Communism! And Machismo!And the (sort of) Death of Vegetarianism!

Here I am, procrastinating on homework on my free day by going to the internet place to upload pictures and write a blog post. Oh well...
As usual, far too much has happened to even begin to explain in a blog post....but I'll try to get all the most mildly interesting parts in....Oh, just a heads up that this will probably be unacceptably long. sorry.

First off, history class last Friday:
Our teacher, Gene Polombo, came down to El Salvador in 1980 to cover the civil war for NPR and the NY Times, so he basically knows everyone in the country. No joke. Our class every week is a different speaker who comes in to tell us their experience of the war, and since he knows everyone from every side, we get pretty different points of view every week. For our homework last week, we read a book written by a famous central american journalist about her series of interviews with a campesino (someone from the rural regions of El Salvador) named Don Pablo Lito. Then, on Friday, Don Lito came to talk to us. See, I told you Gene knows everyone.
First of all, the room we had class in was about 100 degrees. Pretty rough. But Don Lito was such an interesting story teller and actually pretty hilarious as well. He told us about his village's experience with the Catholic church and the various preists they went through before and during the war; like a lot of places, they experienced both the priest who abused his power and didn't listen to the needs of the people, and later a priest who helped them to organize, learn to read ,etc etc. Side note: best part of this part of the story was Don Lito's explanation of communism.
Apparently, one time a government representative came to their town to encourage them to join a government group to "help control communism." When they asked what communism was, the explanation they got was that it is something that is happening in Cuba, wherever that was. Fidel Castro, who had taken over, always wore a military suit because he was covered in hair like a gorilla. Also, he had horns and a tail, like the devil. He ate humans, and preferred them raw, but his FAVORITE food was children--he would just pick them up off the street and eat them.
Pretty accurate, I think, yeah?
The second half of his presentation was Don Lito recounting stories of his village and his friends during the war, which was almost unbelievably sad. Literally, it was hard to believe some of the stories he told us because it was just so hard to even imagine how people could do these things he told us stories about. Probably the most devastating part of this all was how normal it seemed for him to be telling horrible story after story, and the fact that everyone in the country seems to have a similar story.

Right after history class, we all climbed onto the bus and went off for Praxis weekend, which means we stayed for the weekend in the places where we spend time on Monday and Wednesday. Me, Dawn, and Elizabeth (my amazing praxis partners) all went to San Ramon, but stayed in different houses. I stayed with Areli, the woman who walks around with us on mondays in San Ramon. She and her family live a little outside the center of San Ramon in the more 'rural' -ish part, about a 25 minute uphill walk to the base of the volcano. Areli is absolutely hilarious and her whole family was super welcoming, so it was a pretty fun weekend. I hung out a lot with Yefri (yes, Jeffery in Spanish), her 5 year old grandson who lives with her. he had strep but you would never know it, with how much energy that kid had.



























I don't even know where to start with the hilarious stories from this weekend...first off, when i got there, we were talking about American cartoon characters who are popular in El Salvador and her husband, Rene, asked me if i know "Alf," and proceeds to get from the bedroom a 2 foot tall Alf doll. Later we spent a good hour altogether watching Puerto Rican and Brazilian music videos, all of which they knew all the words to and pointed out to me their favorite ones. We then watched this really silly Colombian variety show that i understood a good 2% of. Only in Latin America would the variety show survive as a viable form of entertainment....
A huge part of this weekend were the meals...those were some rough times. Areli was cooking dinner on the first night and says to me "I know you are vegetarian, so we are cooking all vegetarian this weekend!" Literally as she is saying this, she is sprinkling chicken boullion seasoning into the rice and poatoes. Here, being vegetarian means that you don't eat CHUNKS of meat, but meat by-products? Why not?! I was definately NOT going to be the snobby American girl who refuses food that was so generously cooked for me, so I just thought to myself, 'buen provecho' (bon apetit), and dug into the first meat product I had eaten in 12 years. Sigh. That was repeated every meal, by the way. It's pretty humbling to be totally not in control of what you are eating...
I was also given SO much food at every meal, to the point where I physicaly could NOT eat anymore. For breakfast, I was given a HUGE bowl of beans, potatoes, fried plantains, 2 tortillas, and coffee. At 7 in the morning....oi. Regardless of the fact that this created a lot of awkward situations this weekend, it still amazes me how generous people are with everyone, even guests who they have just met.

One thing from this weekend that I still can't shake, though, is the family dynamic of so many families here. Where I stayed, everyone in the family was so welcoming and nice, but Areli does ALL the work. Her husband was such a nice guy, but would just lay in bed in the morning and yell that he was hungry, all while Areli was running around in the kitchen getting ready for church, making food, ironing, etc etc. Later, at church, Areli told me that she was hungry because she hadn't eaten breakfast. After she was running around, giving her husband and her 17 year old sons everything they wanted, she didn't even eat ANYTHING herself. So many other people had the same experience this weekend. I had gotten so used to the machismo on the streets--literally, you can't walk to school without being hassled or kissed at--but seeing it in the home of people who we have spent time with and respect was so discomforting.

