that they would not tell my girlfriend, so it's really no problem. I explained to them, it's not a matter of her finding out, but rather I don't want to cheat on her. This, they could not understand and it got awkwardly quiet for a little bit. With nothing left to say I lifted my glass of water to their bottles of guaro and toasted 'salud.' Much hair-rustling and back-slapping ensued, and all was right with the world again. Ahhh, the boys.

Last month, as I mentioned in my blog, I was in charge of taking pictures for the independence day celebrations here. Independence Day, for the high school girls, becomes an excuse to wear short, cheerleading-type skirts as they march down the street in the parade. Actually, I'm not sure if it is an excuse for them to wear those skirts as much as it is an excuse for the men in charge to make them wear those skirts. Regardless, I think 50% of the male attendence at the parades can be attributed to girls in short skirts. Being in charge of taking pictures, then, becomes a precarious position for me. I know the girls want to see themselves in photos, but at the same time, I don't want to be associated with the men who came only to stare at the girls. I ended up taking very few photos of the cheerleaders. Well, of course, when we got the photos developed and I was about to show them to the teachers, a couple of the women teachers were teasing me saying 'Let's see how many photos Michael took of the cheerleaders.' Feeling pretty proud of myself at this moment, I was thinking 'Yes, let's see.' Well, after showing the photos, the same women teachers started teasing me saying 'So you don't like Latina women do you?' I guess that situation was one I just couldn't win.

Peace and love to all.

Soccer with the SWAT team

This past weekend, as the title suggests, I played soccer against the Salvadoran SWAT team. A couple of volunteers randomly met the sargent of the SWAT team and got to talking about soccer. They mentioned we have a Peace Corps team, and the sargent mentioned they have an 'Elite Forces Team'. The Peace Corps team is open to any volunteer who wants to show up and run around a bit, so of course we are not very good. However, considering whom we were going to be playing against, we put together our own elite, invite-only team.

So on a very rainy Saturday, I took a bus to Estadio Cuscatlan in the capital. Here, I met up with the rest of my team and we waited to get picked up by the po-po and transported to the game (we didn't get to play in the stadium, unfortunately.) After about 30 minutes of waiting, up rolls three police pick-up trucks, and one dark SUV with darkly tinted windows. I hopped in the back of one of the pick-ups, and we were off. After driving about 15 minutes, I realized that even though all of the officers were dressed in soccer shorts and t-shirts, they were all still packing heat...either carrying their guns nonchalantly, or they were strapped to their inner-leg. I started to wonder if they would be playing with their guns, then I started to think maybe we should make sure they win.

We got to the field (read mudpit) and there were about 15 guys dressed to play, and another 10 in full uniform which includes a huge, militaristic-looking gun in their hands and another, normal handgun at their hip. After lots of jokes, lots of pictures, and lots of goals, we won 7-3 and they did not shoot us--I would say that makes it a success.

Now, seriously, these guys were really cool. Very friendly, interested in what we were doing, and good hosts. They are the ones who do raids on gang houses, and when you see pictures in the paper of arrests, they are holding the criminal and they are wearing black ski masks so they don't have to worry about retribution. Kind of a weird experience talking to people whose lives are full of violence and danger...they are soldiers basically, and they way they can compartmentalize their work from their lives is amazing to me.

Pictures of Indepenence Day

September 15 here is independence day (although there are festivities throughout the month of September.) The following pictures are of the parade through Ozatlan--the capital of my municipality. All of the schools within the municipality were invited to participate in the parade. The picture I took were all of the school in my community.






The little kids in the above pictures were banging on the drums in the below picture...pretty cute I thought

A few pictures of my house and a story

I played in my first official soccer game with my town team this past weekend. It was an away game, which means about 30 of us pile into two small pick-up trucks to drive about half an hour up the volcano to a town called California. The whole way, the guys were making catcalls and pretty crude comments to any female that was unfortunate enough to be walking on the road at the time. I know, sounds like these guys are assholes, but it's really a cultural thing and the girls are used to it, so who are we to judge. Actually, the guys are all really cool.

We lost the game 5-4 and I only played the first half (pretty poorly at that) and my ankle is still not quite right. But all of that is unimportant. The important part is the pre-game rituals. We went through a pretty intense warm-up and then were checked-in by the ref. After check-ins, we ran onto the field in a single file line led by the keeper. Everyone, including myself, reached down to touch the field and then cross themself upon entering the field. The keeper then ran into the center circle, and we split of forming a circle around him, where he then punted the ball into the air and we all clapped. After that, we walked to the corner, all took a knee, and prayed. They were all mumbling some prayer I wouldn't have known in Spanish or English, so I started mumbling the only prayer I knew (thanks to Dayspring Preschool):

Thank you god, for the stars and moon
for the rain and sunny weather.
Thank you god, for this our food
and that we are together.
Amen.

