October 28: A Creative Title

Our host brother dressed up as the President for a parade. Here he is with his brother (age 18) and mother. This made for an interesting misunderstanding; we thought the actual President was going to be in town.


Our host brother with his cousin. This is their favorite pasttime.


Erick as a cobrador, the person who collects fares on the pickups.

Pictures from our weekend at the beach (in the departamento La Libertad):















Since our last entry:

We’ve continued working with kids at the school, swinging cumas (curved machetes) to remove the overgrown weeds at the school. We will soon get together to paint rocks to line the school’s entrance. This project is all about the students having a voice. They suggested possible projects and then voted on which one we would do. Student groups are the norm in the States, but here the students are not accustomed to having a voice and making decisions for themselves. They really feel proud of all of their work, which is great to see!

We have continued to have our language and culture classes. The subjunctive approaches. Puchica!

We took a hike (on Bruce’s birthday!) to an abandoned hacienda down the dirt road. Before the war, this was the house of the wealthy landowner in the community. There was an enormous tree that can only be described as Tolkein-esque.

We each taught a 7th grade English class.

We filled out our absentee ballots.

The host family’s cow gave birth.

The Phillies made it to the World Series for the first time since Bruce’s childhood abruptly ended with Joe Carter’s homerun in Game 6 back in ’93.

El Salvador’s soccer team, La Selección, has also been winning.

Our host family bought a washing machine. This was a huge surprise, as we haven’t heard of anyone in the area having one.

We’ve been interviewing people for our “contacto comunitario” assignments. Small businesses: comedor (restaurant), tienda (little store), molino (mill), and agroservicio (farm product store); San Vicente’s university; the Ingenio (a sugar processing plant…the source of water and jobs for the people who live nearby…we got to wear hard hats on our tour).

Our host family vaccinated all their roosters and hens. It was an afternoon full of catching all the birds. We were useless observers. We occasionally served as barriers because the birds didn´t know of our uselessness.

We enjoyed our free weekend by spending a night away at a beach near La Libertad. The water was great. The beach was a mixture of black sand and stones. When the waves retreated, the sound of the moving stones was just like that of a rain stick.

We went to “las ruedas.” Rueda de Chicago is the phrase for Ferris wheel. So we went to “the wheels.” It’s an October tradition in San Vicente. A haunted house. A carousel. Our 4-year-old host brother loved every minute.

While writing this journal entry, I discovered a mountain of ants in one of my backpacks. My plan was to give a box of Mike and Ike’s (Lehigh Valley, represent!) to our next host family. The ants’ plan was to eat that candy.

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Seriously…


We enjoy updating this site. However, the limitations of an online journal should be noted. Because the site is public, it becomes a lowest common denominator of sorts. In our offline, paper-based journals, we can write with more detail and honesty. These are both traits of worthwhile writing, but in a public forum, they respectively invite boredom to the casual reader and potential mistrust from the host country nationals.

These limitations are worth mentioning if only to communicate that it’s not all smiling kids with kittens and sunsets at the beach. There are uglier things that don’t make for natural photo ops or nice stories for home. Children in El Salvador obviously don’t have as many opportunities as children in the States. Emigration to the U.S. is huge. Teenage pregnancy is extremely common. There is malnutrition and disease. There are gangs. It’s sad that questions such as, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” are not common. It’s sadder that the answers don’t come easy.

El Salvador y Los Estados Unidos

There are millions of Salvadorans living in the States. They send remittances home that make up 15-20% of El Salvador’s currency. They have their relatives visit and show them around their city. The U.S. is emulated back in El Salvador. Hannah Montana, the poster girl of Disney pop cultural imperialism, offers a glittery smile from the t-shirts of countless rural Salvadoran youths.

To be a gringo in El Salvador is to get a great deal of attention. Many people here want to move to the States. Some have an unfortunate inferiority complex about El Salvador. So they don’t quite understand what we’re doing here. However, as gringos, we have automatic star power. It’s easy for us as Peace Corps Trainees (students with a learning curve on one hand, the U.S. government on the other) to get an audience of local politicians, captains of industry, etc.

Of course, there is also the legacy of the long and bloody civil war that was largely funded by the U.S. government. We don’t mean for this to be a political forum, so we’ll leave it to you to look up the details. Suffice it to say, some Salvadorans are suspicious of the intentions of volunteers (not as common a concept to begin with) from the U.S. government.

