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!
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!
posted by Matt B at 12:39 PM
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