Immersion Weekend...

Hello all!! So, I just had the most intensive, amazing weekend. This email is VERY long, so only read if (1) you have time and (2) you’re actually interested. Read on for details...

THURSDAY 5 PM
We find out in training that we’re going to "immerse" ourselves in the culture by visiting a family living in a canton (small community in the country) for the weekend. I am told that I’m visiting a place in Morazon, right across the border from Honduras.

FRIDAY
I wake up at 4 AM to pack and get ready for my trip. At 5 AM, I walk to the park in our community to meet Andrew, a fellow volunteer that needs to go to the same first bus stop. We take the first bus to a neighboring city, where we both have to catch other buses. I catch bus #2 at 5:45 AM with Stephanie, another volunteer who is going to the same area. We ride for 3 hours to bus stop #3, in San Miguel, located in the eastern portion of the country. Here, we eat some dry cereal and wait for bus #3, which is traveling to Corinto, the pueblo (city) next to our final destination. Bus #3 takes another 2.5 hours to get to Corinto. As the day progresses, the roads get worse and worse. I attempt to write in my journal...those pages are pretty interesting to attempt to read. :)

We arrive in Corinto around 11 AM and meet Megan, a current volunteer working in Corinto. She has arranged for us to stay with 2 different families in the canton. Stephanie and I get into the backseat of a pick-up and ride for an hour into the country. Now, when I say ‘ride’, I mean to say, bounced around like crazy. It felt like we were in a blender and it was on high throwing us all around. This ‘road’ that we traveled on was like....imagine going up and down a mountain with tons of boulders to traverse, and areas of mud that reach to your knees. And every boulder has like 50 other indentations, so when you’re driving over it, it feels like you’re on one of those old-time roller coasters that’s about ready to explode at any moment from the terrible construction. Or, when you’re going through the smooth part, where mud exists, you start sliding sideways down the mountain. That’s sort of how it felt. But 50 times worse. I’m not doing it justice here. Just know that every bone in my body hurt when we finally stopped and I was glad we made it alive. An hour of that. Yes, then we got out of the pick-up, and started our real journey...actually getting to the houses. Wow. That’s all I have to say. Wow. This is the part of the journey where cars could not pass. We started out on a flat boulderish surface, walking along, feeling so glad we were out of the pick-up. Well, then we started hiking up and down these hills that were like 70 degree inclines. It started with rocky hills, then moved to paved hills. Oh, but since it had just rained, the pavement (which was covered with moss) was like a sheet of ice that we needed to walk down. Yes, it was INSANE. Stephanie and I were like, ‘We have to walk DOWN this?? We’re going to die.’ :)

Well, we actually made it. It took forever and a day, but we made it. Then, we got to walk through mud. That was exciting. We were like, “Yea! We’re not going to fall here!” Well, then we got to the rivers. Walking through rivers. That’s quite the experience. And finally, after walking up and down hills, through mud, over pavement that felt like it was coated in ice, etc., we finally reached the first house - mine. We were ready to collapse. My host family had 7 kids, lived in a mud-stick hut with 2 rooms. One had the kitchen and tons of sleeping areas (hammocks and things like this). The other room had 1 bed and a hammock. We sat for awhile and talked, and then sat through a municipal meeting, where we understood nothing. Only that they wanted to build some road. We didn’t quite understand that since no automobile could possibly enter this area through all those crazy hills, mud, rivers, etc., but ok. Then, Stephanie left with her family, to begin her next hour-long adventure traversing the mountain some more to her host family’s home. So I started investigating where I would be living for the next couple of days. Summary: (1) no electricity and (2) no bathroom (and I mean no latrine, no walled off area, nothing but a tree that you liked). So, I sat around with the kids and started playing cards. I had taken my plastic cards (thanks Jen) and they were all enamored with them. We played until we couldn’t see anymore, and then lit candles to play some more. Around 8 PM, the oldest son, who was 18, asked me to go with him. He took me to the one and only room in the house and told me I was sleeping in the bed, and he was sleeping in the hammock next to me. I was like, “Does the rest of the family have somewhere to sleep?” He and his dad assured me that they did. But from what I saw in the other room, I have no idea how they worked that out. Anyway, we ended up getting ready for bed and going to sleep. As you can imagine, I was dog-tired and slept like crazy.

