Warning: Rated HSS for Highly Sappy Sentimental Content

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven´t posted for awhile. There has been a lot going on with the school year coming to a close and to top it off, early this week I had to be wisked away from my site in a white Peace Corps SUV because I was so sick and weak, I could barely stand up. Turns out I have been infested by a disturbing number of amoebas and amoeba eggs. Yum! And, if that weren´t enough to keep me running to the bathroom every 10 minutes, I also had developed a gastro-intestinal infection. The good news is...I think I´m gonna make it. The bad news is...this is probably not the last time I´ll have this issue. Currently, I´m feeling much better thanks to the arsenal of meds Dr. Irma provided me with.

In other news, yesterday, after a 2 hour bus ride from Ciudad Dolores, I returned to Tecoluca, where I spent my first two months living during Pre-service Training. We will be here for two weeks, living with our original homestay families, as we complete our technical training. We have been in our sites for 2 months getting to know ¨our people.¨ Now we know what the needs are and what ideas we have. During these two weeks, we can learn more technical skills that are specific to what projects we want to work on. I am looking forward to it because I´d like to learn more about small buisness development for a possible jewerly workshop, how to support a brand new ADESCO that´s just getting on it´s feet, and how to write grants to solicit funding for projects.

It´s a strange feeling being thrown back here in a more urban context after 2 months in my site. It´s as if nothing has changed when every one of us volunteers has two months of this whole other life sandwiched in there. For the first time in my life I´m starting to truely appreciate rural living. We don´t have a movie theatre, a mall, resturaunts, or coffee shops. We don´t have a night club, a swimming pool, or a gym, or a grocery store. We have one bus, and one bus only. There´s no internet and sometimes no electicity. We have running water 3 days a week if it has rained recently. Some of you might be wondering how I haven´t lost my mind. Believe me, I was a little uncertain about how well I´d be able to thrive for two years so far outside of what I´ve always known as ¨civilization.¨ Now that I´m back here in said civilization, I find it a little destabilizing, and even kind of exhausting. In MC we have good people, a river, several streams, a big blue sky, and a whole lotta green. On a clear night, we can see every star in the universe and just as many fireflies. We have roosters crowing outside the window at dawn, heards of cows wandering the dirt road, and children running through the pasture with their homemade kites. People don´t judge your clothes, your house, or what kind of food you have to offer. In MC I spend more time watching kids play than watching TV. I spend more time in other people´s houses than my own. I spend more time listening to people´s ¨back in the day¨ stories than listening to my ipod. Time goes so slow but there is never enough time in a day to get bored. The ¨middle of nowhere¨ has suddlenly become my center of everywhere.

And so as it stands, each of us have this other world that nobody else knows. Being back in Tecoluca has had me reflecting on this whole experience so far. It seems my reasons for being here are constantly shifting. When I came here 4 months ago, I was here because I wanted to help people. Now I´m here because I want to help people that I love, people that have helped me. The love I feel from my comunity makes me want to be better, work harder, and push myself further. I give everything and I continuously get more back. I feel blessed beyond words to be here in El Salvador for the next 2 years. To quote ee cummings, ¨love is a place¨ and no matter where I rest my head at night, love is the only place I´ll ever call home.

Above I´ll post some of my latest pictures. I´m going to head back to do some more catching up with my old host family and my friends from the Policia Nacional Civil. I hope you are all well! I´m sad I missed those beautiful Pennsylvania fall leaves!