Goodbye Training, Hello Comunidad

November 26, 2007

Spent the day in San Vicente once again for our last day of official training. Everything went more or less smoothly. I did get a phone call in the middle of our sessions though from my program director Rolando asking if it was ok for a kid from the US to stay with me a few days out of the first week that I am in my site. Apparently, his dad is a professor at LSU, and is one of the scholarship donors and an environmental specialist that works down here a lot in El Salvador for different organizations. I really have no problem with it. It’s just sad that I won’t have had much time to make connections to make the kid’s experience a better one. I think he’s 19 years old kid if I’m not mistaken. Oh well, it’ll be a good time.

They also tried to push the whole getting in touch with our new community card today and the fact that the first few months this should be your only goal, and not getting big projects going. Everything that we do they say comes from the amount of community support that we get. Which is fine with me, apparently the first few months go really slow with a bunch of extra time, but I plan on doing a ton of house visits to get to know everyone, maybe even follow around the health promoter at times to get to know some of the people.

I could have used this part from Grudem’s book this summer for my paper. Take note of his analysis of this part of Romans 5 in connections with “inherited sin.”….aka original sin. He makes good points throughout this section, of which this quote is only a small portion.

“1. Inherited Guilt: We are Counted Guilty Because of Adam’s Sin. Paul explains the effects of Adam’s sin in the following way: ‘Therefore…sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned’ (Rom. 5:12). The context shows that Paul is not talking about actual sins that people commit every day of their lives, for the entire paragraph (Rom. 5:12-21) is taken up with comparison between Adam and Christ. And when Paul says, ‘so [Gk. Houtos, ‘thus, in this way’; that is, through Adam’s sin] death spread to all men because all men sinned,’ he is saying that through the sin of Adam ‘all men sinned.’” (p. 494)

p. 499 also has some interesting notes on the idea that infants are in fact in a state of sin, while in pp. 971-980 goes against most of Christianity today (and the earliest Christian bishops), in denying infants baptism… although that “Christianity” is divided on what baptism actually means). Although, I don’t think I have the resources here at the moment to write on this subject. Oh well. Maybe once I’m at my site.

November 28, 2007

Hmmm, the past few days I have been in orientation for the real thing. Peace Corps, El Salvador…..hoorah. Its been both interesting at times and boring. The best part was today when the embassy security and some other staff came in to give us a few briefings on safety and other things. The guys were former marines that were hilarious. Yet at the same time…all business. They compared El Salvador to some cities in the US and other places, and their crime rate per capita…. HA wow, not even close. I think the homicide rate was like 4 times that of the worst cities in the US. There were close to 4000 homicides last year in the first 9 months supposedly in 2006. Apparently they are having a lot of trouble with gangs and with those gang members being deported out of the US. It was also funny too because the security guy was going through a slideshow that had all kinds of protocol for new embassy people. He tried to skip it, but we were all joking that the suggestions were like…never call a taxi, never ride public transportation, never talk to anyone that is native and speaks English, etc etc….all things that we have to do as Peace Corps, but that the embassy tells their people they will get robbed doing so…a running joke for us now. Anyways, there was a bunch of other cool stuff too. I made some contacts in the embassy, that’s always cool.

I got my haircut fixed today, so that’s good, people were actually really down about it earlier. True story: a girl was telling me about a dream she had that I was in, and she was happy about it cause it was pre-first haircut. Haha.

Hah! Who is that guy? Estefani loves messing with my hair.

So, orientation is all over now. Tomorrow morning we leave our host families at 6 in the morning to gather in San V and head to our Counterpart Meetings and for lunch and swearing in. Very fun.

Me with my Salvadoran fam!

Very sad night, the family is very sad that their gringo is leaving and that makes me sad. It’s a really nice family. They think that I am excited about leaving though because I have been smiling a lot the last few days. They are saying some of the same things that mother was telling everyone before I left. I have told Mercedes though that I will visit often, and if anyone visits that I will bring them by.

The boys.

Aww. Tear.

