Last post from El Salvador

This is my last dispatch from El Salvador, but probably not my final post on this blog; I’ll likely publish again once I have settled into my post-Peace Corps routine and had time to reflect and adjust to my new surroundings.

The café project finally bore fruit 
with a soft opening last month

I’ll be leaving my site on Wednesday, September 9, then spending 36 hours in San Salvador to finalize my Close of Service at the Peace Corps office, and flying out of El Salvador the morning of Friday, September 11. I’ll land in Minneapolis–my next home–the afternoon of the 11th to immediately begin the next chapter of my life. My new job at a software company begins Monday, September 14.

With drastic change on my immediate horizon–a new city; a “real” job in an unfamiliar industry; the freedom and independence I have gone without for two years–the task of expounding on the personal and intellectual growth I have experienced over the past 25 months seems daunting and I’m not going to do it here. Rather, I would invite you to consider what impact two years detached from the culture and circumstances to which you are accustomed might occasion upon you. Perhaps you have lived a comparable experience and can easily relate–many people have left their comfort zones, whether by choice or not. (This is not to suggest that one’s comfort zone is not dynamic and adaptive–it is.)

I am grateful for the people of El Salvador for hosting me for these two years, and for belonging to a country whose values permit it to sustain an agency like Peace Corps for over half a century. I do sometimes wonder how different my Peace Corps service would have been had I served in a country that was experiencing a better moment than El Salvador has during my service.

August was dreadful,
but the situation will improve

You see, 2013 to 2015 has been a fraught period for El Salvador. The murder rate has reached disturbing heights this year (August, my last full month in El Salvador, witnessed a record 907 murders) and national morale is extremely low amid an environment marred by endemic violence, political polarization, and interminable out-migration. I don't doubt that I would have encountered more opportunities to make a meaningful impact as a Peace Corps Volunteer if I had served in a country that was on a positive economic and social trajectory, as Peace Corps is at its best when it is complementing existing positive trends in its host countries.

I offer these musings not to dwell or portray El Salvador as hapless–there are many positives here that I have discussed in previous posts, and moreover, I am convinced that better times await El Salvador–but to advise future Peace Corps applicants to consider a country’s near-term trajectory (its “moment”) when deciding whether to apply to serve there.

Enough on that. I truly am grateful to have had the opportunity to spend this brief chapter of my early twenties in El Salvador. It will be years before I grasp the extent to which my time here has influenced me, but I know with certainty that I’ll wear the distinction of Returned Peace Corps Volunteer proudly for the rest of my life.

Minneapolis, here I come.

tl;dr I love the USA

Over the last two years, I’ve developed a habit of reflecting daily on how fortunate I am to be American, a response (or perhaps a coping mechanism) to living and serving in a country that lacks the privileges and advantages of my own. As such, this Fourth of July isn’t a particularly unique day for me. That being said, in the absence of barbeques, beer, fireworks, and fellow Americans, I thought I’d celebrate our day of independence by sharing–in a lighthearted, informal, and by no means comprehensive way–a few of the reasons I’m grateful to be American for which I would take for granted had I not served in the Peace Corps.

(The usual disclaimer: Yes, there are still huge challenges in America and I am not ignorant of our deficiencies with respect to inclusiveness, inequality, political polarization, and the environment. My optimism admittedly comes from a place of privilege, having been born into favorable circumstances. I hope that as our union continues its pursuit of perfection, a larger share of Americans grow up with as few obstacles as I did.)

Our economy: The U.S. economy is remarkably innovative, creative and large, and as Americans we can not just partake of it but help shape it, too. Think of all the professions you can hold in the U.S. that are unthinkable in other countries. Freelance recipe tester? Chief Happiness Officer? It is mindblowing to me the unique ways in which many Americans apply their creativity to make their livings. Even among Americans with traditional professions (my intention is not to elevate those with quirky professions above everybody else), many carry out their work within organizations that add value to society in novel and cosmically clever ways. Meanwhile, in many countries, practically the only remunerative, formal professions are scarce and in the public sector: teacher, police office, soldier. In America we have academics who dedicate their lives to studying obscure sub-sub-sub-sub-topics of ancient Egyptian history, engineers who develop medical devices that extend and improve lives, farmers who deploy sophisticated technology to maximize crop yields while minimizing environmental impact, and urban planners who design public spaces that unite people of different socioeconomic backgrounds and promote physical activity. We have companies that are making communication increasingly frictionless, and others that in the coming decades will divorce the world's automobile fleet from its dependence on fossil fuels. There seems to be no limit to what our economy can achieve, and as Americans we get to participate actively in it.

