Getting the hang of it

Hola a todos. I finally have some time to write. Its been a whirlwind of activity for me here. I have been living with my host family for about eight days now. It was an extremely abrupt change, going from hanging out with 30 Americans and living in hotel to living with a family by myself in the countryside. I quickly realized that my family speaks no English and my Spanish was not very functional. Although I seem to know the names of obscure nouns like tie, umbrella and credit card, I am not good at speaking or understanding speech. I am in a small town (about 100 people and maybe 25 houses, a school, a small store, and a small restaurant) about 20 minutes away from the training center. My Spanish teacher introduced me to my host mom and left, leaving me and my luggage with this Salvadoran family. After “Hola, como esta?” I pretty much exhausted my skills, and the ensuing conversation quickly dissolved into silence and awkwardness. My family consists of a mom, dad, and two kids, a boy who is 5 and a girl who is 9. I am getting along well with the mom and kids, but the dad just barks Spanish at me and gets impatient quickly. The mom is really nice and cooks me three meals a day, which I take at a formal dining table by myself, which was strange at first but I quickly got used to it. The countryside here is beautiful, very green, jungle-like and mountainous, with an occasional volcano throw in for good measure.
I have Spanish lessons every morning with a PC teacher who comes to my house. We meet with the other three volunteers in my town and have class from 8-12, break for lunch, and then either do a community activity or study more Spanish. Our first community activity was to round op some kids in town and get them to show us around town and have them draw a map or the community. That was fun, although the other volunteers are better at Spanish and did most of the talking. We did “A day in the life” on Monday, in which I just hung out with my host mom and observed here daily routine.
My family is surprisingly middle class. The dad is a teacher in a driving school (pretty dangerous around here, there are no traffic laws). The house is fairly large and comfortable, except for there is just a tin roof and some of the rooms are open air. My room is pretty basic, just a single bed in a 8X10 concrete room. There is a toilet which usually flushes and a shower (no hot water of course) and a sink in the bathroom. The family has two dogs, three small parrots, and a few chickens. They also have what must be the worlds loudest rooster which lives right outside my room and wakes me up between 4-5 each morning. I’m wondering if I could kill it and hide the body. There are also two hammocks an the front porch, which are great for siestas (even though they aren’t part of the culture here, I take them anyway.
The hardest thing about living here is definitely not knowing enough Spanish. It is very rare for me to understand a complete sentence, but by picking up key words, context, and gestures I can usually get the jist of what people say to me. I pretty much study Spanish all day every day, so hopefully I will get better fast. The words I try to learn often just go in one ear and out the other, and my mouth has problems receiving instructions from my brain in Spanish.
Similar to my time in Africa, I experience dramatic highs and lows. Sometime I have the so much fun here and can’t wait to get some important work done, and other times I get really frustrated with the language and fell like I can’t stand it anymore.
Some of the most fun I have is playing sports with the other volunteers and local kids. The kids are easier to talk to and I don’t have to worry about mistakes or offending anyone. They love soccer here, but we taught them ultimate Frisbee. They picked it up in about five minutes and really like to play.
It is consistently hot and humid, and lately storms have been rolling in every afternoon that dump rain for an hour or two. It is some of the most intense rain and thunder I have experienced, its no wonder erosion, landslides and floods are major problems here.
I am living here for two more months, getting to know the culture and language and receiving training in environmental education. After that, the PC places me in my “site” which I will live in for two years and teach in a school and do various projects. The really nice thing about the PC (called the Cuerpo de Paz here) is they tell you to first get to know your community and basically ask them what changes they would like to see in their community. You then work with people to help them make the change, and ensure that they know how to maintain it after you leave. The main idea in the environmental education program is that you train the teachers how to integrate environmental issues into the curriculum and then teach it themselves. Its supposed to be teaching people to fish rather than giving handouts.
I seem to have more developing world experience and more of a background in environmental studies than most of the other volunteers, but I have the least Spanish experience. Its ironic that the one subject I hated in school and could barely pass has become my primary goal.
Also, I changed my name to Ignacio. Forest was to hard to pronounce.

