Sunday, December 26, 2010
Feliz Navidad!
Merry Christmas everyone. Hope everyone enjoyed Christmas with your families, and have a safe and happy new years as well!
Yes, of course, this time is pretty hard for me, being a thousand miles away from my family and friends, and a "world apart", spending my first christmas in 26 years away from them. But at the same time, I'm glad I got to spend Christmas in a developing country. Waking up to no gifts under the christmas tree, with a family that is just as happy that it is Christmas anyway, was a very humbling experience for me. It really didn't feel like Christmas. No presents, No snow, and noone saying "Merry Christmas". My host cousin actually laughed at me when I said "Feliz Navidad" to someone.
So Christmas in El Salvador consists of many fireworks (the annoying kind that kids throw close to each other and make obnoxiously annoying sounds), and eating lots of food! They actually celebrate Christmas on the 24th here. Christmas is the day where half the roosters and chickens throughout El Salvador are killed. My 5 year old sister is chasing one around the house as I'm writing this. My host family liked to play the game.. "Let's hand the rooster and the knife to the gringa and see what she does" I couldn't kill the thing - and am actually ashamed to admit this, but the thought did cross my mind. I did help in pulling out its feathers, cutting off the feet, pulling out the heart, and getting it ready to cook. That itself was enough of an experience for me. My host mom cried during the killing of the rooster, because she loved the singing of that particular rooster. The people here are shocked when I tell them I wear earplugs because I can't stand the sound of the roosters. "What?! Their singing is so beautiful and calming." So we killed 3 roosters in all, and made a million tamales.
The next day we walked 3 hours to take a bath in the river. It's a tradition that Salvadorians do the day after Christmas, and New Years day as well. Now when I say 'we walked' I really mean we spent half of the walk bushwhacking our way through the forest. And bushwhacking here is a very painful and exhausting experience. Half the plants and trees are full of pines and spiky things. So between everyone in my host family, we had many cuts, some blood, ripped clothing, some laughter, lots of sweat, some tears, and another great bonding experience for all. I'm in some pain today, cause I carried my best friends 2 year old son on my shoulders for half the walk. At the river, we killed 2 more roosters, caught some fish from the river, and had another delicious meal. Today I'm going to my friend Amy's community for a rodeo, which is in her front yard. Yay for cultural experiences :)
Yes, of course, this time is pretty hard for me, being a thousand miles away from my family and friends, and a "world apart", spending my first christmas in 26 years away from them. But at the same time, I'm glad I got to spend Christmas in a developing country. Waking up to no gifts under the christmas tree, with a family that is just as happy that it is Christmas anyway, was a very humbling experience for me. It really didn't feel like Christmas. No presents, No snow, and noone saying "Merry Christmas". My host cousin actually laughed at me when I said "Feliz Navidad" to someone.
So Christmas in El Salvador consists of many fireworks (the annoying kind that kids throw close to each other and make obnoxiously annoying sounds), and eating lots of food! They actually celebrate Christmas on the 24th here. Christmas is the day where half the roosters and chickens throughout El Salvador are killed. My 5 year old sister is chasing one around the house as I'm writing this. My host family liked to play the game.. "Let's hand the rooster and the knife to the gringa and see what she does" I couldn't kill the thing - and am actually ashamed to admit this, but the thought did cross my mind. I did help in pulling out its feathers, cutting off the feet, pulling out the heart, and getting it ready to cook. That itself was enough of an experience for me. My host mom cried during the killing of the rooster, because she loved the singing of that particular rooster. The people here are shocked when I tell them I wear earplugs because I can't stand the sound of the roosters. "What?! Their singing is so beautiful and calming." So we killed 3 roosters in all, and made a million tamales.
