"Field Based Training"

So Wednesday – Saturday we had what’s called field based training. We break up into different groups, go to a current volunteer’s site, and stay and work for a few days. It’s another Spanish immersion thing and to get a better idea of life as a volunteer. Kevin, Colleen, Missy and I went to visit Darren in his site in Usulutan called El Tablon.

The site was pretty rural, well at least a lot more rural than where I live right now in San Vicente. From a pueblo called Berlin, we had to drive about 45 minutes along this dirt road full of dust and crazy bumpy – and that road didn’t change when we got to El Tablon, which means we ate dust all weekend. I had a hard time at this site at first because it was so drastically, punch you in the face different. Hardly any of the houses were made of concrete or cinder blocks, but rather whatever one could find to create something that functioned as a shelter. Houses were made randomly of brick, sheet metal scraps, wood and plastic with dirt floors and the majority of people cook over fire, inside their houses, which equals a lot of smoke and burning eyes. The community doesn’t have electricity, and water fell for the first time in four months the week we were there. Children were running around dirty faced and without shoes. Cows, pigs, chickens and horses roamed randomly everywhere, which also means you had to dodge all types of shit, or just step in it – whatever. I mean if the kids were throwing horseshit at each other I guess they don’t really care if they step in it.

But the community was small, which I loved. Darren knows his entire community and has a great rapport with people. Every time we walked around town people were always stopping to chat with Darren. And everyone was so friendly, I felt very welcomed, especially by the family I stayed with, who were just awesome. One night I talked with the father of the family, Don Chepe, about politics, the FMLN, leftist governments, what is lacking in El Salvador, good ‘ol George Dub-ya, the United States and about how we both hope the Democrats will win in 2008. Chepe works for the FMLN alcalde (mayor) in Berlin and is very passionate and involved. I enjoyed staying with a Catholic family on the left (FMLN) because it’s a big change from my family in San Vicente and plus Salvadoran women don’t really talk about politics so this conversation was welcomed. Then the next morning Chepe’s friend came over and the three of us chatted more about politics, the United States, immigration and the war in Iraq. But they thought the war in Iraq was started because of 9/11 so we talked about that.
The rabbit cage!

On Wednesday, after lunch, we build a rabbit cage for a community member. Darren is in the process of creating a rabbit project. We build the fourth rabbit cage in the community and there are two adult rabbits and a litter of bunnies right now. It was really fun, except for getting cut by the wire. But it was fairly easy, straightforward and a good group project. I want to make one for myself and have bunnies for pets – they’re just too cute to eat.

Thursday we spent the day working at the school, which is only three classrooms and three teachers, and sometimes the afternoon classes aren’t even taught because there aren’t enough teachers. In the morning we gave two classes incorporating the world map painted on one of the school walls. The world map is a huge Peace Corps project which gets the kids involved in painting it and later you can give classes related to geography, languages, different cultures, etc. That’s something I really want to do. So we gave a class on languages in other countries and how to say hello in other languages. It was pretty fun, except the kids had no idea about geography, not even about continents and they didn’t even remember once we marked the countries with tags. Anyways, in the afternoon we gave two classes on good communication: how to respond firmly without being aggressive. The class was broken up into boys and girls, and the boys were really fun, but the girls were sickengly shy. Because machismo is so rampant and women are culturally shy and used to being held back, they don’t have a mind of their own in big groups. If you want somewhat truthful answers you have to do it one-on-one because they get too penosa to answer the question with their own answer. Anyways, lastly we gave an English class, which went well. We sang “Puff the Magic Dragon” and Darren played the guitar – man I love that song.

Friday we attended a community diagnostic with an NGO called Intervida. That was interesting because community members talked about the history of the canton, culture, daily activities, etc. In the afternoon we broke up into three groups and helped three families build stage three of their latrines. They already had 3-4 meter holes dug so we helped cement bricks around the hole and put a crossbeam across the hole to make the base. Then they are going to cement down the plancha (the base that has the actual hole in it for the “toilet” seat).

I had a great weekend. The activities we participated in really allowed us to interact and get to know the community members a little. Saturday we played baseball with the kids in the community – Darren started a baseball team about 6 weeks ago.

But collectively, some of our greatest memories of the weekend were: 1.) the scary turkey that lives at Darren’s house. The cage is by the latrine so every time you tried to go the latrine, the turkey would chase you, wait for you to leave the latrine, then try to attach you while making this horrible noises. And I don’t know if any of you have seen live turkeys but they are SO ugly. Damnit, I should have taken a picture of the ugly bastard. But it’s getting cooked for Darren’s birthday – it gets what it deserves. 2.) When we were doing house visits for the latrine construction, at this one house a girl was just walking around ripping the feathers out of a chicken. At first we couldn’t tell if it was dead or not because it was a really small chicken. Darren finally asked what she was doing and all her mom said was, it’s dead. Well yeah I’d hope so! But the feathers were bright orange and yellow and the girl had feathers all over her hands and at one point she wiped her face and they got all over her mouth and hair so basically it just looked like she was eating a raw chicken, feathers and all. It was disturbingly hilarious! 3) And this isn’t just from the visit to El Tablon but something we’ve observed about El Salvador in general. Whenever you go over to someone’s house they always offer you a chair. And even if there is a place to sit on a bench or a railing they always bust out their plastic chairs out of nowhere and insist that you sit down. It’s very kind and welcoming, but just hilarious because without failure, you’ll always be offered a plastic chair.
The family I stayed with!