Mundo Aquatico

There's a little gem in my municipality called Mundo Aquatico. It's essentially a water park situated on top of a plateau in the mountains. The water has chip bags, grass, and other questionable things floating in it but it's also fairly chlorinated. Prices vary based on how nice a day it is, but adults are $3 and kids are $1.

As someone who grew up swimming for hours a day, teaching swim lessons and being a kick-ass lifeguard (I was awarded the title of Golden Guard, if any of you care to know), pools are pretty sacred places to me. I'm sad I didn't come to Mundo Aquatico more often during the dry season, but there's always next year. That is, if I can overcome the pool safety rules still ingrained in my memory.

I could list all the safety violations here, but that would be boring. Just know that I was in a constant state of panic. The pool I worked at in my hometown might have been strict- no running, flipping or eating in the pool there!- but we were consistently praised for our commitment to safety. I might be out of practice, but I have no doubt in my mind that I could make a save if I saw someone drowning. That's how good our training was!

My little sister is going to start working at the pool this summer. Her first job! I'm a little jealous, really. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and be a teenager working at the pool again... But that sentiment doesn't usually last long and I thank god I've grown up!

I realized that I won't be home during summertime until 2016, and that's a bummer. Even though I'm sick of hot weather here, I really miss summer back at home, in Chicago and in Door County. Who knows how long the job search will take when I get back. Maybe I'll be blissfully unemployed and I can go sit by the pool in my hometown, watch the new guards enforce the rules, and try to embarrass my little sister ;)

My host sister chillin in the hammock.

There's also a restaurant that's pretty good. Here's the kids eating tortas. 

Yeah, they really don't care about this photo. 

Before the barrel tips... 

Wooooo!

Passover

On Thursday I experienced my first Passover with my fellow PCVs. I loved it! What's better than spending an afternoon drinking wine, eating great matza ball soup, and singing "Let my people go!"

I want to congratulate Hilary and Noah for pulling off the most legit Passover the likes of rural El Salvador has ever seen. Hilary was sick too, but lead the seder like a champ. They also get bonus points for including their host family and a JICA volunteer who lives in the area. The seder was in Spanish, English and Hebrew. I thoroughly enjoyed everything from Kadesh to Nirtza. Thank you!

Has campo life turned me into a lightweight, or is Manischewitz really strong wine?

They had to get all the matza sent from the USA. That's dedication!

Maror, zroa, karpaz, beitza, jaroset

Urjatz! Mario washing his hands at the pila. 

Karpas. I'm really feeling the wine at this point. 

Hilary hiding the matza. Mario and Noah looking like statues. 

It wouldn't be a N&H production if it wasn't absolutely perfect! Hebrew and Spanish booklet so we can follow along. The book has all the seder steps with the prayers, when to drink, and what it all means. 

Before we started singing, Hilary referenced this part in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I quickly realized that I knew how to sing "Let my people go!" but I had nooo idea how the rest of the song goes. We tried our best.

The JICA volunteer and their host mom. She LOVES Manischewitz!

The traditional food. 

Delicious matza ball soup!

Everything else I ate. Amazing. 

I didn't have time to toast the cocos for organic macaroons, so I made "local" kosher for Passover meringues. Have you ever tried to whip egg whites with a fork? Lemme tell ya, it takes about an hour.  And when I was baking them the gas went out. Oi ve!

I found the matza! I win! I'm so happy we did this!

An open letter to the new PCVs

A fundamental part of the Peace Corps experience is integrating into your host culture. Ya know, really get in there and talk, dress, eat, sleep, interact, and celebrate just like the people in your community. Integrating into la cultura Salvadoreña may require you to wear long pants in 100 degree weather, drink coffee and eat pan dulce because you were offered it, and wake up with your siblings at 5 a.m. because that's when the house is the loudest. Everyone has some growing pains in the beginning, but you learn how to adapt. Eventually you will refer to your site as "home" and drop the "host" when talking about your familia anfitriona.

The quest for total integration is never ending, but it's the little victories that make the journey worthwhile. Some might take a "trial and error" approach to integration while others fall back on monkey-see-monkey-do. Most of us end up doing both. It's how we learn to love atol chuco and to look every passing human in the eye and say "¡Salud, que le vaya bien!"