The next day we walked 3 hours to take a bath in the river. It's a tradition that Salvadorians do the day after Christmas, and New Years day as well. Now when I say 'we walked' I really mean we spent half of the walk bushwhacking our way through the forest. And bushwhacking here is a very painful and exhausting experience. Half the plants and trees are full of pines and spiky things. So between everyone in my host family, we had many cuts, some blood, ripped clothing, some laughter, lots of sweat, some tears, and another great bonding experience for all. I'm in some pain today, cause I carried my best friends 2 year old son on my shoulders for half the walk. At the river, we killed 2 more roosters, caught some fish from the river, and had another delicious meal. Today I'm going to my friend Amy's community for a rodeo, which is in her front yard. Yay for cultural experiences :)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
I'm broke, but I'm happy.
Some things I love about Salvadorians:
- They accept you and never treat you like the minority ("We are all the same and all one under God"- is what they like to tell me)
- they love that you have no pena (embarassment) (Little do they know that I am just really good at hiding it)
- They have the amazing skill of carrying stuff on their heads & are still able to turn to you to smile and say "buenas dias" as you pass.
- they are so tough; especially the ladies (I guess not having any machines to do the work for you helps a bit in that manner)
- finding the joys in the simplest things.
- they LOVE to listen to 70 and 80s American rock music
- They are extremely touchy & the ladies love holding your hand
- They laugh ALOT
- having PATIENCE
- being so great at doing nothing at all (this is something that I'm slowly getting used to, but was a hard adjustment coming from the american way of life - always having to do something, and always in a hurry)
- Feeding you a ton of food even when I tell them I'm not very hungry
- their hand gestures & pointing with their lips
- -they make some great pan dulce
- the more I am able to speak spanish, the more I'm beginning to realize, they really don't talk about much. They just really like to talk to you. That's okay. Because I like to talk to them...
Even though I have never met anyone as nice as many of the Salvadorians here. There are still things that drive me nuts about them:
- they don't have any idea what it means to recycle, nor do they throw their trash in the designated place
- playing their music extremely loud, especially when they wake up at 6am
- always hearing "deme agua, deme comida, etc..." (give me water, give me food) and never hearing "por favor"
- they say "alla" (over there) for EVERYWHERE. "Where ya going?" "Alla" "Where is the grocery store" "Alla" At the same time it is hilarious... But c'mon now. I need exact directions. "Over there" isn't going to cut it.
- always being late for everything, or saying "its too tarde" when I want to go somewhere at 3
- their "pena" (embarassment/akwardness) They have pena for everything. Don't tell the gringa about pena.
Things I never thought I would say before coming here:
- I love hand washing my clothes
- I am the only white person within an hour of this place, and I love it
- I love living in a third world country
- I can't wait to bathe in the river
- i live in a community of people where everyone smiles and says hello as you pass
- I don't mind the spiders that have a body the size of a half dollar. (its just a simple reminder as to where I live) I have currently one the size of a half dollar, and five the size of a quarter (just the body) crawling around on my wall right now.
-Dancing is my official way of exercise here
So I did celebrate Thanksgiving here, and I had quite the experience celebrating the holiday with the Americans here that work for the US embassy. It's like 2 americans living in the same central american country living 2 completely different lives. I think its safe to say I have by far gotten more of the "El Salvador" experience being here for 4 months, then the embassy worker who lived here for 4 years. So let's begin by saying the lady who I celebrated the holiday with considers herself a "homebody" and I can see why... (Note to self: Never own a huge house with really really really nice stuff, or you will never leave it) The world is much better outside your front door. Anyway, just some thoughts from my night there: "I hope my dirty stained campo feet don't rub off on her brand new white carpet" - Which one of her 5 bathrooms do I use? Oh, not that one, that is the maid's private bathroom. There are no garbage cans in the bathroom, Do I actually throw the toilet paper inside the toilet? Anyway, I loved ALL the food (I was alittle bummed there was no macaroni and cheese), but i got over it as I filled up with 2 plates of food, and 2 deserts. One of my friends even puked because she ate so much. Good for her. Back to rice and beans for us..