It's a pretty short prayer, so I had to repeat it a few times, but it got the job done. Then, when the whistle blew, we all crossed ourselves one more time and began playing. After being an Evangelical Christian during training, I think it's now safe to say I'm a full-blooded Catholic. God Bless you all.




My house...


My pila and shower in the back



My latrine (which so far is still cockroach free)


My weight made of steel, cement, and milk cans (yeah, i know, I'm a badass)

And most importantly, my hammock

Pictures

At Swearing in with my host Mom and her son (she gave me that tie, so I had to wear it...i wanted to go sleazy and have the shirt unbuttoned some and a gold chain glistening amidst my chest hair.) And they are both around 6 feet tall as you can tell...I sprouted to about 6'4''

Life is good

Not much new to report here...but I'm working on getting some photos of my house and community put up, so look for those later this week along with, hopefully, an interesting post. Love to all.

Swearing In

I realized I forgot to mention anything about the swearing in ceremony. Not too much to say, but I do have a couple of thoughts on it...

The night before swearing in we had a dinner hosted by some of the current Peace Corps volunteers. Everyone was quite nice, but the excitement was definitely a little overwhelming. A lot of the volunteers were almost frantic in their excitement to be seeing everyone and drinking/partying. I guess maybe after a year of isolation in my site I'll be the same way--vamos a ver (we will see).

The actual swearing in ceremony was okay. The majority of it was done in spanish, with speeches given by the director of Peace Corps El Salvador, the director of the Municipal Development program, and a fellow trainee whom we nominated to give a speech. My boss, the director of Youth Development, had the privelege of interpreting for the U.S. Ambassador who was at the ceremony. Yes, that's right, of all the capable, spanish speaking citizens of the U.S., we still choose to have an Ambassador to El Salvador who does not speak spanish. His speech was given in English and translated paragraph by paragraph. He even made a joke, saying that he is learning one new spanish word a day and his word for that day was 'pinguino' (penguin). I'm glad he's not wearing himself out learning 2 words a day...that would just be too much. And it's also good to know that he is focusing on vocabulary that will be useful considering the penguin problem here in tropical El Salvador.

After the ceremony was the party. 10 dollars all you can drink from 10-1. Amazingly, I did pretty well in that I felt I drank more than my 10 dollars worth, but I didn't over do it. Others most definitely did, and there were definitely some funny/scandalous scenes to be entertained by. Kind of made me nostalgic for those cottage wop parties at Mac.

Well I gotta go catch my bus now, otherwise I'm stuck here for another 2 hours. Adios

I have arrived

So I just read that for security reasons we are not supposed to make public knowledge where our sites are located. I think I probably wrote it in a prior entry, but in any case, I will give you all the English translation. I live in the club of the savior. Club as in stick, not club as in discotec, but I really prefer to think of myself living in Jesus Christ´s nightclub. And as you might imagine, it`s not that flashy, considering Jesus was a minimalist and all. What makes all this even more fun to write is the fact I`m sitting in a pretty large internet cafe that has been taken over by about 10 Mormon missionaries. I'm just dying to get the opportunity to reply to their questions about whether or not I've accepted Jesus Christ into my life with the response 'I've done more than that...I'm living in his freakin club.'

I've been in my site now for a little over a week. Really, I've just spent my time hanging out, preparing my house, and getting to know people (also a lot of reading and listening to music in the hammock). My house is pretty nice. I have electricity, an outdoor shower, and a latrine that is cockroach free.

The people in my site are incredible. Everyone is full of 'chispa' (chispa means spark and is used to refer to someone with a lot of personality.) There is soccer played every evening...some days are formal trainings with the town team (which I am a part of) and other days it is just open to anyone. Currently I'm out of commission for a bit with a sprained ankle, but I plan on making a triumphant return in a week or so.

I think that's about all the writing I have in me today. I slept horribly last night, and am kind of dragging today. However, I bought a thumb drive or whatever those things are called, so I can now write entries on my computer at home and just upload them here...hopefully that will mean more frequent and better blog entries. Hopefully. Love to everyone.

19 years of soccer and blue eyes makes me cool

I visited my site this past week, and, all in all, it was amazing.

