Three Months in My Site:

Okay so the weeks go by so fast here but it feels like a really long time. Like it feels like forever since I last posted an entry but in reality it was only three weeks ago. Maybe it’s because my weeks are busy, I always have stuff going on and it feels like so much stuff happens and changes in a matter of a week or two.
For example with my friends one-week things are going great and the next week they’re not talking to me. So weird and not to mention SO annoying. To be honest I am just getting over a really hard two weeks, or really a month of just huge ups and downs. With all these immature people here who LOVE to gossip I’ve had problems with my friends and then when I think I’ve found another friend, they just shit all over me. I don’t get it. I think it’s a cultural difference in the way people here view and value friendships. But it’s really frustrating for me because I value friendships so much and put a lot of time into my friendships and besides that I hate gossip so it just really frustrates me that everyone has something to say about everybody else. And those who are the worst gossips only have bad things to say about everyone. I’m just like who freaking cares, get over it and just leave people alone and stop butting your nose into everyone else’s business. GAWD!!!

The other thing is is that it is not common here for a girl and a guy to be good friends, mucho menos (muchless) that a girl seeks out guys to be her friend and although I wouldn’t say that I have sought out guy friends specifically that is just what has come a little more natural here. But people say and think that it’s not right that a woman of my age hangs out with guys so much. And also, in these people’s eyes when they see a guy and a girl together they automatically think they are going out or they have something. So that’s been hard and I completely understand how they think but I like to think of it as a cultural exchange in some ways. I am showing them that a guy and a girl can be just friends. But after struggling with this for about two weeks, I have just come to a point where I am like people are gonna talk no matter what, I can’t change a culture or how people are, so better to just not let it bother me so much. People are gonna talk no matter what.

Anyways, so other than the hardships I’ve been having things are going on as normal, in terms of work I mean. Although with the personal hardships it made work hard as well and made me doubt a lot as to why the hell I am here. But you know what, I’m here just doing my thing and trying to enjoy it, learn a lot, meet a lot of people, and make friends in the process.

So I’m still doing this stupid census and kinda stressed out because I have to finish it by the end of the month and I still have like 50 to do, por lo menos. But I’m trying to push through it. Last week, I went on a trip with a group of women to visit and observe stoves that were built in another community. These women have new stoves so we went to observe how other women in another community maintain and use their stoves. Then we went to the beach to eat lunch and swim a bit. It was fun, and it’s always nice to take time out of my site.


Last weekend I took a group of five youth from my community to a youth camp with three other volunteers and youth from their communities. We went to La Palma, which is in the northern part of the country. It was so much fun and so beautiful there because it’s all forested with pine trees and the weather was so beautiful instead of the flames of hell like we have here in Mendez. La Palma is the artesian mecca of the country so the camp was focused on Salvadoran Art and Culture. One group of youth presented folkloric dance and taught us a little, it was really fun. Then we had a group of break dancers come to present and teach us some moves. The kids really loved that and the breakdancers were really awesome guys. We did dramas based on Salvadoran folk tales and then we painted small wooden jewelry boxes, which is the specialty of the artesian work in La Palma. The camp went over really well and it was nice to spend the weekend out of the community with youth from Mendez to get to know them even more and all the kids from the different communities got along really well, which was nice to see. It was funny, all the gurls at the camp, including me, put hair wraps in our hair and when we got back to Mendez everyone was like what is that you have in your hair. Funny.

Pollito, Wendy, Isamar and I

Other than that we are planning a Trash Campaign for next week. Two trash trucks from the mayor’s office are gonna come and take away all the inorganic trash which is so awesome to think because trash is just way too overabundant here. So hopefully that goes well. Other than that not much else is going on. Hoping to move out into a house on my own soon, so we’ll see how that goes.

COME VISIT ME!!!!!

and sorry no pics but the blog page to upload photos isn't working!