I was in San Salvador this past weekend, and hung out with some people from the embassy again. It's just crazy just how different are lives really are. I was hanging out talking with my friend Amy waiting for Noel, our friend from the embassy to arrive home from his day of work. We were of course on our rant and just kept saying "I've never been so happy in my life", "I love this place", "This is the life" haha. This occurs just about everytime Amy and I get together. Feeling so high and great, our friend Noel walks in super stressed out from his day, . This is where the title of my blog comes in.. "I'm broke, but I'm happy"
The longer I'm here, the more I forget I'm an American here to do work or something. I just feel so much part of this community. I just love the salvadorean way of life - handwashing my clothes, working in the milpa (cornfield), making tortillas, carrying stuff on my head, sitting and chatting on peoples front porches, etc. Every night I've been singing christmas songs with a group, going door-to-door. I love this stuff. I love these people.
But let's see... "work" - Well I did apply for this grant, asking for sports equipment. The kids here only play soccer during gym class. As much as I love soccer, I think its also great for kids to know and understand there are more sports out there. So hopefully I can win this grant in which I will buy equipment for baseball, football, basketball, kickballs, jump ropes, etc... I'm still doing my english classes with the kids and I hope to start one here pretty soon for adults. It's vacation from school right now, so It's been pretty relaxing. I hope to start some work with the womens group here (show them how to make shampoo, and different recycled art projects that I learned during my training- help them make a little profit for their group) I want to try to start some environmental projects as well. I want to start working with this lady in my community with organics and composting, and hopefully in turn teach the community and youth about this kind of stuff as well. I feel for right now, learning the needs and meeting everyone in my community will come first before I start anything big.
Que mas?
So my family here had a party the other day (my host grandparents finally got married) It was fun to see how they prepared for this fiesta, and it was fun taking part in the preparation. I got to see my first killing of the chickens. I handled it better than I thought.
So I'm feeling extremely attached to the people and this place already. I'm scared What am I going to feel like when I have to leave in 2 years?
- They accept you and never treat you like the minority ("We are all the same and all one under God"- is what they like to tell me)
- they love that you have no pena (embarassment) (Little do they know that I am just really good at hiding it)
- They have the amazing skill of carrying stuff on their heads & are still able to turn to you to smile and say "buenas dias" as you pass.
- they are so tough; especially the ladies (I guess not having any machines to do the work for you helps a bit in that manner)
- finding the joys in the simplest things.
- they LOVE to listen to 70 and 80s American rock music
- They are extremely touchy & the ladies love holding your hand
- They laugh ALOT
- having PATIENCE
- being so great at doing nothing at all (this is something that I'm slowly getting used to, but was a hard adjustment coming from the american way of life - always having to do something, and always in a hurry)
- Feeding you a ton of food even when I tell them I'm not very hungry
- their hand gestures & pointing with their lips
- -they make some great pan dulce
- the more I am able to speak spanish, the more I'm beginning to realize, they really don't talk about much. They just really like to talk to you. That's okay. Because I like to talk to them...
Even though I have never met anyone as nice as many of the Salvadorians here. There are still things that drive me nuts about them:
- they don't have any idea what it means to recycle, nor do they throw their trash in the designated place
- playing their music extremely loud, especially when they wake up at 6am
- always hearing "deme agua, deme comida, etc..." (give me water, give me food) and never hearing "por favor"
- they say "alla" (over there) for EVERYWHERE. "Where ya going?" "Alla" "Where is the grocery store" "Alla" At the same time it is hilarious... But c'mon now. I need exact directions. "Over there" isn't going to cut it.
- always being late for everything, or saying "its too tarde" when I want to go somewhere at 3
- their "pena" (embarassment/akwardness) They have pena for everything. Don't tell the gringa about pena.
Things I never thought I would say before coming here:
- I love hand washing my clothes
- I am the only white person within an hour of this place, and I love it
- I love living in a third world country
- I can't wait to bathe in the river
- i live in a community of people where everyone smiles and says hello as you pass
- I don't mind the spiders that have a body the size of a half dollar. (its just a simple reminder as to where I live) I have currently one the size of a half dollar, and five the size of a quarter (just the body) crawling around on my wall right now.
