EDogBlog

Living life as a Peace Corps municipal development volunteer in El Salvador from 06.2006 to 08.2008. Please note that the contents of this website are solely my own and do not reflect the views of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Real Date: Tuesday, September 5th

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a gringa like myself can be accepted into life in a small Salvadoran town. Amongst the bogus offers of marriage and trips to neighboring Central American countries, I´ve received countless invitations to accompany my work counterparts to trainings, charlas, to view ongoing projects in the cantones and to soccer games in nearby cities, as well as invitations from new friends to eat dinner at their homes, meet their family members (all 50 of them) after church or hike the nearby hills or San Miguel volcano. Only outside the US can you meet someone and in five minutes time go from being a perfect stranger to receiving a personal invite to a birthday party of an uncle´s cousin´s newphew where, ifyou attend (which you must) you will inevitably run into 10 more people you either already know or who are related to people you´ve previously met. I have no problem with these immediate friendships and impromptu gatherings, other than that often times they are so spontaneous that I´ll agree to go somewhere, right this second, and before I know it be gone for 12 hours. Last week I told a friend that I´d head to a canton in the municipal area with her to "ver un partido de futbol" - she texted me to go at 9, we left at 10, and by the time we were done trecking through the mud, eating various meals and accidentally missing the bus back to the pueblo 3 times it was 6pm. I may have returned "bien sucia" and covered in ant bites but I´m glad I went, as I´m generally grateful for these chances to get out, try new things and meet some cool people.

For those of you who know me well and enjoy laughing at my imperfections (i.e., anyone I´ve known for more than two days) here are a few things to keep you entertained. Last week I went with a friend to her house to learn how to tortillar, or make tortillas, a business which has sustained her and her family for years. In 2 hours time I not only dropped on the ground more rolls of dough than I managed to cook as tortillas, but I spilled dirty water all over my skirt and burned a finger on the stove. I successfully made 7 tortillas in 2 hours - Marina, my friend, made about 100. Then, on the way out of her kitchen I failed to notice a low-lying part of the ceiling and smacked my head directly into it, hitting myself so hard I was literally propelled backwards on my butt. Once Marina got done fearing for my life she not only laughed at me for the rest of the day but took pleasure in sharing the unfortunate incident with a number of my other friends in town. When I showed up for work the next day there was a motorcycle helmet on my desk. I was in the midst of telling my counterpart that I´m not allowed to ride on motercycles (PC rule) when he interrupted me and said, "no, es para cuando esta andando en el pueblo." He and my other "hilarious" friends want me wear it when I´m walking around town, for my own safety. Dad, I´d like to take a moment to thank you for teaching me early on how to laugh at myself - this way, the gringa going to the corner store with a bike helmet on is just funny, not horribly embarassing.

During the times when I´m not attempting to get people to actually take me seriously, I´ve been trying to talk to as many as I can about where I can start working in town. So far the director of the school in town has gathered together 2 groups of students for me to work on projects with - we´re going to start with the ever-so-popular PCV starter project; painting an enlarged map of the world on the wall outside the school. I´m excited to start this up becauase it´ll be a great resource for the students, who oftentimes do not receive geography courses, and a fantastic opportunity to get to know the kids and teachers on a more personal level. In addition to this, I have "great ambitions" to conduct a census of the resources of each school in each countryside canton in the municipal area. It seems as though Muni volunteers can easily spend 2 years just in their urban towns, but I have more interest in branching out and getting into the poorer rural areas, to help bring them up-to-date. Many of our canton schools consist of only one or two classrooms, with limited access to water, electricity, computers and materials for the students. While this idea is really pretty over my head at the moment, I´m hoping to carry out this project and then use it in the future to work on small infrastructure projects, perhaps in collaboration with the Ministry of Education or NGOs both nationally and internationally located.

