High point before the new year

Things are starting to get real lively around the pueblo.  Every house has their own nacimiento or birth of baby jesus.  Every street corner is littered with lights, the park is filled with giant presents and santa claus.  My host mom demanded that I fabricate a market and a small pueblo out of cardboard boxes for her own nacimiento.  Apparently the people include a police station, mariachi band, a excursion bus and even toy convertible cars.  They think of everything here.  The fireworks haven’t been too bad recently, a couple here and there but apparently it is supposed to be a war zone come the 24^th.  I will be spending the navidad in my pueblo but deciding to take the new year to myself on the beach.

I may have scared some people with the last posts, but really amazing things do happen in this country.  There is more than getting robbed and seeing dead bodies.  I had two amazing trips with some of the most talented and determined youth in the country.

It started with a WYD camp in Suchitoto, Cuscátlan.  For those of you that don´t know about WYD, it is a volunteer selected committee that raises money to give high school and college scholarships to kids in El Salvador.  The emphasis of WYD is for volunteers to become mentors to the kids that they apply for scholarships.  So not only are these kids receiving an education beyond what would normally be feasible, they also have a positive role model in their life that takes an interest in their studies and their life in general.  Twice a year we put on camps for the scholar students.  The first camp is more of a technical camp where we give them life skills training, such as preparing for an interview, self-esteem, self-defense, decision making, time management and prioritization.  The second is a reward to all the kids that have completed the school year.

Since I am a new member I was unable to attend the first camp.  But last weekend I attended the second camp where we took them on the lake, to an art gallery, played games, came up with skits, had art classes, went to a waterfall, and had a civil war discussion.  I was very impressed with all the kids.  They are outgoing, intelligent, creative, friendly and respectful.  At the end of the 3 day camp some volunteers that will be finishing their service in the next few months got up and gave the kids a little speech.  Each volunteer that gave a speech either started or ended in tears.  They made it clear that working on the WYD committee and with these kids was by far the most influential part of their service.  After the volunteers, some scholar students got up and gave their thoughts.  Again, tears flowed.  And I can´t lie, I was on the verge of tears.  I almost lost it when one of the kids welcomed Andrew and I into the WYD club and thanked us (even though we haven’t done anything yet).  I left for my site after the camp in deep thought and touched by what I learned from those kids.  I am super excited to be on WYD and to get to know the kids some more in my site.

 Boat ride, scholar student deep in thought...

 Drawing lessons...

 Waterfall, minus water...

 Yesterday I had to wake up at 5am (3 hours before my normal wake up) to head to a Youth Festival.  I went with Don Roberto (Casa de Cultura director), Marina (young activist in the community), and three high school kids that can sing their hearts out.  The festival was set in the department of Cabañas.  Every Casa de Cultura in Chalatenango and Cabañas was invited to bring any youth group to show off their skills.  There was dancing, singing, karate, mambas, bongos, ranchero, folklore dancing, theater, painting, jewelry, and some religious performance.  It was an amazing turnout and I am really glad I got to go.  The kids are really starting to take to me and feel confident joking around with me.


Niño enjoying the mamba music...

 Kids from my pueblo singing, Ceci and Christian...

 Some sort of cultural/religious ceremonial dance...

  On the way back we were in a micro with a theater group from a nearby pueblo.  It was a rowdy bunch of teenagers.  We had joke telling time and when they asked me to tell I joke I insisted I only have jokes in English.  They insisted more that I tell it in English.  I knew where this was going.  So I pulled out the only joke I could think of (all credit to Zanique Albert for the joke):

So, a guy walks into a bar (at this point everyone laughed by I ensured them there was more to the joke). Again, a guy walks into a bar.  He sees a bear sitting down. He takes a seat next to the bear and notices that the bear looked a little sad.  The man says, ¨whats wrong mr. bear?¨  The bear looks at the man and replies, ¨well you see the thing is…………………….I lost my job¨  The man says, ¨whats with the big pause?¨  The bear replies, holding up his paws ¨what? These paws?¨

At this point I knew nobody understood.  The bus got really quit and I told them that they made me do it.  I still received applause, but they didn’t ask me for another joke.  Damn kids.

The micro full of kids...

It was still a great time taking backroads to Chalatenango.  My day ended with playing some street soccer with another family in the neighborhood. 

