My New Site

Okay so you haven’t heard from me in what almost two weeks…well no worries, things are going really well at my site so far. Actually I love it!

But before getting to my site we had Counter-Part Day, where we met with our counterparts and Peace Corps staff gave a presentation and we planned a little what I’ll be going in the first couple weeks. And then we had the Swearing-In Ceremony at the US Embassy, which was actually really nice – both the Embassy and the ceremony.
My friend Kevin gave a speech, as well as the leading Doctor and Director of the HIV/AIDS program at Hospital Rosales here in El Salvador, and the Ambassador, who doesn’t speak Spanish but pulled off a smooth and often comic translation.

So I was really nervous to come to my site, especially to live with a family of 14! But they are amazing….I already love them so much and feel I have a small place in the family. There’s a bunch of kids so there is always something to do with someone. We’ve been swimming in the bay, going to the beach, riding bikes, playing cards, coloring and just hanging out. And the kids are so adorable. The people here that I’ve met so far are all very nice and approachable and probably as interested to know who I am as I am them.

So in this first week and half I’ve been attending community meetings, meeting community leaders, hanging with my family, and visiting other families. The community has a lot going for it but participation is way lagging and often practically non-existent, which I know already is going to be a huge frustration as it already is for the two main organizations working here in the community. And to make it worse the super-star youth leader is moving to the states in August to study, which is a great advantage to him and later to his community but will be a huge blow here at first. But we’ll see if we can come up with a plan before he leaves.


The two organizations working here are doing a lot of ecological and environmental work - trash disposal training, reforestation, and turtle and fish preservation. Oh and supposedly August is prime turtle season for those interested – I know I sure can’t wait. The ADESCO and youth group are in the process of building a new office, hostels and a new turtle vivero (where they keep the eggs until they hatch).

Anyways, this pic is the view from the house I might live in one day if I can get it all fixed up and mi casa fea as of now. But I want to paint it and plant a garden, so we’ll see what I can do! Actually yesterday a few gals from the community and I went to try to clean a bit of the house, since it hasn’t been lived in in a year or so and wow was it dirty. But we had a fun time, especially them scaring me with this huge spider I came across. But it was hilarious because in the bedroom part there is a false ceiling, the kind you see usually in office spaces with the cardboard-like material, and some pieces were missing so we tried to fix it.
We had to cut the boards and all we had was this rusty old saw – you should have seen us all trying to saw apart the board, but we eventually got it done.

So for my first few months I’ll mainly be doing an extensive census of the community, five pages long. So I’ll be doing a lot of house visits, getting to know people and letting them know and understand why I-m here and what I’m here to do. But the school director wants me to start helping out right away, but we’ll see how that goes. It’s crazy the English teacher at the school lived in the states from when he was 9-16 years old. He was working as a security guard at the local high school when the owner’s daughter or wife, or someone (very rich) realized he could speak English and thus proposed he teach at the school and that she’d pay him. He’s not even a certified teacher, but probably speaks better English than any other English teacher in the public school system here in El Salvador.

So I guess that’s all for now, if you have any questions just post them.