-Dancing is my official way of exercise here
So I did celebrate Thanksgiving here, and I had quite the experience celebrating the holiday with the Americans here that work for the US embassy. It's like 2 americans living in the same central american country living 2 completely different lives. I think its safe to say I have by far gotten more of the "El Salvador" experience being here for 4 months, then the embassy worker who lived here for 4 years. So let's begin by saying the lady who I celebrated the holiday with considers herself a "homebody" and I can see why... (Note to self: Never own a huge house with really really really nice stuff, or you will never leave it) The world is much better outside your front door. Anyway, just some thoughts from my night there: "I hope my dirty stained campo feet don't rub off on her brand new white carpet" - Which one of her 5 bathrooms do I use? Oh, not that one, that is the maid's private bathroom. There are no garbage cans in the bathroom, Do I actually throw the toilet paper inside the toilet? Anyway, I loved ALL the food (I was alittle bummed there was no macaroni and cheese), but i got over it as I filled up with 2 plates of food, and 2 deserts. One of my friends even puked because she ate so much. Good for her. Back to rice and beans for us..
I was in San Salvador this past weekend, and hung out with some people from the embassy again. It's just crazy just how different are lives really are. I was hanging out talking with my friend Amy waiting for Noel, our friend from the embassy to arrive home from his day of work. We were of course on our rant and just kept saying "I've never been so happy in my life", "I love this place", "This is the life" haha. This occurs just about everytime Amy and I get together. Feeling so high and great, our friend Noel walks in super stressed out from his day, . This is where the title of my blog comes in.. "I'm broke, but I'm happy"
The longer I'm here, the more I forget I'm an American here to do work or something. I just feel so much part of this community. I just love the salvadorean way of life - handwashing my clothes, working in the milpa (cornfield), making tortillas, carrying stuff on my head, sitting and chatting on peoples front porches, etc. Every night I've been singing christmas songs with a group, going door-to-door. I love this stuff. I love these people.
But let's see... "work" - Well I did apply for this grant, asking for sports equipment. The kids here only play soccer during gym class. As much as I love soccer, I think its also great for kids to know and understand there are more sports out there. So hopefully I can win this grant in which I will buy equipment for baseball, football, basketball, kickballs, jump ropes, etc... I'm still doing my english classes with the kids and I hope to start one here pretty soon for adults. It's vacation from school right now, so It's been pretty relaxing. I hope to start some work with the womens group here (show them how to make shampoo, and different recycled art projects that I learned during my training- help them make a little profit for their group) I want to try to start some environmental projects as well. I want to start working with this lady in my community with organics and composting, and hopefully in turn teach the community and youth about this kind of stuff as well. I feel for right now, learning the needs and meeting everyone in my community will come first before I start anything big.
Que mas?
So my family here had a party the other day (my host grandparents finally got married) It was fun to see how they prepared for this fiesta, and it was fun taking part in the preparation. I got to see my first killing of the chickens. I handled it better than I thought.
So I'm feeling extremely attached to the people and this place already. I'm scared What am I going to feel like when I have to leave in 2 years?
Saturday, November 20, 2010
PCVs are weird. I like that.
So as the end of our pre-service training is coming to an end, my mind is all over the place. This training screwed with my head alittle bit. We've been spoiled these past few weeks. Nice hotels, hot showers (successfully getting the layers of dirt off my skin), air conditioning, people in business suits, saunas, computer access, a real bed- no mosquito net needed, swimming pools, great food, other gringos, grass that was actually cut with a lawn mower & not a machete, dogs on leashes, sushi, talking lots of english, dogs you can actually pet, and many "holy cow, where am i?" moments. I guess it's safe to say, I'm already finding a great appreciation for things. However, as nice as these past 3 weeks were, I am looking forward to going back to my community and the simple life I have there. The place where all you really have is each other. I miss that.