When I´m not seeking out work opportunities or walking around like a "special" person with my protective gear on, I´m visiting friends and traveling to get to know this country better. This past weekend I went up to Perquin, a town in mountains three hours to the north, to hang with a number of my training compañeros. Perquin is in a region that was greatly affected by the civil war here in the 80´s and 90´s - it served as a crucial area of guerrilla headquarters for training camps and radio transmissions and also saw more battles between the army and guerrillas than most parts of El Salvador. It was more than a bit surreal to stand in the war museum there, viewing photographs of young guerrillas who gave their lives to the leftist cause not 15 or 20 years ago. We also learned a bit about a canton called El Mozote near Perquin, where in 1981 the army massacred all but 1 of the 1,000 inhabitants due to suspicions that the town contained guerrilla sympathizers. Stories such as these are very much alive in places like Perquin. I´m attempting to get my hands on books to learn more about the war - if you have an interest in doing the same, check out this website http://mbeaw.org/resources/countries/elsalvadorcivilwar.html for a good list of resources. As if the emotional turbulance wasn´t enough we decided to put our bodies to the test as well this weekend - we went on an all-day hike to a beautiful waterfall that involved taking off sneakers and crossing waist-deep rivers in multiple areas, and at the end, jumping off an 8 ft. drop into the water at the waterfall. I have pictures of all of us forming a human chain and passing our backpacks overhead person to person in the river - I´m working on getting my photos online soon so you can have some visuals.

That´s all I got for now - September 15th is Independence Day for the Salvadorans so I´m looking forward to parades and celebrations all week long (because no celebration can last just one day around here - that´s just ridiculous). I hope Labor Day festivities were fun in the States! Happy 25th bday to EMQ and 24th bday to Sarah! Sar, here´s hoping you don´t get stuck in Eastbumfuck, Pennsylvania with the broken down car forever... I swear, only you would go on a cross-country trip in a standard vehicle without knowing how to actually drive it. Lisa and Steve, congratulations on your wedding this upcoming Saturday! In my three months in El Salvador thus far I have never wanted to come home so badly as I do now, so that I could see your wedding. Best of luck, congratulations and have a wonderful time on the European cruise... I´ll be thinking of you all day on the 9th. Thanks so much to Carrie, Steph and Margaret for sending me mail in Chapeltique! I just sent out a bunch of letters, so hopefully mail will be coming your way soon. Continued best wishes to the Muni/Youth ´06 group, I miss seeing you guys often (though there´s no lamenting over training), and best of luck to Amanda in Arizona... I don´t eat a pupusa without thinking of you. Joe, once you´ve gotten to Tanzania let´s swap country logistics... if it´s hotter there than it is in Aaron´s site than I imagine you have me beat in terms of heat and humidity, but I may be able to one-up you on the local diseases. Pools of stagnant water = mosquito breeding grounds = dengue = standard procedure for El Salvador. Aaron, I hope by now the "evil spirits" have conspired against you and brought some rain to wash your painting of the Red Sox logo off the wall. In my town, Yankee hats are sold in every market shop and the Red Sox are just that... socks of the color red. On a serious note, congratulations on making six months in country and getting your own place at your site! I want to see these basil and mint leaves when I come visit you in the desert. Much love to family and friends back home, you´re always in my thoughts and prayers.

Until next time, ¡vaya pues!

Erin

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Sworn In

For all those who have been asking for the new address, here it is:

Erin Dussault
Alcaldia Municipal de Chapeltique
Avenida Geraldo Barrios
Barrio Centro
Chapeltique, San Miguel, El Salvador

I really appreciate the requests for the address, as I can´t thank you enough for the copius amounts of mail I´ve already received! A special thanks to Sarah Lacy, Nicole, Kadee, EMQ, Carrie, KK and Brie for the wonderful letters, and to Sarah, Lisa, Steph, Ann, Kelly, Sister Dorothy and Aaron for the recent emails. Now that I´m in my first week in site and have passed into the realm of not knowing whatsoever what to do with myself, you can bet I´ll be writing back to you either through snail mail or email very quickly. Please have patience with the mail system, it´s almost as bad as the cell phone connections (I know some can attest to that) but I´m willing to put my faith in it if you are.

