Settling In

I have now been in site for a little over a week. So far, things are going pretty well. Everyone here is really nice and welcoming, and the community seems to be very motivated and organized. The other day I spent 4 hours at a meeting at the school to plan for the next school year (which starts in January). Santa Paula’s school is trying to switch over to “tiempo pleno”, which is full day school like we have in America. The normal school here is 2 4-hour sessions, with kids either attending morning school or afternoon school. In tiempo pleno, the kids would have 8 hours with a lunch break and some vocational stuff (such as arts and crafts, cosmetology, or what have you). Santa Paula is one of 4 schools in the department of San Vicente that was chosen to do this program, so it’s pretty exciting!

I have started playing with the softball team. They are way better than me, but in general are very patient. The first game I played in was on Thursday, when we played a coed game against another team. San Vicente is the epicenter of gay and transsexual life in El Salvador. Apparently, the softball teams around here started playing coed games occasionally so that people from that community could play too. While the guys that played with our team were all apparently straight, there were a couple gay guys and one transsexual on the other team. What amazed me was that I got harassed more than them! In fact, everyone was very respectful to them during the game.

Other than my involvement in the softball team, I have been spending most of my time with my host family trying to get to know the community. I have spent some time in the school and some time with the Santa Paula health promoter, who will hopefully be able to help me figure out some health related stuff to do in the community.

There is still a ton for me to do to get settled into this community (aka the dreaded house visits where you just sit staring at the host for an hour+), but in general things seem to be going smoothly.

I've included a panamoric set of pictures of my room, because I assume some of you are curious! I will put up more of my site in general when I have a chance to take some!

view from outside my window