Total integration for a PCV is comparable to a practicing Buddhist reaching nirvana. Just look at this definition from the well-trusted academic source, Wikipedia:

Nirvana... refers to the event or process of the extinction of the fires of attachment (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (moha or avidya). In the Buddhist view, when these fires are extinguished, suffering (dukkha) comes to an end, and one is released from the cycle of rebirth (samsara). [Emphasis added.] 

If you want to integrate, you gotta put out the fires of your attachment to deep dish pizza, aversion or anger you feel when carefully planned meetings go awry, and ignorance you experience regarding culto or velas. Only then will you stop suffering from awkward sideways glances and the crushing sense of being completely alone. You'll be released from the cycle of integration and will simply be integrated. Om, nirvana!

Yeah... total integration sounds nice.

In the meantime, keep making mistakes. Try the enchiladas, go to a wedding. Pass the rainy season by drinking coffee with your neighbors and remember to keep an open mind. Call your fellow PCVs when you have a funny story or when you feel like crying. Help each other get through the first few months. They are the hardest and most rewarding of your service. When the going gets tough, sit yourself down and repeat this mantra, proven to help you reach total integration: "I got this. I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer. I can do anything."

Because you really, truly can.

Welcome to PCES!

Bleh

I'm sick again for the second time in four weeks. This time it's a stomach infection. Very gross. I won't get into it.

I managed to pull off my first community-wide English class on Saturday. It went well. I hope to get a core group of very dedicated students. Maybe there will be more students next week, maybe not. I'm kinda sick of teaching English, so I honestly wouldn't mind if the whole thing just falls apart.

We're starting Semana Santa and the place is shutting down. No one wants to work during Semana Santa. They think it's crazy that most Americans have work and school this week. I have a meeting tomorrow with some women interested in starting a women's group, but other than that I'm wide open. Luckily, my community has a tendency to throw meetings at me, so I'm not that worried.

And if not, that's ok too. I have clothes to wash and seder with PCVs on Thursday. I'm actually super excited for seder. I feel too integrated into the Salvadoran culture now- nothings new or exciting. Spanish and tamales and hora salvadorena are pretty typical now. I find myself feeling "bleh" and I think a good seder will shake up this funk.

I'm going all in, full kosher on this seder. I'm even making these organic, homemade toasted coconut macaroons. (I add organic in there just because technically everything's organic that grows in my yard.) The internet tells me that macaroons are a good Passover desert because they don't use flour. They sound yummy to me.

I hate being sick. Sickness has a very poignant way of reminding me that I live in a developing nation. Oi ve.

Busy days!

One thing I love about my community is that there is ALWAYS something to do. I'll look at my blank calendar on Sunday thinking, "Gee, I have a lot of free time." Then BOOM and now I have 15 meetings, intramurals, cooking, art, women's groups, ADESCOs, NGOs, this, that, and more! It's great and it's exhausting.

Today I ran around with the kids from my school for their annual intramural extravaganza. Of course, the boys play futbol and the girls either sit around or some play softball. They never mix and the girls never play futbol. Besides the gender divide, the kids really like having time out of class. And they're getting bastante time off! Three days this week are spent in the cancha playing sports and next week is Semana Santa, which is like spring break but with a lot more church.

Kenny and his friend. The mayor donated the uniforms for kindergarten. 

Two of my 9th grade englsih class students are in *love*

Finally got a pic of Kenny and David. So cute here, so loud when they're at home. 

Kids really wanted me to take a photo...

Me with my 9th graders. I asked the teacher next to me to take the photo, but he made a big deal about finishing his cortido and beans so he could be IN the photo. Guess I should work on my speaking skills some more.

Some girls playing softball. There were so many dust storms. Where's the RAIN!?!