That being said, we are optimistic about the opportunity to work toward positive, sustainable (albeit small-scale) development in one community. The people of El Salvador are warm and hospitable. The youth are awesome. It’s great having so much support from family back home in the U.S. Culture shock, with its highs and lows, is often compared to a rollercoaster. Some days have been incredibly difficult. But what do most folks say after riding a rollercoaster? They say, “that was incredible.”

Events coming up in the next two weeks:

-a “personal flag” activity with the kids at our school
-two presentations at the training center
-Día de Los Muertos
-the U.S. Presidential election
-site assignment (on November 6, we will find out our permanent site for the two years)

Immersion Days

In the distance: Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Golf of Fonseca


Heading back from our hike


Nubes (clouds)


These leaves retreat when you touch them.


Vacas (cows)


The youth group we hiked with thought I should take a picture of this bird.


Banderas of the two major political parties (ARENA and FMLN). There is a presidential election in March.

Kelly and I experienced our “Immersion Days” this past Thursday-Sunday. It took about four hours to get to our destination: a beautiful pueblo in La Union, the easternmost departamento (like a state or province). Two current Youth Development Volunteers (a married couple) are serving there. They showed us a great time. The first two nights, Kelly and I went to separate host families in small communities outside the pueblo. The third night we spent with the Volunteers.

It was a gorgeous walk on an old, rocky road (no vehicles) to the canton where I slept. The father lived in the U.S. for over twenty years; we talked at great length about the States over homemade pan dulce (sweet bread) and his Rand McNally Road Atlas. I walked to the local Catholic Church with the father for an hour of prayers and songs. The parents and four children made me feel at home. I helped the son with his English homework. We watched a DVD of the daughter’s recent fiesta rosa (enormous party celebrating a girl’s quinceanera, fifteenth birthday). Their view of the mountains was basically awesome.

(Kelly now writing) When Bruce and I arrived at the volunteers’ site a woman named Anna was waiting to take me to her family’s house, which was a 20 minute bus ride out of the pueblo. We had some lunch and then Anna and her four kids and I set out on a walk to go bathe. I was not completely sure what was going on, on account of not speaking Spanish (just kidding, I think my Spanish is coming along quite nicely, but sometimes I choose to go with the flow rather than ask people to repeat themselves). We walked along a dirt road for about 25 minutes then headed off the road down a very steep, very rocky, very slick path (I was trying hard not to fall and I was wearing hiking shoes, while everyone else was running past me in flip flops). We arrived at the base of a beautiful waterfall where there was a large pila (like a big sink) overflowing with water from a nearby spring. There were several women washing clothes at the pila and chatting. I awkwardly and slowly learned how to properly bathe myself when surrounded by other people and wearing clothes. It was a very memorable experience; the base of a waterfall in El Salvador is as good a place as any to take a bath. The rest of my time with the family (which included Anna’s parents, her four sisters, one brother and four kids) was wonderful. They are certainly some of the nicest and most generous people I have met and made me feel very much at home. If we find ourselves in that region of El Salvador again, we will certainly stop in to visit.

We were “immersed” in the lives of the Volunteers. We observed and sometimes participated in their classes at the school (English, Life Skills—sex education and so forth). Their classes included games and songs. We attended one of their youth group meetings in which kids brainstormed activities to do over vacation; their school year will end next month. We played baseball with a group of smiling kids. We took a great uphill hike through corn fields to a beautiful view. To one side was the San Miguel volcano. To the other, we could see Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Golf of Fonseca. We ate delicious chicken pupusas. We played a game called Sequence. We met a lot of great local people. We were not eaten by the Volunteers’ ferocious dog. It was a great experience.

We made it home just in time to attend a two-year-old neighbor’s birthday party. The piñatas were smashed. The chairs were musical. We still had confetti in our hair when we got into bed.

Kelly Bobs Her Hair

Licha...from the inside.


About the size of Massachusetts


Nativity scene in the style of artist Fernando Llort


Kelly with new haircut and four-year-old host brother Eric


En la himaca


Our great host family. 18-year-old son not in the photo.


