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



Santa Paula

So I have officially been in my site, Santa Paula, since Saturday. Last Friday we moved out of our training communities and into a hotel in San Vicente. Early early Saturday morning we all headed into San Salvador to a hotel for our “Counterpart Day”, which is when 2 counterparts/community guides from each community come and we get to meet them and have a mini conference type thing. Only 1 of my counteparts came, Don Rodil, the director of the school in Santa Paula. As I am the 4^th volunteer to come to Santa Paula he really knows the ropes. Thank goodness! After a pretty boring morning of meetings we headed out to the community. Luckily, PC offered to drop most of my baggage off in Santa Paula for me (since I’m so close to the office) so Don Rodil and I only had to travel with my computer bag and a mini suitcase (in case PC didn’t drop my luggage off on time).  Don Rodil and I boarded a city bus and ended up at one of the bus terminals in San Sal. This is where my adventure began. As we are being bombarded with taxistas offering us rides, Don Rodil somehow figures out that the bus pulling out of the station is going to pass by Santa Paula. The cobrador (man who collects money on the bus), grabs my suitcase out of Don Rodil’s hands and starts chasing the bus, banging on it for them to stop. As it is a coach bus, he then opens the under compartment and tosses my suitcase in, amongst some leaking cans of gas. The bus starts to pull away, so I nimbly (or not so nimbly with laptop bag and mosquito net in arms) leap onto the bus and secure a window seat. As we are pulling out of the station, Don Rodil says, “It’s good that you have a window seat.” “Why?” I ask innocently. “So you can see if anyone tries to steal your bag.” Oh…great. The next hour was passed in an interesting state that varied between sheer exhaustion and constant vigilance. But, luckily, no one stole my bag and I arrived in Santa Paula with all of my luggage accounted for.

These past couple of days have been a whirlwind. My arrival is overlapping with Alayna’s departure from Santa Paula, so she is introducing me to everyone while saying goodbye to them. I imagine it is really hard for her having me come in as she is having to say goodbye to her home. However, all in all I am thrilled with the parts of the community I have gotten to know. There is a vibrant women’s softball team that I have tentatively (pending ability) been invited to join. ON Saturday we watched a friendly game, and then on Sunday we traveled to the pueblo of Apastepeque to watch the team in an all-municipality tournament. Today I went to the escuela to meet the teachers. There are 12, including Don Rodil, and everyone seems really nice and committed to their job. Unfortunately, last night someone broke into the school (which is right on the Panamerican Highway) and stole a photocopier and all of the food from the snackbar. The community itself is safe, but its proximity to the highway makes the school an easy target I guess.

As for living situation, I am living with a very nice host family. I have my own room that is in a little house separated from the family’s main house. The bathroom, bathing area, water, and kitchen are all in the main house. My host mom is an amazing cook, which makes me very happy! At the moment I am just trying to make my room as homey as possible for the next 2 years. This means buying some drawers for my clothes, hanging pictures from home, and what have you. Yesterday I spent 2 hours in the San Vicente market looking for various furnishings. The only thing I could not find anywhere was a lamp! Looks like I’ll be using flashlights till I can get to San Sal. A cat at my house had kittens about a week ago, and one of these has already been offered to me. Yippee!

Anyway, I will be able to post more once I have had more time to settle in and process everything that is going on, but in general all is good and exciting here!

Swearing In

Today we had our swearing in ceremony (or juramentacion) to become real live Peace Corps Volunteers. This was exciting, as these past 2 months we have just been "trainees" and not actual volunteers. The event took place in a hotel in San Vicente and the US ambassador came to give us all of our diplomas. The whole event was in Spanish, except for our oath (same oath the President takes, but sub "Peace Corps Volunteer" for "President of the United States"...pretty cool). All of our host families came, and after the ceremony we had a mini reception with cake and coffee and such. It was a nice close to training.

Tomorrow is El Salvador's Independence Day, which means no training or work. I will be spending the entire day packing up, because on Friday we move out of our host family homes! Saturday we head to San Sal to meet our site "counterparts" (community leaders who have agreed to show us around the first couple months), and then we head to our sites! Wooo!

getting my diploma from the ambassador

the entire training group, finally volunteers!

ashley and i and our host parents

Site Assignment Day!!

These last couple of weeks of training have been incredibly busy. Every day we go to San Vicente for lectures and etc. But this Thursday was the most important day of all, because it was Site Assignment Day!! To find out our sites, PC played a mean game with us. We were divided up into 2 teams and played Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Every person who got a question right got to pick a numbered star off the board, and read the back of that star, revealing a person’s name and where they were going. We then had to come up and place our stars on the huge map of El Salvador that covers one wall of our training room. I found out my site third. My site is actually really close to where we are right now – I will be in a caserio (tiny rural neighborhood) of Apastepeque, which is a pueblo like Tecoluca, but about an hour north. I’ll be about 30 minutes from San Vicente by pickup. My site is named Santa Paula; it has 425 people and a school of 220 kids. It is rural and located near the Pan-American Highway, so travel will be very easy. I am replacing a current volunteer named Alayna, who will be in the site for a couple of weeks to help transition me. 

At first I was a little bummed that my site is so close to the city and the training center. Now, however, I am very happy. I like the idea of being close to the city and the PC office if I ever need anything, and I really like the atmosphere of the city of San Vicente. It will be great to be able to get away to the city if I ever need to, even just for the day. 

Anyway, I have had a stomach infection of some sort, and I am feeling out of it, so this is the end of my post. But here is the wikipedia link to my municipality and some pics of our stars! 

Apastepeque Wikipedia

before the big event

me!!

All the assignments - i'm the blue star smack in the middle