Update

So as most of you know, I went home for Christmas. It was great to be home – to see all my family and friends and just hang out. I went up to San Francisco with my mom and brother Matt – that was super fun. We went to my mom’s Work Christmas Party and we went to an amazing suchi place and jazz concert and did some shopping.



After Christmas, my whole family – mom, dad, Aaron, Feather (Aaron’s girlfriend), Matt, Drew, Sam and my Uncle Bill – came down to El Salvador for a week. It was SO much fun. The first day was just Aaron, Feather, Bill and I. We went to the art museum, did some shopping at the Artisan Market and went to dinner. The next day the rest of my family came down and we headed to La Union where we rented a house on the beach – Playa Maculis. The house and the beach were beautiful. The house wasn’t a mansion or anything, but it was very typical and comfortable. We hung out on the beach, ate lots of yummy seafood. One day we went into La Union with my Peace Corps friend Devon and also to the small and very cute pueblo Conchagua. We bought a bunch of fireworks and Alfredo came out to the beach as well for New Year´s. We lit off all the fireworks, made a bonfire and watched all the crazy local kids light off firecrackers and almost burn themselves. It was so much fun and I’m really glad that my family was able to meet Alfredo, which went over pretty well. On the last day we went to my old community, Isla de Mendez, to free some baby turtles and hang out with my friends. I was so happy that my family was able to meet all of the people who are important to me here. We hung out with my host family, my grandma and with Alfredo´s family. It was great!







At the end of January, my Peace Corps group had our Close of Service conference where they explain all the stuff we have to do before finishing as a volunteer and about what to expect upon our return, how to get jobs, etc. It was the first time in a year that we had all gotten together, so that was super fun – just catching up with everyone and seeing what their plans were. We had the conference at the beach which was fun.







Other than that, on the 18th of January the mayoral and legislative elections were held and the FMLN, or leftist party – won the majority of mayoral office and legislative positions. Now we just await the results of the more important presidential elections in March.





I also had a co-worker and friend die in January which was really hard on me and on my other co-workers. She was a promoter of Red Solidaria, the program I am working with right now and she was such a very friendly and funny person always telling jokes. She helped celebrate my birthday in November along with the other promoters. It’s been hard without her there, but we can only remember the good times that we shared.

María Luz is the girl in the middle.






Other than that not much is new. I hope to visit more with some of my Peace Corps friends before we all finish and continue my job search. Hope all is well at home with our new president – YAY!

At last I updated my blog

I know I haven’t updated in a million years so here is a summary of what’s been going on in the last three months:

September:

With the youth group from my old community – Isla de Mendez – we hosted a turtle vigil and invited other youth from the region and community leaders. In total there were a little over 100 people. We all went to the beach for the night and searched for turtles coming out of the water to lay their eggs. We split up about 15 km of the beach into five sections and each section had a group of people that were to keep watch for the turtles. I was the leader of one group and in the first hours we didn’t find any turtles, but I finally spotted one coming out of the water and we helped it up the beach and watched it lay its eggs. Once the turtle has laid all of its eggs we gather up the eggs to take them to the turtle incubation hatchery where they are incubated for up to 45 days until they hatch. The vigil was a HUGE success. In all we collected over 600 eggs. It’s one of the most successful turtle vigils that the community has ever seen. It was really exciting!



At the end of the month I went to the states for Chelsay and Kevin’s wedding. It was so much fun to hang out with them and go to their wedding….I caught the bouquet. HEHE. I also got to spend time in Cincinnati with friends…it was a great time.


October:

September and October were the rainiest months. In my new site it rained every single day. Not always during the day (thank god) but every night. It was pretty bad and there was a ton of flooding. But I didn’t get washed away…luckily.

October was full of work with Red Solidaria: observing the trainings that the promoters give to the families, going to meetings, the events where the families receive their monthly bonuses, and at the end of the month I helped give some of the trainings to the families because one of the promoters resigned.


