Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I have been very busy lately. I have continued teaching busienss classes to a youth group on Saturdays. They are a great group. This weekend we are going to start making shampoo for a small project within the community. Hopefully it turns out well. This same group and I are also planning to make a gender awareness activity for the people in the community. I recently had a training session and we were given ideas on how to present the issue in a creative way. I then taught the students in the youth group and they want to participate and do them with community members. We still need a lot of practice, but hopefully it is successful when it happens in the coming months. I have also been working a lot in a smaller neighborhood of the community. They seem to lack a lot of basic resources such as electricity and sanitary restrooms. I have been doing an assesment with my counterpart and working with the local mayor´s office to try and find organizations that might help their needs. It is a lot of work, but hopefully something will come of it. I am still continuing to teach English at the local school. I hope to work more in the school in the future and start working with the local cooperative to help them get legalized. I am still working with the community and trying to help them make an emergency action plan. It is a lot of work, but the local government group is continuing to do training. We hope to have a simulation in the future. I am also going to help the local community group create a bridge committee to help do regular check ups on the newly constructed bridge. I hope all is well back home. Thanks for reading.

The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

Working

Since my last post, I have begun teaching business classes to a group of eleven students. I have only had one class so far, but I think it went pretty well. I am teaching off of a curriculum given to me during training. There is also a non-governmental organization currently teaching sewing classes to a group of about 25 in the community. Their classes end in mid september and after that my counterparts and I are working on organizing somekind of business plan with the group. It is a while away, but I think it has the potential to be a big project. There is also a governmental organization that is trying to organize an emergency action plan in the community I am working in. It is a big project and they are trying to make sure everyone is involved including local police, medical facilities and local schools and government. This is also another long process, but an important one. Other than that I am still teaching English classes at the local school.

 

I have also been doing a lot of work for the Gender and Development Committee here in El Salvador. One of the other volunteers on the committee wrote a musical on the subject of gender equality. The show is being performed by University students from El Salvador. It is being shown around the country and we are inviting volunteers to bring students from their local communities. The first show was performed yesterday in the national theater and it was a huge success. There were over 100 people and the actors did a great job. It was a great thing to be a part of. There are a few more shows these next couple months and I am sure it will continue to be a success.

 

The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

More Training

Since my last blog update, the engineers successfully completed the construction of the bridge. It will be a huge help to everyone in my community with the upcoming rainy season. They were here a total of just over two weeks. They lead the project and various members of the community helped with the labor. It was a very successful community effort. I did what I could to help translate for the engineers who could not speak Spanish and did a little bit of the construction work.

These last two weeks have been spent back in training. It is nice seeing others from my training class again and catching up with the different adventures we have going on in different parts of the country. This training session is more techincal. We have learned things about our specific programs that we are working under.

Next week I will have three days of Spanish language training and then be back in my site where I hope to begin some projects.

The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

Last Few Weeks

I have been living in my site for a few weeks now. I am enjoying it. I have met a ton of people. Right now I am teaching English at my local school twice a week. I am also teaching to a community group on Saturdays. I am still trying to ease into the community before I start any big projects. I have a general assembly meeting with my whole community on Tuesday. I will be presenting myself to the community and talk about my program. My boss will be coming to observe and see how I am doing in my community. There is also a group of Americans finishing a bridge project in my community. The volunteer who lived here before me started it and it should be finished in a couple of weeks. Right now I am translating for them and helping with some labor as well.

The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

My New Site

My new site is very nice. It is in the mountains so it can get really hot, really early. So far I have been working with the community group and attending their meetings. I have also been going around talking with different organizations, the school, NGOs, the mayor´s office etc. And I have also been going and talking to different houses in the community. I do about 5 a day and am delighted to slowly work my way into knowing the community and introducting myself. My  first two months are all about getting to know the community. I will be able to start projects as soon as I have the community´s trust and know exactly what potential projects could be.

My new host family is great. My host Dad works with the community group and my host mom owns a shop and runs it out of her house. I have a host brother and sister who are around my age. It is nice hanging out with them when I am at home. All of my host family is very kind and welcoming.

"The contents on this website are my opinion and not the views of the United States Peace Corps."

My Host Family During Training

This was my host family during training. They taught me so much in the 8 weeks I lived with them about El Salvadoran culture and the Spanish language. I will miss them a lot when I am off at my new site.

The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

Swearing In

Hi everyone,

I have successfully completed my training. Today I will be sworn in and become an official volunteer. My Spanish level has gotten much better and I am excited to see how much it will improve in the near future. Tomorrow I will meet my counterpart in my community and move to my site where I will be for the next two years. The site I am going to has around 800 people and I is supposed to need a lot of work in youth involvement. Of course, I do not know that much since I am not there yet, but I will do my best to keep everyone posted. Since I will be a lot more isolated at this new site, I do not know how much access I will have to Internet. But I will update you as frequently as possible. I hope everyone is doing well back home!

The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

Immersion Weekend

This Thursday, I left on what was called Immersion Weekend. It is a weekend where we live with a current volunteer for 3 nights to see what their daily lifestyle is like. We are also challenged lingually by needing to use public transportation across the country by ourselves. I was successful in the sense that I did not get lost. It was about 3 hours worth of bus rides.

When I arrived, I met up with Daniel who has been in country for about a year. We then went to translate for a group of Canadians who are in El Salvador for the week to build homes for the less fortunate. My Spanish is still not great, but I was able to translate alright. The rest of the weekend he showed me around his village. There are about 1200 people and Daniel is currently working on a project involving chickens. He is helping a group of about 15 raise over 150 chickens for economic development. He is currently helping them get permits so the project can grow. I helped him cut bamboo to make structures for his organic farm that he grows food at to feed the chickens. He seems to be a successful volunteer.

This upcoming week I will be teaching English to a group of kids at a local school. We will see how that goes. I hope everyone is doing well back home. I miss you all!

My Visit to a Current Volunteer

Yesterday, me along with the rest of the training class took a trip to visit a current volunteer. He lived about an hour and a half away from us. He lived on a river and we took a boat tour around the area. It was extremely beautiful. He proved to be a very successful volunteer helping the village establish a fishing business. It was a very positive experience. I am going to the Capitol San Salvador on Wednesday, so I will keep you posted.

My Training Family

We arrived in El Salvador on Wednesday. Me along with the other Trainees stayed in a hotel the first two nights and attended seminars in the office in San Vicente. I really like my training class. Everybody is very kind and friendly.

Yesterday, Friday the 21st I moved in with the host family I will be staying with for the next two months. I am about a ten minute bus ride from San Vicente. My host family is very kind. There is only a husband and wife. They have two dogs and two baby kitten. There are four other volunteers living in my community. We have language classes in the mornings, then in the afternoon we will be working on small projects to improve our community during the next eight weeks. It is going to give us good hands on training before we are sent out on our own as volunteers in March. Also, twice a week the trainees in my community will meet with the other trainees in my class and attend more seminars in San Vicente. We also have some field trips coming up.

Everyday has new challenges. It is difficult living in a commnity where I can not communicate with the people perfectly. I want to make more conversation with my host family, but my spanish level is pretty low. I am studying in the evenings after dinner to try and learn as much as I can. I miss everyone. I´ll talk to you soon.

Last week in the US

Thank you for looking at my blog. I will be departing for my assignment on Monday, January 17th. This is my first blog post to make sure I can get the hang of things before I am actually in El Salvador. I am spending my last week saying goodbye to friends and family. I do not know how much time I will have to write to everyone individually, so I wanted to make this blog for everyone to read. Hope to keep in touch with everyone. Thanks for all the support and kindness you have shown me over the years.