My Hard Corps Life: ambassador

I've been feeling very reflective about the relationship between El Salvador and America lately. Sometimes I am so thankful that I'm serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer HERE because I'm seeing and experiencing a prospective that everyone wants to generalize. We're a hot media topic! Reporters, pundits and the like have been particularly interested in investigating the plight of the solo child immigrant from Central America. I've actually recognized and identified with some of their stories (because I'm biased and only get my news from NPR, and they generally have very solid reporting).

But they can't possibly generalize El Salvador. You just can't sum up every single child immigrant's story, or the increasing gang violence story, or even the faulty government story. There is so much bubbling under the surface, and every day I get a better whiff of what's really cooking in this country.

I've gotten some help from statistics. Ok, they're more like opinion polls, but they give you a good idea on what the people think and feel. I, being the nerd that I am, follow the Pew Research Center on Facebook and I've been pretty impressed by two studies they just published. A study showing that 82% of Salvadorans believe alcohol use is morally wrong kind of proved my point that I don't get to enjoy margaritas like I used to. Or any alcoholic beverage for that matter. What I would do for a nice craft IPA!

I also get the question, "Aren't Americans a target for violence? Aren't you going to get attacked?" quite frequently. Guys, that's just silly. El Salvador loves America. The majority who responded say that yeah, they have a favorable opinion of the United States. There are some 2 million Salvadorans who live in the US, and every one of them has family living back here in the motherland, most likely living on remezas sent from the US. If anything, people want to be my Facebook friend and get married (to me).

This last bit is really interesting to me. I started my English class on July 3rd with this question- "How many people know someone who lives in the US?" Everyone rose their hand.

Perfect way, I thought, to kick off a KWL with my class on America. It took some time to loosen the class up and get the ideas flowing. Possibly because I had just played Frank Sinatra singing "America the Beautiful" three times, and had just shown them these pictures on my iPad:

GOD

BLESS

'MURIICA

I was just really excited to celebrate Independence Day with my fellow Americans! Maybe I was a little intimidating about the land of the free and home of the brave. I finally got some responses from the class. Turns out, they don't know much about America at all.

There are 50 states, the food is expensive, there are more opportunities, industrial country, culturally acceptable to have tattoos, different language, there's the Statue of Liberty, the FBI exists. (My drawing of Lake Michigan and manifest destiny.)

For a country who loves America, and who has such a large portion of their recent history and population tied to the US, they have very little knowledge about the place. It spurned some interesting "Want To Learns."

Some highlights: What's the different names of the states? What's typical food? What's the most famous university? Why are there 50 states? What's the largest lake?

I loved their questions. I really did. It shows some curiosity. I explained the concept of manifest density, and the beauty of Lake Michigan, Yale and Harvard are show-offs, and apple pie is probably the ideal "American" food. I also tried to talk about how Americans are more independent of their family units. Like, it's ok to go away to college. Oh, and a lot of us go to college. Because we finish high school... which is a full day, with sports teams and homecoming dances. But hey! Two of my great-grandparents went through Ellis Island, so that's cool right?

The culture gap got too wide and I fell in. We summarized some of the finer points of my rant in the "Learned" column. Turns out, I can't even generalize my own country. I'd get caught up on a tangent about "Chiraq" or the military or how monstrously we treat Native Americans. I rejected McDonalds, lauded public radio, then showed them my not-so-scandalous tattoo. I kept saying things like, "This is just my point of view! Everyone is different!" but it didn't matter. I was the only America in the room, so my word was gospel truth.

I don't feel like I did America justice. It truly is a great and beautiful country. But of course, they know that. That's why adults and children alike make the camino. I recently talked with my host parents about all the young kids that are streaming across the border. As much "perspective" I may have on the situation, I'll never be able to understand what it's like to let your child go, perhaps forever. My host mom started tearing up when she talked about Wil, and I just let the subject drop.

It's one of the three big Peace Corps goals to better the understanding of Americans on the part of our host country members. That means explaining why you're so different, keeping your cool during interrogations, and always being conscious of the fact that you, the gringo, are the only American ambassador they are likely to ever meet. It's a lot of pressure.

But I did have fun being the official/unofficial America knowitall when I showed my host family my early birthday present from the Kearneys. Maps! So many maps! I've been asking for maps on my wish-list since I got here. They're a PCV's best friend. I was able to show Aysel where her papito lives, where I'm from, New York and Los Angles (which are on opposite sides of the country!), where the Hawks and Cubs play in Chicago, where's the Bean and Sears Tower and.... It was great.

Thank you, Kearneys! You made me a very happy gringa :)

My models, Edwin and Aysel.

We had a beautiful swearing-in ceremony on October 3, 2013. It felt so freaking amazing to raise my right hand and take the same oath as thousands of Foreign Service workers, military, congressmen and women, and of course, Peace Corps Volunteers did before me. Ya know, the one where you swear to uphold the constitution of the United States of America so help you God. It’s an archaic little oath, but the significance is not wasted on me. Ever since I got the motivation to become a PCV some 3 or 4 years ago I’ve worked my butt off for this day. I applied to the Peace Corps, fully aware that they might place me in the boonies of some blistering desert or possibly in the desolate remains of the Soviet bloc. You never really know with Peace Corps, and that’s what makes applying such a special time.

I’m so fortune to be in El Salvador. My country staff is the best in the world. I really have nothing to compare them to but I’m willing to bet they beat out every other country staff in devotion and love for their PCVs. Asiha represented the PCTs in a speech that made us laugh and cry. I think she did a good job thanking the staff and our host families for helping us the past ten weeks. I feel ready to move to my new home because of them.

The best part of the ceremony was when Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte spoke. She is the realest, most down to earth person I ever met. She started her speech in Spanish (the whole ceremony was in Spanish) but switched to English to really drive home what she wanted to say to us: Most people go through life asleep. They wake up, they go to work, they come home, make a frozen pizza and go to sleep. She told us we only really wake up when we spend our time in service to others. So thank goodness all these twenty-something PCVs are waking up early in life!

I feel like that’s a perfect description of why I’m proud to be a PCV. I want to take full advantage of my health and my youth and all the different qualities that make me me. I’m the kind of person who can learn a new language, climb a mountain, try new food, make new friends in a foreign culture. I can spend my days working to better the lives of people in my community. Why? Because I caught on to my internal drive, energy, ambition- whatever you want to call it- fairly early on and decided to act on it.

(Also, I don’t have any student loans. Thanks mom and dad!)

Not everyone knows that they’re sleeping through life. Or maybe they do, but like a bad dream they don’t know how to wake up. I really think there’s truth in what the Ambassador said. Service comes in so many forms, from helping out a friend in need to Mother Teresa. I think Peace Corps ranks somewhere in the middle of that scale. If I do anything during my service, I hope I can inspire people at home to take charge of their lives to do some good.

I want to be awake for life. Don’t you?