SATURDAY
The next morning, I woke up around 6:30. The mom and the oldest son were at home, but everyone else was gone. The oldest son was just staring at me when I got up, which is a little weird to wake up to, but ok. I wanted to go to the bathroom and take a bath. So I was waiting for him to leave, but he didn’t. He just sat there. I was like, “Where is everyone else?” He said, “Working.” I said, “What time do you start work?” He said 7. So I was thinking, "OK. I just need to wait 15 minutes and then I’ll have some privacy.” So 15 minutes pass. Then 20. Then 25. Finally I say, “Don’t you need to leave for work?”

He was like, “Oh, no. I’m not working today. I’m keeping you company.” Fabulous. :) So I said I would return in a moment and walked outside to do my business. Well, of course, in Michelle fashion, since it’s rained during the night again, I totally fall on my face attempting to climb this mountain to do my business. So I return to the house with mud all over my sleeping clothes. That was fun to explain. Then I changed into a t-shirt and shorts to take my pila bath. I actually washed my clothes on a stone next to the pila during my bath. That was my first experience cleaning the clothes on a rock. Fun times, man! :) Well, finally, I finished with ALL THAT and got dressed.

Then, the 18 year old just sat in the hammock looking at me again, so I said I needed to do some spanish homework. I did a little work, then decided to take a nap. I slept for about 4 hours, until the other kids came home, and then we all played cards together until it got dark again.

Around noon it started pouring again, so my newly cleaned clothes were drenched once again from the downpour. I was like, “these are never going to dry”, so I brought them inside to dry. Well, as I was getting ready for bed during night 2, all of the kids came into the room I was staying in. They all appeared to be writing some sort of note. The 18 year old was the major author, with the rest assisting him. Well, after about 15 minutes, he made all the other kids get out of the room, and he handed me this notepad.

There was this letter to me telling me that destiny had brought us together and he was in love with me and wanted to spend time with me, wanted my phone number, etc. I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I acted like I didn’t understand the spanish. That didn’t work too well, so I said, “Well, I don’t have a phone, so that won’t work out. And I really like your family too. Thank you.” I think he was really frustrated that I wasn’t understanding, but didn’t know what to do about it. So we just went to sleep.

Well, since I had slept most of the day Saturday, I wasn’t too tired. And just as I was falling asleep, I heard this loud squeaking and flapping. I was like, "Is there a bird in here?” I turned on my flashlight, but couldn’t see anything. So I fell asleep. Then around 10, I woke up again because there was this big noise. I knew there were animals above me, I just had no idea what they were. So I turned on my flashlight again, and realized that rats were running around like mad right above my head. That kind of freaked me out - especially since I wasn’t too tired! So now I’m trying to go to sleep when I’m not tired AND with rats running around my head. So I actually did. It was a miracle.

SUNDAY
But I woke up again around 1 with the same experience. Then slept some more, then woke up again around 4. At 4, I was just totally freaked out. I wasn’t tired at all and the mice appeared to be having some competition above my head. There were like 20 running on everything. I was like, “Wow. One of those is definitely falling on my head.” So I kept my flashlight on. So the 18 year old turns his on and is laughing like crazy at all the mice.

After about 5 minutes, he turns off his flashlight, gets out of his hammock, and gets into the bed I’m in. I was thinking, "OK. He probably thinks I’m scared or something” so I just moved over so we were both laying there, but not touching. Well, then he decides it’s a good idea to lay next to me, all cuddled up on my side. I was like, “That’s it. I’m done.” I jumped out of bed and said, "I’m not tired anymore!” I walked outside and just stood there for about 2 hours waiting for the rest of the family to get up. That last part was a little uncomfortable, but otherwise, I had a great time with the fam. They were all really great people!