One weekend in October I also went with a volunteer friend of mine to a small pueblo in the mountains called Ataco. We ate tacos in Ataco (haha…) Anyways, this region is known for its flower nurseries and a lot of the hotels have flower nurseries on the grounds. We stayed in a small cabin, which was so beautiful. Simple but really beautiful, with beautiful gardens and a small café that served breakfast and lunch. We checked out the pueblo that is known for its artisan crafts including handmade candles and lambs wool materials.
We did some shopping and checked out the central park, the Catholic church and a small art gallery that presented Salvadoran painters. The pueblo is calm and artsy and very friendly. One day we also did a hike to a lagoon…the lagoon is called laguna verde (or green lagoon)…but it totally was green. There is a picture of the lagoon in the Lonely Planet guide book and it looks beautiful so my friend and I were really excited to see it, but compared to the photo is was a huge disappointment; but it was still pretty and the hike was nice.

November:


The first week of November I participated in a youth camp in Lago Coatepeque – the crater lake of the largest and still active volcano in the country. The camp was organized by a group of 12 students from the American School in San Salvador. Five volunteers including myself and about 40 youth from all over the country participated.
It was super fun. I brought four youth from my old community and we had a blast. We tye-dyed shirts, had a talents show, the students from the American School gave charlas on trash management, planning your future, decision making, self-esteem and communication. It was a great experience for the youth and fun for me as well.

Lately, I have been going frequently to a community that is called San Pedro. It is at the bottom of a huge valley where there is no water (only a river), no electricity, no streets and no basic services. The kids have to walk between 30 minutes and 2 hours to get to school and many walk to school without shoes. It is definitely the poorest community that I visit. The teachers at the school are great and have to hike down this huge cliff every day to get to the school to teach. It takes about an hour to walk down. So I had an idea to do a Shoe Drive at Mary Star High School to collect shoes for the kids in the community. We’ll see how the collection goes and in January, when the new school year starts, we’ll go to distribute the shoes.










I had a super special birthday. I told the promoters from the municipality of Jicalapa (I get along with them the best) that we should have a small little party at the beach cuz I was going to be my birthday. One of the promoters, Gloria, found us a house on the beach to have the party at and all the others chipped in to make the lunch – carne asada y chorizo con arroz. I made a cake and bought a piñata. It was so much fun. Alfredo, my boyfriend, drove out from Usulutan to surprise me for my birthday and to meet all my friends here. The house where we had the party was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I felt like I was at an Italian villa on the Mediterranean. The house, which is painted all white with blue doors and window shutters, is perched on a small cliff over looking the ocean. The property has its own small private beach, which is like a little cove that has caves and rocks. It was such a beautiful birthday. We all had a great time!












For Thanksgiving I got together with a group of six other volunteers at a hotel on the beach and we made a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner! I made the turkey which turned out superb. We also made stuffing, carrots, beet salad, corn-on-the-cob, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, deviled eggs and chocolate pie. We ate our Thanksgiving dinner overlooking the ocean and a beautiful sunset. It was perfect.






The last weekend of November is the biggest party in all of El Salvador. Carnaval in San Miguel – the second biggest city in the country. The month of November they celebrate their patron saint and the last Saturday of the month they have Carnaval, which is the second biggest Carnival in all of Latin America outside of Brasil. The parade is the best in the country (in my opinion) and throughout the city they have live music playing of all different genres. I went with Alfredo, his cousin and a friend of ours. We hung out in the area of reggaeton, where the biggest international stars from Puerto Rico were. It was fun and a little crazy!

Other than that, work is the same as always. We are planning a trash campaign in one community and hoping to do more in other communities as well. The youth group from Mendez just started a Hammock Workshop so that is exciting, because we have been planning the workshop since April. I’m looking forward to going home for Christmas and to having my family down here for the New Year!

On December 7th, the youth group from Mendez started the Painting Workshop which we solicited from the Ministry of the Exterior and is being taught by a famous Salvadoran painter. The teacher is great and we had a fun time in the class. I think it will be really inspiring and enlightening for these kids that don’t really have any background in art.

One week my best friend Tania, from Mendez, came to Teotepeque with me to spend the week and to get to know some of my friends here. One day we went to San Pedro, the poor little community a the bottom of a valley. We walked so so much but had a great time.