On Monday I left Tepetitan at 6am to arrive in Usulutan by 9. Usulutan is the closes, decent sized pueblo, where I will go to shop, eat out, etc. One of my counterparts, Don Joaquin, met me in Usulutan and we rode the bus together to Las Trancas (about 30 minutes).

Las Trancas is a pretty small Canton (about 1400 people) that consists of 5-6? Caserios. It basically has one main dirt road, and a bunch of side passages. It is damn hot, but there are a ton of trees and shade, and it is really quite nice. From the top of the hill I can see the ocean, which is about 25 km away.

Don Joaquin is the director of the school in Las Trancas, so he took me there first to briefly tour the school and meet some of the teachers. The teachers have all been working at the school for numerous years, and seem genuinely interested and concerned about the students--which is not always the case here. Also, the school has a computer lab with about 6 computers, internet, and most importantly, Air Conditioning!!! I think I'll be offering a lot of computer training classes.

The rest of the day I stayed with my host family--Nina Chela and company. Wonderful people, good food, fun kids, and a wooden bed. No joke, the bed I slept on was a wooden board the size of a double bed, with a sheet thrown on top. I guess you can't win 'em all.

The next day, Tuesday, I met with my other counterpart, Don Remberto. Don Rembe is the health promotor in Las Trancas. I went with him to the Unidad de Salud in Ozatlan (a smaller and closer pueblo than Usulutan.) Don Rembe's meeting was only supposed to last half the day, but ended up going the entire day leaving me with not much to do. I did stop by the mayor's office and the police station to let them know I'll be living in their municipality--they both nodded and smiled, and I'm pretty sure I'll never see them again...but at least they know I'm here. The rest of the day I sat in the Unidad watching animal planet and talking with the doctors and nurses (all women.) It wasn't a complete bust, because never before have I received so many 'guapos' 'chulos' and 'bonitos' in my life. To any white folks with blue eyes reading this, move to El Salvador and you will automatically be good looking.

The rest of my time was spent meeting people and hanging out. Everyone was very friendly, and the town is extremely organized. There are three soccer teams, an under 17 team, a recreational team that pays their own travel and uniform fees, and then 'la seleccion' (the selection/town team). Well Wednesday night I was invited to play some soccer. I didn't know it, but apparently it was some sort of tryout. I played for 25 minutes, scored a goal, had an assist, and didn't lose the ball once. Afterwards, two of the town leaders who were watching and the coach and one of the players asked me if I had my passport with me. I said, "No, should I be carrying it around?" thinking that they were concerned about safety or whatever. They responded, "Of course you should, how else are we going to get you signed up on our team." Basically, to be part of the team they need a copy of my passport. The process takes about a week, and I arrive in the community on the 17th of August and there is a game 2 days later. They wanted me to be ready to play for that game.

Only a week and a half left of training, and then off to my site. I'm very looking forward to it.

PS
To read something from the real writer in the family, check out my Grandpa's story

http://www.commonties.com/blog/2007/08/01/one-last-look/

Moving Day

I'm moving. My host family has been planning on moving at the end of August, but that would have no effect on me since I would be leaving for my site mid-August. Well, I went on an overnight Wednesday (I was literally gone for 26 hours) and when I returned half the house was packed up. Apparaently, we are moving on Monday to Entrevista, a small community about 10 minutes away by bus. It's not that big of a deal, but a little stressful and frustrating as I have to pack up all my stuff and I have really started to enjoy Tepetitan (my current community.) Oh well.

This past Tuesday I found out where I will be spending my next 2 years. Starting August 16th, I will be living in Cantón Las Trancas, Ozatlan, Usulutan. Cantón Las Trancas is my community, Ozatlan is the municipality, and Usulutan is the department. It's in the southeast part of the country, and looks to be about a 30 minute bus ride (depending on bus routes and roads) from the ocean. The community has had 3 volunteers in the past (all Rural Health and Sanitation volunteers) but at least they know about Peace Corps. Also, from what I've heard, they are very active and pretty organized. Monday-Thursday I will be visiting my site and meeting my counterparts (the director of the school, and the local health promotor.) I will most definitely write an entry Friday or next weekend with my thoughts on my new home. Adios

El Futbolista pt. 2

So I wasn't planning on writing another blog entry until I got back from the beach, but after last nights performance on the canchita (little field), I decided I had to update. After a decent first half, we were only down 5-3--I had a goal and an assist and hit the post twice. The second half began with the other team scoring two quick goals, and I immediately thought 'here we go again.' But we came back with two quick goals of our own cutting the deficit back down to two. By now, I've become a marked man in the tournament, so I was having trouble making things happen, but I did manage a few Maradonna's (non-soccer players won't know what I'm referring to, but it's a pretty basic move that looks flashy) and they were all greeted with 'Ole' from the fans. Finally, I put in a nice volley with my left bringing us within one. On the ensuing kickoff, I stole the ball and quickly fired home a shot from deep. Not even 30 seconds later, the ref blew the whistle marking the end of the game and our first non-loss. I have never seen a tie celebrated so enthusiastically in my life. Once again, I'm a celebrity...and this time I'm letting it go to my head.