Then I showered up and zoomed into town for a presentation from Asociacion PROESA. I'd like to think that my NGO b.s. meter is pretty accurate at this point, thanks to all the failed projects and false expectations previous NGOs have brought to my community. PROESA seems pretty OK to me. They work with the mayor's office to build capacity for production and local economic growth. I like their mission statement and their output goals are reasonable. They're going to start decentralized meetings across the municipality this month, focusing on the strengths of Osicala's producers (cafe, henequin, artesania, coopertivas, corte conffecion, etc) and how to improve their technical skills and organizational capacity.

I was feeling extra confident today and even read a paragraph of the powerpoint slide out loud when no one answered the presenter's plea for participation. I stumbled on a few words but everyone seemed impressed with the gringa's mad Spanish skills. I'm just here to make people smile :)

Extreme exfoliation

We'll go three or four days out of the week completely without water in my house. That doesn't mean "without clean drinking water." That means no water period. No liquid type substance to wash your clothes, bathe, cook, and clean with. It really becomes a problem for me because I can't seem to stay hydrated in the 100 degree heat. When there's no water, there's no water to chlorinate and drain through my filter. 

One thing is for damn sure- I will never take running water for granted again.

The saga continues with my relationship, or lack therefore, with water. Just yesterday, I was dripping sweat at the hour of 8am. I had some meetings to get to so I figured I should take a shower before the water dries up (without fail, the water will be dry by noon). I'm happy, because the water is running so I hop in without a care in the world. 

I get to soaping up when I notice that my soap feels gritty. I think that's weird but meh, weirder things happen. But then my arms and legs are covered in grit and I put two and two together that the grit is coming from the shower head. Of course it is. I turn the water off, but I'm covered head to toe with suds. 

I work out a system where I fill up a guacal, let the dirt/sand mixture sink to the bottom, then I splash the layer of brownish water from the top to rinse the soap off. The floor of the shower is completely covered in mud at this point. 

Finally, I'm as clean as I'm going to get. I asked my host dad what happened this time. There's always a new excuse reason for why we don't have water. Normally the culprit is the dry season and there just isn't enough water in the waterfall to supply all the houses. Sometimes it's more interesting. "They're building a house up the road so they cut the tube." Sure. "The tube burst." Ok. "A bolo cut the tube for fun." Seriously? 

I never got a straightforward response. 

No one will be more relieved for the wet season than me. I do rain dances all the time. I know there will be some point, probably around September, when I'm sick and tired of having rain every single day. But then I'll look back on this post, remember how much it truly SUCKS to not have access to water, and I'll get over it. 

The easy life

Don't be fooled by my title- life in the campo is NOT easy. But it can be easy-going. I took this week to recuperate from a virus and my visit to the US. I also spent a record breaing 3 hours and 12 minutes washing my clothes on Sunday. Here's some pics I snapped during the downtime. 

I bought a shelf for my new pots and pans. This is a SERIOUS win for me. Woo, clean dishes! 

I visited Nina Otina and she gave me this plant/fruit to eat. 

You feel the white fuzz off and eat it. It's sweet, but fuzzy. 

Otinia enjoys the plant/fruit. I forgot what it's called, but it starts with an E. 

Aysel was beating the heat by taking a bath in a teeny tiny guacal. 

Upgrade! Cribs: El Salvador.

Chalk!

The kids love sidewalk chalk! Unfortunately, chalk reminds me of the countless hours I spent on my hands and knees chalking the quad in college for WZND, PRSSA, ISU Hockey, etc. But the kids liked it and that's all that matters. Thank you mom and dad for sending the chalk!

I came outside and there were drawings everywhere! 

Extreme hopscotch. 

Aysel the artist. Making circles and stuff. 

Very concentrated. 

The U S of A

Did I really go to the US? It doesn't feel like it. I spent my first US vacation with two days traveling through airports and three nights in different hotels over the course of four days. It went by really fast.

I had a very good time shopping for things I need, eating out with my family, sitting in a hot tub (hello hot water!), and just enjoying America's luxury.