So Stephanie and her family met up at my house Sunday morning to trek back to the pueblo. We walked the 1 hour back through rivers, mud, wet pavement, and hills to the road and then waited for a ride into town. Apparently, we have no idea when a car is coming, so we just wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. In the hot hot sun in the middle of nowhere. We wait for 2 hours, and then Stephanie’s host mom says, “Maybe we should go home and eat and then come back.” You should have seen Stephanie’s face. She turned to me and says in English, “We are NOT going back down there, walking through hell again, so we can come back 3 hours from now to wait again!! Is she CRAZY?? Is this some cruel JOKE??!” Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard I was crying. So Steph tells her host mom that we’re not hungry and we start attempting to brainstorm....maybe they can go eat and we can wait for them. Maybe we can offer them a snack we have in our backpacks. Then this pick-up drives by, and Stephanie says to me, "If they don’t come get us, I’m stealing that thing, so jump on as I drive by.” Again, uncontrollable laughter. Well, thank goodness the pick-up people were nice enough to take us into town. We all climbed onto the back to begin our rocky road rafting. That’s what Steph and I named it. Because as we were going over the billions of boulders and mud, etc., we had to hold on for dear life on the back of this pick-up, just like you do in white water rafting. :) We even rated each of the “rapids”. That was some good stuff. Well, we got back to town an hour later, with every muscle in our body hurting again from holding on for dear life. (But oh let me tell you, it’s 50 times better than riding INSIDE the truck!) Anyway, we met up with Megan, a volunteer that is working at that site, and she let us hang out at her place for the day. I immediately hung up my wet clothes (that I hand washed in the country that didn’t dry) outside her place to dry.

There was a fair going on in town, so we raided it and ate like mad. I had only eaten 2 pieces of bread and a small portion of rice for the weekend, for fear that I would get the dreaded parasites or amoebas if I ate more, so I was pretty hungry. We ate pizza and icecream. Oh man was it good! Later, they wanted to eat again, so I got french fries. Again, super good! We decided to buy some water before going back to her place. So it’s like 8 PM now, totally dark, and it starts to sprinkle. I’m thinking about my drying clothes outside her place, so we try to hurry buying this water. Well, as we finish paying, it just starts downpouring. Buckets of water are coming down like crazy on us, so I’m like, “Well, so much for drying the clothes. I’ll just have to try again later.” So we try to wait out the water. This is like hurricane downpour, not just a few drops. So what happens? The power for the town goes out. Everything. There is no light ANYWHERE. Megan was like, "Oh man. This is going to be like this for a couple
of hours.” Stephanie and I looked at each other and we busted out laughing. I was like, "I can just hear my email now...'and then’...'and then’...'and then...’ :) So...a car drove up to the store where we were standing, so we decided to use the lights from the car for the beginning. We started running through the streets, getting soaked to the bone, not having a CLUE where we were going, jumping unknowingly into puddles of water up to our knees, etc. I could NOT stop laughing. Then we got to her place, lit some candles, and hung out in candlelight talking. I was like, Ï need a shower (she actually has one) and haven’t taken one in candlelight yet. Tonight will be a first!” It was SO relaxing!!! So, I got done, started writing my 12 page journal entry (much similar to this fun email), and then went to bed.

MONDAY
The three of us wake up, take our sweet time getting ready, go eat more pizza, then get on bus #1 to return home. 6 hours later, I reach home, reunite with my normal host family with all of them giving me a big hug saying, “We missed you so much!!” That was awesome. Now here I am, writing to all of you about my crazy fun-filled weekend.

So...that was my weekend. How was yours? :)

Miss ya all tons!!

My fun group and intro spanish level...

Ooo....those special keys on the keyboards here are so cool!! :) So....now that I´m attempting to download these photos and it says it´s going to take 5 hours (geez, I really hope not!), I thought it would be a good time to write to all of you!!