And the last weekend before I went home for Christmas, Alfredo and I went to Ilobasco, an artisan town where they make all kinds of ceramic art. I bought some cool stuff and we also went to San Sebastian, where they make the cloth hammocks. It was a great trip.

And finally….pictures of the pueblo Teotepeque.

Fun Stories

So I don't have any cool pictures lately because I haven't made a habit out of taking my camera places, but I'll work on that so I can post some cool pics.

One of these stories I wanted to post in the previous entry but I was so bored writing that I just kept this out. But it is crazy so I just have to tell it. It wasn't funny at the time...NOT FUNNY AT ALL...I actually started crying, but it's funny now.

Anyways, one weekend I went to the capital to see my best peace corps friend off. She was heading back for the states. Saturday morning we were walking down the street to go get something to eat. I was looking all nice with my hair straightened (out a once a year event here in this hot country) and with a brand new shirt I had bought the night before, when all of a sudden, something fell all over me. It felt like someone had thrown a water balloon at me only that it wasn't filled with water; something thicker than water. Well it wasn't a freaking water balloon. It was bird poo....or should i say bird DIARRHEA. You have no idea how much shit had fallen on me. It was ALL OVER my perfectly straightened hair, all over my brand new shirt, even on my freaking shoes. And there was more that landed on the sidewalk and even on my friend's purse, who as walking beside me. We both looked up and we like WHAT THE FUCK??!! was that? We saw no bird...no nothing. For a second I thought someone from whose house we were in front of may have thrown something out the window, but I don't think so. Anyways, I had to go take a shower...obviously. My friend was like: "What the hell was that? A teradactile?" I mean it may have been because there is no way that amount of shit could have come out of a normal bird. We will forever been in doubt...it wasn't funny at the time, but it sure the hell is now. I mean how many people can say they had a bird diarrhea on them.

Last weekend, one of the promoters I work with invited me to her community. It is corn season and so she invited me to eat corn and all the yummy snacks that you can make from corn. She lives in a community called Argentina, which is way up on top of a mountain. The road to get there is so so ugly and I thought we were going to die in the truck we went up in. It was a huge cattle truck and it was all rickety and swaying back and forth as we went through all the holes in the road. Since it's been raining it's all muddy, and we almost crashed into another car when the truck skidded in the mud. But we made it (the trip back down the next morning was a whole different adventure). We peeled corn, ate corn on the cob...it was so so sweet. Freshly cut corn. Then we made tortas de elote (fried corn patties). You take all the corn off the cob and run it through a mill then add butter, sugar, salt and cheese and then you fry it. So yummy. My friend's mom also made ruiguas, which have almost the same ingredients as the tortas but they are grilled in banana leaves.

In the late afternoon, I went with my friend to the field, where she gets together with other friends and they practice doing gymnastic moves like somersaults and hand-walk-overs. It was really hilarious. We made a six person pyramid and then we practiced English. They all wanted to practice their English.

It was a fun day and night. Sandra (my friend) has a really nice family and her older sister is super cool. And she has a niece that is so so hilarious. The next time I am SO taking my camera.

Other than that, not much else has been going on. Just been working and hanging out. Missing home a lot. It's about that time, when all I can think about is going home.

I’m Still Alive….

Hello all. I’m sure no one even checks my blog anymore but I thought I would give it an update and just let you guys know that I haven’t died yet. i just haven't felt like updating my blog.

As my last blog entry mentioned, I was up for a transfer from my old community, and that is what happened, hence the not wanting to update my blog. The change was hard and is still hard at times and even depressing. I spent three weeks in the capital waiting to see where I would get placed, which was super boring cuz i had nothing to do, but oh well.

So now i am living in the department La Libertad which is the department that has the most tourism due to it's beautiful beaches. I live up coast from the most touristy beaches but where I live is also very beautiful. It is so much different from where I was living before...and not as HOT thank god. I live in the municipality of Teotepeque. I live in the small pueblo which is up in the hills, 11 km from the beach, so it is nice and cool there in the evening. For the first week I stayed in a small dormroom-like room that the Catholic parish has while I was looking for a place to rent. The priest at the church is from Cleveland. The parish is part of this partnership program in the States that sends American priests down to El Salvador for periods of six years. Father Mark is a really nice guy and he, as well as the secretary at the parish, helped me look for housing. The secretary is super nice and we've become friends.

