Projects Projects Projects
April officially marks 6 months in site, that's half a year, 180 days of official campo life. But hey, whose counting? Time has flown by. Some days I still feel like that scared girl who showed up, barely speaking at an intermediate mid level, clueless and completely out of place. Other days I feel like a superstar. I’ve got projects, I have successfully completed a grant application and speaking Spanish in front of large groups no longer makes my head spin. In these six months I have created a new life for myself, with some semblance of normalcy. This “normalcy” includes routines, friends and a sense of belonging. I have developed a connection to the people, the mountains, and the special quirks about this little community. While I wouldn't go as far as saying little San Nicolas feels like home, I can no longer refer to it simply as “my site”. Personally and professionally, my time in El Salvador has thrown me through some extremely unexpected loops (aka the broken foot) but everything seems to have fallen into place. So, where am I now, you wonder? I am planning, teaching, leading, organizing and cooking.
My Peace Corps soul sista/best friend/partner in crime Emily made the trip to my site for a much needed weekend togetherness (and wine). Our false confidence led us to believe that when you combine the very subpar cooking skills of two girls, one superstar chef emerges. We learned the hard way that this is not the case. How you make a pizza so awful that the children in the house end up secretly asking their mom to make tortillas and beans, I do not know. Our concoction turned into an 8-pound mess of uncooked dough, with cheese and veggies. Pizza 1 gave us some hope, everyone in the family took their piece and complimented us with the hope that pizza 2 would turn actually be editable. If this were based on presentation alone, our second pizza, uncooked, would have won a blue ribbon. But after 15 minutes in the oven, we realized we had another failure on our hands. A failure we were going to have to eat. My host mom salvaged the cheese, tomatoes and green peppers, and the dog filled its stomach with 8lbs of uncooked dough. Were we able to lessen the blow to our egos, and my host family’s stomachs, with dancing and a lot of jokes. I was so proud of my little host siblings; they shed their pena right away and were their normal, crazy selves in front of Emily.
English, English, English
No matter what our formal job descriptions may be, there is no escaping the demand for English classes. From day 1 people were asking when English was going to start. It was assumed that the gringa was going to teach English. After weeding through the masses, my classes started out with over 30 students, I now have a dedicated group of 14 who show up, study and have made an activity I once dreaded something I look forward to each week. My class is made up of 11 girls (aged 15-24), 2 boys and 1 crazy older community member. The first classes were rocky; I learned that I am not meant to be a teacher and how vital detailed lesson plans are to a class. But now we have all found our groove, and slowly they are learning English, and I am figuring how to teach a class. But, what makes this part of my week so enjoyable is the Friday culture club aka día de BASEBALL. That’s right, I discovered the impossible, a group of people, in El Salvador, who do not like to play soccer. My girls all played on the high schools softball team and would much rather spend a Friday afternoon leaning on the baseball field than kicking around a soccer ball. The games started as a reward for high exam scores and now have taken on a life of their own. Our complete lack of equipment is the only downside; I had forgotten how much a fastball could sting.
Women’s Group: We Makin Money!
A few weeks back I posted the highlights of my first women’s group meeting, a celebration for International Women’s Day, and I can happily report that our little group is making moves, and money. The directiva (elected officers) have been working together every week to figure out how to bring money into the group. They solicited money from the ADESCO and used their start up cash to start turning profits. We took advantage of the things they already knew how to do, cook, and have started selling whenever the opportunity arises. General assembly, my ladies sold $27 worth of yucca and juice. Sunday pupusas vending brought in a cool $37 and tomorrow we are planning to sell snacks at the elementary schools soccer tournament, hopefully we can collect another $20. The real struggle that I am facing with this group is that they are moving full speed ahead, when we really need to be taking baby steps. The whole directiva is new to this type of work, there has never been a women’s group in the community, so I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I am either the dictator of internal group management, forcing policy and procedures down their throats, or I am the supportive volunteer, who tries to slip in some friendly advice here or there. Finding that middle ground is something I am still working on. The problem is the people in my site like to see instant, tangible results. If they cant touch it, it doesn’t matter and since they cant instantly see the rewards from the organizational activities and trainings, it is hard to keep their attention for longer than 5 minutes. This is one of those times when I have to count the small victories as a win, and not let all the anxieties about what we aren’t doing loom over the group.
My biggest battle in site has been working with the ADESCO, the local community group. Scheduling a meeting, a nightmare. Getting the group to listen to new ideas, impossible. Machismo members insulting my Spanish or talking about me because they don't think I understand, obviously. Mind you, this is the group that collectively worked to bring a volunteer to the community, so there unwillingness to work is something that I just cant understand. You would think living in the president’s house would give me some leverage, but in reality it has done nothing to help my cause. I have come to understand that the group is deeply divided, lacking transparency and the desire to work. Most of the members have been in their position for years and abide by the motto if it isn’t broke, don't fix it. Any new ideas get shot down, and while they may talk the talk in front of the community, behind the scenes they aren’t walking the walk, and the people here are not blind to this. I finally made some headway with the new secretary/treasure and we have re-organized the bill collecting system for the water pump and created a detailed list of every house that has water and when they pay their bills. It may sound simple, but it has helped us to realize that a good amount of the people in the community are simply not paying, and that they are not being punished. I suggested a 3 strikes and you’re out policy, but I think that came across too harsh. Now we have to start the fundraising efforts to build a new water tank, which costs approximately $16,000, so time to get started on the raffles!
...and on my down time, I am home taking selfies with Fatima and teaching her how to make animal faces, cutting pants into shorts or trying to master some new arts and crafts project. This is now my normal.
