Just In Case

Just in case I was unsure that rainy season was in full swing, upon returning to site three events confirmed this fact.

First off I was assaulted with a huge wave of humidity. I do not know what percentage the humidity is here, but it is high. Too high. My normally bone straight hair is frizzy, curly and unruly. This is really not ok. I do not have the life skills to deal with hair like this. I have never had to deal with out of control strands. As many Salvadorians have naturally curly or frizzy hair, they must deal with this problem their entire lives. And do you know what they do? They use hair gel. Most use a gel called Gorilla Snot... So there's that. Secondly my pila water is back to its dark brown hue. Ugh. It is so hard for me to justify taking a bucket bath with this water. Actually I just took a bucket bath and I actually feel more filthy than I did before... And then lastly (as if I needed anything else) I was without electricity for the first 24 hours I was back. Welcome back to site Chelsea!

So why was I out of site long enough to forget the rainy season realities, you ask? I was in the States for a fantastic vacation. I was able to see a couple of very good friends from college. We got dinner and hung out in Boston. They crashed at my Uncle Paul's house with me. Uncle Paul made us his famous waffles with bacon and fruit salad the next morning. It was as fantastic, as it always is, and I am pretty sure they are ruined for breakfast now, as I have been for years. We went our separate ways after breakfast, but I am so glad I got to see them.

 The main reason for the trip was to see my friends Amanda and Dave get married. It has been about ten years since I have been to a wedding so, besides my extensive wedding knowledge granted to me through watching obscene amounts of TLC, I do not have a lot to compare it to. But it really was the perfect weekend.  I showed up on Saturday for the rehearsal dinner and made fast friends with all of the people I was crashing with at Amanda's family's guest house and all of the relatives who had come in already.

Sunday, wedding day, was awesome. Amanda's family supplied us with breakfast fixin's, and then group of non-wedding party folks headed (including myself) headed to the Hudson River for a little time on Amanda's family boat. I ended up getting a bit burnt, but it was enough fun that I did not mind in the slightest. The ceremony was at 4pm and it was perfect, I cried. Amanda looked beautiful and the groom, Dave, was very handsome. It was a short ceremony and and then the newly married couple headed off to the reception in an antique car of Amanda's family. The reception, in a refurbished barn, was stunning, the food was delicious and the band was great. Dave is Mexican, so the band played some typical Mexican music along with more popular tunes. All in all it was an epic night. The couple headed off to Spain for their honeymoon and have now re-located to England where Dave is based in the US Air Force. 

Another huge perk of my trip was the fact that I got to see a ton of my Boston based relatives. I stayed most of my time in Boston with my Uncle Paul. He spoiled me rotten, and I loved every minute of it. Uncle Paul and I went and had dinner with his brother and wife, my Uncle Dick and Aunt Joyce. It was so great to see them. They are Pug breeders and often show them at national competitions. You should hear they way they talk about and dote on their babies. Unfortunately it was at this dinner that I got food poisoning. It was delicious, but I was out of commission for several days afterwards. All of my Salvadoran friends think it is hilarious that I got food poisoning in the States. They are convinced that I will need to stay in El Salvador for the rest of my life because I can no longer eat American cuisine. Oh man, I fear they might be right.

I had some flight troubles and ended up having to spend several more days in Boston, poor me right? I was able to visit some other relatives, which I was so grateful for. I saw my Aunt Mim and Uncle Tommy one afternoon. They hooked me up with a lot of sweet toothbrushes to use in a dental campaign I want to set up in my community. I was also able to see my Uncle Kevin, another one of Uncle Paul's brothers. Uncle Paul and I met him for breakfast in morning before I flew back to El Salvador. It really is so great to see family that you have not seen in forever.

I am now back in El Salvador and being very productive. I will update on my projects soon!

Proyectos!

I think it is past time I gave you all an update on all projects I am working on right now. It is funny how, during training, all of the volunteers we spoke to said that the first year of your service is a lot of down time. You don't have a lot of projects going on, and it is hard to see how you will ever accomplish anything. But during your second year, things pick up...very quickly. I did not really believe them. I got to site thinking I would immediately start projects and that they would all be a success right away. Well needless to say I was no exception to the warnings of previous volunteers. The first year had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at projects and a lot of hammock time.  Here we are, right now, at the front end of my second year and I feel swamped with projects. All of a sudden I am busy and it is actually a nice change of pace. So here we go, this is what I have going now and what I wish to accomplish before I close my service next March.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my community has terrible water conditions. The town council in the community is working on finding funding for a permanent, clean water solution. Because I will probably not be getting a replacement, I have ruled out applying to Engineers Without Boarders. My community has decided to fundraise independently to fund the project. A water project is a big endeavor and usually takes several years to complete. From buying a plot of land with a water source, to piping it down to the community and then getting it to everyone's houses a water project is tough. I am taking on a smaller project to help people out while the larger project gets underway, water filters. I have a filter and have not gotten sick because of the water. So I will be applying for a grant to help subsidize buying filters for those who need them the most.