On a lesser note, I have a rash. Which reminds me of a line from my favorite movie which goes 'Man, I got a rash.' The first person to tell me who said this, what movie, and what scene in the movie will get a letter from yours truly. (I'm expecting either Zack, Isaac, or Mark to get this one). Just leave a comment on the blog with your answer.

Que Chivo Estar Aqui (How cool it is to be here)

We had field based training from Wednesday-Saturday. Field Based Training or FBT, is just a visit to a current volunteer's site where he/she has activities planned for the group. The youth development volunteer's were split up into two groups of four. My group was led by Beatriz, who is currently shadowing Kiva to be the next trainer for youth development, and Ever, our Salvadoran motorista and all around badass. Our site was a pueblo called Victoria in the department of Cabañas. This is pretty much the same area I visited for immersion days, and as I have described previously and as the pictures show, it is gorgeous. It is about 5,000 feet (I think) in elevation, and it overlooks the mountains of Honduras.

We arrived around 10:30 Wednesday morning and met Lisa (our host volunteer) at the station for Radio Victoria. This weekend was Radio Victoria's 14th birthday, and it has quite an interesting history. It was originally based out of Santa Marta, was closed down during the civil war, and has always been 'alternative radio' offering a non-centralized form of news and place for opinions to be expressed. The radio offers a very cool program providing workshops on reporting for youth, and then allowing them to present on air. The best part of the radio, though, is definitely the people. Their passion for what they are doing (and it's most definitely a struggle to keep the radio station functioning) showed through brilliantly when they were talking to us.

After meeting with the radio staff, we ate lunch, prepared for charla's that we were going to be giving the next two days, and met our host families. My host mom is the director of 'la casa de cultura' (cultural house) in Victoria. She lives with her mom and her two children--Salvador age 9 and Bryan age 6. The family is all quite nice, but exhausting to say the least. Salva and Bryan were the most hyperactive children I have ever met, and it most definitely does not help that they are constantly given sugary drinks and coffee. Actually, most Salvadoran children are given coffee. It is tough to see, knowing how bad it is for them, but it is cheap and filling, so if food is scarce, coffee helps.

On Thursday, we helped Lisa give a charla on adolescence to the 'Escuela de los padres' (basically like a PTO). The turnout was quite impressive as about 50 parents showed up--almost exclusively women. We were in charge of facilitating small group discussions, and I thought it all went very well. Afterwards, we went to the house of a Salvadoran friend of Lisa where we made pizza from scratch and cooked it in an adobe oven. I'm not sure if it is because I've gotten a little tired of the food here, but the pizza was quite possibly the best thing I've ever tasted. Of course that meant I ate way too much.

Later that night I went with my host family to a nephew's birthday party where I was offerred 'chaparro.' I immediately asked 'what's that' and they just told me to try it. Turns out it is basically moonshine made from fermented plantains, and it is illegal to make in El Salvador. This was most definitely the strongest liquor I have ever tasted, and I'm just thankful I did not go blind. Though I got a bit buzzed, I was safe, because my host mom was drunker than I.

Friday we went back to the school where I gave a charla on teamwork. Essentially, the kids had to build a bridge out of straws high enough so each member of the team could pass under. I think there's a picture of it on the previous entry. The charla went marvoulously, mostly thanks to the kids. We then drove to a site about 30 minutes away where another volunteer, Sarah, lives. There, we went on a hike with a bunch of 4th graders, and picked up plastic to recycle all along the way. After the trash pickup, we hiked to a pretty amazing waterfall where we spent the rest of the day.

Saturday, we woke up at 4:45 to hike up a hill to milk cows. I'm a pretty amazing milker to tell the truth. I have pictures to prove it. The best part, though, was the location. We were above the clouds, so looking down it seemed like it was an ocean and the peaks were all islands. After milking, we ate breakfast and went back to our host communities. It was definitely a great 4 days.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to the beach for the weekend. On one hand I wanted some time away from the group, but it's hard to pass up a trip to the beach. We'll see how it goes...if I need to, I'm sure I can find a nice private plot of sand where I can sleep and read. Peace all.

