I’m Still Alive….

Hello all. I’m sure no one even checks my blog anymore but I thought I would give it an update and just let you guys know that I haven’t died yet. i just haven't felt like updating my blog.

As my last blog entry mentioned, I was up for a transfer from my old community, and that is what happened, hence the not wanting to update my blog. The change was hard and is still hard at times and even depressing. I spent three weeks in the capital waiting to see where I would get placed, which was super boring cuz i had nothing to do, but oh well.

So now i am living in the department La Libertad which is the department that has the most tourism due to it's beautiful beaches. I live up coast from the most touristy beaches but where I live is also very beautiful. It is so much different from where I was living before...and not as HOT thank god. I live in the municipality of Teotepeque. I live in the small pueblo which is up in the hills, 11 km from the beach, so it is nice and cool there in the evening. For the first week I stayed in a small dormroom-like room that the Catholic parish has while I was looking for a place to rent. The priest at the church is from Cleveland. The parish is part of this partnership program in the States that sends American priests down to El Salvador for periods of six years. Father Mark is a really nice guy and he, as well as the secretary at the parish, helped me look for housing. The secretary is super nice and we've become friends.

I finally found a room to rent. It is a small room that is located behind a family's house, but it's cozy and it miraculously fit all my stuff. I like it because I live with a family but I have my own space and everything. The family is really nice. The mom is a nurse at the health clinic and their older daughter, who attends university, is living with them. Their son lives in the States. They are very friendly and give me super delicious food sometimes, like huge river shrimp, a huge crab and other yummy snacks. I bought a mini-oven from a Peace Corps friend that left and I made some chocolate chip bread and shared it with the family.

So I am working with Red Solidaria (red means network in spanish, not red like the color and solidaria is just like it looks...solidarity.) in the municipalities of Teotepeque and Jicalapa. They are both relatively small municipalities. Red Solidaria is a government program that gives aid to all families living in rural areas, and gives aid to the poorest families living in urban areas. A few years ago, the government did a census a put in order all of the municipalities from poorest to least poor. They were put into four categories: Extreme Poverty Severe, High, Moderate and Low. All of the municipalities that classified in Extreme Poverty Severe entered the program first. Teotepeque and Jiclapa are classified as Extreme Poverty High, and Jicalapa is considered poorer than Teotepeque. But both municipilites are significantly poorer than where I was living before. The people really just live off the land cultivating corn, beans, and a variety of vegetables.

Anyways, Red Solidaria gives financial support to the families in the form of a monthly bonus. But it is such a small amount of money ($15-20) that it is really just an incentive. The government and the families enter into a contract where the government promises to give the family its bonus if the family fulfills its promise to take thier children under the age of five to the clinic for shots, to send their children between the ages of 5-18 to school, and to participate in a monthly training. It's a great program. Education in this country is kind of a joke and noone values education so it's great to see that people are sending their children to school, even if they are getting a small bonus for doing so. The program is focused on the children and the women as mothers. The majority of people who participate in the trainings are the mothers.

In each municipality an NGO is contracted to do the work of the Red. It hires promoters that do house visits, motivate the families to fulfill their promises, and give the trainings. The NGO also does productivity projects that include a series of trainings that teach the people a type of oficio (can't think of a work in english, but it's like a specific job or telent). For example they do trainings on how to make bread, how to make hammocks, how to make cakes, artisan work, etc. Something that the people can learn and then benefit from financially.

So I have mainly been working with the promoters from the two municipalities. I go with them to do house visits, to the meetings, I go to observe and help them with the trainings they give, etc. The promoters are all pretty young and all have at least a high school education. They are super fun to work with and probably the best part of my new work.

However, it has been difficult because there has been a lack of communication between Peace Corps, FISDL (the govt. office in charge of Red SOlidaria) and the NGO's that work in Jicalapa and Teotepeque. This means that the NGO's, which I am supposed to be helping, don't know who I am or what I am doing there. I've tried to remedy this, but not with much success, but something I need to keep working on. My big complaint is that I don't really DO anything. I kind of just tag along and observe but don't really feel like I have a specific role, which is really frustrating.

Anyways, that is my life for the last two month, in a nut shell. I really like going to all the different communities in the two municipalities. That way I get to know more people and see more things...that is really fun. I was also invited to a community meeting one weekend in one of the small communities. I was enxcited about that. The meeting was about the community water project, so hopefully they will continue including me in their activities.








As for my old site, I go when I can. My youth group there is still kicking ass. In the end of May we did a trash pick-up on the beach and collected about 20 sacks of trash. I even found a part of a computer....so random. Alfredo came to visit me once in my new community and he really liked it.

I'm looking forward to going to Ohio in September for Chelsay's wedding and then home for Christmas!!!!!