Finally (I promise, finally), one of the most interesting things from this weekend was the fact that i went to 2 church services that could NOT have been more different. Saturday night, Areli and her family went to the evangelical church service right down the road. It was a really uncomfortable hour for me, to say the least. It was mostly praying loudly with closed eyes and reading a bible passage and listening to the really lame interpretation by the priest. Also in the end i was handed a gigantic sandwich filled with chicken. yum. The next morning, Areli and I went to the celebration of the word at the Pueblo de Dios en Camino, which is a community group started by an amazing woman named Anita whose house we hang out at quite a bit. This group had orignially been part of the church in San Ramon and had amazing community programs and initiatives, but a new priest came and shut down all of these. So the community created their own church, without a priest, where the mass consists of community members reading, sharing ideas and problems, offering their own bits of the homily, and giving communion of a cookie or peice of pan dulce (bread) that they had made. This weekend, the mass was outside in a memorial park to commemorate the 27th anniversery of the eruption of the volcano that killed hundereds of community members. They talked not only about this sadness, but also about real and concrete social problems that existed then and still effect their community, as well as what they are doing to help prevent another distaster like this. Comparing this to the mass from the night before, where we just listened to some random guy who drove there in a nice car to give mass, was absolutely crazy. The two could not have been more different. Sadly, the evangelical churches here (in place of community based churches) are really popular. In fact, I am woken up every day by the insanely obnoxious tamborine songs of the church next door.

When we got home, we went out to Mexican food for dinner to celebrate Chelsea's 20th birthday and eat real vegetarian things and enjoy some very very very light Salvadoran beer. All in all, a wonderful weekend.

Alright that is all, I promise! Unlike other people, i suck at journaling so i mostly write things here instead. Now off to enjoy the rest of my day off--probably do some laundry and homework, and maybe nap in a hammock while getting eaten alive by bugs. Can't complain.

:Sabine

PS: I Finally started to upload pictures!!! I only have a few up so far since the internet is so slow, but I will finish soon. Here is my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sabinetb/

....No idea where to start with this one...how about a list of what i have done for what feels like a month, but in actuality is less than a week.

1. BEACH DAY WITH THE BECARIOS!
On saturday, we gave up sleeping in on our first real weekend to get up at 8 and drive to the beach with the Becarios, the Salvadoran scholarship students that live with some of us. The drive is about an hour from where we are now, almost in the middle of El Salvador (El Salvador is a really, really small country). It was WONDERFUL. Who would have thought that the Pacific Ocean actually gets HOT?! Having 'swam' in the Oregon beach, I would never think that I would be in the pacific ocean for a good 5 hours in a row. We were all confused about why we had to leave at 8 am, until at around 12 when the waves got insanely huge and stayed that way for the rest of the day. Highlight/Lowlight of the day: being "saved" by a 40-something Salvadoran lifeguard in a speedo who noticed that we were swimming in really slowly and having some trouble with the current, so he swam out and held our hand to help us back. He turned to us first thing and asks, "Americana?" and we just had to shamefully hang our heads and say "si" and accept his lifeguard help.
That night, we had a papusa party and watched the US-El Salvador socce game at the program director's house with the Becarios, which of course got loud and obnoxious because everyone here LOVES soccer (it is on the front page of the paper every day). The US won but it was fun times all around.

oh, also, i got sunburt at the beach of course.

2. NO WEDDINGS AND A VELA
On monday, after a nice and restful sunday we went to Praxis as usual. It was a fun morning at the school, but once we got to Anita's house, we found out that her father, who lives with her and has been struggling with cancer, had died half an hour earlier. Literally, 30 minutes before we got there...in the US, someone would probably NOT invite you into their house at this moment. But this is El Salvador, so she told us to come in. However, also since this is El Salvador, she invited us into her father's room, where he had just passed away. It seemed like such a natural invitation, that she didn't even think TWICE of. So, as we have learned here, we did as we were directed by a nice Salvadoran woman and went into her father's room to see him. Had this been the US, i would have been fairly traumatized...but there is such a different feeling surrounding death here that it seemed compeltely normal. A few other family members were also in there, sitting on the bed next to him. It sounds really bizzare when typed out, but, standing there about one foot away from someone who had died 30 minutes ago, it felt so much more normal than what we do in the States--cover up bodies, call an ambulance to take them away, and try to avoid the fact altogether.
Later that night, we went to the Vela (the wake), which is basically everyone getting together the same night at the house for coffee, tamales, talking, etc. It was also so much more natural than US funerals, which can feel so contrived and awkward. The coffin was in the middle of the room, open, but so were hundreds of flowers, pictures, and cards that seemed to have come out of no where in the matter of a few hours. There were also, no joke, probably about 300 tamales. It is amazing what people can do with 6 hours to get a party togethere here. Much less in the wake of someone dying. The next day, around 200 people went to the burial, 3 hours away. Everything seemed like a natural and honest process, so focused on life and community. That is officially how I want my funeral to be. Except I want vegetarian tamales, not chicken.

