The Last of the Mangoes

It has been over two weeks since I have been back in El Salvador.

Walking home with their pretty pink mochilas

Returning has been A LOT harder than I had planned. I feel the Zucker-ness in me wanted to be as positive as possible about returning…then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt like I was breaking up with someone, I saw them, we had fun, we took photos and ate delicious food, then all of a sudden it was over. I was alone to pick up the pieces.

The solution? I talked to my mom and sister at least once to twice a day, just saying, “hi, I miss you. Please talk to me. What are you doing??” Slowly and surely I got out of my “Why am I here again, taking these cold bucket showers and waiting for the veggie truck to pass by my road?” Since returning, I have been trying to get back into the things, it’s been a slow start; but as people say here, poco a poco. Little by little.

As Americans, sometimes it feels we want everything here…now; e-mail at our fingertips, grocery store nearby, even boarding passes on our phones and internet on planes (crazy!) etc. Here, things just take….time, sometimes a long time. Though soon after I returned to site my Country Director, Jaime and a visiting lawyer from DC (who works for PC) came to visit my site! I never thought the country director would be in my host family’s house, let alone with someone from DC. I was unique to show her around the bathing area, the lovely latrine (bathroom), where I wash my clothes and where my host mom cooks tortillas outside. She was blown away (and like a good American tourist, took photos of everything).

It was such a treat to show her how volunteers really live. J

(Jessica and Natalie claiming out "Peace Corps" reserved table)

 My second weekend back, one of the teachers from my school and I attended a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training with Peace Corps at a beach called Costa del Sol. The beach is beautiful, but…

#1. I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. I literally could not be outside for longer than an hour,

I think I left with over 100 bites. They just love my blood, freakin’ mini-vampires.

#2.  The training really was for teachers who speak and teach English (I kind of knew this), my teacher does neither. I spent a lot of time translating for him and explaining things. Because this was a “professional” event, I ended up writing a ton of words down to look up later as I just do not use in my regular-campo-vocabulary.

This has re-sparked my desire to continue learn Spanish and study more.

The training was helpful overall and I am planning to work with this teacher to build a curriculum for the graduating 6^th graders heading to the nearby pueblo for 7^th grade in January/February. My entire community REALLY wanted me to teach English in the school my entire service. A lot of people asked me while I was home if I was in fact teaching English. I DO NOT LIKE TEACHING ENGLISH. I did it during training and let’s just say; it’s not my cup of tea. Teaching English in my school would not be sustainable project because no one speaks it and once I leave, all the kids will forget all the information within 6 months…though I would give it a week. So by doing a quick “prep” course for the 6^th graders, hopefully it will get them excited and help them recognize some more words in their classes next year.

(Remembering our night of Karaoke singing to "Call Me Maybe" with Superate kids)

I am planning on having two classes twice a week. Hopefully including each with games, a theme, vocabulary and make it more “fun” than a class-setting. We shall see how it goes. Fingers crossed.

We have been painting the mural which has turned out pretty good, not great, but good. Painted the ocean blue, need one more layer, then labeling it, and then spraying varnish on it to protect the wall from the rain, hopefully we shall have a small celebration in September just for finishing it. Why not?

On Monday, I have a committee meeting to discuss the details and things to get done for the youth camp I am helping plan in September. My host sister will be coming along (the younger one that had the cumpleanos) with two other girls from my community. I am super excited, but nervous for everything to go well. There are so many details, transport, buying materials, keeping receipts for all purchases, organizing all the activities and delegating responsibilities. It’s a handful, but I think it’s my thing. J

(My counterpart, Don Alfredo and I at the school celebrating Dia de Maiz)

Then mid-September I have my mid-service medical checkups. Everything from seeing the dentist, physical, super-fun stool samples so I don’t have any buggies or amoebas (you can live with them in you without even knowing!) and I get to spend one night in the capital.

(LATKAS! Just kidding, fried in oil corn tortas with cheese in the middle, there is about an inch of oil sitting at the bottom of this bowl. Dig in!)

At this point, I have given up on having a “big project”, I have several ideas of things I can do in my community to keep me busy and will hopefully make a difference. All I can do is try. I am realizing beyond reason how it really does not matter what the hell I do here. People will continue to talk about how Karita walks everywhere, is from Colorado, her mom visited and she loved mangoes.

Those are the things I will be remembered by. This Saturday I went with Erika to eat pupusas at the church, then once we came home, her uncle surprised us with a HUGE sack of mangoes. There we were 6:30 at night with the sun setting, just eating mangoes with orange goop all over our faces, just smiling. They were definitely the last ones of the season and I could not have been happier just sitting with her eating until we were fully stuffed. J