One Year in Peace Corps El Salvador!

As of yesterday, I’ve been in El Salvador for an entire year. This has been a year I will cherish for the rest of my life. It’s easy to let the days accumulate into months without really processing what you’re living. This has not been the case in my first year of Peace Corps, I’ve never been so in tune with my mind, my heart, and the emotions that are strung on the lines between those two parts of me. This work has made me understand what I’m made of. It ain’t all pretty, but it’s good to see it all clearly, even if this clarity dissolves into a lingering fog tomorrow. I’ve seen myself with a depth I never would have known, had I not been doing this work, in this place, with these people guiding me. In this past year I’ve felt so incredibly loved, so lost, so found, so supported, scared, brave, angry and strong. I’ve found more people I call family. I’m part of a community for the first time. I mean, yes, I’ve lived in a community my entire life, but I’ve never felt so embraced by a group of people that a year ago didn’t even know my name. It’s really unbelievable.

My English group has grown lately. We are up to about 30 students. I’ve been really impressed with their progress and their level of commitment. Some students wake up at 4:30am to get their housework duties completed in time to finish everything and arrive on time for English class. Club Cheras has recently started to collaborate with a group of older women in the community to form a jewelry workshop. It’s been really exciting to be able to teach the group to make earrings and necklaces, seeing how empowered they feel with their creative abilities that they weren’t aware they had. We will be shipping a few boxes of their creations to the States to sell to help get our workshop on its feet, create a supply base, and pay other local artisans to train us in other jewelry-making techniques. We want to learn more! The older women in the group have been attending a workshop in Dolores, where they’ve been learning how to make jewelry using polished, cut cow horns. Last week, I taught a lesson on Color Theory…(Never thought I’d be teaching that in rural El Salvador!) but the women loved it and found it really interesting. I had them use the color wheel and apply color theory in designing a set of necklace and earrings. They came up with some really awesome designs. I have enjoyed the atmosphere of having Club Cheras open up more to other women in the community.

Construction of the new school continues and is supposed to be done by mid-August. I am really anxious for the school to be ready…I have a lot of projects in mind for the day we finally have a building again and I’m pretty fed up with the construction workers! The rainy season has arrived in full-force, leaving my “classroom” a total mudpit full of wet desks covered in soggy duck poop. Since the rain started, the students have missed a total of about 2 weeks of school due to “rain days” when the streams rise and are too dangerous to traverse. There have been some make-up days scheduled for Saturdays, but that hasn’t seems to be a very effective alternative. Nobody shows up for a Saturday school day. The constant dampness of rainy season has brought mold into my life in a serious way. I was perplexed the first day I noticed a fuzzy gray-green substance on everything from my leather watch to my bras to my shoes. Now, I have accepted that I’ll be at war with mold for the next few months and there’s just not much to do about it except soak everything in bleach and hope for the best. Worse than the mold situation is the lack of dry clothing. I wash my clothes, hang them to dry and it rains every 5 hours. They never dry. If I hang them inside they just grow mold. It’s a problem. In spite of all this, I have to admit, I love the sound of the rain as I fall asleep, swaying peacefully in my hammock. Best feeling in the world. And when I wake up in the morning and it’s been raining all night. The clouds sinks so close to the ground that it’s like waking up in a dream. I can hear the flooded streams roaring like the ocean at high tide. My sister Zulma’s already started the fire to make coffee. The air smells so clean. It’s actually cool enough to sleep with a sheet. Everything is just how it should be.

So my friends, that is the current state of affairs here in El Salvador. I know this next year is going to be even better. I’m looking forward to what’s to come. Thank you to all of you for your support from afar over this past year. You’re love and support has carried me through those hard moments and got me back on track. The packages, the kind words, the project ideas, and good vibes have given me the drive and strength I need. Gracias, please keep ‘em coming! Well, below I’ve jotted down some of my “big moments” of my first year of service. Take a look…..

Proudest moment: When one of my girls in Club Cheras stood up to her cheating, verbally abusive boyfriend of two years for the first time after we had a serious discussion about self-respect. Go girl!

Biggest Mistake: Taking on a massive soccer tournament event without the additional support I needed.

Biggest Success: Being an awesome English teacher! And finding so many wonderful friends!

Scariest Moment: Tie between being threatened in San Salvador by a man with a hook for a hand and seeing dead bodies in the back of pick-ups after the landslides in San Vicente

Greatest Challenge: Machismo…getting hissed at, hearing smacking kissing sounds from construction workers on the way to school. Peace Corps says ignore it. I say, easier said than done for strong American women who refuse to be oppressed and objectified. I may have lost it a few times with Salvadoran men. Ok maybe more than a few times.
Hardest Laughing: With my Peace Corps family, Eric and Sarah whenever we are together.

Most Embarrassing Moment: Singing Poker Face in front of 250 Salvadorans for Dia del Alumno

Favorite taste: Tie between Mango and Reyna’s cheese and lorroco pupusas…best in the world!

Favorite smell: Fallen mangoes starting to rot in the grove; something like the smell of fall in Pennsylvania

Favorite sound: the roar of flooded streams near my house….almost whitewater!

Favorite evening activity: Reading El Arbol Generoso (The Giving Tree) with my 4-year old sister Estefany for the millionth time

Biggest Lesson Learned: You have no idea what you´re capable of until you just do it.