First of all, the photo that is attached has the three people in my host community with the volcano in the background. This was taken at our bus stop that we wait at in the morning, on the days we travel to San Vicente. Andrew (Andres), Tara, & John (Juan) are my three compañeros here. We all have a great time together! Andrew played for a professional hockey team as the goalie before coming here – I forget which one exactly...Georgia or Alabama...something like that. Tara was a co-captain of her track team in college and just finished her graduate degree and decided moving to the middle of nowhere sounded like fun. We figured out that we wear the same size clothes and shoes, so we´re psyched about that! And we decided we´re definitely going out sometime to a dance club! And Juan worked as a professional tennis coach and worked with youth from a Spanish community in southern California, I think. As you can imagine, his spanish is WAY better than the other three of us! So Tara, Andrew, and I have spanish class together and Juan goes off to talk to leaders in the community. We all have a blast together.

So, today we went to the capital. It was a blast! After 2-3 weeks of Salvadoran food, we finally got the American good stuff - I had Wendy´s & Cinnabon. Oh my goodness was it good!! There is a mall in the capital called Metro Center (or that might just be the area), but it´s pretty much like a mall that you would find in the states. The problem is...the prices are the same too. So when I make $1 per day instead of whatever I made back home, it kind of increases the value quite a bit! So I probably won´t be hanging out there too much...but it´s a good place to splurge when needed!! :)

So the weather here is pretty hot. As you all know, I freeze my butt off in the states when most other people are comfortable, so I actually like it here most of the time. The other people in my group are just drenched in sweat most of the time, and I find that I´m just a bit hot sometimes. Last night, I got out the blanket (thanks Jen!) because I was freezing!! I looked at the temperature on my alarm clock, and it was 77!! So....I´m going to DIE when I go back to the states!! I guess I´m going to have to live somewhere HOT! TIS....will you take me in?? :)

Yeah, so spanish. I´m getting it little by little. Today I actually talked to a random person on the bus, and she said, (in spanish) ¨Your spanish is really good!!¨ I was like, ¨YES!!¨ Because in actuality, I´m lost most of the time. I don´t think I´ve put this story in any of my emails yet, so I´ll tell it here. :) During my spanish test that took place the first day we arrived here, the person I was talking to (a spanish teacher that´s been here for 7 years and worked with hundreds of volunteers) asked me to ask her 7 questions. So I asked about her family, and stuff like that. But for the last question, I asked, ¨How many volunteers need help with spanish?¨ She said, Äll of them. No one is perfect!¨ So I said, ¨Right....well, how many volunteers need AS MUCH help as I do in spanish?¨ She thought about it for a minute, then picked up her pen, and wrote ¨0¨with a line through it...you know, like you do in math class. I was like, ¨ZERO??!!¨ And I´m freaking out like crazy because she´s worked with hundreds of volunteers and she´s basically telling me that I´m the worst!! So while I´m having a nervous breakdown, she realizes what´s going on, and she´s like, ¨No!! 50-50!¨ The line down the middle apparently represented half of the people. That made both of us laugh like crazy. My heart attack was put on hold! I have another good story about spanish class, but I´ll save that for next time!

Well, this email looks like it´s getting pretty long and I´m sure you´re tired of reading by now, so I´ll send more later!! I miss all of you so much and think about you all of the time!!!!!

Talk to you soon!!

Email change of address...

Hello, again!! Well, I have 3 things to announce...

1) I forgot to include this in my last email, but please do not distribute any of my emails or other communication to media. Things can be taken out of context, or people can read into things the wrong way, and it can cause problems for the Peace Corps and me. If it got bad enough, I could be terminated as a Peace Corps volunteer. Gretchen, don´t get any ideas. :)

2) This is my new email address. Hotmail was giving me problems, like I couldn´t send out updates to everyone at once...it had to be done in waves.