I finally found a room to rent. It is a small room that is located behind a family's house, but it's cozy and it miraculously fit all my stuff. I like it because I live with a family but I have my own space and everything. The family is really nice. The mom is a nurse at the health clinic and their older daughter, who attends university, is living with them. Their son lives in the States. They are very friendly and give me super delicious food sometimes, like huge river shrimp, a huge crab and other yummy snacks. I bought a mini-oven from a Peace Corps friend that left and I made some chocolate chip bread and shared it with the family.

So I am working with Red Solidaria (red means network in spanish, not red like the color and solidaria is just like it looks...solidarity.) in the municipalities of Teotepeque and Jicalapa. They are both relatively small municipalities. Red Solidaria is a government program that gives aid to all families living in rural areas, and gives aid to the poorest families living in urban areas. A few years ago, the government did a census a put in order all of the municipalities from poorest to least poor. They were put into four categories: Extreme Poverty Severe, High, Moderate and Low. All of the municipalities that classified in Extreme Poverty Severe entered the program first. Teotepeque and Jiclapa are classified as Extreme Poverty High, and Jicalapa is considered poorer than Teotepeque. But both municipilites are significantly poorer than where I was living before. The people really just live off the land cultivating corn, beans, and a variety of vegetables.

Anyways, Red Solidaria gives financial support to the families in the form of a monthly bonus. But it is such a small amount of money ($15-20) that it is really just an incentive. The government and the families enter into a contract where the government promises to give the family its bonus if the family fulfills its promise to take thier children under the age of five to the clinic for shots, to send their children between the ages of 5-18 to school, and to participate in a monthly training. It's a great program. Education in this country is kind of a joke and noone values education so it's great to see that people are sending their children to school, even if they are getting a small bonus for doing so. The program is focused on the children and the women as mothers. The majority of people who participate in the trainings are the mothers.

In each municipality an NGO is contracted to do the work of the Red. It hires promoters that do house visits, motivate the families to fulfill their promises, and give the trainings. The NGO also does productivity projects that include a series of trainings that teach the people a type of oficio (can't think of a work in english, but it's like a specific job or telent). For example they do trainings on how to make bread, how to make hammocks, how to make cakes, artisan work, etc. Something that the people can learn and then benefit from financially.

So I have mainly been working with the promoters from the two municipalities. I go with them to do house visits, to the meetings, I go to observe and help them with the trainings they give, etc. The promoters are all pretty young and all have at least a high school education. They are super fun to work with and probably the best part of my new work.

However, it has been difficult because there has been a lack of communication between Peace Corps, FISDL (the govt. office in charge of Red SOlidaria) and the NGO's that work in Jicalapa and Teotepeque. This means that the NGO's, which I am supposed to be helping, don't know who I am or what I am doing there. I've tried to remedy this, but not with much success, but something I need to keep working on. My big complaint is that I don't really DO anything. I kind of just tag along and observe but don't really feel like I have a specific role, which is really frustrating.

Anyways, that is my life for the last two month, in a nut shell. I really like going to all the different communities in the two municipalities. That way I get to know more people and see more things...that is really fun. I was also invited to a community meeting one weekend in one of the small communities. I was enxcited about that. The meeting was about the community water project, so hopefully they will continue including me in their activities.








As for my old site, I go when I can. My youth group there is still kicking ass. In the end of May we did a trash pick-up on the beach and collected about 20 sacks of trash. I even found a part of a computer....so random. Alfredo came to visit me once in my new community and he really liked it.

I'm looking forward to going to Ohio in September for Chelsay's wedding and then home for Christmas!!!!!

