Political Violence

Just a quick post, because I'm feeling a bit stressed with work I have to do.

Last Wednesday the mayor of Alegria (a very pretty pueblo up the mountain from me) was shot and killed along with a female collegue of his. It is pretty much assumed that his murder was political. He is part of FMLN, the leftist party. There's a ton of political activity going on right now for the elections at the begginning of 2009. Because of the eletion cycle, a number of municipalities will be voting on mayors and the entire country will be voting on the president, making these the biggest elections since the peace accords were signed in the early nineties.

It is feared that because there is so much at stake, the elections could turn violent. Ironically, I was at a meeting on how to prevent any political violence in our municipality when I found out that the mayor was murdered. Living in a canton, I am thankfully isolated from a lot of the most fervent political activity, and Peace Corps volunteers are prohibited from partaking in any sort of political activity, so there is no need to worry about me. It will all be very interesting I'm sure.

The real violence I have to worry about is on the soccer field (I know you can't hear it, but my voice just transitioned into a more optimistic, joking tone). In my most recent game, I was fouled a number of times and have a nice scrape on my arm to prove it. Also, the referee ended the game early because the opposing fans were on his case. They, of course, were not happy about this, so there was a bit of tension about what they were going to do. Guys from my community came out to stand next to the ref, just in case, but nothing happened...the other team and their fans piled into their pick-ups and went home. One of the men from our community then scolded us that you never leave a ref by himself if he might be in trouble--although there really wasn't any trouble. Also, I was told that I play too cleanly, and I need to push people around more in Salvadoran soccer than I might be used to. I'll let you know how that goes this week.

Transitions

I went home to Arizona for the holidays. As you might imagine, it was very nice to relax with family and friends with the comforts of nice beds, multiple couches, cable TV, and most importantly a fully stocked refrigerator and pantry that enabled me to gain 7 pounds in two weeks.

I have an amazing family, and it was wonderful to spend the holidays with them. Also, I got to see Nathalia after 7 months, and I guess that was okay too.

The hardest part about going home (both going home to Arizona, and coming back home to El Salvador--I have two homes) is the transition. Going to Arizona is much easier physically. There's air conditioning and heating, an abundance of cars that make for easy and comfortable transportation, good food, etc. However, emotionally, it was a bit trying. Through email and phone I know what is going on with family and friends back at home, but I still remain distant from it. I forget that loved ones are aging--my dog Dina especially :)--and everyone is going through their daily struggles, which to me, seem magnified when I only catch a glimpse of them for a short period of time.

Coming back to El Salvador, then, becomes even harder. At home, I begin to think that I could do a lot to help out my family if I were to move back to AZ. Of course that is not what they want, but sometimes it feels like that is what should be. Add those feelings with a 9 hour plane ride where my luggage was lost plus a 2 hour bus ride only to be greeted by a house full of dust, and emptied of food and clean clothes, and the trip home becomes daunting. Furthermore, having seen my family and friends, I no longer am able to distance myself from them--meaning my thoughts stay with them a lot longer after visits than after emails and phone calls.

However, I have now been back for a week and am feeling okay, so I think this transition is running about as smoothly as it should. It helps that the airline found my bags so now I have clean clothes. Even more than that, it helps that I have a tree to chop up with my machete this afternoon--definitely my favorite chore ever.

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!!!