Return

Well if anyone has noticed, the last post I've made here was the 25th of April. So WATCH OUT! Here is another. I have decided to briefly revive my blog by sitting down and making a spontaneous and conceding entry. After enough fan support and people basically telling me "Matt, update your blog" in various ways, I am putting finger to key and punchin it out! I have to say that I don't really have a good excuse for my hiatus. That's not to say I don't have an excuse, it's just not a good one. So I'll put laziness aside and try to recount the last nine months of action and comment on the best things...O boy this will be tough.

I will start with the most recent doings. For the past two and half months I have been participating as DJ in an English language radio show with fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and some local Salvadorans who have fluent English. Every Sunday at 8 am we've been hitting the airwaves on Radio Chaparrastique "La Grande!" to resonate a full half hour of English to help Salvadorans in the east part of the country learn, in my native language, aspects of American culture, including sports, holidays, slang, etc. For our Valentine's show, we had a lucky contestant win a date with your's truly in what we called "an intercultural exchange in love." It was actually just a nice night on the town (the town being San Miguel) with a buffet, gifts, flowers, coffee, the works. I don't think I have ever had such a nice date for Valentine's in the states. There is a picture somewhere that I will try to publish here once I get my hand on it. If you are interested in listening to the show, you can tune in at radiochaparrastique.net by clicking on one of the multimedia buttons on the home page. It's live, streaming radio, baby!

We are creeping into the "hot as hell" part of the year in El Salvador. The middle of summer. I am lucky to be living in higher altitude, because down in the steamy valley it has the kind of weather that makes you want to take off all your clothes and just sit in front of a fan all day in the shade with a cherry-limeade to sip on. Off course you might be asking yourself, "Matt, why use a fan when AC is the answer to your problem?" Of course if you really asked yourself that question your probably using a different organ than your brain for thinking. Let's not forget that I don't have electricity, so my cure for el calor is a forty minute hike to the water hole, or just taking all my clothes off and praying for a breeze. The sun hits more directly here since it is closer to the equator than in Indiana, meaning it feels even hotter and skin burns a lot easier. I now never leave the house without a healthy lathering of sun block and a short-rimmed sombrero (short-rimmed only because I like the style).

I had a well-needed visit from Dad in december. He came right after Thanksgiving, so I decided to make him celebrate it again, but this time with me, in El Volcan. I had one of my favorite families slaughter the turkey they had been fattening for the past year and prepare a wonderful meal out of it. The turkey fed me, Dad, my buddy Mike, and around ten other people in the family. We ate, had our bellies filled, hiked home, and rested. It was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had, considering I hadn't spent a holiday with my family in well over a year. Another push for heifer.org. I kept Dad busy, even though that wasn't really my plan. He gave a presentation on soil acidity to Salvadoran extension workers, which went really well. We gave the Beyrouty tag-team attack, as I translated. I also made him hike two hours to pick coffee. He said he will never throw out an unfinished pitcher of coffee without at least thinking about what back-breaking, peanut-earning labor went into providing it. Dad was a trooper. I wasn't surprised of course, he has travelled, and more often than not his traveling has been to developing countries. But he roughed it with me, and I was really put at ease for a while having him here, especially when we stayed at hotels with hot water and soft matresses. But seeing him so active and healthy made me happy.

New Year's and Christmas I experienced with my pueblo and close friends. From my neighbor's house I witnessed with close friends the crazy carpet-bombing spectacle that was all the eastern Salvadoran communities shooting off their fireworks at the stroke of midnight on the 1st of 2009. It was something to behold, though I saw the same event last year, it seemed more impressive this year. On the 30th, (my b-day) my neighbors slaughtered and served me a delicious chicken, in soup form (Campbells, eat your heart out). It had all the ingredients that the bush could provide, including a plant called Pito, which, after consuming an amount greater than or equal to way too much, I passed out for twenty minutes in a dreamless sleep. It is a plant used for sleeping, but tastes so delicious too. A quickly prescribed cup of thick, black, slurry of coffee later and I was awake again. It was a tranquilo birthday, the way it should be.

For Christmas, I passed it in the pueblo. That's Guatajiagua, for everyone who forgot or never knew. A good friend of mine put me up and we ate like kings. Turkey soup, grilled chicken, clam cocktails, chocolate-covered bananas, a couple of beers too. We watched jaripeo, a (what I perceive as a) bastardized form of bull-fighting and bull-riding. OK let's just face it, that's what it was. Two dudes dressed like clowns (aka rodeo clowns) await in the ring for the next raging bull to appear. As the bull leaps out of the opened gate, with a rider on top (aka bull-riding), the clowns use their red and yellow towels (aka bull-fighters) to taunt and dodge the bull while the rider hangs on tight. That was it. And yes it was entertaining. The best parts were of course when the bull won and trampled the human beings that were taunting it. Also the part where they offered five bucks to any niño who could ride a calf around for a while. That was hilarious!! And got the crowd hollering.