3. SUECIA!
REALLY long story short, I met a woman at my site who has half her family in Sweden and half in Portland, OR. Life is SO weird and the world is SO small. Looking at her Sweden pictures from her visits and talking to her about Sweden was one of the best moments here yet, hands down.

4. PRAXIS FIELD TRIP!
Today (wednesday) we went back to Praxis and went on a field trip with the 5-6 year olds. On the 12th of September, they celebrate the life and martyrdom of Alfonso Acevedro, a man from the community who helped to organize community groups, found refuge for people fleeing war in the countryside, and wrote publically for the national paper about the oppression of priests and catholic communities. he was killed in 1982 and, though he wasn't an ordained priest, buried in the church that we went to visit today. Transportation was hilarious...we literally packed about 40 kids into 2 vans. The ride was only about 20 minutes, but it was still amazing to see that many people in one car. On the way back, they NON STOP sang the chorus of the song they know about Alfonso...literally, 20 minutes of the same chorus, over and over and over and over and over. Hilarious.














Baby successes of the week:
1. washing my towels and laundry and NOT having them smell like mildew! I have never appreciated a washer/dryer more. Do you know how hard it is to wash and dry something that is MADE to soak up water!?
2. At least 10 kids now regularly call me 'sabina'. There were 2 Julias thrown out today but...baby steps.
3. 2 for 1 at Mister Donut!

That is all for now, i think? Hope all is well up north further away from the equator. Let me know what fall feels like....its currently almost 6 (and hence, almost dark) and im still sweating. such is life. Pictures to come later when i have more patience and internet that moves a LITTLE faster.

:Sabine

40 Cents worth of Internet later....

If I had the energy or time (or internet, for that matter), I would update this every day so that it didn’t get this overwhelming after a week. Really, I can’t even remember all the things I have done in a week—I can’t believe how much I have done in a week, actually. We finished orientation, which was really relieving. It was fun to have all new things happening for 2 weeks, but my brain hurts and I want a regular schedule and, most of all, some real resting time. I promise to be brief about this…I will work on not making all of these entries novels, as I know that all of you have lives and can’t care all that much what I have for lunch every day.

We visited all the last praxis sites, which included cute kids dancing for us and grabbing us to dance (which equals me in linen pants and Birkenstocks, 5’ 9’’, awkwardly swinging my arms with a child less than half my size), and a Salvadoran grandpa serenading us with his guitar and songs he wrote during the civil war here about wanting peace. Great times had by all. We also visited Puerto Del Diablo, which is just a funny little side of the road attraction with a mildly safe zipline, some pretty antique looking ferris wheels, and a really really difficult hike up a mountain with the promise of spectacular views. And it was true!!! I thought I was going to die of a heart attack half way up, but once we got there it was definatey worth it….its quite a beautiful country. (see picture for proof).

We have also started classes which seem, oddly enough, all very wonderful and interesting It’s funny because we all kind of hang out with half our teachers all the time, seeing as one of them is a priest who works for the Casa program and eats dinner with us and imparts endless amounts of wisdom into our tiny little heads, one is a US journalist who has lived here for 20 years and is married to one of our cooks, and one is actually the leader of the program. My other classes are in Spanish and taught by Salvadorans, all amazing and endlessly overjoyed when they teach us a new word in Spanish. My political science class looks especially promising, since I am pretty sure that our teacher solved all of El Salvador’s problems in about 20 minutes with a powerpoint and some maps. Really. Then during class break I went to Mister Donut, where you can get 2 for 1 donuts for the month of September!!! A very important fact. Mister Donut is eerily popular here….

I also started work at my Praxis site, where I will be 2 days of the week until December. In the mornings, I work at Centro Hogar of El Proyecto Nuevo Amanecer, which is a school for kids and has a bunch of social services as well. I got my first choice and I get to work in the 3 year old class. 20 kids, one teacher, and me. They are actually all fairly well behaved, if a little crazy at times, thanks I think to the teacher who seems like she really knows what she is doing. They don’t exacty have my name down yet so they ask me every 5 minutes or they call me Julia (the last American student to work there), but I guess that will come with time. or, I hope it will. I don’t really want to be Julia all semester. In the afternoons after lunch at the soy project we go over to Anita’s house, which acts as kind of a a community center and church. Then we go on home visits of people in the neighborhood, which for me yesterday consisted of a 45 minute STRAIGHT uphill walk up the volcano with just me and Blanca, a 30-something woman who walks home and back about twice a day. Her house is the LAST one in the community and surrounded by a coffee finca, and is in the middle of absolutely beautiful volcano-ey nature. The most amazing thing is that her 12 year old son is paralyzed, so she CARRIES him up and down the mountain and onto a bus at least once a week for his physical therapy appointments. And I had a blister from my new Tevas. So, I guess it’s all relative.

Anyways Im really sorry this is so long….I tried to stop it! From now on I will reserve myself to only share very interesting things. Since orientation is over and now I have a real schedule I will probably be less interesting. But anyways thanks for reading until the end (if you did…). Hope all is well wherever you are.

Con un fuerte abrazo (a line from the Barney song, translated into Spanish. I’m learning so much….)

:Sabine
My favorite find at my Praxis site....Pippi Longstocking in SPANISH!