Youth Funness and Birthdays

Ok, so I’m not going to go into very much detail on this, but the day after I wrote my last blog, my boss called me into her office to tell me that she had made the decision along with the director of Peace Corps El Salvador to take me out of my community. Like I mentioned in the last blog entry, there were lots of comments surrounded by the fact that I have a boyfriend, so much so that someone (an asshole obviously) from the community called my boss to tell her about the rumors going on. So based on that and the fact that my reputation and the reputation of Peace Corps has been altered, they want to take me out of my site. Yeah I know it doesn’t make sense, but that’s what you get working for a bureaucratic government volunteer agency. My community doesn’t want me to leave and they have ultimately opted for trying every possible way of keeping me here rather than just getting a new volunteer. My boss has come out to talk to the community and hopefully the country director will come out as well. It doesn’t look hopeful, but we have to try. Sorry this doesn’t have much detail but I’m sick of talking about this topic and shouldn’t really put that much detail on the web.

Anyways, in the meantime I’m still living and working in my community like normal. The circus came to town, so that was fun. I went a couple of nights. It was a pretty ghetto circus and the first time I entered the tent I was kind of scared…the bleachers were made of small planks of wood that looked like they were going to fall apart any minute. Yikes. They had some comedy acts, which were actually really funny. A supposed transvestite that danced. But I don’t believe she was a transvestite…she really looked like a woman, but who knows. The funny thing is this kid from the community started dating her, and his family has outraged….i mean outraged to the extent that they tied him up to drag him back to the house…well that’s what people said. I’m sure it’s a little exaggerated, but also not too far from the truth since this is a machista and homophobic country. But it was nice going to the circus…having something to do at night and having some good laughs.

THE CHURCH IN ALEGRIA

I’ve been working a lot with the youth group. The weekend of April 26-27th seven youth and I went to a youth camp with about 80 other youth from different municipalities close by. The camp was sponsored by SACDEL, the organization that works with our youth group and helps us fund activities and projects. The camp was held in Alegria, a very beautiful pueblo on the side of a volcano…it has such a nice climate. It was a nice change from the burning fires of hell in my community…haha. The camp was in celebratioin of International Youth Service Week. We watched the movie Crash and talked about racism. In the morning we did an activity about what qualities a youth volunteer should have. We watched a performance of young child and youth playing the violin and then we went out into the community to invite the members to a party in the park. Alegria is very beautiful…it has a lot of tourism so it’s clean, it has tons of private flower nurseries (since the climate is so nice) and it has a crater lagoon at the top of the volcano, but unfortunately we didn’t get up to see it. But since the community is built into the side of the volcano, it has some nasty uphill climbs…man my calves hurt after that weekend.
In the afternoon, the youth held a party in the park and a bunch of local children came to participate.
We had face painting, piñatas, music, folkloric dancing (tradition dancing), a drumming group came and there were also dancers on stilts. Also, we let off about 4 small hot air balloons. It was pretty cool.

ONE OF THE FLOWER NURSERIES












Last weekend was a four day weekend and once again we went on a youth event with SACDEL. This time I went with 15 youth from my community and we went to Jiquilisco, our municipality. In continuation of the International Week of Youth Volunteerism we painted the electrical posts and did a trash pick-up. I went to paint the posts, which I thought was super fun. In the afternoon we had a party like we did in Alegria but this time we started with a march down the main street in to town. We had face painting, hot air balloons, folkloric dancing, a farce beauty contest with guys dressed up as girls (hilarious). It was a lot of fun.





This past weekend we also celebrated two birthdays…the birthday of Roberto Carlos, Tania and Alfredo’s youngest brother. We bought him this sweet car that is launched off a platform by water pressure. You have to pump the water into the car, release a latch and then the car goes shooting forward while you get sprayed by water…it’s pretty cool. Alfredo, Tania and I tried it out before we wrapped it up and gave it to Roberto Carlos…haha.

We also celebrated the birthday of my grandma…Mama Nena. I bought her a birthday cake and we set it up as a surprise. She was really happy.

So that’s about all that has been going on. I’m working with the ADESCO right now trying to solicit a project, and it’s really frustrating because they don’t dedicate time to writing the proposal; like they expect me to do it all. I really want the project to pass, but not if no one is willing to work on it and put their time and effort into it. But hopefully it will work out.

