Luck of the Draw: Salvadoran Host Family Experience

(my new drying machine, uses completely natural lighting and zero environmental waste, very eco-friendly)

My host family is AWESOME. I was placed in a small town called Apastepeque, which is about 10 minutes outside San Vicente, where our training center is located and where we will be in and out for the next 8 weeks. We also have a HUGE festival going on here (in Apastepeque) which they do every year, so naturally my family has had family members in town from San Salvador all weekend, then as soon as they left, another family is stayed here who live in Virginia, but are actually from El Salvador. Anyways, I have a large family in my house; there is the mom who I love dearly and she has three kids. One son, who passed away, though I am not sure when exactly, but his wife and two kids were visiting from San Salvador (the capital). One daughter who lives here and both her and husband work in San Salvador, their son Jose, who is 16 months old and the cutest thing since sliced bread. My mom has another daughter in the United States and she and her husband have a baby girl there too (we skyped with them on Saturday!) The family that is visiting is now though is my mom’s sister, and her daughter’s family. They have two kids, both who are fluent in English, the parents and I keep speaking to them in Spanish and tell them not to use English. It works…40% of the time. Whew, a lot of family. That’s only my house. There are two other volunteers from my group here, one is Shawna who is from New Mexico and is just lovely, her family is related to mine, but I forget how exactly. Then Drew, who loves the Dominican Republic, a lot…lives two houses down and his mom and grandmother are my aunts I think.
Basically, they are all warm, friendly, happy and wonderful people. They remind me a lot of my very large Jewish family of being very touchy feely, slightly gossipy at times, and just overall a good time. I can already feel my Spanish improving, which is nice because that was the thing I was most nervous about coming here. There has been a festival going on all weekend (which is why so much family has been in town) and my whole family went to the baile (dance) on Saturday night near the parque (park) and had a great time together dancing to all the different music they played. They alternated between a band and a DJ, which I thought was awesome. My family also kept moving me around the small tight knit circle we created to move me farther away from the sleazy guys who kept cat calling me from the wall (yes, guys “cat call” here. They apparently think it works…) I felt safe with my family. :-) I love them.
We definitely lucked out with our training town, which was great. First off since the festival is going on there’s amusement park rides, lots of food stands, jewelry stands, all kinds of things to do and look at while walking around. The fireworks also go off every hour and throughout the night, which is just…lovely. My house is lucky though, as we have flushing toilets, as well as an indoor kitchen with a stove and oven. Most houses have outdoor fire pits to cook their food and oh we also have wireless internet. I feel like a king. My room is perfect (photos below, keep reading), a bed, shelves, lots of nails for hooks, a desk, and I had a chair in there, but with all the family in town I moved it into common area for everyone to use it. I have also helped my mom cook, which has been fun too. I have successfully taken 2 or 3 “bucket showers”, which really are not that bad at all what-so-ever. It’s basically a sponge bath, but once you are all soaped up/shampooed, you just dump water on yourself to rinse.

(available in classic title, bucket shower area)

(Dish washing area and teeth brushing area)

It’s easy; I do not know why people made it a big deal. Then again, the water is also freezing cold, which is a good alternative for coffee in the morning, then again it’s pretty much always hot here, so it’s refreshing as well. So it depends how you look at it.

We have been several volunteers who are in for the festival, who have been here a year already and they have been so helpful in answering some of our concerns, showing us the ice cream place they went every day after training, and other useful things. One of the girls whose name is Jamie was in my host family’s house during training and she literally knew NO SPANISH. Like, she did not even know what Que tal means (which is what’s up by the way for you gringos). Her Spanish has improved so much, so that has helpful to see for someone fresh off the plane so to speak.
We go back to the training center tomorrow, all the staff told us that this is the weekend would be the hardest and you might feel homesick. But, I honestly am having a blast. I could not be happier just hanging out with my host family all day and doing whatever they do. :-) I have not felt homesick once. It’s really nice. Though I probably do have 100 mosquito bites. I am not kidding. It looks like I have the chicken pox all over my very white pasty legs. Other than that, I am still having frustrations with the language and we have a lot of time ahead of training, more Spanish classes, and other difficulties to come in contact with in the future. I will update later this week, but I have a funny story to end with before I head out.

(view outside my room)

(my bed + fashionable mosquito net, currently available at Neiman Marcus... in tinkle-me-pink-color)

So the festival in Apastepeque is huge and I was walking around with my friends and some of the older volunteers and they stopped at a stand to grab some comida (food). Now, they (PC staff) gave us fair warning NOT TO EAT any of the street food here because it will talk back to us later. As many of you know, I have eaten my fair share of interesting things while traveling and whatever throughout in my life. So I am pretty much unafraid of any food that comes my way. Now that aside, this street vender cooked everything in oil (everything is made with oil here, and LOTS of it). They order papas fritas (French fries), but on it they put every condiment possible. Mayonnaise for one, then ketchup, a handful of queso fresca (cheese in Latin America) and…salt. They love their salt here. I figured you know what, why now, might as well integrate into the culture and eat it. So, naturally I did. The night went continued as we went dancing and had a great time. But the next morning I was able to eat half a tortilla for breakfast (every breakfast is basically beans, queso fresco, crema (sort of like sour cream but not), tortillas (every meal), pan (bread), and sometimes huevos(eggs). It’s very nutritional, obviously. Hence the staff told us (the first day mind you) we will all gain 15-20 pounds within the first few months of being here. Yea! Bring it on! (arg…) So anyways, after my attempt at breakfast I spent most of my day on my bed feeling like a cell phone that has been dropped way too many times and is on its last line of life if that. I finally gave in and opened my SUPER heavy duty, VERY large Peace Corps medical knit. The thing is a monster. First off you can never close it once it’s open and it has everything you could ever need in life, which is great, but also a tad bit annoying. Many bathroom trips and several tums-look-a-like pills later, I was able to get some water down when my madre (mom) told me it was time for lunch. I said I was not feeling too well, that it was not her cooking (hopefully) and the papas fritas I ate that probably made me sick. I mean I had to tell her, there was no way to avoid it though I knew it would have consequences, but I did not think it through in my pain. An hour or two later of resting/sleeping in my room when it became too hot to sleep, I was able to get up and move around. I went into the kitchen and EVERYONE in my family asked how I was feeling. I said I was feeling better, but did not want to eat anything just yet. Then I go next door to Drew’s house (another volunteer) to visit and he’s with his mom and his grandmother and I sit down, within the first 30 seconds, they ask, “how are you feeling? We heard you had a stomach ache?” This continued throughout my entire day. I am pretty sure it made the daily news if they had a newspaper here. Welcome to El Salvador, where your business is pretty much everyone’s business. Then again, my large Jewish family…it’s kinda the exact same thing…just in English. ;-)
*I am feeling MUCH better by the way and ate an alternative to Matzo Ball soup for dinner that night and today at lunch, so for all your mothers out there, I AM FINE. DO NOT WORRY!
P.S. Even though I have not been here a week yet, I have started a wish list of things to send if you feel so kind. It’s listed to the right of my posts. Just remember to send everything in 1. a padded envelope (it’ll probably take 2-3 weeks, so not too bad), 2. Wrap/put in Ziploc bags if food, and 3. I would put some bible verses in Spanish on the package, or buy some Virgin Mary stickers at the dollar store and stick’em on the closure, and then they will not get searched. :-)

We have birds. Two actually.

Plants in the courtyard. ;-)