There is so much to mention, but I have to be brief about it. I am paying big bucks to use the internet cafe right now. I have decided that when I return to the land of my rearing I will go to medical school. My experiences here have played a major role in this decision, as well as support from my loved ones. One particular experience came in April when I was in a car accident that ended up destroying a community member's leg and pelvis. I spent a lot of time visiting him in the hospital and trying to help him find money to have operations. My time in the state hospitals was eye-opening. Public health care here, for lack of a better word, sucks. And leaves many people sick, uncured, disfigured, handicapped, and sometimes worse off than before their original ailment. Basic underfunding which leaves under-staffed, under-resourced hospitals to attend to a mass population results in a super un-satifactory system. Due to this experience, as well as others, I have made medicine my focus. I'm currently studying for the MCAT.

I will make a great effort to YOU, reader, to keep you involved in the happenings in the rest of my service in El Salvador. The next time I get another bot fly infestation, ameoba invasion, earthquake, bus held up, or any other fantastic experience here, I will be sure to rush to the computer to inform you about it. I have loved the comments and the insight. You rock!

Until next long break in hiatus...

Separating dust from bean

My counterpart, Don Armando, separating the dust from the beans with help from a breeze.

Wow, Holy Cow

Puchica! It's been a long time since I've written anything. Sorry.

I'm at the Peace Corps office, stopped in the capital to run errands that I can't run in my community, and to take a break. A little one. I have been working a lot, trying to be productive. Being productive actually. I've committed myself to teaching English and working in the school gardens at both of the schools in my canton. One school is a 20 minute walk from my front door, the other, a 50 minute walk and increase of over 400 feet in altitude. My commitments, important and fulfilling, are keeping my body in tune and my mind focused. It does take a lot of mental strength to get up in the morning and hike up the mountain to give a 45 minute class, to kids who are too embarrassed to participate. But if it weren't a challenge I don't think it would be quite as fun. We are close to planting in the vegetable gardens and the students (and me) already have two classes under their belt. It's becoming less uncommon to hear "Good Bye Don Mateo" instead of the typical "Salu Don Mateo." Of course I would not be teaching English had I not been requested by the professors, and the students, and the parents to do so. And even though I don't want to believe it will happen, it is very likely that many of the students will one day leave for "El Norte," where their English WILL serve them. I have already seen one of my co-workers hit the road with a Coyote, and is already in La USA with her friends and family that have made their home and given her sanctuary.

I've done a lot, since that last time of writing. I've killed a cow. Hiked to the tallest point in my canton with fellow volunteer, Nick. See the shots on Flickr to take awe in the view and the beauty. I've become acompanado (I have a new partner): a 3 month old white puppy named Polar. I've helped prepare way for my house, which officially begins construction today. I, Si Dios Quiere, will be in my brand new adobe house in less than a month. Armando donated an acre of his land to me to cultivate and care for, to produce my own food and implement my soil conservation practices. It will become a great demonstrative plot during my training sessions. And, if I find success, will provide me with a little amount of food this year. I wonder if artichokes will take. Mmmm.

I feel good in my community. I have spent a lot of time developing confidence between myself and my community members over the past three months. Holy cow, I've been in El Salvador for over five months now. My community, I feel, trusts me and wants to work with me to help them build. I have had some small projects completed. A health project that allowed five residents to obtain free cataract surgery. I am planning a training session to teach the farmers how to plant on the contours of the mountain, instead of broadly planting as is the normal practice. I'm excited. My time as a volunteer, as you can imagine, is not spent much in soil conservation as says the title of my program. Most of my energy goes into helping to solicit funds to rebuild our road, which is close to being impassible; building a foot bridge so the kids can cross the river to school during the winter when the rains swell the water to impassible; and helpign the schools develop better infrastructure, including flowing water. I have been playing a lot of soccer, finally. My team plays me at middle mid-field and I've done well there, so far. No major injuries, just a sprained ankle. Segway...

Soccer tournaments on the mountain are not fun. A tournament in the mountains goes as follows: Host a tournament, inviting 15 to 20 teams, to be played and finished in one day. Games must be no longer than 20 minutes. Teams hike in from neighboring mountain communities, hours away. Hang out until all have arrived, commence games late in the morning. Once a team loses, it is done for the day. It goes home. Or if it keeps winning, plays until loses, then goes home. One might spend all day at the field, but only play twenty minutes, which is exactly what our team has done twice now. I'm not a fan of the tourneys. But, willingly I go to be closer to the dudes on the team and to continue building confidence woth my community members. They might be proud to have a Gringo on the team, I can't say for sure. But what is certain, the hike and company is always worth spending a day away.


