EL SAlvador: Daily life

We have settled into a pretty normal routine for training by now. 2 days a week we all head into San Vicente for our training sessions (cultural lessons, medical information, technical training, etc etc). We have to take a bus to get there, which is always interesting. Yesterday there were 2 women carrying live chickens on the bus with them. In San Vicente we also are able to go to the Super Selectos to stock up on groceries and stuff. Yesterday we bought Starbucks Frappuccinos there – it was really awesome. The days we don’t go to San V we spend in the community, having Spanish lessons and doing “community investigations”. Community investigations basically just means we go to a certain institution (school, local government, health center), and interview whoever is in charge there. Today we went to a nearby village (canton) to talk to their development committee and do a community diagnostic. It was really interesting, but also very depressing. The committee gave us tons of information about daily life and their current projects (aka trying to get potable water and latrines). The canton was huge in terms of land, but all of the houses were made of mud or laminate. They were so dark and hot and depressing inside, filled with people, pigs, cats, chickens etc. I think the most depressing thing about these places is the kids because they really don’t have any opportunities. We also came across a very very adorable litter of puppies. The dogs here are so sad – they are either strays or abused guard dogs and people always laugh when we are kind to them or coo over them.

In other news, we are in the middle of the fiestas paternales of Tecoluca. This has huge implications for my daily life because my house is in the center of the town. At 4 AM every day they start shooting off roman candles. The first morning I woke up literally thinking there was a shootout outside my house. Also, every night we have “bailes” on the street outside of my house. These bailes go from 9-2 and are what every middle school dance we ever had was like, but with armed guards milling about. The music is so loud I can feel the bass in my chest, even when I have my headphones in and am trying to sleep. So with the bailes and the roman candles, it’s pretty hard to get any sleeping in.

Another part of the fiestas paternales is the rides. There are 5 rides straight from a 1970s amusement park – aka they are terrifying to ride, but my little sisters love them! There are flying cars, bumper cars, a ferris wheel that goes way too fast, a carousel, and a roller coaster. I rode a couple of them the other day with my sisters and it was really fun, if pretty scary. I will definitely write more about the fiestas once they are over and I have a better feel for them as a whole, because right now it still feels like things haven’t fully kicked off.

Tomorrow we go to the market in San Vicente which will be awesome. I will update soon.