Sunday, September 9, 2007

This weekend was my first weekend out of my site, as I went to the capital of San Salvador to hang out with some of my PC friends, and celebrate a couple of birthdays. It was quite an adventure the first morning, as it was also the first time I went into the capital from my site, trying to find how to get where I needed to go! I had a Gender and Development meeting in the morning, since I was elected a representative to this PC El Salvador group, which meets to promote gender education activities and awareness in PC El Salvador. In the past, GAD has sponsored camps for youth on gender roles and stereotypes, and other issues, since gender equity is not only a goal of the PC agenda here, but also on the development plan of El Salvador's government. Anyway, I definately took the wrong bus and ended up on the total opposite side of town, completely lost. Needless to say, I learned my lesson and am in the process of learning buses better here in El Salvador. Taxis are nice.

This last week went by very fast. The most exciting thing was an event hosted by about 3-4 NGOs for the opening of a new project in 2 cantones (little towns in the municipality). This project is very similar to the Heiffer Project and I am very excited to see how it develops. The idea is that about 50 or more families will be given a "herd" of pigs or chickens, and be trained how to sell the eggs from the chickens and meat from the pigs. The idea behind this is sustainability, because if people aren't trained how to raise enough of animals before they are sold, they are out of "product" and thus, out of money. So in the beginning, only the eggs are sold from the chickens, until enough more chickens hatch to eat for the families. Same with the pigs-minus pig eggs. And the cool part is that the project is arranged so that the families in the communties are not competing with each other, but investing part of their earnings into a community bank, so it is a community business rather than an individual job. It was so great so see so many people involved, men and women, young and old, and were so hopeful and enthusiastic. And the people from the NGOs are amazing; they work with the people, learn with them, rather than just throwing them the money and capital. It is a truly human development project, based on developing knowledge rather than just cash, which is expendable and often runs dry. This is a very similar development philosophy to the PC's, to build human assets and knowledge, rather than just giving things. It is more sustainable, more rewarding, but also takes much more time and effort. However, as most of us have found, the things in life that are the most valuable and with the greatest payoffs (personal and otherwise) come with hard work and time, and a lot of heart.

While I was chatting with the people from the NGOs, many of them are interested in where I am going to work. Although I only have been in my site for three weeks now, I am starting to get antsy. The more people I meet and connections I make here, the more I desire to start giving back, as I have received so much from these generous people. But I also must continue to be patient, as rushing in to a big project spells disaster. It is a fine balance, I am beginning to find out, wanting to get going, get things done, but also having to be patient, not to push, and let things develop as more trust and understanding, on all sides, grows. I have much to learn about this culture; yes, language is a large part of this, but in the long run, it is cultural misunderstandings that lead to problems rather than silly miscommunications!

The latest language blunder (by the way, the more Spanish I learn, the more I am aware of my mistakes...another mixed blessing): I had cooked lunch with my counterpart for a lunch with the community leaders of the institutions in the town, and was talking with them. Well, the priest from the church was there, along with my mayor, the director of the "casa de la cultura," and the police chief. To make this short, the priest asked me, "So you are a vegetarian (many times Americans are assumed to be vegetarians)?"

And I responded, "No, I am Lutheran."

Good job, Kelsey.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's good to hear from you. Sounds like very interesting times for you. I'm not sure what my long term plans are. I will tell you I am looking into other things though. But I'll be in Bozeman a little while longer. Thank you for the pictures. El Salvador looks nice. Different but nice.

P.S. Short hair looks good on you! :)

Ryan

Elisa said...

That last story was great! I've told it to a few other people, and everyone thinks it's hilarious... Dad suggested you send it in to Reader's Digest:)

It was great to see some pictures of your new life. I'll post some of mine online too, I think, but I finally got my act together and put together a pacakage for you. A CD with the pictures we have so far is include (there are something like 325 or so on there!).

I'll give you a call in the next day or two. I was going to last week, but I spent most of it on the couch with a wicked case of strep throat. Better now though!

Talk to you soon.
Love,
Elisa