Things I've learned since last time I wrote:

Armadillo tastes like chicken; gamy, flaky chicken. Almost every fruit on the mountain can be used to make moonshine. Velas, or wakes, are great opportunities for flirting, eating, playing cards, and if one has the ganas, getting sloppy drunk (the bolos come out to drink). Making loud noise when a swarm of bees is passing by makes them make a hive in a nearby tree, great for harvesting honey. Our mayor wants to help our road and send the tractor up to fix it, but told us the driver has been drunk for weeks, so he hasn't been able to come up. Bummer. Everyone, even men, swims in their clothes at the beach. Huge scorpions, yes, are terrifying.

I don't have a horse yet, but still looking.

Va pues, Salu.

dando patadas

A day of hanging out at home, I decided to document the kids working around the house. Or in this case, kicking the pig. This is Darlin, she's 3, and loves to kick the chancho.

Lord Of the Flies

I had to make the above reference because the image of the dangling pigs head above me on the morning of the 24th brought the book to my mind. It has been an up and down holiday season for me. Ultimately, I'd say more up than down. Although I am away from family for Christmas and New Year's, I still had great plans to celebrate in my community and in the pueblo down the mountain. There was going to be the fair and "Wheels of Chicago" and Secret Santa parties. It didn't happen for me, unfortunately. I'll begin with the 24th. I hiked up with my counterpart to his in-laws at 9:30 pm to prepare for a pig slaughtering. We fell asleep and woke up at 4:00 am and got to work. The 300 lb pig, half asleep, had no issue with us slowly tying up and binding his feet. However once we strapped his mouth shut he had a fit. At 4:30, with a full moon alumminating everything, Don Armando dug in and found the jugular, and I along with his father-in-law stood on the beast as it struggled and squeeled and made it's final death jolts until it bled out. The rest of the morning we skinned and butchered it, ready to have the meat cut in time for all the people rushing to get first dibs on some delicious pork. I have some pictures included here. I've included other pictures on my Flickr page and they are more for those with stronger stomachs, and will likely end up in a PETA brochure.

It was great to take part in something so important to the family's economic state. A pig is a beautiful investment in my community. Families purchase a piglet and raise it on corn and other food scraps, therefore has little input. But a full grown pig will sell for 100 to 200 dollars. This pig, for instance, made $140. Considering the average daily income on the mountain is $4 a day, a plump pig is a beautiful Christmas bonus for the family. And therefore I am making a plug for organizations like Heifer International (Heifer.org), that donate whole animals to needy families. An animal like a pig or chicken or turkey can become a very valuable source of money to a family that lives off the land with little money to spend on basic necessities of life.

All right, so the rest of my holiday season. I got giardia. I will let you google it to figure out what the symptoms and all are, but in a nutshell, it sucks. I was out for about five days in San Salvador, a taxi ride away from the clinic and a taxi ride away from the Peace Corps medical officer. So from the afternoon of the 24th till the 29th, I was either in a hammock, in the letrine, or in a hotel room, trying to rehydrate and get healthy. Campers, filter your water and don't get giardia. You don't want it.

I did get back in town in time for the battle of the bands, where two groups from my community competed and got 3rd and 4th places, out of 6. All the bands are the same, instrumentally. They have a basist, violinist, two guitarists, and two percussionists, and all play cumbia-style music.

Things are about to pick up substantially in my community because school starts up again and I will be participating significantly, with english classes and helping with school gardens. I just decided to take up my counterpart's offer to move into a house he is going to build. It will be a one-room adobe house near the center of the community. I can' wait! I will be helping with all of the building and manual labor. And it should be finished in less than two months, Ojala.

All until next time...

a brief catch-up

I have much to write here since I haven't updated the blog in so long but the truth is I don't have much time. And I'll explain why. My site is 2 hours hiking from the pueblo where I can access the internet, so taking a long time in the internet cafe to write isn't very efficient for me, considering four hours of my day is spent hiking. That's not to say I won't have days where I vedge out and spend a lot of time on the computer. there will be those days. But the blog entries are going to slow down significantly. I'm sorry!

Well the 29th of November I was sworn in with the rest of my group in San Salvador. We were sent off by the second-in-command from the US embassy and the Peace Corps director, most of our counterparts attended. That night was our last time together before heading to our sites the next morning. It was tough to say goodbye but I hit the road fast to avoid the emotional burn. Needless to say, the volunteers in my group have become very good friends of mine. Another beauty of being in such a small country is that we will be able to see each other frequently, or conveniently if we really want to.

So far life in my site has been tranquilo, tiring, and adaptive (i guess). I do feel that the shock I first felt moving into my host family's house in San Vicente is nothing compared to this new move. From San V to El Volcan (where I am now), I liken the sensation to the US to San V. It's just a completely different life. There isn't electricity and the community is short on resources. There are public water collection spots, though my house has a hose the brings it in. The majority of homes have no sanitation services. People use the woods for a toilet. The owner of the house I live in put in a latrine just for me, thankfully.

