Tuesday, February 13th

Well today was kind of a frustrating day. I have been wanting to get to my email and call home, but hadn’t been able to and the phone card I bought doesn’t work at my host family’s house, so I had been looking forward to going into San Vicente for our training classes so I could use the internet and make some calls.

But in the morning the stupid public phone wouldn’t work, the internet café took up my entire lunch hour and I didn’t even get to all the stuff I wanted to on the internet. And on top of that, I dropped half my lunch so I was all hungry. And then I missed the nurse so I couldn’t talk to her about my stupid sinus problems and my loose stool (heck yes, poop….or lack there of I guess). It’s really strange that I have a runny nose, cough and sinus headache because it’s hot and summerish, but I guess because of that and all the dust, it provokes it.

But after being grumpy for a while, I finally got over it. Although I realize that I hate having to go so long without technology and contact with friends and family. It’s not that I have to be next to my computer at all times, but it’s nice to check emails at least every other day. And there are actually some things I would like to research about El Salvador, but I can’t without the internet. And even though they discourage use from getting a cell phone this early in training, I think I’m gonna have to do it because then I can call people whenever I want, not only when I can get to a public phone.

Okay, so enough of that and more on some cool El Salvador facts I’ve been learning about. The most common diseases here are: Respiratory illnesses, Gastrointestinal illnesses and Dengue (like malaria but from different mosquitoes). Respiratory illnesses, especially pneumonia, are the number one cause of death among children under five and gastrointestinal diseases, such as diarrhea, are the third highest cause of death among children under five years of age. Among women cervical cancer is the highest cause of death, which really shocked a lot of us. But without even semi-routine PAP exams and the diagnosis of having HPV, a lot of women develop cervical cancer unbeknownst to them. HIV/AIDS is also a big problem here – almost to the point of boiling. Although the stats are relatively low, it’s only because a lot of people don’t get tested or diagnosed. Interestingly, there are almost no statistics on the cases of HIV because no one gets tested and it is such a taboo to use condoms that people are never protecting themselves against STD’s, most importantly HIV/AIDS. It’s a huge battle because the lack of contraception and prevention is built into the culture so it seems almost impossible to change. But it’s all about education. I mean how can people protect themselves when women in rural areas don’t even know why they get their periods or how they get pregnant; and men don’t even know what condoms are.

This is what I’m here to help with. Educating people on how to live healthier and seek out medical attention, although expensive and hardly ever readily available.


Wednesday: Día de Amistad

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my loved ones! For el Día de Amistad (friendship) here in El Salvador an NGO, called Intervida, that works mainly with the schools, gave all the kids brand new backpacks filled with notebooks, paper, pencils, crayons, play-do and TOYS!!!! I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Dani and Nemi, both in Kinder, came home with big legos and we built houses, calles and escalaras while I was eating lunch. The kids at my house here are so awesome!

So today in class we visited the local Unidad de Salud, or local health clinic to ask questions about the communities it serves and how the health system works here in El Salvador, generally. Unfortunately we were only able to meet with a nurse, and not with the Director of the clinic like originally scheduled, but oh well that’s what happens here. So this health clinic serves about 8500 people. We learned that hypertension and diabetes are a common problem in this area. Dengue is a huge problem so there are a lot of programs and campaigns to educate people on how to clean their pilas and water recipients, to offer fumigations, and even conduct investigations of homes. Each clinic has health promoters and investigators, who go out and work directly with the community to educate and refer them to proper care.

So here in El Salvador, “puchica” is this a slang word that is used as a filler to express emotion but today Kevin got it all confused and said “puta chica” to our teacher! And she was like, WHAT? Man the look on her face was hilarious because puta chica can roughly be translated as whore. So now every time I hear someone say puchica I think of this!

Tonight, after dinner Idalia’s boyfriend called. It was so funny because she got all excited and was like, “We’re going out!” And her sister and daughter got all excited. Heck I was excited! We drove to San Sebastian, a small pueblo known for its artesenias and hammocks. We got some coffee and went to the park and played on the seasaw and the swings. It was so great to be out in a small pueblo, at night, and to see other people out as well. First of all, there is no “town square” in the rural areas, most people just stay in their houses, and everyone is afraid to go out at night. So this was an awesome change, especially to see Idialia and Iris so excited for a chance to go out for just a little bit.