Some other moments from these past few weeks:
- Seeing my first dead person in El Salvador. We aren't really sure what exactly happened, but I think it's safe to say he was probably shot and it was probably gang related. After all, it was in San Salvador
-- Finally seeing more of this beautiful country. We traveled west to Ahuachapan (the department closest to the Guatemalan border) & Sonsonate. This country truely is beautiful. Bottom line is: mountains and funky colors sure make me happy :) Some of the towns that we went to were just so bright, funky, and fun. (street posts painted in flowers, peoples houses painted funky colors with cool illustrations. As we drove through these towns, the song "magical mystery tour" by the Beatles, kept playing over and over in my head.
So it's a bit strange with Thanksgiving approaching, being in a country where they don't celebrate the holiday. Fortunately, the workers of the US embassy opened their homes to host all the volunteers. So I'll be spending the holiday with 2 other volunteer friends & a random family. It'll be nice, maybe a bit weird as well? The holiday of giving thanks and appreciation for your closest friends and family, and spending it with a family I haven't met yet, and with friends that I met 4 months ago. But either way, I hope she can make a mean pumpkin pie, and that her house has carpet that I can walk around barefoot on. If I'm really lucky maybe she'll invite us back, and say "feel free to use my washer and dryer any time you'd like.."
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
Some other moments from these past few weeks:
- Seeing my first dead person in El Salvador. We aren't really sure what exactly happened, but I think it's safe to say he was probably shot and it was probably gang related. After all, it was in San Salvador
-- Finally seeing more of this beautiful country. We traveled west to Ahuachapan (the department closest to the Guatemalan border) & Sonsonate. This country truely is beautiful. Bottom line is: mountains and funky colors sure make me happy :) Some of the towns that we went to were just so bright, funky, and fun. (street posts painted in flowers, peoples houses painted funky colors with cool illustrations. As we drove through these towns, the song "magical mystery tour" by the Beatles, kept playing over and over in my head.
So it's a bit strange with Thanksgiving approaching, being in a country where they don't celebrate the holiday. Fortunately, the workers of the US embassy opened their homes to host all the volunteers. So I'll be spending the holiday with 2 other volunteer friends & a random family. It'll be nice, maybe a bit weird as well? The holiday of giving thanks and appreciation for your closest friends and family, and spending it with a family I haven't met yet, and with friends that I met 4 months ago. But either way, I hope she can make a mean pumpkin pie, and that her house has carpet that I can walk around barefoot on. If I'm really lucky maybe she'll invite us back, and say "feel free to use my washer and dryer any time you'd like.."
Happy Thanksgiving everyone
Friday, November 5, 2010
oh how i missed toilets...
So I'm back in Apastapeque. As much as I didn't want to leave my site, I must say it is nice. It's weird to be back in civilization. I appreciate having my own room with a door, a bathroom that is only 10 feet away from my house (not to mention with an actual toilet), more food then just beans and rice, and someone to speak english with. I missed my Apastapeque group.
It was nice being reunited with my old family (where I lived during my training), we spent the afternoon in the cemetery celebrating dia de el muerto. It was very interesting for me. The graves here are HUGE and some of them are like small houses. It was beautiful to see all the flowers covering every grave and the abudance of people there. Tonight I met up with casi everyone from the group, and we didn't waste anytime drinking "jugo" with the Milanos. They loved that we can all actually understand and somewhat speak spanish now! It was nice to engage in conversation with the families we lived with before, but couldn't have much of a conversation with then. I'll be enjoying all these luxuries for the next 3 weeks. I am alittle nervous about not being able to speak spanish when I return to my site, since I'll be in gringo land for 3 weeks.
So now that I have internet, por fin! I can update everyone on whats been happening in the last month here...
Let's see...
Last week I had my asamblea general where I had to present to my community (What is peace corps? Who is Jamie? My ideas for the future) I was nervous no one was going to show up since there was chuch and another meeting, but around 100 people came. I think it went pretty well. All of my spanish teachers came, and they told me how surprised they were because my pronunciation and grammar was so good.