I live with a family of 6. Two boys and two girls. It is a very beautiful family. Very close and nice. I am living in a house they just built, while all of them, excpet for one of the boys who sleeps with me, live in their old annexed house. Both are adobe with dirt floors and chickens running about, but I would say the house I am in puts theirs to shame. Their adobe is falling apart and the roof barely covering them. However they are fine with this and I will be moving out in a couple of months anyways to another home. Of course I feel guilty with many of the things they do for me, like give me their new house, but the way the people in my community are, to say no to them would be so disrespectful.

I live on a beautiful mountain. The canton I am working in covers two mountain topsn and a valley, and I am walking a lot because of that. I have never been fitter in my life, i think, because of all the hiking up and down the mountains I have been doing theis week. And I will be fitter still in the time to come here. Each day I have been recruited by a different family to go work in the fields with them. I have picked corn, picked beans, smacked bean pods to knowck the beans out, and picked coffee. I have de-grained cobs and fed chickens and hauled hundreds of pounds of corn, beans, and coffee around. My days are usually filled with 4 cups of coffee, four bananas, 6 to 8 tortillas, and hundreds of beans. There is a plethora of beans, corn, coffee, and FRUIT in my community. The pineapples go for a quarter a piece here. And they are delicious.

I have baught a cuma, or a curved machete, wchich is the farming tool of choice, and I carry it everywhere in the community, to chop through bruch and to hit angry dogs. There are a lot of angry dogs where I live. Where i live is so beautiful and I really can't describe it. It is something I wish I could show each of you. It's that impressive! From the top of the mountain, I can see the ocean, the Volcano of San Miguel, the volcano of San Vicente, San Miguel City, and every thing else in between.

Site Assignment, Site Visit

There have happened a few interesting things over the past week or so that I haven't shared much about, mainly because I have been super busy with things like planning community trash clean-ups and helping out other aspirantes with painting the world map on the side of a school, amongst other things. Last Tuesday I was given my site assignment; the place where I will be for the next two years. Weeks leading up to my assignment were full of anxiety and practical madness (on my part) because of the yearning desire to know where I will be making my home and my projects. Every one of us (trainees) were on pins and needles that day. The training center felt like making the revealing even more suspenseful by keeping it at the end of the day. So we carried on the day sweating and running around and punching each other, some of us, to fight back the anticipation. I am in know way joking either. We have been training for almost two months and this point, the site assignment, is like having a baby (I can only imagine of course). At the end of Tuesday our program leaders sat us all down in front of a giant map of El Sal, then we played a game which grouped us into which departments we are moving to. Then, in an atmosphere similar to the Price Is Right, we were each called up to the front, were read our sites, and placed a big 'ole star on the map to where we are going.

My site assignment is as follows: The department (state) of Morazan, canton (municipality) El Volcan. I will be in a community scattered across a mountain, at around 5,000 feet. The perks of my site include an hour and a half hike from the bus stop, no electricity, and no running water (other than that running down the mountain). I will be working with the community development group, as well as local NGO's on who-knows-what yet projects. I say who-knows-what because I won't know until I get there and sit down with them and plan. I am an agroforestry volunteer, but the way things go is that I help the community accomplish what they believe they need to accomplish. Though a water project would make me super happy. I am seriously thinking about buying a horse too. There are volunteers who have done just that and in my case, the hour and a half hike up and down a mountain, to me calls for a horse. Hear that relatives of mine who love horses?? Havah? Aunt Marsha? Nicky, Sarah?? I will definitely be needing some advice and rules-to-follow e-mails from you guys.

I visit my site tomorrow morning and I will be there on my own for four days, finding a house to live in for the next two years and more importantly meeting the community and the immediate stakeholders who went through the process of requesting a Peace Corps volunteer. It is so good to know that I am wanted. They asked for someone like me. Another interesting fact is that I will be the first volunteer ever in this site. At first glance, this sounds like everything I had ever imagined about the Peace Corps: limited resources working with a community that has had little to no contact with foreigners. The challenge will be huge, but that's why I joined in the first place. So next week or maybe later I will have more to tell you all, to put you in the loop about my future home. I meet my counterpart tomorrow. He told me to bring heavy clothes and prepare myself for a hike. I really can't wait.

I have been weak on sending out e-mails lately but don't worry, I will get back on track. Planning for this trip has taken all of my mental focus, and when I get back I will be super excited to share with you how it went. Thank you for all the great messages and keeping me in your thoughts, because it really feels great hearing from you, from home.

Salu Pues...

more since then...

Well, it has been an interesting week. I went off to my field-based-training in northern El Salvador, to the border of Honduras in the departamento (state) of Chaletenango. I went with four other trainees and our leader, Carlos. The place we went to, El Centro, is within a kilometer of the highest mountain in El Salvador, about 8,000 feet up. We were cold. And we caught colds. The houses we stayed in were humble, non-insulated, frigid. I did sleep each night under two wool blankets, but still managed to leave the mountain with a head cold that didn't feel good at all. But where to begin...

