What's Going Down

Ok so I haven’t really written anything since I’ve gotten to my site so this post might be a little bit long but there’s some pics and hopefully some funny tid-bits.

First I just want to start off my saying that I LOVE it here! I know it’s only been a little over a month and things are still a little bit new but I love it. Besides the fact that it’s beautiful and on the beach so I can go whenever I want, the people are amazing – so friendly. I feel so at home here and never want to leave. I thought on average I’d want to leave like once a week to check email and stuff but it’s just such a pain to leave and such a boring 2 hour bus ride, and I feel like I’m missing out on stuff to do with my friends, so I prefer being here. I feel really welcomed in the community, I have a great host family (even though they’re ripping me off for the price of room and board), and a group of awesome friends. I feel so lucky to have been here only like 2½ weeks before I found a solid group of friends. Other people say how boring their sites are and I feel like I’ve been here for a really long time. But I still have a lot of work to do in getting to know the community – house visits, census and community diagnostics. But that’ll come with time.

So my host family: Here’s the structure and the names of the family members
Niña Anna Luisa – mother, 51
Don Alejandro – father, 60-something

Their kids and grandkids:
Reina, 31: Leidy (15), Karla (11), Katerine Alejandra (7), Luis (4)
David, 26: Monica (7), Alison (5)
Verónica, 23: Gabriela (2)
Ramón, 18
Miguel, 7

Okay, hope that makes sense. My host mom is really nice, like the epitome of a doting, Hispanic mother which has its advantages and disadvantages but she always means well and works hard for her family. The dad is cool, I don’t really talk to him much but he’s a really nice guy. He’s the milk man, meaning that starting at 5am he drives around collecting milk from families that raise cows and then he takes the milk to a milk factory in Zacatecoluca, a big city near us. And my family makes cheese, called queso fresco. El Salvador pretty much has two types of cheese: queso fresco and queso duro and queso frsco is the better of the two. I don’t like queso duro, it’s like paremesan cheese but 20 times as strong. It’s so potent. Anyways, Reina sews clothes, makes the cheese and her and my host brother Ramon are about to set up a barber shop, so hopefully that works out for them.

All the kids in the family are awesome, so much fun, hilarious, at times annoying, but kids are kids right? But I love taking them swimming in the bay, dancing with them or just goofing off. The family is just really genuine and caring and has taken me in like another member of their family. Ramon spent three months in the states, but didn’t like it so he came home. But he relates to how I must be feeling here cuz he said tat even when he was in the states living with family he still missed home so he can’t imagine how hard it must be for me to come here and not know or have anyone. For that reason I think we’ve hit it off. So he’s pretty conscious to include me and let me in on the jokes and what’s going on. The whole family is like that. It’s great! Because there’s so many kids in the family of all different ages, it’s like I have my real family here because Ramon reminds me of Mattie: really athletic, really good-looking, plays guitar, kinda quiet at first. My friend Pollito (his real name is William Vladimir) reminds me of Drew cuz they’re both hilarious, awesome soccer players, and really caring, and joksters, although I don’t think he’s burnt his hands or gotten hit by a car. (love you drew, only kidding). And Karla and Bri (a friend) both remind me of Sami. Bri because her and Sami kinda look alike and Karla because they have a similar personality.
This pics is of Bri (left) and Karla. Sorry Aaron, there’s no one here smart enough to remind me of you…

Anyways, so my friends. In the beginning I would play cards with the kids from my family and eventually neighbour kids would come over, partially out of curiosity as to who I was and also to what we were playing. So in the end it ended up being me, Ramon, Tania, Henry and Pollito hanging out and playing and having fun. There are really great people. And if you’re wondering why Vladi is called Poliito it’s because they call his dad Pollo and Pollito is just the small version. Tania singing to Pollito.
One Saturday night the five of us walked to the beach to spend the night. It was so much fun. We brought hammocks and dug some branches into the sand to hang the hammocks, which didn’t really work that well, but then about 11pm it was about to rain so we went into “the Rancho” which is a palm-leaf hut built on the beach (don’t ask me why). So we hung the hammocks in there and stayed up almost all night talking. It was awesome. So that’s definitely on the list of things to do when people come visit, especially in turtle season, cuz then the beach will be full of turtles. But we play soccer, bajar mangoes and eat them with salt and lime (so delicious), listen to music and sing, eat charamuskas (milk and coffee frozen into delicious frozen treats)

In this photo: Pollito, Miguel, Gabi and Luis
What else, I’d say I go to the beach about once a week with a group of gals. We pack up backpacks with snacks and walk to the beach and hang for a few hours. And yesterday, I went to El Espino, with my host family because my host mom is from there so her mother and siblings live there still, and oh my god is it beautiful. It’s also in the Department of Usulutan, but more south. Me, Allison and Monica in El Espino
The beach is beautiful, flat, small waves and the softest sand ever. I so want to live there. I would seriously consider buying a house there before I leave. But we hung for the day and had a great time. Oh and I went to a cock fight which was pretty cool. I freaking hate roosters so it wasn’t so bad to watch them die. Muah-ha-ha

Tania and Henry
Okay, so other than hanging out and having fun all the time, I do actually work. I started my census, although I don’t like doing it, so that’s going pretty slow. But I’ve started helping with an English project in the school. We are going to have a Bilingual Market, where the student of 7-9th grades make things to sell to foreigners who are gonna come and only speak English, so the goal is to teach the kids how to sell stuff in English. I started last week and I’m working with the 7th grade. Also, a few weeks ago some women had the idea of creating a women’s exercise group, so we’ve been doing that for three weeks. We have class Tuesdays and Thursdays. The attendance is kinda so-so but hopefully it pulls through cuz it’d be a great way to work with women in the community. And other than that I go to community meetings when we have them, went to visit the local Instituto (high school) to see how I can help out and went to the boys and girls Instituto futbol games.


Okay, so this town has a bunch of bolos (drunkards). They are really annoying cuz they are always saying stupid shit and passing out in the street. One day I literally had to step over a drunk guy passed out on the street and I was afraid he was going to wake up and grab my leg or something. And this other bollo always walks around in Sponge Bob boxers and one day was chasing a pig across the soccer field, man I wish I had my camera at that moment.

Bugs: there are HUGE spiders here. Yucky! And something is eating my underwear so now like three pairs of my underwear have holes in them, so weird.

Also another strange thing: people don’t really understand that I learned English just like they learned Spanish, from when I was a baby. They always ask if my family speaks English or if other people in the States speak English. And also the whole illegal immigration thing in the states makes them wonder if I can walk around in the states without fear of being deported and I tell them, yes I can because I am a citizen. And then they ask, well can you get deported from here, and I say well no because I have a visa. Just funny little details.

Also, about 3-4 times a week I go to run and do kickboxing on one of the futbol fields, so everyone is always talking about how I love running, working out , that I never get tired…it’s funny. And also because the volunteer who was here before got sick a lot and had to move sites, I guess she had a lot of skin problems, which actually is a problem here in the community, a lot of people get skin irritations, boils and other things – I think it’s the water and I’m afraid. Anyways, since I haven’t been sick they always compare how I’m all healthy and strong compared to the other volunteer and that I do everything, go swimming in the bay, in the ocean, eat everything and don’t get sick.

Well, if anyone had even read this much I hope you enjoyed it. I could probably write more but will stop. Hope all is well. Salu pues….

so i wanted to put pics up but this interbet cafe sucks so it'll have to wait...sorry!