A slightly larger project that I am excited about is going to be a nutrition based chicken project. I am going to set up a series of classes that people will have to attend in order to learn about egg laying chickens. Many families in my community are very poor. The most they can afford to eat is beans and tortillas. I am hopeful that this project will allow some families to supplement their diet with some protein. Now most of the people in my community have chickens, so at a minimum they already know the basics about chicken raising. But I am hoping these chickens will be treated better than the campo chickens that are running around the streets, eating whatever they please. These chickens will be required to live in a chicken coop, be vaccinated and will hopefully have a better chance of surviving than some random chicken in the street. I am also applying for a grant to help fund this project.

This is my host families kitchen.
They have two of the smaller fuel efficient stoves,
and yet you can see how black their walls are from smoke.
Just think of how much of that they breathed in...

Another project I am very excited about is a fuel efficient stove project. The volunteer I replaced did a stove project, but the stoves are small and you can only cook one food at a time. The stoves I am looking into are larger and have several places to cook. So you could be making tortillas, cooking beans  and making rice all at the same time. These stoves also have a chimney to pipe out the smoke. They do produce less smoke than a normal, wood burning, stove, but no smoke is better than a little. Also I really like these stoves as they are very sustainable. In order to have this kind of project I will need to find a couple of guys in the community that are willing to get trained in how to make them. They will then go house to house to construct each stove, will be paid for each stove they make.

I have also mentioned that I am a part of a Peace Corps committee called Gender and Development, or GAD. We have decided to hold a kids camp in September. The camp will be designed to educate kids on all of the possibilities they have. We will try to get rid of some strong gender stereotypes, like men have to work in the fields and women must stay home to take care of the kids and house. For example we want to have a panel of professional Salvadorians come and speak. Women who have college degrees, people who own businesses and policemen are some examples or people we might have sit on the panel. We will be adding in some HIV/AIDS education as well. The camp will be geared towards kids in high school, ones who are starting to make their life decisions and figure out what they want and what they can get out of life down here.

I have nine and a half months left, lets see what I can do with it!

Laying It On The Line

I pooped my pants. 

There you have it. I said it out loud. There may come a time in my life when I will regret this post, but for now, I think it serves as a good descriptor of my life down here. I do not mean to imply that I poop my pants all the time or anything. In fact this is a very rare occurrence. But it is a fact. Volunteers in El Salvador are very open with taking about our bowel movements, embarrassing or otherwise. I have also heard that almost every volunteer that serves here will, at some point in their service, poop their pants. That is not something they put in the job description, let me tell you.  

The morning Paige and I arrived at the the beach, Playa El Tunco, I started to have a small diarrhea  problem. I did not feel sick or anything, I just would get this overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom immediately. You all know the feeling, we have all been there. I do not know what brought this on, I cannot think of what I ate that would have me running for the john like a woman runs to a shoe sale. (I mean it is mango season, so it is possible that this was brought on by the extreme excess of mangos I have been eating. But that just sounds a little too plausible, if you know what I mean.)

Never the less, I did not think much about this. I have been extraordinarily health during my time down here. (With the exception of my food poisoning induced hospital stay.) (Knock on wood.) Sometimes diarrhea happens, but as I was still feeling fine, I just changed my bathroom habits slightly and carried on with my day.

*At this point I should clarify something that will become important shortly. The hostel we stayed at, was pretty nice for the 10 bucks a night we were paying. The only major down side is that the rooms do not have private bathrooms. There are several communal bathrooms located outside, but close to the rooms.*

Paige and I had a lovely, relaxed morning getting breakfast and laying out at the beach. When we got back  to the room, we decided to take a nap. Paige left the room for a moment and I had just stepped out of my swim suit. As I am trying to find something to put on for my nap, I get the urge. So there I am standing naked in my room trying to find something, anything to put on so I can make it to the bathroom. Underwear on, shorts on, bra on. I leave the room, only to realize I am not wearing a shirt. I run back into the room grab a shirt. It is half way on as I am standing in the doorway on my way out when it happens.

