My Site Assignment:

So yesterday we received our site assignments: dun-dun-dun….

La Cantón Isla de Mendez, Jiquilisco, Usulutan

I know that doesn’t mean anything to you but it is actually in the Lonely Planet El Salvador book, so bu-ya! Check it out on Google Earth and let me know what the swap looks like where I’ll be living. It’s actually not an island like the name of the cantón says but rather it is on a peninsula between the Bahía de Juquilisco and the ocean!

My potential areas of work include: reproductive health, water treatment, forming a water committee, HIV/AIDS, Turtle Conservation with youth (how cool does that sound), Women’s Co-op Restaurante, Work in school, English and many more things. The community sounds great and there is so much work to be done there that I’ll never be bored. There is a nice high school a few kilometers out of town that I hope to work with, an awesomely organized ADESCO and a lot of work in eco-tourism which will be fun!

Lonely Planet says:
Isla de Mendez is another pleasant fishing village with a modest but growing tourism trade. It has great beaches and some basic eco-tourism options. The bay beach here has calm, shallow water and good inland views, while the ocean beach features soft white sand, tall palms and giant waves. Access to the beach is dependent on the season – an easy half-hour walk in the dry season and a long muddy march in the rainy season.
And apparently hostels are being built there to help with the tourism. They have turtle preservations, restaurants, fishing, boat rides and the possibility of building a museum, which I’m all over. And there is another trainee getting placed at the end of the peninsula in Corral de Muras / El Icaco so we’ll hopefully be able to collaborate a lot since our sites have some similar needs and projects going on.

I go to visit my site on Monday so I hope everything goes well and that I like it as much as I already do.
Check out the links under my links section to read more and see pictures about the general region of where I'm going. And I know you will all want to come visit me!!!