We arrived via a long and trecherous, but paved, road up through the northern mountains. All along the roads were recent land slides that hadn't been tended yet and across the distance on other mountain faces were enormous landslides that had happened probably within the year. We were travelling through an extremely vulnerable area, and up the only road that gave El Centro access to the rest of ES. Any major landslide on that road and people could be cut off for weeks. It probably happens. But we arrived without worries and met the two vounteers that would be showing us their community for the next four days. John and Kathy, from Sacramento, a middle-aged couple working with Agroforestry and Environmental Education had been working as the first PCV in that site for over a year. They spent the next four days throwing us into the fire, kind of. Our first task was to give an english charla (class) to a group of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. We conjured up a presentation on gerunds (action verbs) and acted out for them a baseball game and played Simón Dice (Simon Says). It was fun but challenging. The challenge is that in this community, which is true for almost the entire country, the people have extreme pena; extremely timid. So any response or participation we desired was not there. Unless we threw them candy. But which we also learned is an aweful thing to do in ES because it imitates throwing scraps of food to animals. Plus you're not supposed to point, which I did the entire time. It went well though. Then we played soccer with the kids during PE and of course got our asses handed to us by 13 year olds. Later that day we worked with the counterpart of that community, Secundino, a noble and smart man in the community who works almost hand-in-hand with John and Kathy. He was a great man who taught us how to build a successful worm-farm, which produces great foliar fertilizer as well as organic fertilizer, and how to make micro-tuneles to protect his tomato plants. In ES we say someone is a "buena onda" when we want to say that he is a good person. Secundino is a buena onda. A truly great man who wants to see change in his community, and knows that working with the PC is a good way to that.

The rest of the time in the community we participated in small activities during the days. We gave another charla to the same group on water contamination and even made some carrot bread. I milked a cow in the morning and later that night had some great cheese and a warm cup of sweet milk (the fruit of my labor). I stayed with a family that could barely support itself but scrapped together some of their spare blankets to give me at night. In this community at least half of the husbands had gone to the US years ago to send back money to their families. I honestly believe that if their husbands weren't there now, they would not survive such a life in the cold mountains, absent of government support, of sanitation, of any type of health system.

I left there feeling good. Well, sick but more knowledged of truly rural life in ES. The next couple of days I spent with a few of my compañeros up in the north again, playing with the Peace Corps soccer team. Every now and then a volunteer will invite the PC team to his/her community to play the community team. This time it was in Metapan, where i went for my immersion days. It was a glorious day and the trip was beautiful. We convoyed with four trucks through the mountains to get to a cabin, then walked a few kilometers more to arrive at a soccer field that puts all to shame. We were surrounded by mountains, green and spectacular. In the distance we saw a waterfall, bigger than Yosemite Falls lets say(I know because we hiked to the waterfall after the game). Well the field was ok; covered in cow poop but had grass, a little short in size but had four corners and two goals. It was the view and the atmosphere of the people who had come out to watch their team hopefully beat up on some stinky gringo soccer-playing imitators. The women's team played first and tied 2 to 2. The men played next and won with fibre! I had probably my best game ever and scored a hat trick three goals. I'm finally finding my touch here. It's taken a while but it's arrived. After the game, a few of us hiked up to the falls and took a dip. We hiked back to the cabin with a setting sun, silohueting (sp?) 11 rows of mountains, dwarfed by a greater volcano in the backdrop. We barbequed burgers and sausage and had stir-fry and beer too. It felt United States-ish. But was just a great little release spending time with some great gringoes and already close friends. We hit the trail at 4 am to catch a ride into town at 5, so we could catch a few more buses back to San Vicente in time for language class. The hike back was lit by a full moon and our headlamps, as we were threatened by dogs at every house we passed. The experiences like these are those that make this country seem even more beautiful, and are those that make me feel even closer to the other trainees I am working with. Like many people around me have been saying, slowly as we go, I have fallen in love with this country.

This Friday is the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Disfuntos, in ES. I will be accompanying my family to the cemetary to lay flowers at the grave of the son and parents of Gabriela and Bortolume. The next day I will be taking my first "vacation" with the rest of the training group to the beach. Costa Del Sol. More stories to come. And I bring my camera everywhere now. No more missed beautiful shots :)

Que se cuiden!

Dias de Immersion

Getting off the bus in San Vicente yesterday was like coming home too early from a trip that was too amazing. I spent four days in the north of the country, outside the city of Metapan in the state of Santa Ana. I went with my compañero Nick to stay with a current volunteer working with agroferestry in the mountains outside of Metapan. Bart, or Bartolume to his community, is the first volunteer ever in that site, working on his third year in the Peace Corps. And he was a cool, funny guy. After getting into town, he took us to a local restaurant, where we ate a delicious cow tongue, and got to know each other better. One of the first things he said while we were eating was "Yeah I was a vegetarian when I came here and two months later I was eating cow balls without even knowing it." We laughed and that was the first of many great lines from him. He turned out to be a great guy to talk to and to learn from. He's someone I really wanted to meet in the Peace Corps. He is there to really try hard, and enjoy his work too.