I arrived in Chapeltique yesterday and before I could process the fact that I´m really here/have the panic attack that goes along with that realization, I was immediately approached by my host mother, Niña Esmarelda and her six year old grandson Kevin. Kevin wasted no time in putting all my bags into a spare bedroom, leading me outside and naming all the fruit trees that are in Esmarelda´s expansive garden. After he tested me on the names he took me through the backyard to a few houses nearby where his other grandmother, his immediate family and his aunts and uncles live, and introduced me to about ten new Salvadorans who welcomed me into their homes with open arms. We then walked back to the house, where we ate our eggs and beans together for dinner and he informed me of just about everything he´s learned at church school in the past month. It´s been about a full day that I´ve been here and Kevin hasn´t yet left my side - indeed he´s sitting beside me at the moment as I´m writing this entry. My counterpart Carlos, who I saw this morning, has taken to calling Kevin my body guard and I daresay he´s correct. I prefer guia, or guide, but bodyguard seems to work as well - since I arrived here I haven´t received one piropo (catcall), perhaps thanks to my miniature security task force.

Besides meeting some of my neighbors the only thing I´ve done so far is observed an english class in the casa de la cultura, or culture house, here in downtown. My counterpart and about 15 other adults pay $22 a month to attend four Saturday classes run by a professor from the school in the nearby city of San Miguel. It was incredibly interesting to view the class and observe how one would teach English... I´ve been asked on and off (directly and indirectly) if I would be interested in teaching English while I´m here. I have mixed feelings about it at the moment - I´ve never taught a language class before and while I can speak English I´m not sure I can teach the correct grammatical rules, verb tenses and pronunciation that one would need to know to learn it at a basic level. There´s also something a bit frustrating about thinking of coming to a new country and partaking/adjusting to its culture, language and lifestyle just to spend two years teaching the people of that country how to speak your native language. However, I´m one of the lucky new volunteers in that I already have a list of potential and existing projects to learn more about and hopefully help with - in the short time I´ve been here the people of Chapeltique have impressed me beyond belief with their initiatives and existing development efforts. It was my hope from day one of training that I would be able to come into my site and collaborate on already existing projects and groups, efforts that Salvadorans made and are making in response to the needs they see in their community, as opposed to me creating projects that I feel are best for them. If they are such an integral part of the projects I end up working on, they will continue to sustain those projects long after I leave in two years, which is ultimately one of the most important goals of all Peace Corps programs. It´s an early first impression but an encouraging one that Chapeltique seems to know what it needs; my role here will hopefully be to assist them in obtaining those needs.

I suppose that´s about it for now. I´m not sure what I´m going to do come Monday, my first real working day on the job, but I imagine I´ll figure it out. I hope all is well at home and the summer is finishing off on a good note (and, I hope you´re all just as hot and sticky as I am). I miss everyone as always - I have to admit that thinking about the Dussaults on vacation in RI without me this year occupied much of my thoughts in this past week. Glad you guys had a great time and good weather, I wish more than anything I could have been there with you. Also, a huge congratulations to Sarah for graduating from nursing school - I´m so proud of you! Send pictures via email of the pinning ceremony if you can. My thoughts are with all of you at home, especially as I embark on attempting to get to know a whole new town. The past two and a half months have gone by quickly, as I imagine the next two years will. Best of luck to the E2 boys in Africa, to Monica in Honduras, to Biz fighting the battle against cancer in Boston, to Ann and Beth making it happen in grad school, to Ange saving wild and plant life throughout Western Mass and to Steph saving lives (or dealing with the crazies) in Boston - keep on making St. A´s sound like THE place to send your kids, guys. Can´t wait to talk to you all via email or snail mail!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

