School’s Out for Summer

Yep. It’s official. Public school in El Salvador has finished its classes, had most of its graduation ceremonies, handed out the diplomas and called it good for 2012.

My new boyfriend. He's 2. I like'em younger obviously)

Several elementary and middle school schools decided to just cut classes early and finished two weeks early (or more), therefore extending their summer vacation. In La Loma (yea, that’s my hood), the teachers decided to hold kindergarten and 6th grade graduation the day after Thanksgiving. For some reason last November (gosh it’s weird to say that) someone asked me if they celebrated the holiday here, like…as in El Salvador. I told them Thanksgiving is actually an American holiday.

Needless to say, this person shall remain nameless. Most Salvadorans know of it, but so much that the holiday is basically about eating copious amounts of the heaviest food groups while somehow watching all-American football without passing out in Turkey-coma. Since I am a full bodied America, I wanted to of course, celebrate Thanksgiving (Dia del Dar Gracias) this year since PCV’s are hosted by an US Embassy family for the holiday.

Everything was just wonderful. Afterwards, I left San Salvador on Black Friday (Negro Viernes! Doesn’t sound as cool…) at 4:30 am (I could have gone shopping!!! if I was in A’merica) to get back to my site for the school’s graduation.  Okay, I will come back to my early morning commute in a minute.
The Embassy allowed us Peace Keepers to have a craft fair to sell our community’s makings and things to salary-making staff of the US government.
There was everything a cool person would want to buy at a craft fair.

Finest of El Salvador’s Merchandise included but is not limited to the following:
Aloe Vera Shampoo
Honey Shampoo (do not eat)
Honey (you should eat before ants get to it)
Soap
Jewelry
Hammocks
Candies
Peace Corps Rockin’ T-shirts
Coffee (obviously)

There was a ton of pretty awesome stuff. I brought a few types of paper beaded jewelry (yea recycling!), holiday and inspirational cards, small plastic chip bag purses (sold all of them in less than 1 hour), as well as hair clips. Just my little mesacita (small table) made over $50! The Ambassador even bought from La Loma. She picked two lovely holiday cards. I felt special (still do).

Okay, back to 4:30 am…I know you are on the edge of your seat to see if I got lost or my ride never showed up. Actually, it went rather smoothly. After a full day chillin at starbucks (moment for A’merica and coffee shops) in the capital (while waiting around ALL DAY for my new HP charger).
Poor Jamie, one of my best friends here had to hear me ask every 5-10 minutes, “Do you think it’s ready yet? Maybe I will just walk over to the store and ask or call…?” She probably wanted to ring my neck or was ready to dump a hot cup of coffee on my frizzy head (but that would be SUCH a waste of coffee).

Needless to say I have a new functioning (as of the moment) charger. The Embassy host family was lovely. They had three daughters and made Tricia, Jamie and I feel right at home. So Peace Corps provides a transport system because we are no longer allowed to use interdepartmental buses (apparently it’s dangerous or something, so for me just outside Ahuachapán).  I have to leave and go when the system is running, it’s kind of a messed up system – but we just have to do it. I had to pay $60 of my monthly stipend (PC was 3-4 days late in paying us which totally helped the situation) in private transport. Thankfully I will get $40 reimbursed – along with a receipt. I love being here, but usually the paperwork and the small details really want to make me pull my hair out.

Gosh, sorry this post is so long. Graduation was nothing to write home about, 6th grade is not that big of a deal (at least in my mind).  The teachers and I handed out diplomas and had a nice chicken lunch afterwards, and then I hiked home. But in the evening, a bunch of us went to a “Reina Competition” in my pueblo (small town, they had a cake shop and one restaurant) where a good friend from my site was a “reina or queen” from La Loma. There were 9 from different communities in my Municipio, they had beyond elaborate outfits and competitions. It was pretty insane. There were hosts from a TV program here that came and hosted the event as well as a singer from Costa Rica and a dance group. I was blown away, my craziest Friday night in the campo for sure.

Preparing the chicken for dinner!

Saturday was the host sister’s graduation from 9th grade, which is a big deal here. Not everyone goes onto high school, let alone finishes the 9th grade. She had a dress made and we went to mass beforehand the graduation.  My host brother escorted her (every graduate has to have an escort, not kidding). The whole thing was about 4 hours (too long). I painted her nails and wore a dress my mom sent me (thanks Mom!). Afterwards we had dinner at the house with chicken (three days of meat, CRAZY spoiled Volunteer). It was lovely and then a few of the neighbors and jovenes went to the restaurant next door and ended up turning on some music and dancing! Dancing in my site does not really happen, so this was a huge surprise to me. I was blown away; some of the guys can really dance!

My host brother Marvin and Erika!

I ended having to dance with every boy there, most 6-8 years younger than me, but it was fun.
Finally the traditional music got changed to more of a hip hip jam and I must have lost my mind. I basically just went all out and got my groove on dancing with my host sister and her friends, then ended up dancing with both my host brothers! It was really fun and definitely one of the best days overall of my time here. I think my host family was a little surprised because they had never really seen me dance before, but I am glad at this point I feel comfortable going all out, as I definitely would be too penosa (embarrassed) 6 months or a year ago!

Miss Reina Roxanna and I at graduation

Before Thanksgiving I forgot to mention that an organization and past music band called 20kwatts do a lot of work here in El Salvador with providing solar lamps to families with electricity. I had contacted the organization about 6 months ago and the coordinator and a past PCV came to visit my site! Since the lamps are free, my health promoter and I asked the families without electricity in my community (there are over 20 families) to come to the health clinic for a checkup and a pap smear in order to receive the lamp. The day the lamps arrived over 16 women showed up to visit the doctor! Some of them had never had a pap smear and were over 40 years ago. It was wonderful to see the kids receive the lamps, try to handle crank (for during the rainy season) and translate for Leo (from the organization, here's the website: http://20kwatts.com/ ). This was one of my best “work” related days here. It was so easy to receive the lamps; the families now can use these lamps at night instead of candles. They were so happy to receive them, they can even charger their phones with them too (we haven’t figured out the cord yet, but we’re working on it). Needless to say, it reminded me of the connections I can make to help better their lives. For one of the first times people actually thanked me for the work I do here and for bringing light into their homes. It was an amazing feeling. Hopefully they will come back in another 6 months to bring more too! Here’s a photo of all of us together :-)