Dude, a guy form my community drowned last night in the bay. His name was Arena (well his nickname. i never knew his real name). He was like the town crazy man. Apparently he used to be normal, but when his wife left him he took to drinking and i think he drank so much that he turned a little crazy. He wasn't violent or anything. He would do odd jobs around town...pick and sell fruit. He would sing to people in the streets, me included, and run laps around the futbol field in his underwear. He was cheery but really just a weird guy. Aorund 7pm last night they found him floating face down in the bay and kind of maneuvered his body toward the shore and waited for the police to come. Around 11pm the equivalent of the coroner's office arrived and took notes. He was wounded on his right eye. People think he either jumped into the water in a shallow part and hit his head or he fell from a tree cuz he liked to cimb trees. It was really sad. He was weird and all but everyone kind of had a special place in their heart for him. He kind of scared me but he gifted me fruit sometimes.

Gringas, Easter in El Salvador, Love and Death

I don’t know if anyone reads my blog anymore, but for those of you that do, sorry I haven’t been keeping up very well. I’ll try to do a better job. So almost a month and a half has gone by and a lot of shit has gone down. I’ll kind of just start where I left off in my last entry.

So every spring a delegation of Masters Students in Public Health from Yale University come to stay in Isla de Mendez. They stay with families and work on a variety of things including health education, reproductive health, sanitation and water treatment. This year a group of 13 female students came and stayed for about 10 days. I was kind of worried it was going to be weird to have a bunch more gringas around but it was actually really nice, I think especially because of a special surprise that came with the group.

Kristi and I

I met with the group on their first day here, and was surprised to see a high school classmate of mine, Kristy Anwuri, from Bishop Montgomery in the group. I was shocked to say the least. It was totally a movie moment…we looked at each other, kind of did a double take and were like….KRISTY?.....NATALIE? It was so weird. But we got an opportunity to catch up on things and talk a lot. It was great to talk to someone that I actually knew and not just people that I was meeting for the first time.
Planting mangroves.

So I hung out a lot with the group while they were here. I helped explain a lot of the situations in the community as far as health care and health problems go. I helped with some charlas and just general information. It was great because with the youth, we had just started out artisan work, and all these girls came and bought a ton of stuff. It was awesome and a real incentive to the youth group to keep working. Also with the delegation, I went to plant mangroves as part of a reforestation project, we went to the beach and had a small party at the end of their stay. They were a great group of talented, intelligent and inspiring women, so that was great for me to be around.


planting mangroves.


Next came Semana Santa(Holy Week)…the big week of vacation in the country. It was nice to have a break from teaching in the school, but I decided not to go anywhere because too many people travel that week. Instead I decided to stay in my community doing activities with the youth group and helping out at the restaurant/tourist center. With the youth group we continued making jewelery and I also planned a cultural event with the youth group as a fun activity in reward for their hard work in the last few months. I hosted Easter egg dying and an Easter egg hunt (thanks to the bitch club for sending me the materials). We dyed over 60 eggs; I hide over 60 plastic eggs filled with candy. The youth loved it. They were kind of out of control, but only out of excitement I think. haha

Youth group making artisan jewelery.

So during Semana Santa I ended up helping out in the restaurant a lot. We had some tourist come and stay in the hostels, others to take boat tours and others just to eat. In the weeks before Semana Santa we worked hard to get the place fixed up. We still didn’t get the showers completely done, but it was better than nothing. We got some good compliments on the place and hope the word gets out about us. On the Saturday of Holy Week, we were super busy and that night we hosted a dance and it was a hit. We had a lot of money and sold everything in the restaurant. I didn’t get much of a break this week, but on Easter Sunday I went to a water park with my boyfriend….yes I said boyfriend. (see the details below).

Painting Easter Eggs.



The week after Semana Santa I had some visitors. The couple I had Thanksgiving dinner with in San Salvador, Luke (the British) and Cynthia (the ex-Peace Corps volunteer) and their two-year-old daughter came to visit me. They stayed with my grandma (mi mama Nena), hung out, went to the beach, swam in the bay and went to help with my English class one afternoon. Their daughter got sick so they were only able to stay one night and I felt really bad about it, but they are really friendly people and it was good company.

