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!