I had a moment of euphoria last week. Without much planning, I taught about 25 kids (of different ages) an English class. Hearing them all scream the English alphabet as I pointed to each letter. I thought, this is freakin cool. Amy came to visit my class last week, in which about 30 kids showed up. We taught the kids parts of the body, and they had fun playing simon says and learning the song head, shoulders, knees, and toes.
It's funny how you just grow accustom to weird/awkard stuff here. As I'm struggling to find stuff for my blog, I'm realizing my moments are starting to feel "normal" now. ... Let's see..
Well I was given a chicken during one of my house visits, in which I carried around with me to a few other houses I needed to visit (that really gave the town something to talk about) Owell, at least my host parents are happy that they have something to eat for Thanksgiving. Oh, and my sisters digging through my garbage, and finding items in there that kept them entertained for a week. Not to mention, giving my family something to wipe their butts with (by throwing out all my old spanish homework). Some guy here insisted on painting my nails during a house visit, then later proceeded to pretty much ask for my hand in marriage so he could go to the united states.
So as month #5 approaches, I STILL can't believe I am actually here. I feel like I'm in a dream just waiting to wake up any moment now. I mean lets be honest here, some days are TOUGH and I do feel lonely, but I still find myself every single day, thinking to myself; "man, this is so freakin cool"
It was nice being reunited with my old family (where I lived during my training), we spent the afternoon in the cemetery celebrating dia de el muerto. It was very interesting for me. The graves here are HUGE and some of them are like small houses. It was beautiful to see all the flowers covering every grave and the abudance of people there. Tonight I met up with casi everyone from the group, and we didn't waste anytime drinking "jugo" with the Milanos. They loved that we can all actually understand and somewhat speak spanish now! It was nice to engage in conversation with the families we lived with before, but couldn't have much of a conversation with then. I'll be enjoying all these luxuries for the next 3 weeks. I am alittle nervous about not being able to speak spanish when I return to my site, since I'll be in gringo land for 3 weeks.
So now that I have internet, por fin! I can update everyone on whats been happening in the last month here...
Let's see...
Last week I had my asamblea general where I had to present to my community (What is peace corps? Who is Jamie? My ideas for the future) I was nervous no one was going to show up since there was chuch and another meeting, but around 100 people came. I think it went pretty well. All of my spanish teachers came, and they told me how surprised they were because my pronunciation and grammar was so good.
I had a moment of euphoria last week. Without much planning, I taught about 25 kids (of different ages) an English class. Hearing them all scream the English alphabet as I pointed to each letter. I thought, this is freakin cool. Amy came to visit my class last week, in which about 30 kids showed up. We taught the kids parts of the body, and they had fun playing simon says and learning the song head, shoulders, knees, and toes.
It's funny how you just grow accustom to weird/awkard stuff here. As I'm struggling to find stuff for my blog, I'm realizing my moments are starting to feel "normal" now. ... Let's see..
Well I was given a chicken during one of my house visits, in which I carried around with me to a few other houses I needed to visit (that really gave the town something to talk about) Owell, at least my host parents are happy that they have something to eat for Thanksgiving. Oh, and my sisters digging through my garbage, and finding items in there that kept them entertained for a week. Not to mention, giving my family something to wipe their butts with (by throwing out all my old spanish homework). Some guy here insisted on painting my nails during a house visit, then later proceeded to pretty much ask for my hand in marriage so he could go to the united states.
So as month #5 approaches, I STILL can't believe I am actually here. I feel like I'm in a dream just waiting to wake up any moment now. I mean lets be honest here, some days are TOUGH and I do feel lonely, but I still find myself every single day, thinking to myself; "man, this is so freakin cool"
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
mas fotos!
A day in the milpa with the family!
my best friend here, Lorena! (this picture confirmed how much i really adore this girl...she loves jumping pictures too!!)
my family here! (in case you are wondering, yes that is someone's house... a family of 3, in fact.)
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