Alarm clock

One night last week, we were watching a telenovela (soap opera) with our host family. One of the actresses in “Mientras Haya Vida” had a smart, short haircut. There were probably about forty-five seconds between Kelly mentioning how she liked it and her sitting down for a similar haircut from our enthusiastic host mother. Our host mother sells Avon and L’Bel, and also serves as a hair stylist for the community. After the haircut, we took a few pictures with our awesome host family.

Pictures...and More!

Arrival in Country



Clotheslines



Stove and Pila (back right, used for laundry, dishes, bathing children)



Iguana (we have heard they are both endangered and a popular food item)



Our Room (built by European Union after earthquake)



Our Mosquito Net



Licha (Kelly´s new favorite fruit, chewy fruit inside)



Porch



Aloe



View of Volcan Chichontepec From Our House


It´s been another busy week. San Vicente is now old hat. Twice this past week, we ventured into the capital: San Salvador (population close to 2 million).

The first time we were shepherded by our teacher. The transportation is intense. It took us a pickup and three buses to get to the Peace Corps headquarters. On the way, we stopped at the largest shopping mall in Central America (we bought a soccer ball!). The majority of PC staff were on hand to chat with over lunch. We had briefly met many of these people, but on our first whirlwind day in country. Lunch was comida tipica (typical Salvadoran fare): tamales, pupusas, enchiladas (much different than the Mexican variety), fried yuca, and atol de elote to drink (warm, thick, corn-based).

Yesterday we headed to San Salvador without our teacher´s guidance. We didn´t get lost, but puchica (wow!), it was an adventure. We were given a tour of an anthropological museum. There were some fascinating exhibits on the indigenous people, the Spanish conquest, agriculture. We took a break from pupusas and ate pizza for lunch. After lunch, we sold out big-time. There is a posh hotel that allows all Peace Corps Volunteers to use its pool and health club. The pool had a waterfall. The showers were hot. Gym. Sauna. The typical Peace Corps experience.

Our work in the community has been going well. We had a meeting with the ADESCO (asociacion de desarollo comunitario, basically the tribal elders). The school kids we are working with voted for a garden. This will be our mini-project for the next six weeks.

Other highlights of the week: We received some dance lessons (salsa, merengue, cumbia) from Peace Corps. We bought a cell phone. We played soccer on a field amongst horses and cows. We had to be careful where we stepped.

This upcoming weekend, we have Immersion Days: a site visit with a current Volunteer. We don´t know many details yet. It should be interesting to get an idea of what to expect once we´re out in our permanent site.

The pictures. We haven´t taken many yet for a couple reasons. One is security (especially in the capital). The other is confianza (confidence, trust). We don´t want to snap a bunch of pictures of our host family until they know us more. More to come in the future.

Love,
Bruce and Kelly

Greetings from the Little Thumb of Central America

Kelly with our Spanish teacher and the other two gringos in our community.

Where to begin? Our apologies for not sufficiently updating the site. Our previous attempt was thwarted and we´ve been very busy with training.

We are living with a host family outside San Vicente until mid-November to learn the language and culture. At that point, we´ll move to our permanent site. After two months, we´ll return to where we are now for two weeks of technical training. Finally, we´ll stay put in our permanent site. It is confusing. And there is a good deal of Peace Corps lingo, acronyms, etc. that goes along with it all. We will spare you them.

Our current host family consists of a mother, father, 18-year old son, and 4-year old son. The father works in San Salvador (90 minute commute each way). The mother cooks, cleans, cooks, cleans, repeat. The majority of both sides of the family reside in close proximity. They, like most families, have a few nephews living in the States (Houston, Miami, Boston, all over). Our host mother´s father runs a tienda that sells agroservicio products for working in the fields (the livelihood of most area residents). His wife owns the mill, in which most of the town´s women grind corn into tortillas. This all takes place where we are living. There are horses, cows, dogs, cats. Chickens, roosters, turkeys (often taking us off guard by their presence in the trees at night). And for good measure, the occasional gecko, iguana, cockroach. The only real threat is mosquitos, what with their love of malaria and dengue. We apply repellent several times a day and recently upgraded to a new and improved mosquito net for our bed. Frogs sing to us in the evening. Roosters wake us in the early morning. Spiders decorate the place. The bucolic scene of fruit trees (lime, orange, avocado, etc.), tropical plants, the volcano, and the clay rooftops is only partially eroded by the ever-present trash on the ground. It rains everyday. The dry season (the only other season) starts in November.