Ok, so the boyfriend details. I recently started dating a guy from my community. We have been friends for months, and I finally just gave in and said yes; that I’d be his girlfriend. His name is Alfredo, and he is Tania’s (my best friend in my community) brother. He is a really sweet guy; goofy; intelligent; he sees me as an equal and not like some superior American.
With this relationship however came a lot of gossip in the community, a lot of nasty comments, and a lot of anxiety and grief on my part. I knew what ramifications having a relationship could have on my, my work in the community and the relationships I have with people in the community (we were warned a lot about this during training). Well apparently someone in the community disagreed with it so much that they felt it necessary to call my boss about it. So I had to talk to her about it, she came to my site to visit and it was just blown way out of proportion. The person that called her didn’t identify himself, so I have no idea who it was. But I have openly talked with the community leaders I work with about the situation and the fact that I now have a boyfriend, just so that they hear the truth coming out of my mouth instead of whatever the people feel like inventing (and trust me, they invent a lot of crazy shit to talk about). The situation has calmed down and I don’t think it will have as many negative effects, as I was afraid of.

IN MEMORY OF MY FRIEND, DAVID ALEXANDER RAMIREZ CASTILLO



Lastly, I had a very close friend of mine die two weeks ago. He was my friend and my host brother, from the family I lived with for the first four months in my community. His death was very shocking and very unexpected, and thus, all the more painful. David was left paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident over four years ago. He had withstood many hardships and pain, but always pushed on. Now in the states, living that kind of life is not impossible and is even aided by many accommodations such as handicap ramps, handicap bathroom stalls, handicap lifts on buses, etc. Those luxuries obviously do not exist here.
Well, as a result of him being handicap, he spent a lot of time in bed. He had a wheel chair but only used it when he was going to school, going into town or going to church. As a result of spending so much time in bed, he frequently had bedsores and two in particular had a hard time healing. Sometimes they would get infected and he would be sick with a high fever for a couple of days, but nothing I thought that was ever major.
Well, in early March this sores got infected and he got sick. When I went to visit him one day he had a really high fever and was pretty sick, but that was common so I didn’t think too much of it, but a little over a week later he was in the hospital. He couldn’t keep food down, the infection was getting worse and he had lost tons of weight.
He spent about 8 days in the hospital and his mom told me that he was not getting good medical attention. He was in a room with 40 other patients; they weren’t hooked up to monitors; he was not given an IV even though he couldn’t keep food down; they only checked on him every two hours; visiting days were only three days a week; a patient in the bed next to him just died one day and the staff didn’t even notice until later, when they came to do check ups. David wasn’t getting any better and he didn’t want to be there anymore, so they brought him home on a Monday. At this point his body was immune to all antibiotics, so the infection just took over his entire body. He had fiercely high fevers and still couldn’t really eat anything.
I went to see him on Thursday morning, but it was already too late. He could no longer talking, he could barely move his arms and his eyes. He had gone from being a healthy 26-year-old to a skeleton in the skin of my friend just struggling for breath. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. I whispered into his ear that I was there and that we were all there for him, but I honestly don’t know if he heard me or recognized my voice because he was almost in a comatose state by then.
I went back in the early evening and he was worse. He could no longer move any part of his body and was not responding in any way whatsoever. His breathing was very labored and only worsened as the night went on. His mom told me that in the afternoon his eyes had turned a bright, bright red like fire and that tears fell from his eyes that were almost boiling hot she said. A lot of community members were coming and going to see him before he died. The room was constantly packed with people looking at him, touching him, praying over him and talking with the family. I stood by his bed watching his chest heave; up and down with each labored breath for about two hours. I eventually sat on the bed and held his hand while his sisters took turns rubbing his arms and rubbing a wet rag over his forehead, which was burning hot.
I stepped out of the room to catch some fresh air and to get a drink for about 30 minutes. When I reentered the room, he stopped breathing and his mother let out a huge cry and starting slapping his hand. I made my way to the edge of the bed as people said that he still had a slight pulse; when I reached down to feel, I didn’t feel anything; not the slightest beat. He died at 9:10pm on Thursday, April
One by one the family members entered to cry over the body. I sat there with a friend just stroking his arms and his face, trying to keep his eyes shut. After a while they asked everyone to leave so they could change him while they waited for the coffin to arrive to put him in the coffin.
That night we had the vela, which is like the funeral. They have a religious service with prayers, singing and sermons; afterwards they hand out coffee and pan dulce and most people stick around talking.