Good times. Next Saturday is my soccer game in Estadio Cuscátlan against the Japanese volunteers. USA, USA, USA. 

Chompipe, Pavo, Chumpe, Turkey?

This will be a little more uplifting post than the previous one.  

During PST 2 we did some really awesome stuff too.  We learned about so many different projects that we can do in our community and how to write grants, how to do youth camps, stove projects, you name it.

We took a field trip to an awesome waterfall in Ataco, Ahuahcapan.  It was really wide and had a great swimming hole at the bottom. Very refreshing after weeks of sitting in the training center. The monkey that I am, I found a way to climb to a section on the waterfall and throw myself into the swimming hole at the bottom. It was a great opportunity to let loose and blow off some steam. We stayed in this amazing hotel that was settled in the wilderness.  They had these cabins that slept 3-5 people that were all separated with their own private path that winded further into the woods.  Don’t even get me started on the food they had there.  Best food I have had in El Salvador. So fresh and healthy. Green salad with pine nuts!!! Are you kidding me? Endless bread with home made garlic butter.  If anyone visits me, this is where we will stay to relax. 

Secluded bungalows at Jardin de Celeste...

 Water fall, i jumped from right............................................\/ here

After PST 2, the volunteers all had the chance to spend thanksgiving with an Embassy family.  I planned ahead for this one. I met Special Agent Cooke in PST 1 when he briefed us on the security of El Salvador. I knew he was a surfer because he only used surfing terms like ´stoked´ and  ´awesome´.  I befriended him and told him I am going to request his house for turkey day. I ended up going a day early to his house in order to get 2 surf sessions in.  And am so glad I did.  I had the two best surf sessions of my life.  It was another great opportunity to relax and do something I love. 

Thanksgiving was by far the biggest spread of food I have ever had on thanksgiving, and things that I have never had.  We ate around 3pm giving us enough time to take a nap, booze a little, play some poker and have a second thanksgiving feast around 10pm. And I got a leg.  The thanksgiving spread included green bean casserole with crunchy things on top, sweat potato thing with marshmallows on top, giant turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, stuffing cooked in the turkey, sautéed onions from inside the turkey, salad, various dinner rolls, wine, beer, and of course the gravy train.

After the first dinner we hung out and played Wii and wrestled with their kids.  Reminded me of all the good thanksgivings in Carlsbad wrestling around with my cousins (miss you guys).  It was a truly wonderful experience with the Cooke family. And I will definitely be hitting him up next thanksgiving, maybe even Easter, who knows?

Tyler wrestling with the ferocious Jackie (age 6 and she is bilingual)...

 Special Agent Cooke and JB (age 8 and very rowdy)...

 Sunzal, right hand point break to the beach if you make the sections...

So many things happened in the last month, really hard to capture it all in a couple posts, but those were some highs and lows I experienced.  Hopefully now that I am all settled in I can blog regularly and convey my life a little more accurately.  Take care in the states everyone.

Love you all, 

Chusito

I remember my first time...

*Disclaimer* if you have a tendency to worry about my safety and security in El Salvador, do not read on. If you were thinking about visiting me but worried about public security, do not read on. OR just accept that the world is a dangerous place and read all about my exhilarating experience.

The last month of PST 2 was packed full of firsts. First time at a waterfall in El Salvador, first time the departments of Ahuachapan and Sonsonate, first time seeing Yolanda and Loudes after PST 1, first time seeing a dead body, first time surfing in El Salvador, first time getting robbed on a bus. 

Let´s start with the good stuff, and by good stuff I mean really scary stuff.  It was almost the end of PST 2 and we were driving back to San Sal from Sonsonate.  We were in a micro van with about 8 volunteers in my group.  We hit a little bumper to bumper traffic and didn´t think much of it until someone said ¨is that a car crash? Why is someone laying in the road?¨ Right then and there I knew something was a little up. As we approached the body we had to maneuver around it because it was in the middle of the street.  As we all glanced out the window, we immediately all regretted the decision.  What we saw was our first dead body. Cause of death you wonder? Well I can assure you it wasn’t a car crash.  What I saw and what all the other volunteers witnessed was a dude lying in the street with a bullet hole in his head.  Now the part that was a little freaky was that he was still kind of alive as we passed which means that it must have happened within minutes of us arriving.  Freaky.  And the upsetting part was that the body wasn’t covered, there were no cops, no ambulance, in fact, nobody in the streets acted as if there was a dead body lying in the middle of the road.  If you weren’t to see the body you would think that it was some normal traffic and every thing was just gravy in the city we were driving through.