Here's some general observations I have about going to America after living 9 months in the campo:

1. America is rich. Excessively so. The first night we stayed at this beautiful resort in San Antonio. It was huge, there were fireplaces and big leather couches and a Starbucks stand. The grounds were so pretty- I forgot what landscaping looked like. But of course, someone has to clean the place and rake the leaves and wash the towels from the Texas shaped heated pool. Who do you think does that kind of work? The luxury of our country is built on the work that we don't see, from construction to food service. I felt incredibly aware of the "fancy" things like window panes and carpet, water you can drink straight outta the faucet. I was overwhelmed and annoyed because I'll never, ever be able to express just how comfortable America is compared with a developing nation. (Especially a developing nation that is constantly losing its population to service the American lifestyle. Salvadorans are on their way to being the third largest Latino group in the US. I swear I heard the powerwash guy say puchica.) 
2. Americans eat so much. We went to a delicious TexMex restaurant in downtown San Antonio. All the portions were huge! Two servings of fajitas could feed my whole host family. I ate more meat in that restaurant that I normally do in a month, and it was decadent. The margarita was good too. 
3. On that note- if you're ever in Texas make sure to stop at Buc-ee's. Ridiculous.
4. Even though Hispanics make up 38% of the population of Texas, I never spoke Spanish or saw many tienda signs. I was let down. Maybe they keep that out of the touristy places or maybe Spanish has truly become my second language and I didn't notice the difference. Either way, I was hoping I'd be able to show my parents how I can roll my rrrrrrr's. 
5. I got off the plane and went through a fancy customs kiosk. It was cool! But it stunned me, literally stunned me, how professional the airport security was. They called me "mam" and said "please move this way". A police officer smiled and said "have a nice day". Professionalism is something we DEFINITELY take for granted in America. It's expected that you will be treated with respect and courtesy when you enter a service situation where money changes hands, like a restaurant or a salon. Just browse Yelp! if you want to learn more about America's entitlement complex with professionalism. Half the reviews are people complaining about the "service." Too slow, waiter didn't give me extra cheese, blablabla. This is just laughable when you live in a country where a high school education distinguishes you. Where a "good job" is line cook in a fried chicken joint. Professionalism? People are late, answer their phones in meetings, sometimes even drink beer during training. Professionalism is not a value in this culture. Maybe because El Salvador doesn't have as strong a service sector they don't demand professionalism of others or themselves (Obviously, this applies to the campo. I'm sure people who can afford to go to a salon in the capital expect better treatment.) 
6. Also when I was in the airport I saw a man in a suit for the first time in months. He was like an alien creature to me. A clean pair of jeans is professional here. I mean, really though, most men work in the fields so it's not unreasonable to uphold this standard. But I guess I forgot that there are men and women who lead companies and work in big offices, and coincidentally, dress in nice clothes. 
7. I love diversity. It was so reassuring to see different races and nationalities in the same place at the same time. There was a certain time in history where being mestizo was illegal in El Salvador, so they stamped out any diversity that could have prospered here early on. Everyone is just.... Salvadoran. There's very little variation in that. I've never lived anywhere so homogeneous before PC, and it was nice to be back in America where differences are celebrated. 
8. I brought back a ridiculous amount of toys for the kids thanks to my friends and family back home. I had a fun time giving them out. Sidewalk chalk is a huge hit. I like seeing the kids happy, but it's kinda funny. Aysel's mom guards the crayons I gave her so they don't get broken, but the boys have already destroyed the lego set. It's a perfect example of the culture here- you either squander everything you got (like remezas) or you pinch and scrimp and hope you'll have enough to last til tomorrow. 
9. Honestly, it felt good to be back in my site. Everything is familiar here, I know people and they know me. I'm comfortable here, I can relax. Even the overcrowded buses and cicadas were welcome sights to behold. Being a tourist in San Antonio was not a very fulfilling experience. Next time I go to the US, I'm going HOME. 

***I forgot to mention that the Riverwalk is beautiful, I loved the architecture. Go on the boat tour because it's owned by the local government in San Antonio. Also, thank you very much to my parents for paying for my plane ticket and bringing me on spring break. Thank you to grandma for brownies and toys, grandma for my daily rooster defeating earplugs, Christi for all important t-shirts and toys, Jackie for life sustaining coffee, Deeds for dinero, Kelly and Don for scrunchies and yoga shorts and everything else. I loved everything and I'm so fortunate to have you wonderful people in my life!