10/25/10
My town meeting happened on Friday, I had invited everyone in the community to come to the school and hear me talk about my job and to introduce myself. The director of the Environmental Education Peace Corps program came to support me and to say a few words the people would actually understand. About 80-100 people showed up, which packed the classroom we were in and lots of people had to try to listen from outside. I had written a speech and made posters saying my ideas for possible projects. I was pretty nervous, but everything went pretty well. Two women in the front row sat down and promptly started breastfeeding their babies which was a little distracting. At the end of everyone’s speeches the meeting transformed into a general town meeting. I was not aware this would happen, I was told to sit down and listened to someone call out the names and ages of all the infants in town. People would respond with “Si” so maybe it was checking if they were still alive.
I’ve been playing soccer almost constantly here, which I really like since it is an easy way to make friends without talking and is pretty fun. I play in the street in front of my house with neighborhood kids, ages 6-20, with goals being two rocks on either end of the street. This is some rough and tumble playing, as small space, pavement, rocks, sand, gutters, and barb wire fences make it feel like winning is more about survival than goals. We also play in a campground by the lagoon, which requires navigating trees, rocks, bushes, picnic tables, roots and fences, while trying to maintain control of the ball. A few of the kids have some funny nicknames, one kids is called “lodo” which means mud and my favorite “pachuga” which means chicken breast. I started calling one guy “godzilla” since he is tall and wide and plays like a freight train. Everyone thinks this name is hilarious and is definitely better than his old name of “gordo” which means fat. Everyone here calls me Nacho or Nachito or sometimes my personal favorite “Don Nacho” Every time I hear that one I have to stop and ponder the chain of events that lead to my name being Don Nacho and I just have to appreciate the absurdity of life.
I also play with the men’s team in very organized matches at a nearby soccer field that is in pretty good shape. These games are more serious and include registered players, a ref, uniforms, and a tournament schedule. The last two weeks I had played for one half and managed to neither make a any good plays nor make a fool of myself, which was my primary goal. This week they put me as goalkeeper, a scary position since everyone puts their faith in you. I was honored that they trust me that much, and decided not to mention that I hadn’t played on a soccer team since I was ten. All was going well in the goal until, in a moment of terrible judgment I let a high kick that I thought was out over the goal pass, which somehow curved precisely into the goal. I turned around to look and wanted to die. This put the other team in the lead, my team hadn’t lost all season, there wasn’t much time left, and I had just experienced a goalie’s worst nightmare, letting an easy one through. Amidst plenty of catcalls from the sidelines I tried not to think about what an ass of myself I had just made. All eyes were on my in these games anyway since I’m the only white/tall/foreign/non-spanish speaking guy out there. As the game continued all I could think about was my teams shattered trust, my loss of street cred, and the next flight back to the states (just kidding, kind of). These games don’t see high scores, but I was praying for us to score a goal or even for them to score another, since then the loss wouldn’t be caused by my mistake alone. With about a minute left my guys managed to put one in, and I’ve never been happier for a goal in my life. So we ended up tying instead of losing, which saved me from what may have been early retirement from El Salvador soccer league. We see what happens next week.
Finally, once a week I coach the youth soccer team, which just involves being the ref while they scrimmage. The kids range from ages 7 to 15, so I admire the tenacity of the little ones. Being a referee turned out to be harder than imagined, since no matter what call you make half of the players will be mad. I’m starting to get the hang of it, and hopefully next year I can organize for us to travel to away games.
Other than that, I don’t have a lot to do right now, since in a week I will leave for two weeks for the second part of my training, which last for two weeks. There we learn more about specific projects that we can do. I’m trying to come up with a project that could be a business for the people here, since most people said that lack of jobs is the biggest problem here. Aside from opening a new Nike factory, it is tough since no one has much money to buy anything. There is a decent flow of tourists though, so maybe we could sell them more food, arts and crafts, or souvenirs such as postcards or posters or something like that.