Saturday, September 22, 2007

Mes Civica

The beginning of September marked the civic month, as september 15th was when El Salvador gained their independence. for the first week, they had a civic event in the park everyday, with an artistic work, usually a dance or the band from a school played, and someone from one of the institutions in the pueblo gives a speech. as has become customary, i sat at the table of honor, much to my surprise at hearing my name called everyday. this has become a common occurance. i have headed a parade in town, given a speech on behalf of the city hall at the opening of a youth soccer tournement funded by world vision, who are very active here in Caluco. People have really accepted me with open arms here, and I feel very honored and humbled by their hospitality.

The rest of these last couple of weeks, i continue to attend meetings at the city hall, travel to the rural towns for women´s groups meetings and just generally chat with people. I am starting to get anxious about starting a project, but I need to continually remind myself that I need to get to know the people very well first, and let things develop. I have started teaching an english class to the 4th grade at the school in caluco, since their teacher is out on maternity leave. it is only 45 minutes one morning a week, as that was all i wanted to commit to. there is a fine line between helping out, and simply doing a teacher´s job for them. lots of teachers ask me to teach their classes, but this is neither sustainable nor my job. it is difficult to explain this to them, that i am here to help, to provide training or knowledge rather than just doing it for them, which is a huge mistake that development agencies have made in the past. the english teacher at the school also asked for my help to practice speaking, since practicing a language is vital to retaining it. recently, the school director asked for my help in starting a girl´s softball team, which is really exciting. i am so glad i decided to bring my mitt! the subject of girl´s education is something that is particularly grabbing my interest right now, so maybe this will turn into more. But for now, i am trying to become a familiar face. my biggest break through yesterday-my old neighbor lady started up a conversation with me about the weather, rather than just eyeing me suspiciously when i say hi!

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.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

"Senorita Kelsey"

I have spent just over two weeks here at my new home in Caluco. Caluco is a sleepy little town of 600 people, with a total of 8300 in the municipality. So most people live in the hills above Caluco, with beautiful views, sometimes of the sea on a clear day.

So far I feel very blessed to have been placed here. The people are generally very nice and welcoming to me, although I am sure many of them are curious to why I am here and what I am doing. It is quite a strange thing to have someone come from a great life in the US to live in a tiny town in El Salvador for two years, as most people here are trying to move to the US. People are generally astonished when I tell them how long I will be living here, and quite honestly, I am too at times!

My daily life is pretty relaxed. Mondays through Fridays I go to the local city hall in the morning, and spend the majority of my day there, drinking coffee, going to meetings, and sometimes going for rides up to the rural towns to meet with people there. I have not begun any large projects yet, as the first three months my main job is to get to know people, the area, and build trust. Oh yeah, and learn Spanish! However, some projects are in the works already, and I am starting to carve out a little role for myself. I think I volunteered to organize the Gender Assembly here in Caluco, which is a project funded by numerous Salvaldoran gender-equity organizations, and also from a NGO in Spain. Caluco was selected to be part of a country-wide project to start women´s committees in the rural towns, orchestrated by the city hall, to increase equity and citizen participation. This means that numerous classes about gender issues will be given, along with providing important educational classes to the women´s committees, so that they may be more empowered and be better equipped to take care of themselves and there families.

I have met numerous people from the NGOs here in Caluco (there are many here helping out, as Caluco is the 5th poorest municipality in all of El Salvador) and it is exciting to be around so many motivated people!

I live in a nice little house with an older woman and her brother. During the week, their niece and nephew stay at the house, since they have to travel far to go to their high school and arrive at home late. They are very nice to me, and I think being called by anything else than Senorita Kelsey would be strange! I have my own room to myself and close access to a bathroom, which is quite nice (especially in those moments when a pupusa is not sitting well...). In a while I will move to a different room across the courtyard, so I can be on my own, although I have considerable privacy as it is right now. They are both very relaxed. The woman especially loves teaching me new slang terms and giggles incessantly when I make a silly mistake, like saying "good morning" instead of "good afternoon." They have two dogs, a wiener dog named Tiffy and a cocker spanial named Pooky, along with three cats, two toucans, and supposedly a tortoise that lives in the garden. Both are semi-retired, although the woman runs a tiny little restaurant, so during meals I have the opportunity to chat with the local police, students, and who ever else wanders in. Also, the guy is building an addition onto the house, where he will start selling food, candy, phone cards, and the like.

Now that I am getting settled in, I will update more frequently. But all is well, I am loving it here, although missing you all at the same time. I greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers, and know that you are in mine as well!