Adventures in My Backyard

So this post isn't for everyone, but I am gonna put it out therelike it is or was. First I'll start off by mentioning all that has recently happened before launching into the anecdote the title refers to.

Well in the last week or so I have managed to finally meet all the other volunteers that currently live in my Municipio, all five of them. For quite some time I wasn't really sure exactly how many other volunteers lived near me or where exactly they lived, but now I know, and knowing is half the battle. All five of them are girls, none of them is n my program and they have all been here longer than I have. So I feel a bit like an outsider for now, but I am sure that will change with time and the realization that all five of them speak english and are accustomed to the same sorts of food as me. Already I joined them for a charla at a school about recycling and I will be joining them again on monday to give the same charla to several other schools. In this exciting charla I get to play either an empty can or a discarded shoe.

As far as monday goes, it is also Yom Kippur, so we will see how the fast goes while walking around in the heat carrying props for our charla. I have promised myself to try, but have resigned myself to the realization that forgoing water would be a horrible mistake, so I will be drinking throughout the day. It just isn't feasible for me to return to San Salvador to celebrate this holiday as much as I'd like to. I have been spending lots of time out of my site recently and I have to get some stuff done, mainly my quarterly report and some work on ADESCO training curriculums, not to forget the trash charla on Monday as well. But that comes with the realization that I am no longer just an idle spectator here in my site, I am beginning to take on responsibilities and get some work done.

Ok, time for my fun story...

It has been drying out lately, meaning it hasn't been raining a whole lot, but it rained with a vengeance yesterday. I have been bugging my landlord to come by and fix a few problems with my house, but he has been putting that off and being otherwise very Salvo about it. Thats ok, I am growing accustomed to the life here and realize he isn't doing anything out of the ordinary. Well yesterday it rained rather hard in the evening and I my first troublesome experience in my new house. First you should all know that my shower and bathroom are in my backyard, both are covered of course, but I still need to walk across my uncovered backyard to get to them. Furthermore, I haven't managed to buy lights for either yet, so at night it can be rather dark in there with the door closed, which I tend to avoid if possible. Additionally my toilet itself has issues, it has no seat, only a lid that fell off and it needs to be bucket flushed. Well yesterday I had the runs, so I was presented with the not so fun situation of using my sorry excuse for a bathroom in the pitch black rain. Well since I don't want you to use your magination I will describe how this works, bring the headlamp the find the bathroom, hover over the toilet, aim, shoot and hope for the best. That works fine and all in the daytime, or when you aren't in urgent need of the facilities. Last night my aim was a little off and I wound up splashing a bit on the back of the toilet and on my board shorts, which I was wearing because my other clothes were soaked. And the bucket flushing caused a little more splash, so all around last night wasn't so great. I got up early today to mop and clean and this afternoon I plan to do some laundry. (By hand of course)

High Holiday

I was a bit worried when my parents first brought up the question of what I would do for the High Holidays some time ago. I figured the only answer to that was vamos a ver. Well it turned out to work and it has reaffirmed to me that no matter where you find yourself there are always some other jews there that figured out how to carry on and will gladly take you under their wing.

I am sitting in the nicest house I have been in since I left Los Angeles and the only house that legitimately reminded me of the way houses are constructed and layed out in the US. 6 volunteers including myself have invaded this house, eaten our fill and generally made ourselves at home. All this thanks to the generosity of one family who are members of the embassy here. I would never have met them if it weren't for a curious phone call from another volunteer wondering if I was in fact jewish as she had suspected.

I am happy, well fed and glad to wish everyone a Shana Tova.

The Boda

Ok, so September 17th was a monumental day for my family and me. The first of my cousins got married, which means the first of this generation in my family. It makes it all that much more monumental that I grew up with my cousin and more than anything he is like a brother to me. I can’t seem to separate in my mind that kid that I always played sports and video games with and to this day we still enjoy an unhealthy amount of potty humor and drinking stories. But more than that, it was a crazy trek from rural El Salvador to the civic center of Baltimore and back in only 3½ days.

I started off by waking up before the roosters even started crowing, which in and of itself if an extraordinary feat, and made my way through the country on the first bus of the day out of my site. It was a big game of leapfrog from one terminal to the next and somewhere in the middle I found myself wondering through the shady central market of San Salvador where I saw some things that will be burned in my mind for the rest of my life. Eventually I made it to the airport before the doors of my airline even opened, so began the giant game of sitting around airports. I think I actually spent more time waiting in and around airports than I did in planes and certainly more than I did in cars or beds. Buses would be a different story altogether. Strangely it takes as much time to trek from the Airport to my house as it took both planes including layover from El Salvador to Maryland. But it was all worth it.