A few Pictures

Here are some pictures of El Salvador...I'm still figuring this out, so I'll give descriptions some other time.

El Futbolista

Tepetitan (the town where I live) recently constructed an astro-turf 'canchita' (mini soccer field--about the size of a basketball court) for a two and a half month long tournament. The tourney started about 3 weeks ago and will continue through August. This is probably the biggest thing that has happened in Tepetitan for years, and average attendance is around 150. The host dad of another volunteer put together a team and included me on the roster. The team is composed of local teachers, all of whom are a bit over the hill and not very good at soccer.

So, my Salvadoran soccer career began two weeks ago in my team's first game (and first loss). I did not write about it mainly because it was not fun. I played horribly and we lost. I then caught a chest cold and was not able to play in our 3 subsequent games/losses. However, last night I made a triumphant return to the pitch. We played a team from a neighboring pueblo, and the crowd was abuzz for our 8pm kickoff. I scored the game's first goal about 5 minutes after the opening whistle. We soon went up 2-0 after the other team put in an own goal. The other team scored quickly to make it 2-1, but I answered back with a goal of my own. But, true to our form, we lost our lead and were down 5-3 at halftime (3 of the goals were scored while I was sitting on the bench.

The second half, I decided to put on a clinic for all in attendance. I had 4 second half goals, two of which were completely solo efforts. I think the best part of the night was when I heard an old 'campesino' (rural farmer) say 'juega chele' which basically means 'play gringo' or 'whiteboy'. As much as I am bragging, I am not exaggerating--after last night I am a celebrity in my town. Walking around town today, on three different occasions, someone congratulated me or commented on my performance last night.

The only problem with all of this is we have another game tomorrow evening, and I will most likely be back to my slow, out of shape, mediocre form. Maybe I should hang up the boots and retire on top.

Teaching English to English Teachers

As part of a new plan, the ministry of education in El Salvador requires english to be taught in every school. It's a good idea, but the majority of the english teachers don't know english. In a lot of schools, the former math teacher or social studies teacher or whoever was simply chosen to be the english teacher. So, as part of training, myself and the 7 other youth development trainees put on a 4 hour english 'taller' (workshop) for local english teachers. We actually got a pretty good turnout (about 40) with levels ranging from very very low to nearly fluent (although most were on the low side.)

The taller was brokent into three sections--pronunciation, grammar (beginning and advanced), and vocabulary. We split the four lessons up and worked in groups of two. Unfortunately, my partner has been sick for the last week, so I had to prepare for and give my entire grammar lesson by myself. I do enjoy working by myself, but I was very nervous about being alone in front of a class. However, after yesterday, I'm not so nervous. My class went quite well. For the most part, the games I played were well-recepted, and my lesson, at least I think, was pretty clear (despite being given first in English and then in Spanish.

I really felt for these teachers, because they are put in a tough place. I'm sure they are all happy to have jobs, but working in schools here in El Salvador is amazingly difficult. Teachers in the states complain about overcrowded classrooms, lack of supplies, and little administrative support (and those complaints are justified), but the obstacles faced by the teachers in El Sal, dwarf those in the states. And on top of all that, the teachers I worked with yesterday are asked to teach a subject that they themselves are currently learning. And the turnout yesterday, for 4 hours on a saturday morning, to a non-required taller shows these teachers' enthusiasm and desire to learn.

Immersion Days

The Peace Corps sends all of the trainees on a brief trip called immersion days. The idea is for the trainee to travel solo to a different part of the country where he or she is greeted by a current volunteer who has arranged for the trainee to stay with a family, generally in rural areas.

So Thursday morning I left San Vicente to meet my volunteer in Sensuntepeque. It was about a two hour trip and it went off without a hitch. From Sensuntepeque, we took another hour and a half bus trip to San Antonio where the volunteer lives. Then from there, we got a ride to the house I stayed at (I can't remember the name of the town right now.) The house was up in the mountains with a view of Honduras only 4km away. It was an absolutely gorgeous location, and the family I stayed with was amazing. There was a husband and wife and their four kids--boys ages 14 and 1 and girls 9 and 6. The husband's dad and brother also live close by, and the three of them grow corn, beans, watermelon, and cucumbers. I ate plenty of beans, watermelon and cucumbers, and corn flower tortillas. I expressed to the family my desire to learn about farming and they invited me to come live with them, teach at the school and work in their fields...and they were 100% serious. It was one of the nicest invitations I've ever had, especially since it was so earnest. These people were so genuinely nice, I was really taken aback.