Out of the Frying Pan

I'm doing well, I'm healthy, and moved in with the host family. Not a lot of computer time, but I will write much more later. Much Love!

day 2

Today was a full training day. First I had my spanish placement interview, which was definitely a struggle. I was asked open-ended questions for about 20 minutes to place me into an appropriate level of spanish instruction. I will probably start at the bottom, but everyone says it comes fast and I will be fine. Tomorrow we move out of the cush hotel that we are in ( air conditioning and wifi!) and into a host family house. Im excited, I will get a real taste of life here and some real spanish practice. We had papusas (pa POO sas) for dinner, which are a very common. They are beans and cheese in the center of a thick spongy corn tortilla ball smashed flat. They are eaten with salsa, sauerkraut, and pickled cauliflower and carrots, with spiced hot chocolate to drink. They were unbelievably good, the food here seems right up my alley. We also had training today in common health problems that occur as well as how to avoud being the victom of various types of crime. Although El Salvador has the third highest rate of crime among PC countries, it has one of the lowest volunteer drop out rates, which really speaks for the country and the program. Since all I can compare it to is Ghana, thus city seems pretty, clean and well kept to me, while everyone else seems it as a ghetto. Its all relative I guess. My spirits remain high, I feel so blessed to be here.

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Arrival!

Made it here safe and sound. Our flight left at midnight and arrived in the capital city around 6AM. We were treated to beautiful views of volcanoes backlit by a dark red sunrise. Upon landing we waded our way thru immigration and customs and boarded a old school with a psychedelic paint job and drove about 45 minutes to San Vicente, the city that our training takes place in. I was surprised at how much the countryside reminded me of Ghana, with similar roads, cars, houses, and plants. The city is better kept and cleaner than most cities in Ghana. Even though we were all fairly sleep deprived, our training began with a breakfast of ham stuffed crepes, a bean and rice mixture, and some sort of pastry. We then met the PC staff which included about 3 americans and 10 locals. The training today consisted of reviewing the PC goals and expectations, as well as various paperwork and speeches about our role in this country. We just arrived at a local hotel so we can get some sleep, we will stay until we move in with our host families on friday. I am the second youngest in our group of 30, and in the bottom bracket of spanish fluency, but I know that it will improve fast. The Salvadorans seem very friendly and welcoming so far. Tomorrow a have an interview in spanish that will place me in an appropriate level spanish class for our upcoming 10 weeks of training before we are assigned to a specific community site. Im having an amazing time and couldnt be more excited to be here. The possibilities seem limitless.
Please comment, ask questions, ect.
Muchos abrazos y besos a todos.

Finally Leaving

After much preparation, waiting and planning, the time has finally come. I am currently in LA awaiting my 11PM departure to San Salvador (the capital city) I flew down here from Arcata yesterday morning with two suitcases just under the 80 pound weight limit combined and a large backpack. After a nice flight and night at the LAX Radisson courtesy of the Peace Corps, today was our staging event. About 30 volunteers are leaving with me, all in their twenties, with some assigned to environmental education like me and others is the youth development program. Today was filled with goofy ice-breaker and get-to-know-you activities. We also discussed challenges we will face down there as well as some of the reasons we joined the PC and what we hope to accomplish. The volunteers are from all parts of the country and most of them recently graduated college. Some are already fluent in Spanish and some are still beginners like me. Now we have a few hours to buy last minute things and make calls, post on blogs, ect. We arrive in El Salv at 5AM tomorrow. I was happy to find out that they use the same electrical plugs as us, and also use the US dollar, which will simplify things. Its been nice meeting everyone who is in the exact same situation as me, and we all can share our enthusiasm and anxiety. Overall, I am more excited than ever and can't wait to get there.
Much love to everyone.