Naturally I was a little shaken up by this encounter, but nothing could compare to my next encounter the following week. 

I was heading out to Chinameca with 3 volunteers for a volunteer basketball game then we were heading to Carnaval that night.  We were about an 1.5 hours into our 2.5 hour bus ride. We just crossed over the Rio Lempa and our bus driver thought it would be a good idea to pick up two guys on the side of the road that had bandanas around their necks.  The two men boarded the bus and took their seats. About 5 minutes later one of them stood up and the cobrador (fare collector for the bus) told him there are seats and he could take a seat.  While this was happening the other guy jumped up (with bandana around his face now) grabbed the cobrador hostage style with a knife up around his neck.  (SIDE NOTE: while this is all happening myself and the other volunteers were chatting up a storm and laughing our heads off.  But I knew something was wrong cause my heart rate jumped through the roof and my body was overcome with a rush of warmth. I really knew something was up when I looked up and saw the other guy with a cowboy hat and a bandana on his face waving a gun in the air.) At this point we went into survival mode. We stuffed our backpacks under the seats, sat on our cell phones and the rest of our money. But as I reached in my pockets to get out some money to give I realized I didn’t have any money in my big pockets, so I had to dig through my tiny pocket where I had $50. As I was scrambling to break a few ones free the guy with the knife and the cobrador were making their way down the bus with a bag collecting from everyone on the bus.  I managed to scramble in time and pull out $1.10 (haha, I am such a cheap ass.) The guy with the knife made one pass holding the cobrador hostage, the guy with the gun stayed at the front waving his gun in the air screaming PISTO (money) Rapido!!!!  After the first pass they made another one for cell phones.  We were not about to give up our cell phones so we sat tight as they passed, but just as they reached our row the guy with the knife motioned at my friends watch and my friend quickly took it off and coughed it up.  After that they pretty much packed up the bag and jumped off the bus.  All in all they were on the bus for about 3 minutes.  I was expecting to be robbed at some point during my two years. I was starting to feel too comfortable on the buses and I think it was a good reality check and reminder that the country I live in is dangerous and preparation is always needed in order to avoid being a deer in the headlights.

Día de los Muertos

Buenos Días Tod@s

I made my way to the cemetary yesterday to check out the dead person scene in La Reina.  The cemetary is jam packed. I couldn´t walk around without walking over tombs or childrens graves.  It was really erie.  My host mom made a point to hide and come running and screaming at me at one point.  She is lucky I didn´t karate chop her.  Because the actual day celebrated is Wednesday and I went Friday I didn´t get the full experience of all the living people putting flowers on the graves.  But to my defense it was the day after my trip to the campo and I could barely move in the morning. Anyways, here are some of my favorite pics from the graveyard.

I had to climb on top of a double decker tomb to get this pic...

 Larger tomb with no flowers...

 The empty spots are waiting for bodies, but below the dirt there is probably 1 or 2 more tombs...

 Empty spot, taking reservations now...

Flower Power...

I am still alive down here!! Send me some letters.  and Happy Thanksgiving if i Dont get another post in.

Chusitooooo

Last two weeks fast forward

It has a been a jam packed week since my asamblea general.  I have been doing all sorts of great stuff. Milking cows, working in the campo, swimming in the river with the kids, playing soccer, and helping students with their upcoming English presentations.