Thursday, February 15th

Today we went to visit a local rural school here in La Virgen to observe classes and interview the director of the school. I wanted to observe the 4th grade because we have to give a presentation to a class in three weeks and I thought 4th grade was a good age group. Wow was I mistaken, at least at this school. The class was basically just made chaotic – kids walking around, yelling, never raising their hands, leaving without permission, throwing airplanes – and the teacher didn’t even say anything or try to maintain order. So I’m gonna give my presentation to the 2nd graders. Kevin observed 3rd grade and said his class was not as rambunctious as the 4th graders. They would eat me alive if I tried to talk to them about trash pick-up or basic hygiene or something.

My biggest foreseeable challenges as of today:
1. not being out-going enough. not having enough confidence to just go out into the community to talk to people, do house visits, and I can’t even imagine trying to give a presentation on a subject as touchy as reproductive health or something.
2. fear…of all the bugs, of possibly having to live by myself. I am actually pretty proud of myself regarding the whole bug situation, considering there is a spider in my room right about the width of a racquetball (including legs) and the only time I screamed was when the cockroach crawled in my foot. But man there are just so many noises out here in the campo that it is damn scary, especially cuz I sleep in my own little house. Stuff falls on the tin roof and it’s really loud and scary. The dogs bark and I wonder if there’s someone out there. And last night I thought I heard someone knocking on my door, although I was half asleep and listening to music, so who really knows what the hell it was.

Next subject: Dogs. The dogs here are either crazy vicious and scary or just really sad looking. Ok well first of all I don’t really like dogs that much in the first place but so many of the dogs are just crazy dirty – constantly scratching and biting themselves because they have flees. Half of them are so skinny. Okay actually all the animals here are really skinny – cows, cats, dogs, horses. It’s really sad to see a walking dog skeleton.

But my scary dog story of the day is that the family that lives below us has a huge rot-wilier (sp?). During lunch there was this huge commotion – dogs barking, chickens squawking, things falling – so we went to check it out and the rot-wilier was fighting this other dog. Not even fighting like mutilating another dog and there weren’t any parents at home just three kids. Man this dog was making the most disturbing noises I have ever heard a dog make. I thought it was dead, but the boy managed to get the rot-wilier off the other dog that climbed up the hill all bloody – I seriously can’t believe it didn’t die. Everyone at my house was all scared and Dani was crying.

After classes today Ginger, Kevin, Maria Luisa (our Spanish teacher), and I went to visit the molienda (mill). Where I live there is a lot of sugar cane. There is a sugar cane field behind our compound with stalks about 6ft. high and there are a couple moliendas in the area. All day you can see huge trucks stacked twice as high as the truck with sugar cane, and men sitting on top of the sugar cane. So we went to visit the local molienda where they take the cane stalks, press the juice out of them and boil it down to this foamy mixture called espuma. It’s a greenish-brown color and is sweet, but the taste is really strange. They also make miel de ajote, which is a type of squash, baked and then topped with sweet miel (like honey) made from the sugar cane. We didn’t get to try that unfortunately, cuz that sounds tasty. Bartomeo gave us a little tour and told us all about the molienda and what they do and he shucked some stalks of sugar cane for us with his machete so we could chew on some raw sugar cane – now that is tasty. Also at the molienda they make candy – dulce de atado – that the women wrap in corn leaves. The molienda was really cool, and when you go there they let you try everything for free and tell you all about it – it’s awesome!!!!

So last night it rained and since we have a tin roof it started the shit out of me. It was raining so hard I thought it was hailing – it freaked me out. And then I had a really weird dream and then when I woke up there was a huge ol spider on my mosquito net, maybe it was the one I saw last night…who knows. But I killed it. Muahahahahaha (evil laugh)….ok actually scared whimper