The first night Bart put me up with a family in his community. Staying there I learned that in that particular community, mostly everyone had relatives that had migrated to Fayetteville, Arkansas! I was talking with an old lady about Dickson Street and Eureka Springs. I don't even meet Arkansans in Indiana and I come to El Sal and meet a guy wearing an Arkansas Razorback baseball cap. We didn't get into who we know in NW Arkansas but I am sure that if we had talked long enough we would have made some connections.

The next day I took off from the house and headed towards Bart's place, at the top of the mountain. I crossed 8 km in two hours, hiking through cloud forests at 70% grades. There, I found my zen. I've never quite felt so far away and apart of something hidden as much as I felt in that hike. I was alone, tired, not lost but in unfamiliar territory, and looking over miles and miles of view of El Sal countryside. I'll let the bad news out now, which is that I didn't have my camera. Stupid, stupid, Matt. But my buddy Nick took some shots on his solo hike and i'll get some of the shots to show you. It was breathtaking. I crossed a region that separated those with electricity, and those without. Those with letrines, and those without. Those who send their kids to school, and those who don't. My experience can't be described to you. I just can't do it. It's too much for me to even recollect in one thought. I do know now that where I am posted, I hope to be just as isolated as I was here. That is where I feel I will be utilized best. Plus, the people were the nicest I have met.

The rest of the day I spent resting at Bart's house under the blanket of cloud at 4500 feet, then rushing down the mountain during a torrential downpour to collect Nick, and relaxing again at the apex drinking hot Salvadoran coffee and trying to stay warm. Me and Nick and Bart hit things off so well and kept each other entertained with shinanigans and great conversation.

The next day we ran again down the mountainside, taking pig trails that Bart new well, feeling like we were in an Indiana Jones movie, keeping our eyes on the track and out for pumas too. We grabbed a truck heading into town. In the back, we stood perched on the truck bed dodging low-lying branches (Nick was slapped once with a wet pine branch), and grabbing flowers from trees and giving them to the cute Salvadoran girl in the truck (Nick again). We got into town and bought some groceries for our next night's stay in a neighboring community, where two other trainee's were staying with another current volunteer. We arrived there after crossing a bamboo bridge spanning a white water river. We then delivered our salutations to a 90 year old woman celebrating her birthday, along with 200 other people who had come in from miles away, some from the US, to be with her. We tended a bee hive, where I was able to lend a hand with some practical knowledge learned from previous experience (thanks Dad). We swam in the river and rested out the end of the evening.

The next day was our return. After sitting for half an hour and seeing Bart's dog get hit by a car, we hitched a ride to Santa Ana city and from there bused it back home, with the previous days on our mind. And last night I dreamt in Spanish. It was truly immersion days for me. Tomorrow I meet up with the other trainees and our day will be filled with stories. Different experiences but probably many firsts and many unforgetable moments. It was a great experience for me. Honestly, I am considering requesting that site for my placement. Bart is ending his tour soon and will need a replacement. I would love to fill the spot.

Coming up is a week of field based training, where again I will be in another site. This time learning how to do work within my community. More stories to come and definitely I promise pictures. Salu Pues.

just an fyi

I am heading to a community in the north of the country, possibly in the mountains for 4 days. It is called immersion days for us trainees and can't wait. i will be back next week to report on it.

on sunday i had a home game and it poured ALL night and day. but we still played because the ref showed up. a field of mud! on top of that about half of my fellow trainees showed up to root me on. it was so fun. here is a shot of me post game. we tied and i got dirty and actually played pretty bad, but still was a blast!

see you all next week!!

week 2

A lot has been happening since I last wrote. Particularly training has stepped up a pace and we are all going full throttle with integration by language traning, current volunteer site visits, market days, and now for me soccer with the community team. I have signed up to play with the community´s Federated team. We are the Atletico San Jose, and I start as a right forward. Last Sunday was my first game with the team and we ended in a tie. I could only play the first half because I am not up to shape yet to compete in this heat. Really, it is oppressive. It is awesome, though, being a spectacle for the crowd as the only Gringo on the team and even at the field. Many of our fans scream "Oy Mateo" and I can´t lie I enjoy the cheers. But I have to perform well if I want to keep the support. These teams represent their communities and if we don´t win, the community feels it. I love that atmosphere.

