Day 2

[see below for photos that correspond with this entry!]

Another great day of training! We got up at 6:30, had a delicious breakfast of cooked and somehow carmelized plantains, fried egg, salsa, and liquefied beans (sounds gross but is great). Then we headed to the training center for 12 hours of sessions. Eek. The sessions were pretty interesting - we covered personal safety and security, proper treatment of food and water, diarrhea and dehydration, adn some basic spanish. We also had spanish interviews to assess skill level and interviews with the resident doctor and our first immunization - typhus. All in all it was a very productive day. A few PCVs (Peace Corps VOlunteers) who live close to San Vicente came in and talked to us about safety which was good and helpful. We also took a trip into downtown San Vicente which is actually fairly urban. There are lots of stores and restaurants and a great looking market that I can't wait to explore! One thing I have noticed is that all doors and windows here have a covering of really beautiful and intricate iron work. I took a photo of the building across from the PC training center (see below) to try to show it. I really love this style and I wonder if it is specific to San Vicente or if the rest of El Sal looks the same. We were downtown in San Vicente to get NIT cards, which are some form of identification that we need in order to get bank accounts opened. We were given our first pay - $40 in cash (we are earning about $2.50 per day - which is actually a decent amount of money here)

We went to the same restaurant we ate at last night for lunch. The food was not as good today, but still pretty good. One thing that will definitely take getting used to are the corn tortillas. At home I love corn tortillas because they can get so crispy - but here they are about 1/4 of an inch thick and very mealy and heavy. They really sit in your stomach after eating them and don't have much flavor. But all the current volunteers say you get used to them fast and I'm sure I will too! 

Training sessions were fairly boring and I must get to the true star of my day - the pupusas. This evening a local woman and her daughter came to the training center and made us all pupusas! They are very very delicious. The combinations we had tonight were cheese, cheese and loroco (local produce - some kidn of vine that actually looks like flower buds), and cheese and beans. We covered them in red salsa, then curtido which is basically a vinegary cole slaw, and then some pickled vegetables. You pull apart the pupusa and eat the entire mess with your fingers. So good, but very very messy! With this meal we were served delicious hot chocolate that basically tasted like a melted chocolate bar. (Apparently, all women gain weight during training... I can see why).

Now we are back in the hotel. We move to our host families tonight. Iw ill be with that host family for the next 2 months, before moving to my permanent site. The host families are not right in San Vicente. Rather, there are 5 surrounding communities that will have volunteers. There will be 3 volunteers in each community, and we will all live in a different town. We will have our spanish lessons in those communities, traveling to the training center in San Vicente only for our group training sessions (about twice a week). Therefore, it is likely that for the next 2 months I will only have internet when I travel to the training center. After today I'm not sure how often I will be updating this or in contact in general. So hopefully I will update again soon, but who knows!!

breakfast: carmelized plantain, fried egg, salsa, liquified beans

dining room at the hotel.

some san vicente scenery

outside of the PC training ctr

the famous clock tower in san vicente

volcano from the streets of san vicente

i didn't know boston had special carnitas...

typical SV buildings - note the iron

lunch - roasted chicken, pineapple/apple salad, rice, and corn tortillas with some sort of grapefruit flavored juice

slightly out of focus group pic

PUPUSAS

local women making us pupusas

"A pupusa (from pipil word pupusawa) is a tortilla made of corn filled with one or more of the following ingredients: cheese or quesillo (special salvadoran cheese), pork rinds, beans, squash, etc."
Below the root of the word pupusa from the nahual language is given

"Salsa: tomatoes, onions, green chiles, peppers, cilantro. Types of pupusa: cheese, some other sort of cheese, squash, squash with cheese, beans with cheese, beans, pork rinds, revueltas (beans, cheese, and pork rinds)."

A spanish maestra teaching us about how pupusas are made

pupusa line

the finished product: 2 pupusas, pickled veggies (carrots and cauliflower stuff), red salsa, and curtido (cole slaw type thing that accompanies all pupusas)