I, all of a sudden, have no control. I now have to waddle in my soiled shorts to the bathroom. On my way there I pass Paige on her way back to the room. She gives me a quizzical look as clearly something is wrong with me, but she does not say anything. I clean my self up in the communal bathroom and head back to the room. I am pretty sure Paige will never let me forget that this happened.

A few days later when Paige and I are visiting her family friends in the capital, I did a couple loads of laundry. I will argue that there is nothing better feeling than a towel just out of the dryer. This is even more true when you do not have ready access to a washer and dryer. I may have gotten a little carried away in my snuggling and fawning over a soft, warm towel. The family could not get over how happy I was. I cannot explain it, but I was more embarrassed over the attention I got over the clean towel than I was when I pooped my pants. Thanks a lot Peace Corps. I doubt I will ever fully integrate back into American society.

Ed Note: Paige, Sarah and Alex Girl all ended up getting diarrhea too. None of them admitted to pooping their pants.

Paige In The Savior

Paige came! I am going to use this as an excuse for not writing for so long. (Even though she was here for less than two weeks.) I will new give you a brief re-cap of her trip. Paige got in on the Thursday before Easter. We hung out in my site for 5 days. A very brave feat for most, but Paige is a champ and has spent some time working at a clinic in Honduras, so she knows what it's all about. I showed Paige all around my community. 

One of our most important stops was to visit the Mango Man. He and his wife are some of the kindest people in my community. They always seem so excited when I stop by. The Mango Man and his wife are about 75 years old. They have been together since they were 13 and married for over 50 years! The reason I call him the Mango Man is that he has over 13 species of mango trees on his property, and over 20 mango trees. Whenever I visit him during mango season, he always sends me home with a bag brimming with mangos. More mangos than I could ever eat. Mango season is great. (Side note- my host dad, Orlando, cut down a mango the other day that weighed 2.5 pounds!) So, we visited the Mango Man. While we were there, we came upon these strange plants in his yard. We asked him what they were called and he pulled one down, peeled off the skin and told us that it is used to exfoliate. He grows loofas in his yard! 

Another fun thing about the Mango Man is that he is totally ripped. I do not think I have ever seen anyone who's muscles are that visible. I mean, look at this guy ------------->








Another highlight of the trip was Easter Sunday. My host family invited us to attend a 4 am procession, followed by mass. Now, since I have lived here for over a year, I kind of assumed that we would be a part of the procession. Parades where people watch are not very common, usually everyone participates. So we get up at 3:30 am and head into the pueblo. By 4:30 everyone is ready to go. A set of people are carrying a statue of Jesus. We start walking the streets of Metapan, all the while a woman speaking into a microphone is instructing the procession when to sing and chant.

At some point the woman tells the crowd to watch out for the angel. All of a sudden a swarm of children come running up to the Jesus statue with a statue of an angel. They press them together as though they are hugging or blessing each other. Honestly we could not figure out what was going on. My host mom did not know and neither did anyone else we asked. By the end of the route, the angel had done this approach and hug routine about 7 times. Clearly it has importance, too bad everyone that got up at 4am to see it has no idea why.

For lunch we went over to my counterpart/ community health promotor/ friend's house. Orlando, Melida, their four girls, Paige and I woke our selves up from a lovely (and necessary) mid-morning nap and headed over. Salvador is recently married, but we never see his wife, so Melida and I always give him hell about it. I am pretty sure this is what prompted the Easter lunch invitation.

Paige learned how to make pupusas. She was slightly self conscious about her pupusas not being up to par. Everyone tried to convince her that her pupusas were fantastic, but I could tell she was not buying it. The great thing about pupusas is that it is very imperfect, there is really no wrong way to form a pupusa. (The same cannot be said for tortillas. Those are a science and if they are not the perfect thickness and round shape they will be fed to the dogs. Not that I know that from experience or anything...) Paige's pupusas were great and we had fun at lunch.

One of my host sisters, Katherine, taught Paige a hand game. It goes 'En la calle ocho esta un chucho muerto. El que diga ocho el se lo comio'. So it means 'On 8th street, there is a dead dog. Who ever says 8, has to eat it'. haha Then you each take turns alternating number. I say one, you say two, I say three, you say four. The object of the game is to not say the number 8, or whatever number you you choose between 1 and 9. So you count up skipping all numbers with 8 in them, like 18, 28, 38, all of the 80's, etc. If you forget and say a number with 8 in it, you have to eat the dead dog. It is kind of morbid, but I have heard some worse ones. haha

After several days in the campo, Paige broke down and did some laundry. (PS Girls hair is crazy long right now!) Not super exciting, but I thought it would be good to document her doing her laundry by hand.