We went to San Salvador on Monday to get to know the area. San Salvador, the capital, is home to 6 million of the 9 million people in El Salvador. It is a monstrosity and "getting to know the city" was not done in our short stint there. However we did see the Peace Corps headquarters where we got to meet other current volunteers and the rest of the staff that support us while we are in site. The office is in a posh mansion that was once built by a local achitect who had originally built the house for his son. The rest of the time in the city was visiting the hotels where we´ll stay on office visits and the big shopping malls that our Spanish instructors thought we´d like to see, to remind us of home(?) In all we took about 7 buses that day, being sure to stay off the buses most frequented by Maras (gang members) by asking local people for advice. Mara are a daily dose of living in San Sal, as they hop on any bus and request a dollar from each passenger, apparently usually without any violence. It is an extortion more or less and Salvadorans have just grown to live with it. There isn´t really a way to avoid it so soon I might have a story to tell about encounters with Mara. I am certainly practicing my safe travelling rules: mainly to not bring valuables and keep money distributed all over my body in secret places :)

The other day I had a good talk with Niña Gabriela, the lady who I live with. She told me a good deal more about her life and what she has experienced, particularly the hardships. I have never been so humbled and empowered by someone´s own testimony as I was with hers. Gabriela lost her 17 year old son who was swept away to sea with two other friends, 19 years ago. She lived in one of the hottest spots during the civil war, losing many friends to mortar attacks and was even caught in a cross fire between the guerillas and the military, believing she would die in that moment. In 2001, the great earthquake of El Salvador shook San Vicente and all its surroundings, demolishing every home in La Cruz where she lived. Everything she owned was destroyed and she picked her life up again to make a home for her and her family. And to make this woman even more brazen in the face of hardship, she has lived with a man who for many years has been an alcoholic, who she helped become sober. I have so much respect for her because of what she has been through and what she has done to continue living her life. She is one who makes lemonade from whatever is thrown at her. Her ambitiousness is encouragement enough for any of us to pick up and keep going after any troubling event. She´s a tough lady.

So now that´s all until next time. I am writing in a short time because my computer access is limited, but I am glad I have these chances to keep you all in the loop. I´ll keep up the best I can. Enjoy some shots of my house!

i'm here!

If I could write my experiences over the past week down for you it would make a short novel. The past week I have done so much that I could return home now and say "wow Peace Corps was a great experience!" Of course that is not going to happen but I can at least tell you that I feel incredible and excited and anxious to start my new work here.

My staging in DC went very well. Contrary to my expectations, the Peace Corps did not try to scare me away but began its process of "weeding us in, not out" as most of us had wondered about. The best part about staging, besides getting to see my friends Ernesto and Sara in DC, was finally meeting the 28 other trainees who will have the same tour of duty as me. We are already very close. I can anticipate great friends coming from this group.

After enormous ingression into the Peace Corps way of life, ie vaccinations, safety lectures, cultural indulgence, language training, we were put into our host family homes two days ago. Each one of us is in a different home all around the state of San Vicente. Our training center is in the capital city of that state, San Vicente city. Every other day or so we take a bus, or most frequently a "pick-up," which is a pick-up truck that hauls people around the state for .35 cents. Yep, we're riding in the back of pick-ups. Sorry to tell you, mom. But like any one of you would assume, things are extremely different here. I am so shocked and happy too that the influence of the US, though present, isn't as great in the country side here. I feel like I am across the world sometimes. I truly live with the poorest of people. I live with an older couple and two of their granchildren. The kids, Gabriela and Josué, already treat me like their favorite uncle. The dueños of the house, Gabriela and Bartolumé, talk with me and are not that shocked to have a Gringo living in their home. I am the 10th PCV that they have had in their home over the years. She is very sincere and humble, and treats me like a grandson. He is very hard and serious and has so far been hard to converse with. But as the time passes I know we will get to a level of communication at least suitable to say that we are amigos.

The home is were I am learning how to live in El Salvador. I use the latrine in the back yard each day while walking through a mob of hungry chickens, I bath outisde in a sheltered spot in the front of the house with a bucket and cold water waving at passer-by's, I sleep beneath a mosquito net, and have woken up each morning at 5:30 to the rooster croes. And strangley enough, to some of you, I feel completely comfortable with it all. Living-wise, this will be the longest camping trip I have ever taken in the states, but the beauty of this trip is that the food is delicious and I always go to bed on a full stomach.

Today I explored around my area and found the community soccer field. It adorns the top of the mountain that I live on, and on it you can see for miles over the valleys below. It is unbelievable. I arrived there by walking through pretty rural track and even a little jungle. The beauty of my hike was that every house I stopped by had family related to the people I live with. They all know me as the new gringo living in the Lopez house and treat me so nicely. I already feel like I am part of their family and I believe that is how Salvadorans prefer everyone to feel. As I stood on the field, completely by myself excpet for the majestic trees and grass and views around me, I got the biggest hit of goosebumps and a large lump in my throat. I thought " I am really here and doing this. This isn't a story in a book that I am fantasizing about. I am living in a foreign land preparing myself for an incredible work and life experience." I would have loved for you all to see what I was feeling. But in reality I am glad you weren't there. Being alone made it that much more special.

