Stop. Hammock Time

new hammock chair

One of the best, and sometimes worst, things about PC is that you have tons of downtime. While being a volunteer is considered a 7 day a week job, we are only expected to do about 4 hours of work every day. That leaves 20 free. A lot of this time is occupied with other things, of course, especially when you are trying to get to know a community and a host family. But, there are still quite a few unoccupied hours every day. This free time coincides nicely with the Salvadoran tradition of having many hammocks in the house. Salvadorans string hammocks where Americans would have couches or lawn furniture. I suspect because they are cheaper, but also because it is so effing hot here that you don’t want to be snuggled into cushions. When you’re in a hammock you can still get nice breezes from all directions, and the gentle swaying can lull you to sleep in seconds.

When we were in La Palma a couple weekends ago for our volunteer conference, I bought a hammock chair. Good timing, because I have had plenty of hammock time lately, as it has been raining steadily across El Salvador for over a week now. The government has declared a state of emergency, and there are flash floods and mudslides going on. This means all schools and agencies are shut down and we PCVs cannot travel (and who would want to). Mudslides are a really scary natural disaster. With an earthquake you can get away from tall buildings, hurricanes usually give you enough warning to batten down the hatches, and volcanoes are just plain rare. But mudslides are frequent enough here, and if one is coming for you there is literally nothing you can do except stay inside and hope your house doesn’t get swept away. In November of 2009 there were devastating mudslides in San Vicente that killed many people and wiped out entire neighborhoods and towns. Luckily, Santa Paula is not in mudslide territory, but just thinking about it is scary.

On a happier note, due to this interminable rain, I have been spending a lot of time in the house just reading and lounging. Due to boredom, I sniffed out the kitten (who lives behind the refrigerator…not sure why) and have de facto adopted him (the family calls him my hijo, aka son). Every afternoon we hang out and nap together. He is a little freakish looking because his mom never feeds him and I think he is malnourished. He also has fleas. A little girl in my town has named him Manchita, which means "little stain" due to a white splotch on his back. not the cutest name, but it has stuck and it seems to suit him. He is a funny little guy and keeping me good company!

view of the volcano on my "commute" to school, when it isnt raining that is

no one likes the rain

malnourished, flea ridden kitten

Assorted Pics

Here are a couple pics that I haven't had a chance to post yet. The first 2 are of the outside of my house and the family compound I am living in. Below are some pictures I took today in the San Vicente market. Unfortunately, it's pretty dangerous to go flashing a camera around the market, so I could only grab a few pics in some of the less crowded areas. Some day I will try to get pics in the really packed alleys.

outside of my casita

host family compound

san v market

san v market

san v market

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

Pupusas

My favorite food here is still pupusas. Last week, our Spanish maestra taught us how to make them. She sent me the recipe, which I translated into English and am posting here along with some instructional pictures!

Pupusas

·      Masa de maiz (corn flour, can be bought at the supermarket I think)

·      Water

·      Cheese

o   Here they buy 2 types of cheese – really soft and bland queso fresco and really hard and sharp queso duro (shredded), and then mix them together with their hands till they are completely blended. This way the cheese is soft, but has the sharp flavor of the hard cheese. In the US, the best comparison would probably be to buy mozzarella cheese and then kneed in some shaved parmesan

o   Also, here people often add to their queso chopped loroco (the national flower - its buds are a common seasoning). Loroco barely has any flavor so leaving it out will not harm the taste of the finished product.

·      Filling

o   Most common filling here is fried pork skin and refried beans. Pork skin is not my thing, so I prefer to leave it out and just use refried beans. You can buy refried beans, or make them yourself! (If you buy the refried beans, make sure you heat them up a little on the stove with some oil so that they are warm and malleable when you start forming the pupusas)

·      Vegetable oil

Mixing cheeses (Kara is mixing dough in the background)

Pupusa ingredients [top left: dough, botton left: cheese; top right: loroco; bottom right: beans]

Directions

·      Mix 2 cups of masa and 1.5 cups of water. Mix until a soft dough is formed. Wet hands, and form a small ball of dough (a little bigger than a golf ball). Poke a hole in the dough, and add a little bit of cheese and a little of beans. Re-roll into a ball, with the filling in the middle. Flatten the ball into a fat tortilla.

o   The only thing I can compare making pupusas to is how Mio makes rice balls. Therefore, as you can imagine it is really really hard for me (since I still haven’t mastered rice balls after 22 years).

Making the pupusas

·      Heat a little vegetable oil in a fry pan over medium high heat. Place pupusas in fry pan and cook, flipping occasionally. Cook until browned and cheese inside appears to be slightly bubbling

Cooking our pupusas. They usually don't look this messy

Salsa Roja

·      Large (roma) tomatoes

·      Green pepper, chopped (optional)

·      Vegetable oil

·      Onion, chopped

·      Garlic cloves, chopped

·      Cilantro

·      Salt (as needed)

·      Hot pepper such as jalapenos (optional)

Amounts will vary depending on how much salsa you’re making

Directions:

·      Blanch tomatoes in boiling water, remove and place in bowl. Remove skin of tomatoes; blend (in blender or food processor) with chopped pepper, cilantro, hot pepper (if using – people here usually don’t use it, but I prefer it!).

·      In saucepan, heat oil and cook onion and garlic till slightly brown. Add tomato mixture and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water and salt as necessary

·      [Salsa here is very liquidy (resembles tomato soup) and is served hot over the pupusas] 

Tomatoes and peppers in the blender

salsa and beans on the stove

Curtido

·      Shredded cabbage (not too fine)

·      Sliced onion (not chopped)

·      Sliced carrot

·      Green beans (cut in half)

·      Beetroot (optional)

·      Cauliflower, cut into small pieces

·      Vinegar

·      Water

·      Oregano (optional)

Directions

·      Mix all ingredients together (should be ¾ vinegar, ¼ water) in a big bowl, put in the fridge. You should have about equal parts all veggies, although more cabbage than anything else. Not sure on exact measurements, but should kind of look like coleslaw.  Here, they use a vinegar made of fruit, but I don’t think it matters what kind you use as long as there is no specific flavor to it

Veggies for salsa and curtido

Curtido   

Eating

Salvadorans usually peel their pupusa in half (so they have 2 round tortillas with filling on top) and then put curtido and salsa on top of these halves, tear them into chunks and eat with their fingers. I prefer to tear my entire pupusa into chunks (so the filling remains in the middle) and put curtido and salsa on top and eat it all with my fingers. This way, I am able to keep molten cheese from sticking to my fingers and burning me (most of the time).

[Note: pupusas are NEVER eaten with a fork. That would be sacrilegious]

Finished product!