3) When I came down here, I was planning to be a Municipal Developer volunteer, which is in the Business Development section. There are 27 of us in my group (used to be 28, but one guy decided not to go at security checkpoint at the airport in DC), which is the most that have come to date in one program. WELL....when we got here, we were told that there is a new program that is beginning with our class. It´s in youth development and it is focused on assisting youth with preparing for the workplace, teaching IT and other computer skills, and teaching English. In some cases, the program works with teachers to teach them how to teach youth. So....we all were invited to apply for this new program, and of course, I did because 1) it´s new and undefined(totally my kind of work) and 2) I feel like I can get really enthusiastic about it. The Municipal Development program is set up so we work with Mayors of towns in setting up programs for people. It sounded really boring to me, so I´m super excited about the youth development! They announced yesterday that 7 of us are going to start out this new program and I´m one of them!! So....my focus has changed, but I´m super excited about it!!

Here´s my little fun story for the day. Today, about 10 of us went to another volunteer´s site. She´s been there for 2 years and just extended her stay for one more, so she knows what she´s doing. Her site was INCREDIBLY hot and humid. I couldn´t believe how hot it was!! Anyway, there were like 50 billion more bugs there than anywhere else I´ve been in the country so far, so I said something like, ¨Geez! There are TONS of bugs here!! They´re ALL OVER ME!!¨She responded by saying, ¨Yeah, they usually hang out around rotting fruit.¨ I was like, ¨WHAT?! So I smell like rotting fruit?!¨ That gave everyone quite the laugh. She was trying to back-track like mad, but you know how that goes...it just gets worse and worse as you go. Needless to say (that was for you Bonnette), we´re not our normal clean selves here in the humid hot insect-filled environment, yet....still having lots of fun! :)

And...I do have my digital camera here, but I can´t figure out how or where to download the photos. As soon as I figure that out, I´ll email some photos!

Well, hope you´re all doing well! I´ll talk to ya soon!

I´m still alive...

Hey, everyone!! Well, it was really smart of me to send out an email to everyone asking for contact info 1 day before leaving for a country with limited internet access!! I finally have finished going through the responses and THINK I've added everyone that wanted to be added. If I missed someone, just let me know! :)

So....El Salvador is AWESOME!! Granted, there are some major differences from the US. Women cook, clean, don't really work like they do in the states. We have to bathe with a pila, a container of (unheated) water that we dump on our heads. We sleep with a mosquito net over our beds that is covered with bugs. Let me tell you...the mosquito net is awesome! It keeps EVERYTHING out of the bed! We're not allowed to throw toilet paper in the toilets. And yes, I just started my period today. Some things don't change. It was quite a surprise to me and I had to borrow - ok - take – some stuff from the nurse. I was laughing so hard and I don't quite think anyone understood why. But they'll get used to that sooner or later. :)

My host family is great. Roberto and Maria are the grandparents. Danira is their daughter (mid-30's maybe?) and Roberta is the grand-daughter. Roberta and I dance to this exercise video called Zumba many nights during the week. It's pretty funny. The rest of the family sits on the couch and laughs at us! :)

We went to the lake on Saturday and bought fish. Let me tell ya...this process freaked me out. We actually walked to the water's edge, asked the guy in the canoe for 5 pounds of fish, and he literally pulled live fish out of the water and smashed them flopping around into this little plastic bag. I was thinking, oh my goodness....that is what I'm eating now. Those live things that are flopping around like crazy. Then we got home and Maria cooked a few up for lunch. When they cook fish here, they cook the entire thing. They just throw the fish into the frying pan so you eat everything when it's done. I told them I was a bit freaked out to see the head and eyes staring at me, so they chopped off the heads for me. I was quite thankful. But when we sat down, I didn't know how to eat it. I was thinking, are you allowed to eat the scales? The fin and everything were there. They had to show me how to eat it and they thought it was quite humorous. Actually, scales taste a lot like other animals' skin - chicken, etc. It was quite a memorable day!:)

The bus that we take from San Rafael Cedros (where my host family lives) is PACKED and I mean PACKED all the time. It looks like a commercial for deodorant. You would all laugh so hard. But...it'sa good place to chat with people, if you can handle talking to someone 2 inches from your face!Well, I need to get back to the training. I'll hopefully send out another update soon....I miss all of you terribly and think of you often!! AIA - I sent out my first letter to you earlier in the week so we'll see how long it takes to get to you. :)

Miss ya tons!
M