On the brink...

Hey, everyone! So, I don't have a place to live, I'm penniless, and I TOTALLY went off on someone this past week. That about sums up my current situation. But, I am traveling around a lot, graciously staying with other volunteers and people here that are willing to house me.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason (or at least one of the reasons) that Peace Corps is touted as "the hardest job you'll ever love" is because there are times when you just have absolutely NO control over ANYTHING in your life. And it really does make you crazy. I definitely feel like I have no, or at least VERY little, control right now. And there is nothing I can do to remedy it. But the people that live here must go through this all the time. I mean, $0.25 is a lot of money to some people here. I can't even imagine living my entire life wondering if I'm going to get food or shelter from day to day.

So, about what I've been up to that's led me to this place...

I returned to my community on Monday, the 17th and had a GREAT homecoming. I got off the bus and started walking to my house, and all of these kids just came out of nowhere along the road and just started screaming, "MICHELLE!" and ran up and gave me hugs. Talk about making my day; it was such a nice surprise! And when I got home, I had a great talk with Monico, the dad in the house, about how things were going, etc.

After we talked for a few minutes, he let me know that I need to find a new place to live since they moved out. I think (although it's hard to see at the moment) that this could actually be a good thing. I can look for a place by myself, and the family doesn't think I'm moving out because I don't like them.

After this conversation, I went around visiting a couple of places, but wasn't able to find a permanent place. There were a couple of possibilities, but I'm a little concerned about safety, so I'm going to keep looking. This week, community leaders scoped out some places that I'm going to look at on Monday with them. As of right now, I have no idea where I'll be sleeping tomorrow night which means there will probably be a good story in the next week or so. :)

Penniless. Uh huh. Because I was evacuated (and there WAS a volcano, contrary to my baby bro's belief that people are "faking it to keep me out of the community"), I had to stay in the capitol for half of the month. And since living in the capitol is pretty much like living in the states, it gets pretty costly. But Peace Corps pays volunteers more when events like this happen to make up the difference. I figured that I would just wait to fill out the paperwork until I was ready to leave, since I wasn't sure how long I would actually be there. So I filled out the paperwork 2 Thursdays ago. But I didn't get any money deposited, so I ended up calling the cashier at the Peace Corps office to find out what the status was. And she said, "Oh. I have your form right here and it's approved and everything. But...I don't really have money right now." I said, "O...K...when will you have money?" She said, "I think by next Thursday." Great. So I MIGHT have money again then.

So I resorted to my emergency ATM card from the states. I mean, I don't want to be using money from the states, but in situations like this, it's necessary, right? Well, I went to the Taj Mahal of ATM machines. Every bank in El Salvador has an ATM machine here, and put my card into one. No dice. Another. No dice. Yeah. My little emergency card is in a network that does not exist in this country. That was just GREAT to find out! Anyway...no fears if you're reading this. I talked to my program director about the situation, and she told me that she would lend me money if she couldn't get money to be approved anytime soon. So...everything is under control. :)

Oh, and the going off on the salesperson? Yeah. During my evacuation time, I had to buy a charger to continue using my phone. And it was expensive - $20! I know that's nothing in the states, but it's definitely something here! The woman said, "Well your phone is expensive, so the charger for it is too." I tried to tell her that I didn't buy my phone here, but it didn't matter. So I bought it. I mean, what was I going to do? So, I used it once. ONCE. And the next time I tried to use it, it wouldn't work. It kept saying, "Unable to charge". I tried it in several outlets. I tried moving it around, thinking the connection just wasn't right. I tried it in someone else's phone. Nothing worked. It just kept saying, "Unable to charge." I was like, "AAAHH!" So, needless to say (like that, Katie?), my phone died and was unusable for about a day until I could return to my community. So I returned to the kiosk where I bought it and talked to the woman there, explaining the situation. She told me that I needed to return the following day because the woman that sold it to me would be working that day and she could exchange it for me. I wasn't too happy about having to come back, but I thought, ok, this is how it works in 3rd world countries. Fine. So the next day (which happened to be the day I found out I was penniless and couldn't use my emergency ATM card from the states), I returned to the store and talked to the woman that sold me the charger. When I explained to her what had happened, she took the charger, plugged it into this outlet and then plugged it into my phone. My phone said, "Unable to charge." So she started moving the connector all around in the phone...for about 2 minutes. Finally, it said, "Charging". And here is the conversation that followed:

Worker: Oh, it's ok. See... it's working.

Me: Well, it didn't work when you plugged it in. It's only working part of the time. I want a charger that always works.

Worker: Well, if it's only working sometimes, it's because the connection on your phone is bad.

Me: I don't think so, because another person with a phone tried to use the charger and she got the same message...unable to charge.

Worker: Well, it's working.

Me: [lots and lots of breathing to keep from going off]

Me: Is it important to you that your customers are happy?

Worker: Yes, of course.

Me: Well I'm NOT happy right now...I'm ANGRY!

Worker: There is no reason to be because your charger is working.

Me: If there is no problem, then I can take a new one and you can sell this to another person.

Worker: No, you bought this one so you need to keep it.

Me: [losing it...in English...] FINE!!! OBVIOUSLY, YOU DON'T CARE AT ALL ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE!! [Yanks charger out of outlet and stomps off seriously on the brink of emotional instability.]

So that's my craziness for the moment. How are all of you doing??

Miss ya!!