Going on immersion days, we were given a letter to pass along to the family that basically tells them that we need to have water boiled for us. I of course forgot that letter. I could have told the family myself, but I feel like an asshole saying that the water they drink isn't clean enough for me. So I kept my mouth shut and drank water from the chorro (tap). The whole first day I was fully expecting to start vomiting at any time, but I made it through with absolutely no trouble...and I'm hoping I'm in the clear by now.

On Saturday morning, I met my host volunteer and we bused into San Salvador for the American Society's 4th of July Party, which is basically for all the American's in El Sal. The party was at the Sheraton, which is probably the nicest hotel in El Salvador, and where all the foreign dignataries and business executives stay. After the party, 7 of us split a room in the hotel and stayed the night in San Salvador, and I'm now back in San Vicente for more training.

Things are good

I don't really know what to say. Things here are good, but I just feel extremely busy with classes, trainings, and pressure to spend time in my host community and with my host family. I'm enjoying myself, but I'm realizing how hard it will be in the next 10 weeks to keep in touch with everyone. So basically, this blog post will serve as a hello to you all until I have a better story to share. Letters are fairly cheap to send, so if you want a letter, you should email me your address...I don't know when I will get around to writing them, but I will eventually. Also, I bought a cell phone, so if you want to call me (I don't think it's too expensive) the number is 7266-9207--i'm not sure what the country code is, but that should be easy enough to google. Hope all is well, and my love to all.

exhausted and looking forward to hallucinations

So I'm in El Salvador. I quickly realized that with all the new sites, sounds, smells, experiences, etc. there is no way that I will be able to tell all that I would like to.

Goodbyes of course were extremely difficult. I don't know how many times I heard that someone is proud of me. It is actually makes me uncomfortable to hear for two reasons. First of all, I haven't done anything yet. For all any of us knows, I could sit at my site in El Salvador for two years and treat it as an all expense paid vacation. Of course I won't but I still would rather have accomplished something before I'm praised for it. Second, it makes it sound like I'm doing this for purely selfless reasons. That of course is not true. I am completely selfish, at the risk of sounding cliche, I plan on taking with me much more than I leave behind.

As far as staging (the two day orientation in DC) goes...let's just say I did not enjoy it. The presenters were quite good, but the material they had to cover was not so interesting. Also, I am always a bit put off by new group orientations where everyone seems to become best friends immediately. Of course we will all become friends and of course we want to expedite the process, but it doesn't have to be forced. Being the Peace Corps hippie I am, I think the process could be a bit more organic. I know most of it is just nerves, but everyone seemed to be talking and laughing and smiling as though they were all manic depressives and on speed. Made me want to go to sleep. (I know mom, I'm such a curmudgeon).

I got about 2 hours of sleep before leaving for El Salvador. I was exhausted, but my excitement carried me through. It was about an hour drive from the airport in San Salvador to our training site in San Vicente. Lots of green, lots of color, lots of poverty, and lots of humidity. That's probably the best way to describe it. At training, we had more orientations and it made for quite a long day.

Once again today, meetings pretty much from 7 am until 7 pm and I am exhausted and have a headache. The good news, however, is I took my first dose of maleria medication so I have hallucenagenic (sp) dreams to look forward to. I've always been interested in LSD...maybe this will suffice. (Actually, I've heard from many people that the side effects are pretty rare.)

Special congratulations are in order to Mark for graduating yesterday and Nathalia for finishing up her first year as a teacher.

My love to everyone.

--Mel (that one is for eddie, zack, and jw who is most likely not reading this anyways)

So It Begins... or The Reluctant Blogger

I am beginning my 27 month stint in the Peace Corps on June 3rd. I will be in DC from the 3rd until the 5th, and then in El Salvador for a little over two years. I have started this blog to record my thoughts/experiences. This way, rather than inundating your mailboxes with impersonal mass emails you can decide for yourselves if you are interested in my stories.

I don't know why, but I am very reluctant to have a "blog" (as shown by my need to put quotation marks around the word). Anyways, this is an experiment with a decent chance of failure. I have no idea what sort of internet access I will have in El Salvador or what sort of personal drive I will have to update my blog. If this blog does fail or if you just want to hear from me a little more often, please email me and I will respond.