To close, I’ll mention a high school activity that we did to close out training. We each took a piece of paper, wrote our name on top, and then passed it to the left for the rest of the training class to write something about us on it. Kind of a souvenir thing for our class. It was actually kinda fun for me, I wrote down some crazy stuff on other peoples things just to freak them out. I laughed at a few comments on mine though (stuff about my recently destroyed hair abounded).

“Always remember: you/your haircut will always be bonito to someone”

“Rhett, your hair looks ridiculous, but we are homies anyway”

“I got electric clippers and a guacal (plastic bowl). Don’t pay for haircuts anymore. You’re awesome!”

“I truly believe your new haircut qualifies you for joining a boy band. PLUS you’ve got killer dance moves……”

The other theme was ‘wisdom’ in the comments…I mean really where did that come from?

“…….I respect your wise comments in classes.”

“You’re a wise man Rhett. I seriously believed that until you got your haircut. But you know what? You own it well and for that I admire you!”

“Wisdom is your strength. Seriously.”

There are others but, more sappy, inappropriate, or boring/irrevelant.

November 30, 2007

We made it!

So the last two days have been crazy busy. Yesterday I got up and sat around til the sun rose, then took a bucket bath with water that my mom had warmed up…. Sweet! That made it somewhat bearable. We said goodbye at the bus stop and we went off to the training center. Just me and my laptop and what I was wearing for the next few days. (I borrowed Gabriels shoes once getting to the center because I didn’t bring any nice ones). We left and got there a little late at 830am, but it ended up all being good. Our swearing in and counterpart day was all held in FEPADES, which Im not quite sure what that is. It was a nice basic conference center setup. Both my counterparts showed up, but without anything to take my luggage back to the community….wonderful….they waited on the truck from the Municipality to show up most of the day, and it eventually did….around 4 pm. We spent the morning in orientation with our counterparts (those who we will work most closely with the next two years) and then had some lunch. During orientation though I got to give a talk in Spanish to the whole group, that was cool. After lunch, we had the swearing in with the Minister of Agriculture from the El Sal gov and the DCM, Deputy Chief of Missions from the Embassy. They gave decent speeches praising PC, blah blah blah. It was nice though, we had both anthems, and then had to take the oath to defend the constitution etc.

My counterparts are the two faces directly to my left. This is in our orientation with them before the swearing in.

Yeah, yeah, lets get it on.

Anyone notice anything that yours truly had to fix in this pic?

The important people. Left to Right....Peace Corps Agfor/Envir. Ed. Director, El Sal Min. of Agr., US Chief of Missions (slack ambassador didn't show), PC Director, Youth Development Director

After all that it was a cluster of trying to find my counterparts, my bags, and some way to get them to the community. I had just one suitcase and a bookbag but the suitcase was really heavy from all the tech books they gave us. Eventually while we were waiting out by the road, they came just in time for me to catch the last van out of the place to the hotel they had us in. If not I would have had to have taken like three buses I was told. Whatever.

That night, we hung out in the “hotel” for a while, then took cabs to go check out Sushi Itto for dinner, before the big Peace Corps send off at some club close by that place. The sushi was ok, but we got ripped off big time on the bill. I’ll leave it that cause Im tired and ready to get some sleep. Speaking of sleep, I got to bed at about 4 last night after being used to like 930pm bedtimes. To the right is San ISIDRO!!

The peeps from our bus every morning.

I was up at 8 this morning to say all our goodbyes to the group, and a group of us went over to the central Peace Corps office to get some stuff done. I got some seeds from the bank there, did some student loan stuff, and locked away my valuables in their safe.

From there we hitched a ride back to San V where I stole some more tech stuff off the computer there, and then I got food with one of the guys and headed out to my site, which took forever! The 40 min walk at the end was the worst. But I’m here now. And its all good.

Tape all over my package that says, "RECEIVED ALL BROKE UP"

Although, I have a critter problem, no TP, and the onset of a bacterial infection. Stupid San Salvador. All three don’t help the whole latrine gloriousness. Tomorrow I will spend cleaning and arranging, and listing what I need to get.