I got a site, hey hey hey hey

After spending two months in El Salvador I´m beginning to rethink the way we party in the States. When we´re celebrating something in the US we throw a party that lasts all day, sometimes all night, usually with plenty of food, music and more than plenty to drink. Here, when they throw a party it literally lasts all night - and then all the next week thereafter. The party "kicks off" officially each day with fireworks and a music band blaring Ranchero music - at 3:30am. The sporadic fireworks and strange combination of reggetone, country and mariachi music lasts from 3:30 until about 6:00am, when people take a breather and the second round of festivities begins for the day. This seems to consist of what we might consider to be a fair back home - people come to St. Domingo and set up makeshift stores, where they sell everything from fried platanos to coconut candy to pirated copies of DVD´s and CD´s all day long. Often times there is a dance which takes place in the middle of a closed off street, and always kids can be seen riding the ferris wheel that has been erected in the park. On Saturday night the town kicked off their fiesta week with "el palo" - this one, I haven´t quite gotten over yet. They cut down a small tree and smooth out the trunk. The pole, which stands about three stories tall, is then lathered down with grease and fat and positions in the concrete in the street so that it stands straight upright. At the very top of the pole, someone has put a $100 bill. The whole town then gathers around and watches as 10 to 15 determined men strip down and attempt to climb the poll to reach the money at the top. I´ve never seen anything like it - after about seven failed attempts and many collapsed pyramids one lucky lightweight was able to top the pyramid and reach the prize. The 13 year old girl who was elected "St. Domingo fiesta queen" then presented the money to all the greased up guys to split. Events like this and the whole party scene will last for eight days in total here in town, starting each day with fireworks before sunrise and ending each night past midnight with regge dances where the base will shake a house from a half mile down the road. What I have trouble believing is how the Salvadorans manage to do all this without one drop of alcohol - public drinking is about the only thing that´s not included in the partying. I may not have slept for four days but I do have a newfound respect for Salvadoran celebrations - they´re hard core, even if they are crazy.

We´ve been lucky the past few weeks - aside from training activities we´ve gotten the chance to visit some of the most beautiful places El Salvador has to offer. Two weekends ago the trainees had the chance to visit Isla Teslajera, an island off the Pacific coastline. We had the beach completely to ourselves, just us gringos, aside from sharing the walk from our bungalos to the beach with a herd of cows. The water was absolutely beautiful - I couldn´t have asked for a better first trip to the Pacific ocean. This past weekend we took a trip to the San Vicente volcano - and climbed it. It took about four and a half hours to reach the top and it was probably one of the most physically strenuous experiences of my life, but the view from the top made it all worth it. I have pictures of everything but I´m in the midst of a battle of sorts with the internet cafe computer to download them, so hopefully soon I´ll have a link up and running on the blog for a photo album.

As for the most exciting news to date - I received a site assignment today. I´ll be spending the next two years in the eastern part of the country, in the town of Chapeltique, in the department of San Miguel. Check it out on a map if you´re so inclined - all I know about it so far is that it´s pretty hot there, I´ll fairly closeby to a few of my trainee friends and to other volunteers already situated in San Miguel, and there´s a huge potential to do a lot of productive work in the town, but none of it is really with the mayor (the person I´m supposed to work with as a municipal development volunteer). The Muni APCV told me that at his initial visit to the town, the mayor was fairly disinterested but on the other hand many community leaders such as church, school and health clinic employees showed up and requested the help of a volunteer. We´re going to visit our sites next Monday for four days to familiarize ourselves with the area and attempt to find housing, so I´ll have more concrete information after next week. As of right now, with the limited information I´m aware of, I have to say that I´m pleased with my assignment - my site is a medium sized town close by to other volunteers and major cities as well as directly on a major bus route, and it seems as though there is the potential to do quite a bit of community development work there.

That´s about it for now - I´m happy for all the trainees in my group for reaching the point of receiving site assignments - two more weeks and we´re finally beginning our service! I hope everyone at home is doing well and enjoying summer thus far - a special thanks to Lisa and Sarah for the amazing care package (I especially love the underwear you bought me) and to Erin Latina, Alli, Kathryn and Grandma for the letters, and to everyone who has emailed as of late. Lis, I´m glad to hear the girls did their jobs and got you plastered for your bachelorette party - wish I could have been there to sing karaoke with you guys! Joe, I hope you´re having a blast galavanting across Africa, and Aaron, I´m still praying for a cold front to pass by your way. I´m proud of you guys, keep up the good work. To everyone else at home, I miss you and continue to think of you. Take care for now!