(make pancakes for the host family last week!)
I know…an absolutely
HORRIBLE title. But, it combines my week in one sentence. I know I recently
updated my blog, but I had so many things going on this week, I felt it was
time for another post.
After
getting back to site from vacation, it was a tough few days to get back in the
flow of things. The freezing cold bucket shower just did not sound appetizing,
nor did having to get up to go outside, walk across the house to the latrine
seem like a good time when I needed to use the ladies room. I had gotten used
to a nice hotel with an indoor and nearby bathroom. For the first time in my
service (I am sure it has happened before but I had forgotten…) I really just
DID NOT want to head back to my site. There is a term that we use here a lot,
labeling someone as an “SUPER” Volunteer. During training, I wanted to be that
person. I wanted to be the dedicated, the life changing, the bean and tortilla
craving and the big project making. Before I knew it, I came to the realization
that this person just DOES NOT EXIST. Everyone is human, as volunteers we need
to get our gringo-time on, to get out of the campo and remember the life we
used to have back in the States. I am not saying I want to quit, but every once
in awhile it’s hard to remember that it’s okay to leave every once in awhile…if
anything to keep emotionally stable.
It also did
not help that there was NO SCHOOL pretty much all week….it seems there is never
school here. I feel I have forgotten about all the “early release” half days of
my youth, vacations, president’s weekend and other vacations I had in public
school growing up. But, here even more so….I don´t think there has been ONE
WEEK since arriving here where every single teacher has showed up every day. I
took the first few days easy, did all my laundry, read a bit, cleaned my room
from top (spiders became my roommates in only one week of being gone) to bottom
(found another scorpion…Tigre ate it). Slowly, I remembered why I am still
here. I feel sometimes on this thingy-ma-jigger that I write all about the
highlights, the trips and trainings but not always the work I am doing IN my
community, like where I live.
(receiving kisses at the school)
Before I
head home to the US (maybe only a month away, but who is counting!?!?), I
wanted to let you know the things I am currently working on. This week, I
taught a group of women how to make Shampoo from Aloe Vera (Sabila in Spanish).
They had a blast mixing and watching the liquid foam-up and contributed to the cost
of the materials. I made copies of the material list and the process, since I
want the project to be sustainable, if they can find someone to buy the
materials in the capital; I can help show them again how to make it. The map of
El Salvador is finished at the school I am really proud of it. The kids were
great in helping me and I am working on the World Map as well, slowly in time.
When I am having a low day, I can go work on that and feel satisfied. At the
school, I am still doing art classes, maybe apply for a grant to do a garden
project or get funds and classes about setting up a garden through the
Agricultural College (La Ena: http://www.ena.edu.sv/) only two hours from me,
we shall see how it plays out. Almost finished in applying for a grant to do a
co-ed life skills, gender awareness and sexual education camp (most camps
include this in order to get the grant money) in early September with a group
of volunteers. I plan on bringing along my host sister and another young girl
in my community. It will be the first time she will leave my community without
her family, like by herself. Crazy.
The big
project I am starting to put together is a stove project. Since gas is
expensive for families here, the majority have outside fire burning stoves. The
smoke has caused several health and respiratory problems among women and
children in my community. This type of stove helps incubate the heat and
releasing the smoke through cement made chimney, it also uses less lena (wood)
to cook things. The NGO website is: http://www.treeswaterpeople.org/ in case
you want to learn more (of course its Colorado based). I feel this project will
affect the most people and hopefully have a positive impact. There is a grant I
can apply for up to $1,000 to help with the materials of the stoves (cement,
bricks, molasses, etc), but I plan on asking people to contribute supplies
themselves and also pay the worker to make the stove (it takes an entire day to
build one).
We shall
see, I am hoping it will all work out. If not, I can find other things to do. I
am currently working with the health clinic and my health promoter to do
several HIV/AIDS trainings and sessions at schools in the area which is always
fun and entertaining with the kids.
There is a
chance all of these ideas will fail. Many of my hopes and ideas have already
failed, but that is all about the learning process. Even though an idea might
be great, if no one is motivated to do something, I simply cannot do everything
myself. No thanks, plus I would just go crazy.
It’s the
small moments that I sometimes realize make the biggest difference. I attended
a funeral on Sunday for an elderly woman in my community who had been in the
hospital for a month. Everyone went to her house the day she passed away to
cuidar (watch over/take care of) the family after the death. We were there till
around 1 am and hiking home with my entire family, I realized the dedication
and support this community had for this family. For the funeral, more than half
the community attended (if you are sick or pregnant it’s seen as bad fortune to
attend a funeral or visit a cemetery), we all fit in around 6 pickup trucks and
slowly made the procession down the hill to the cemetery.
I sometimes
sit in the evenings after dinner and help my host sister with her homework;
tonight’s assignment was a lesson about Hitler. I was surprised she was
learning about this and actually pretty impressed. Sometime a Monday night
dinner discussion turned into a lesson of trying to explain in Spanish (Holocaust
is ….Holocausto in Spanish) what happened during WWII. I never thought two
years ago I would explain this point in history to a family I am living with…in
El Salvador. It reminded me that I am here to teach, to experience, taste,
learn, and push boundaries.
Thankfully for me, I am continually trying to
keep my mind open to all those possibilities, whether it’s learning about my
community’s support during a death, explaining Shampoo…or teaching about the
Holocaust. Good thing each day brings something new and different, otherwise my
life sure would be boring!
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