I got the honor of being in my first wedding party and I got to see many members of my family who I haven’t seen in much longer than the nearly 4 months I have been gone. I never knew how tiring it was to get dressed up and take photos then stand around in the front of a wedding, nor did I ever think how rewarding it was. I wouldn’t have traded that ache in my feet for anything on Sunday night. Through the whole affair I saw family, ate good food and took some lukewarm showers. (No, I was not mentally or physically prepared to jump from the freezing cold showers here in El Salvador to the hot massaging showers in the Hyatt.)

As I said to many people before I left I had mixed feelings about rushing back to the US so soon and for such a short period of time. But it turned out alright. It didn’t give me nearly enough time to acclimate to life in the US again, and therefore it didn’t give me the opportunity to really start missing my life there. All in all I came away with a bagful of stuff to use in my life here and when the whirlwind was over I feel more like it was a really exhausting dream than anything else. A dream that leaves you with great photos and some really comfy sheets.

Ok so I do´n't have my camera with me and that is bugging me because I can't add any of the beautiful pictures I took while hiking around the hills in northern Morazan last weekend. I was there to celebrate Angie's birthday which happens to be on the same day as my father, his two sisters and one of my cousins. That is a lot of people for one day, but it makes it easy to remember. Anyway, so a bunch of us descended upon Angie's site and crashed in a hotel for two nights while we hung out and hiked aound. I have to admit she got a beautiful area. She lives way up in the hills near Honduras and from looking around you would forget you are in El Salvador. Everything is Pine and Oak and it reminded me quite a bit of the higher areas in California like Yosemite and Tahoe. Its also fairly cool, which was a big surprise seeing as how its El Sal and all. But alas I don't have my camera with me so none of you can see these lovely photos and bask in what I am describing.

On the home front I've paid for a house for this month, which solves the issue of finding a house. Unfortunately simply having a house opens many more issues, like buying a bed and other such necessities as well as the little things you never think about needing. For example, I now am set out on the task of acquiring various sizes of guacals, enough dishes for myself and maybe a guest or two, some cleaning items, various hardware items like lightbulbs and whatever else comes up. Its more work than I thought, but its something to do. It gave me an excellent excuse to run of to the closest city and I plan to spend the day here.

I am personally torn about how I feel to be going to the States for Elie's wedding. Of course I want to see my family. And of course I want to get some much needed items while I am in the States. The problem is that I don't know how I am going to handle being in the US again after so short a time and knowing that I will have to come back here. I mean I am just now getting used to life here and this may soil that. In addition I feel just a tad guilty for leaving my site and flying off so early in my service, I mean its not usually done, but its for a good reason and I gave lots of warning. I know I shouldn't feel too bad because my Alcalde will be out of town too, but I am leaving on independence day. That could mean horrible flying conditions or an open airport, I am hoping for the latter. Either way it is what it is. That leaves me trying to figure out what to pack and how to get to the airport by bus.

I am still just sorta tagging along on the various tasks that the social promoters currently have going, but now I am starting to have a little more input and I am actually being invited for various tasks not just asked where I think I want to go. I am looking forward to the time after I get back from the wedding because the promoters will be changing their focus from the Civil Protection Committees back to ADESCOs and they want me to help them build a curriculum to teach the boards leadership. And they have plans to continue educating these boards afterwards, so I will most likely help develope future topics and curriculums as well. Additionally I need to do my entry into site event, which is basically a charla to community leaders explaining who I am and what I can do, then inviting them to do the same. That should get my face out there a little more and introduce me to some new people in my town. I don't need to do it yet, but now that I am settling and my personal needs are getting covered, I figure the sooner the better.

For my brother who is very impatient, you should know that in order to update my blog I need to find a good bit of time and an internet cafe. The two at the same time are hard to come by and for the most part I plan to update whenever I am in one of the cities here, which I am hoping to do once a week, but it may be less. I also may be able to find an hour here or there at a closer internet cafe if I can't make it to a city every week. But the point is that internet is a rarity here and I've gotta find time to travel to somewhere that has it. Also to my brother, thanks for taking care of stuff for me while I am gone.