The pace of life is notably slower than it is in Pennsylvania or Delaware. It is considered rude to launch into business before making a significant amount of chit-chat. One must gain the confianza (confidence, trust) of the people before anything. We´ve been spending a good deal of time with the locals. Today we treked up into the fields to see them firsthand (mostly corn, beans, tomato, pipian-a type of squash). This afternoon we will play another game of soccer with the local kids.

The pace of life for a Peace Corps Trainee, however, is about as slow a really fast thing. The other two gringo trainees that live in our caserio are among the most advanced Spanish speakers in our group of 23. That works well for us, because they head into San Vicente for their language lessons and we enjoy a 1:2 teacher-student ratio. Our language classes run from 8-12. Even lunch is in Spanish. As it turns out, everything in this country is in Spanish. Except for the occasional pop song (Celine Dion, Donna Summers, Roy Orbison) and movie (Adam Sandler, Jack Black, etc.). After lunch, we learn about culture and work toward a mini-project with local schoolkids. We´ve already had several meetings at the school and one at the mayor´s office. This ends by 5. It´s dark (and therefore inadvisable to be out and about) by 6. We eat shortly thereafter. Then we launch into our copious amounts of homework. We enjoy Tuesdays, when our training group reunites in the city for meetings on safety, health, logistics.

On Friday, our group of four + teacher headed to the market for research on fruits and vegetables. Some of them, I swear, were invented by Dr. Seuss. Some are delicious. Some are incredibly bitter. All are interesting. Hopefully we´ll post pictures of the fruits later on.

Transportation. It is a 10-15 minute, 25 cent ride from our host family´s house into the city. There are buses, but much more frequently there are pick-up trucks. Unless they are packed, we take the pick-up. It´s not as scary as it sounds.

It´s quite an adventure. We look forward to learning more Spanish. We´re heading into the capital, San Salvador, later this week. We may also hike up the volcano and visit the beach. Good times ahead. Take care!

Love,
Bruce and Kelly

P.S. Aunt Amy, feel free to use any of this material in your class. If your students have any questions, we´d be happy to answer them.

One Week in El Salvador

Hello All,

Due to technical difficulties, we won´t be able to post a stellar entry today. We´ll try to make up for it next time.

Things are going well. We have a really great training group. Right now (and for the next 2 months) Bruce and I are living with a host family outside of San Vicente. They are very nice and have a 4 year old boy who is pretty entertaining. We´re super busy with language classes and training activities. It is very hot and it rains very hard pretty often. Our host mom is feeding us well. We bathe with buckets of cold water and wash our clothes on a rock slab. The host family has dozens of poultry wandering around and cows and horses often wander through the property.

OK, we wish we had more time now to elaborate and give more details. We need to get home soon, so we have to run. We will try o post a better entry ASAP.

Much Love!
Kelly & Bruce

Staging

Off we go! Kelly and I are checking out of our hotel in Crystal City, VA (across the Potomac from DC) tomorrow morning at 3 am. We fly from Reagan to Miami to El Salvador (2 hours behind EST). Should be there by 1:30 pm Pennsylvania-Delaware time/ 11:30 am El Salvador time.

Things have gone well so far. We took the Amtrak from Wilmington to Washington (just like Joe Biden!) yesterday. We've had a day and a half of pretty intense (and yet often light-hearted) orientation. There are 24 folks in our training group and one other married couple (same age as us). The trainees come from all over the country.

We're the lucky ones. Just yesterday, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about budget cuts (no more Newsweek delivery!) and delayed departure dates for many Peace Corps Volunteers. The falling dollar is the main culprit:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-peacecorps14-2008sep14,0,5768469.story?page=1

Comfort-wise, we've not been eased into the Peace Corps experience. We've received a sweet per diem. Our hotel room has a flat-screen television, lavender-scented linen spray, a massage-style shower-head, etc. Our staging director claimed that Senator McCain stayed in this very hotel last night.

We are both very excited, but we do leave with heavy hearts. We wish the very best to Lisa and Joe; we know your wedding on Saturday will be spectacular. On a sad note, please keep my grandfather, James Joseph Fox, Sr. (known to his many grand kids as Daddy Jim) in your prayers. He passed away on Saturday.

Please keep in touch. We will miss you all very much.