Paige and I sitting on my front steps before our trip to the beach.

Ok so due to a miscommunication, my host family got the date of my birthday and the date of our beach departure mixed up. When I told my host mom we were leaving for the beach she had a minor freak. Apparently Joelle's old community decided they wanted to come down to my community on my birthday and sing to me. (Do you all remember when Carolyn and I did that for Joelle's birthday?) Well since I was going to be at the beach on the day they had planned to come down and sing, I had to figure out who was planning in and call it off. Luckily that was not too hard. I feel so lucky that people down here care about me so much.

Any who, we got up on my birthday and had a fantastic breakfast of french press coffee and freshly picked peached with a friend. After that we headed to the beach. Oh the beach, how I love it. Paige indulged in her first post-lent potato chips.







After we arrived at the beach, Paige insisted she have a picture taken sitting on these rocks. Oh man. It was struggle city for her to get out there. Fully clothed. Also about half way out she remembered that she had a money belt on with her passport in it. I did not know this and just sat there watching her struggle and fall and eventually make it out to the rock. She did finally make it, but while she was attempting to make it out there, among the rocks and waves, this kid just strides on out, plays for a while and then as Paige is making her way back, offers to help her. She made it back, soaked, but she got the picture, and that is all that matters right?

 

Our last days together we spent visiting some family friends of hers in the capital. We showed Paige around the fancy parts of the capital and later we all attended mass. I had accumulated a lot of clothes that needed to be washed at the beach and I asked if I could wash my clothes in their pila The family has a washer and dryer, I cannot tell you how elated I was when they offered to let me use them instead of the pila. There is just not much better than a towel straight from the dryer. 

Paige bought her ticket to come down here months ago and it seemed like it would never be time for her to come down. But here we are, in May and she has come and gone. I think the trip did both of us good.

Mango flower!!!

(As an aside, my bangs are out of control. I am rocking the combover look these days. It is not pretty, not pretty at all.)

Paige!

Paige is going to be in my community in less than four days. WHAT? I guess that means I need to do some laundry. And dishes. And clean. And grocery shop. And figure out how to get her from the airport in the one city in the country that I am not allowed visit. Actually the last one is the only one I have figured out. I did get permission to hire a driver to go to pick me up in Metapan and drive to the airport to pick Paige up and then drive us back to Metapan. Oh goody, right? Since the new PC rules, I am not allowed to take public transportation to the capital, San Salvador. Actually I am not even allowed to go to San Salvador unless it is for a medical reason or I get special permission. I did get special permission. Don't worry PC droids that read my blog, I have been permitted to fetch my friend from the airport. I just have to pay 10 times what public transportation would cost. I suppose that is what you pay for safety, right? I will go ahead and agree with that statement as I have no other choice in the matter.

Even though traveling will be a bit of a hassle, I am excited for her visit. Melida came over yesterday and was asking me about our plans. I told her Paige would be arriving on Thursday. I have a feeling Melida is planning something mischievous, but I cannot even begin to imagine what that would be. She did tell me that mass would be starting at 4AM on Easter with a parade through Metapan. So Paige if you read this get ready!

I am also excited for Paige to see my community as I have already promised to marry her to a friend of a guy in my community. What's that you say? You are outraged that I would promise my friend to a complete stranger? What can I say, it was either me or her. He did say he was a *really* hard worker. I want to believe him. He just wants a visa, and he did promise to stay with his new American wife for all of her life. What more could you want?

We will also be going to the beach for a few days. I am taking vacation and could not be more thrilled. I am hoping several of my PC friends that are still here will make it down to the beach with us. We will be headed down on my birthday, (Still time to get my birthday packages out people!), and leaving five days later. I cannot wait! I love the beach.

I have known Paige basically since we were born. Our Dads went to high school together, and as they kept in touch over the years, so did Paige and I. When my family moved to Virginia, we moved in about 5 houses down from Paige. We have had our ups and downs like any true friendship, but we have always prevailed. Paige is a rock in my life, and I cannot wait for her to see and be a part of my life down here in El Salvador!

Cheers to Paige's inevitable Salvadorian marriage and our exciting two weeks together. Pictures and stories to come!