“The idea that humanity is multiplying at a terrible and accelerating rate is one of the false dogmas of our times. From that notion springs the widely held belief that unless population growth is immediately contained by every governmental and private method imaginable, mankind faces imminent disaster. These ideas form the basis for an enormous international population-control industry that involves billions of dollars of taxes as well as the full time efforts of scores of private philanthropies. Embodied in their agenda is the sort of social planning that actually mandates draconian control over families, churches, and other voluntary institutions around the globe.”

The back cover of…..The War Against Population, Jacqueline Kasun (1988, rev. 1999)… a book I found on Aaron’s shelf (the volunteer I’m replacing)

December 1, 2007

Today I gradually felt better, in a few days I’ll be back to 100 percent. I unpacked everything today and cleaned out the pila for the “bath.” I have to wait to clean out the main pila under the water falls again Monday, if not I won’t have water to use for 2 days haha. So, for the most part, all the house is ready to roll. I have to wash clothes tomorrow, for that I got soap from the house next door . I did have a nice surprise when I got here though. The guy had left a table and his computer speakers for me to use. Sweet. He also left shinguards and cleats for me to try on and see if they fit. Basically the stuff that he didn’t have room to take. So that’s cool. Mass tonight was interesting, it was slam packed in their cathedral and it was leaving a concert afterwards. I saw some people that I already knew though, that was kind of neat….not to mention my host-family. Their church is in need of some serious repair though. The earthquake in 2001 did a real number on it….its amazing that its even still standing. I’m in the process of making a meeting with the priest though, maybe I can help get some funding for that. Tomorrow I’m heading to the meeting of the ADESCO and the health people to check out what’s going on there in the afternoon. During the morning though Im going to go check out the soccer tourney in the pueblo at 8. Our team is playing and my host brother apparently is in with that so wahoo.

I got a list of things to buy, Monday I’m off to go do that.

“Myth, legend, and superstition are all the offshoot of self-revelation, or better defined as self-explanation of the present phenomena.”

Anonymous

December 2, 2007

Welcome to the beginning of the new liturgical year. Haha, and guess what? The house across the street has lights on a tree! That floored me. Hello Advent. I say that with the Die Another Day theme song by Madonna playing the background haha. Well, the day is over finally and it was kind of long. My stomach was still destroyed for most of the morning, but I decided to attend the soccer game of the community as part of the ongoing tournament they are in. It’s a mix of young and old, and a whole different world as far as people go. Very funny it is. The cleats the previous volunteer left though don’t fit, so, guess that’s something I’m still looking for.

Later in the day, I attended a special meeting of the ADESCO (the organized directive of the community that gets projects moving) and ASPS, the health group that I said Annie would like a while ago. Come to find out, they are in a pinch. The dispensary here in the cantón (town) apparently was a project by ASPS that was supposed to last for two years and that end is in March. At the point, the doctor has to leave, and the “nurses” of which there are two I think, will no longer have salaries available. So, the nurses called a meeting to try and get the support of the ADESCO to continue to fund their work here through medicine and salary.

Wow, for me, sitting in on the meeting, it was a shot to the gut as to what my role is here as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Their actual jobs are on the line, they want to continue to provide training and consultation and reduced costs for medicine so people can actually afford to buy it, and they asked the reluctant ADESCO for help (which they don’t have a ton of resources, and then for my help to keep their cause alive. Crazy stuff. So much for getting to know the community first and letting the jobs come later. They are going to discuss what role the ADESCO will play at their next meeting this Sunday, so I have some research to do between now and then.

After that, I went down to the valley with Don Raul and his fam that was in from San Sal to check out the river. It was cool, with big spots to swim around and stuff. They want me to teach them how to swim haha. Maybe later, cause we got their late. There is also enough plastic bottle waste down by the river to make a few dollars for school by selling it to the municipality.

Anyways, to close the night out, my host dad and I got into the whole Catholic discussion, and the world’s religious situation, and then he wanted to know my story and why I was the only Catholic in my family. All of which seems to come up a lot in El Salvador. But, we had a good convo for a while before dinner on everything, he’s a suave guy.

Tomorrow I’m off to Zacatecaluca to buy groceries with the big yellow, green, and pink bag thing that the previous volunteer left….So I’m too cheap to buy a new one, so sue me.

“Don’t kill too many Evangelicals down there…. only as many as you can get away with.”
Chris Gilliland