This Sunday I might possibly be playing with and for our community soccer team. One of the relatives of my family here is the director of the team and he has semi-recruited me. I can't wait to start moving around and kicking the ball. I feel like I've gained weight here as everywhere we've gone, and especially in my home, they feed me until I can't eat anymore.

I want to tell so much more but the reality is that I will only be able to spill my thoughts here every now and then and briefly. There is so much to tell and I can't practically do it all but I want you to read here and experience a little of what I experience, and more importantly you experience a little of what life is like for Salvadorans.

I love you all and I can't wait to hear from you. More will come soon and I'll be sure to include my work so far and details.

Guatemala Trip Recap

I got back this morning at 2 am, two hours later than expected due to storms in Atlanta. The conference to me was a success; I shook many hands and got business cards, but more importantly, I learned a great deal about the issues facing many countries in the Latin America and Carribean region, and what diplomats, scientists, journalists, engineers, and just normal folk are doing to solve them. To be able to express all that I saw and learned would take too much space, and probably be too boring for you all in this forum, so I'll just include what I thought about Guatemala.



Not to knock the people of Guatemala or their home, but I thought that Guatemala City was not very attractive and lacked what I would consider a cultural vein that I had hoped to see; my expectations coming from what I had seen in Mexico's capital. However, I only ventured around the business district, which was obviously developed to appeal to western businessmen and not the largely impoverished majority of the population. Plus, being in the rainy season, the constant overcast sky and rain and rain and rain kept me inside when I really wanted to explore. I found a bar owned by a Canadian guy who'd been there for 15 years and struck up a conversation that opened a bit more of what life was like in the city, particularly for a foreigner. He told me that Guat City was a very dangerous place: his bar's first location was so bad that he had been robbed at gunpoint twice and three other burglaries. Of course where his bar was moved to is one of the safest places in the city, as there are literally guards with rifles/shotguns everywhere. Guards standing in front of snack stands! Nothing's going down in the Zona Viva (Live Zone) because practically an entire militia could be formed in any given notice. That told me much about crime in the city. It was more heavily guarded than I ever saw in Mexico.



Unfortunatlely I didn't take many photos because I hate walking around with my camera in a big city, especially in one where it was likely to make me vulnerable to have it stolen. I did capture a couple shots of the public buses, which were the most interesting things I saw there. Many of them were converted US school buses, painted red. All were filled to the brim with passengers, and each one had a yeller hanging out one of the doors, blurting the bus' destination for curious pedestrians. When I first took my taxi from the airport to my hotel, I saw a big yellow school bus with the words "Fayette County School District" on the side. A donated bus I must assume from the states. Oh, the Canadian also told me to never take a public bus because many people carry guns on and rob the passengers.



I am not trying to paint an ugly picture of Guatemala City, but I can only comment on the things I saw. Unfortunaly I wasn't able to take the tours outside the city like many others did because my flight left before the weekend. The next time I visit Guatemala, I hope that it is for pleasure and not business, so I can explore and really get to see the hearts of the people and the country. Being so close to El Salvador, I'll surely be returning.



The conference taught me many things. I learned about the water issues of the region, the significant economic parity that exists in Latin America and the challenge it creates to provide equal water quality for all, the problem of government and administration corruption (World Bank predicts 20 to 40 per cent of project money lost every year in water management due to corruption), and it empowered me as I met so many hard working and concerned people trying to bring sufficient and clean water to their citizens. I'm so happy that I went, and I'm so grateful for all the support given to me along the way.

A head start: Guatemala Water Conference Day 1

I am in Guatemala City for a sustainable water use conference for the Americas (Link: http://d6.iwrn.net/). I arrived this morning, at 6 am (!), having left LAX at midnight, finishing a 4 day stay with Nana and Papa Beyrouty and my great friend Diana and her family. LA was a great time. I miss my grandparents already; but now I begin a time where I can really get myself mentally prepared for the month that follows. In case you're wondering, this conference is not for the Peace Corps. I am going for my own development. Water quality and sustainable water use are areas that I hope to focus my career in, and this chance to meet with other stakeholders, including NGOs and government orgs that I might have the opportunity to work with while I am in El Salvador is a priceless opportunity. I have to thank my professor Dev Niyogi and Mike Colby and David Wilkie from USAID and Wildlife Conservation Society, respectively, for helping me obtain the funds to get here. This will be knowledge that I will carry with me indefinitely.

I want to show some shots of Guatemala but so far it has been gloomy with rain. I went for a nice walk, getting very wet, but saw some of the business district of the city, and catching up on my losing Spanish. It's coming back to me poco a poco (little by little). Hopefully after the next few days I will have some more to say about this town and the people, but more importantly the things I've learned being here. Tomorrow I get to listen to the President of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, presenting his aspirations for global unity in solving water issues. Should be an experience!

This photo is the view from my room.

Bienvenidos

Hello

Welcome to my blog. I'll be updating it on as consistent a basis as possible while I am in El Salvador. Please check here and see what I am up to, and leave me comments whenever you can.

-matt