I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in El Salvador, working for the Rural Health Sanitation program. I make $300 a month. Cheers.
And . . . I finally decided to start a blog.
Just for a quick overview, I arrived in El Salvador on February 3, 2010 in a training group of thirty-six volunteers. I spent seven weeks in San Vicente in training while living with a host family in a neighboring community. I lived with a family of four. The parents are Ulises and Alma, and the kids are Ever and Krissia. Ever just turned twelve and Krissia is nine. They established my existence in the country and helped coach me through speaking Spanish at the beginning. Then, real Peace Corps started. We were sworn in at the American Embassy and sent off around the country to our sites. I live in the department of La Union, in the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima, and in the cantón of the La Chorrera. It's possible to find me on a map, even though El Salvador is a small country. Anyway, I left the states for six weeks after three weeks in site because my father was dying. Then, I came back to El Salvador on May 30th and returned to another two and a half week training course in San Vicente, once again living with my family there. On June 16th I got back here to my site, bringing us to the present.
I just moved into my own house which is incredibly exciting! Privacy doesn't really exist in this country, but I finally found it. Everyone thinks it's weird that I live sola, but I tell them it's just what we gringos like; they seemed to be satisfied with that answer.
In the last couple of days my house has pretty much turned into a daycare. Some of the kids who live by me discovered coloring books in my house that the previous volunteer Missy had left. It's nice having company around though. Plus, kids don't judge my Spanish skills.
Yesterday I went to San Miguel to meet my friend Jordan and do some shopping and eating. We found this awesome dispensa at Centro where I bought olive oil and peanut butter . . . with protein! This is very exciting. To start, people here cook EVERYTHING in canola oil and then add lots of salt or sugar. Butter doesn't really exist and the other option is lard. And naturally, you can find these four ingredients everywhere. Olive oil was an amazing discovery in this country and well worth the hour long bus ride. Also, at the fancy (and I use this term loosely) supermarket in Santa Rosa I can buy peanut butter, but come to find out the peanut butter there doesn't have any protein in it, go figure. On the bright side though, because El Salvador has such a temperate climate, fruits and vegetables are abundant in the local markets. I would just be weary of the poultry and fish that's there, sitting out in the heat all day, covered in flies.
Today, I was planning to meet with my ADESCO to organize the general assembly I was supposed to have after completing my health census in April, but alas they canceled the meeting for another two weeks. Typical. Most of the day I spent in my hammock attempting to start a new book, but I was sick so didn't get far. (Just finished Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. I've got a good stash of books left to read, so I just need to choose the next). I think today was a dehydration day and hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better. If not, off to San Miguel for a stool sample to find out what's crawling around inside me. Got to love this job.
Overall my community is very welcoming and really happy to see me back after my stint in the States. I'm enjoying it here for the most part, getting used to the slower pace of life. I often seek refuge in the capital, San Salvador, to get together with other volunteers. It's not appropriate to drink in the rural communities and it's a definite no-no for women, so one can see why I need that time in the capital every now and then.
Alright, that all for now. And don't worry, I'll try and provide some humor in the future, because there's plenty of weird shit that happens to me in this country.
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