The burial was held the next afternoon. We had a procession through town and out to the graveyard; there were tons of people there. At the cemetery, people were allowed to view the body while the religious service was going on. Then, between 8 men, the coffin was slowly lowered into the hand-dug hole. People, one by one, threw a handful of dirt onto the coffin and with the closing prayer, a team of friends and family finished burying the coffin and then we arranged all the flowers on top.

Salvadoran burials are very beautiful but not any easier. David was a very close friend of mine and I miss him dearly. I have never been this close to death before; as in literally watching a loved one die, and that has been the most difficult part. I would always go to hang out with him in his room to just chat, play on the computer, watch soccer games. He was a very loving and caring father to his two daughters, Alison and Monica, whom I love dearly. He was such an inspiration and spark of hope in a world that can be so dark sometimes. Despite his handicap, he never ceased to dream. In a wheel chair he graduated from 9th grade and went on to get his high school diploma just last November. He was learning how to play the piano, was very active in his church and would talk about how he wanted to continue studying and go to college. I learned a lot from David and he touched my heart; I just hope I was able to do the same in the short amount of time that I knew him.

Hello Hello. So I haven't written in a month. But it doesn't seem like it's been that long. This month just went by fast. I guess that's the benefit of staying busy.
Well, not too much new here. In the beginning of the month I went to visit my friend Colleen who is a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and is pretty much my best friend down here. She also lives in the state of Usulutan but more in the middle where are all the mountains and coffee plantations are....yeah it's beautiful there, not to mention at least 10 degrees cooler. She lives in a small community and has a super cute house, which dammit I forgot to take pictures of. We just hung out and went for a hike to a community that is higher up on the mountain which has this beautiful view of the San Miguel Volcano.
Okay, so as you all know February 14th is Valentine's Day. Well here they call it El Dia del Amor y Amistad (Day of Love and Friendship) so it's nice to give out things to friends. With the youth group we made cards with cute little messages on them and sold them in the schools making about $25 which was pretty good. With my women's group we did secret friends to do a gift exchange (like secret santa) and it was so much fun. The week previous to Valentine's Day we did a fundraiser and raised $20. So on Valentine's Day we had a little get-together just to have fun and hang out. It was so much fun. Me, Margot and Eugenia (two good friends of mine in the community and two really awesome women) made pupusas (the famous Salvadoran dish) for everyone. Pupusas cooking on the grill.



Margot and Eugenia




We decorated the restaurant and then did our gift exchange. It was a lot of fun.



Last weekend was pretty busy. This crazy cool septic engineer named Bob from the Seattle area came down becuase he is looking to do a project with water filters, filtering the water people use to wash clothes, etc. And he is also looking at the shellfish industry to see if there is a possible international market. I so want in on that project cuz it'll be some money and it's really interesting. A large number of the families here survive on collecting and selling shellfish. They have to go into the mangroves and dig in the mud to search for the shellfish. I knew all this before but had never gone. Well with Bob and two other community members we went to check it out. It's CRAZY to say the least! These people have to walk through knee deep puddle of mud and dig through that mud to find the shellfish.
This is all inside of a forest of mangroves, so they have to climb through the tress like monkeys...it's crazy. And it's way hotter and more humid in the forest. There are so many bugs and mosquitoes that people are constantly smoking cigarettes or pure tobacco cigarettes to keep the bugs away. So people work for about 6-8 hours a day and make on average $5-7 a day. It's bruttle. It was a real adventure though and I learned a lot of the trip we went on. Bob is such a funny guy. He might be able to help me with a latrine project and he bought me a bottle of Bacardi when i told him i was more of a rum and coke girl than a beer girl!


Last week my Peace Corps friend Samantha came to visit me which was aweomse. We had so much fun. Saturday the youth group hosted a movie night to raise funds. It was the first time we did it and it turned out pretty well. We wtached a scary movie, which was what all the kids wanted to see. On Sunday Sam and I went to the beach and just hung out which was so relaxing.

Other than that not much is going on. In the tourist center we are really trying to get it fixed up for the big vacation week (holy week) in march.