Yesterday was my trip to the campo.  I had previously met this family, 2 boys living in the house (23 and 17 years old).  They invited me to go to their land in the mountains to work a day with them and next thing I know I am getting up at 5:00 am (that is unheard of for me).  We packed up the tools and food for the day and set off on our hour hike to their land.  We had a pack of 4 dogs that were going with us and they didn’t stop wrestling until we got back to the people.  It was absolutely beautiful in the mountains.  These guys were like mountain goats prancing up the slopes and rocks without even looking.  I felt so clumsy following them.  Once we arrived to their land I set off on another mini hike with the oldest brother Alexander to milk the cows.  Later we returned and helped repair their barbed wire fence that ran along a dried up creek.  It was a nice changed of pace hacking down trees with machetes.  They joked with me that when I go back to the states I will be walking around with a machete hacking at everything because as we hiked I would take the liberty of chopping every tiny little piece of plant.  We had a good time joking around. While in the campo we encountered these little crab like bugs that grasp onto your skin and suck your blood.  They are called garapatas and they suck.  We were covered in garapatas before noon and it took 2 showers, shaving my beard and moustache, playing soccer and swimming in the river to get them all off.  And After I went and played soccer with the oldest brother, I told them I need to train and they are taking it on as their third job to make me a better soccer player. 

I am also starting to feel like a high school student again.  The kids in the high school are really fun to hang out with and I can never sneak into the principals office without being heckled from the classrooms and whistled at.  I am super excited to go back for PST 2 and learn some valuable information regarding project ideas and how to get NGO´s involved in the various youth groups in my community.  It is about time I start doing things in the community, people are gonna start thinking i´m just vacationing in their pueblo.  That or a professional soccer player training in the community.  Either or.

Well, I am off to San Vicente this Saturday and can´t wait to see Yolanda´s grinning face when I roll up to the house.

Pe@ce

Chuuusito

The high school kids really welcome me with open arms.

Fulfill your visual appetite

B-Rabbit on the microphone. Busting rhymes for the locals...

 The hobbit...

 Looking down on my stomping ground...

 Flying kites, just another day...

 Talking with the oldest person in the pueblo...that´s alive (99 years old)...

Asamblea General of Epic Proportions (not)

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet
Make you want to move your dancing feet
To the rescue, here i am
Want you to know, y'all, where i stand

¿Como ha ido? Today was a historic day in La Reina. It was my asamblea general. The asamblea general is a necessary town hall meeting that all volunteers in el Salvador have to do. It´s an opportunity for the volunteer to butcher their national language in front of all the important people of the community. It also serves as an informative session about Peace Corps, my program and the volunteer´s role in the community. We are supposed to present our findings from the community diagnostic and talk about possible programs for the future.  I had sent out some special invitations to all the churches, the mayor’s office, the bank in town, the school and high school, the health clinic and the local oficina juridical. I also went to the high school and announced my meeting and told them to invite their parents, posted announcements in the most frequented shops and places in town, and had the church and school makes announcements. The meeting was planned for 9 am. I didn´t expect people to show until 9:30, and I´m not gonna lie, I was pretty worried when it was empty at 9:20. But the schools pulled through and sent two classes form the middle school and 1 from the high school. This made my day, seeing the kids march over in their uniforms, all the cipotes (kids) screaming “Chusito!” My nerves settled a little and was ready to take it on.  There was also a lot more village elders than I expected.

The actually presentation went fairly smoothly, of course my mouth decided to dry up as soon as I started talking. So I was forced to fight cotton mouth while I tried to roll my R´s through the presentation. I got a fuerte applause at the end and finally was able to relax a little.

I asked them to include me in their lives and invite me to do fun stuff with them. And immediately after I was swarmed by kids asking what I am doing this afternoon. I guess I´m going to the park to play with them! I am stoked, the asamblea general was a great opportunity to show them I want to be part of their lives.

The next month is gonna be jam packed!!!! I prob wont be able to post. Here is my schedule.

Halloween Weekend: fundraiser in San Salvador for WYD (volunteer committee that gives scholarships) and volunteer costume party.

Following Weekend: I leave for PST 2 which is more technical training in San Vicente for 3 weeks. We get out of PST 2 right before Thanksgiving.  The embassy employees host PCVs for a feast so I requested to stay with some friends from training with a family.

After Thanksgiving: There is the largest carnival in Central America the Saturday after thanksgiving and there is a PC soccer game vs. a local mayor’s team.

After all that traveling around I will be ready to hang out in my site for awhile and start some activities with the bichos (kids). 

Besides all that nonsense things have been pretty tranquilo here I my pueblo. The crazy storms didn´t affect the pueblo too much. We got lucky up here in Chalatenango. Can´t say the same for other parts of the country.  Hopefully the affected areas can recover quickly and return to their lives.

That’s it for now amigos. Salud pues.

Chusito