Mobility: The sheer size of the United States, the diversity of its landscapes and the decentralized nature of its prosperity–amid cultural and linguistic consistency that unites Americans from Seattle to Miami–is an incredible asset. Many countries, including great ones like the United Kingdom and Japan, are characterized by one of my favorite marvels of academic jargon, “urban macrocephaly”. Urban macrocephaly refers to a country in which opportunity and economic activity are overwhelmingly concentrated in the principal city. El Salvador is an urban macrocephalic country; if you’re a well-educated, globalized, ambitious Salvadoran, the only domestic destination for you is San Salvador, the capital. If you don't like the weather there, or you find the high crime rate stifling and stressful, too bad; you have nowhere else to go within your country. In America, sure, we have New York, our global megacity. But we also have a multitude of other fantastically dynamic places, from urban giants like Chicago and Houston, to regional anchors like Minneapolis and Atlanta, to small talent and innovation hubs like Madison and Boulder. If you're more of a country mouse, America's vast expanse, physical beauty, and agricultural prowess offer no shortage of rural settings that offer meaningful opportunities as well. This is not to mention the distinct climates and cultural nuances of different regions of the U.S. In short, as Americans we have the privilege to choose from an incredibly rich and diverse panoply of places to live within the border of our own country. Furthermore, our culture of personal autonomy empowers us to seize this advantage; charting your own course in an unfamiliar city, for instance, is a common American experience.

Multiculturalism: I distinctly recall the first time I discovered that as an American, I simply take cultural diversity as a given. The first time I left the U.S. was when I went to Mexico at age sixteen on a three-week trip led by a Spanish teacher at my high school. The twenty-or-so teenagers taking part in the trip lived with host families in Cuernavaca, where we took Spanish classes at a local institute. Early in my stay, my host mother, Lourdes, asked me if my school was diverse, and I answered that it wasn't. It was mostly white, I told her, but with a handful of Latinos, Asian Americans and African Americans. I had never been conditioned to think of southern Marin County, where I'm from, as culturally diverse, as it is so much whiter than much of the rest of California. Lourdes' reaction to my answer (a simple, "Wow, that seems pretty diverse to me. Here, everyone's pretty much the same."), however, challenged me to think about how living among a multicultural population is a natural feature of American life. Living in El Salvador, where virtually everyone is mestizo, has dramatically deepened my appreciation for the extent to which cultural diversity enriches American society. No aspect of our society is not enhanced by America's diversity, from art, academia, and business to politics and food, and our openness and attractiveness to new arrivals from all over the world represents a distinct advantage over other places.

Also, now we've got gay marriage! Happy birthday, America! I'm fortunate to know you and I'll see you in September.

Security, college, robots 'n' more

Hi everyone --

Life in El Salvador continues at the usual pace, though the security situation in the country has worsened from an already deplorable starting point. May was the bloodiest month here since the end of the civil war 23 years ago, registering 622 homicides. Previously, March of this year had held this title, with 482 killings. Analysts attribute the rise in the homicide rate to the gangs' response to the government's increasingly heavy-handed anti-gang tactics. The more aggressive the government, the more brutal the gangs.

My site remains as of yet untouched by the violence epidemic, and it's unclear why. There are numerous small, rural towns with similar characteristics (economic, social, geographic, etc.) that have been infiltrated by the gangs and are subject to their practices of extortion, aggressive recruitment of teenagers, and intimidation of the local population. No one can be sure if it's simply a matter of time until one or more gangs establishes a presence here, or if my community possesses some unique safeguard against this scenario. This uncertainty contributes to the widespread fear and distrust that partially characterize the national mood here.

Info session at the ITCA

As far as work goes, my proudest undertaking of the last month was a trip to the capital that I led for my high schoolers to tour a university campus. In a survey I distributed to them earlier this year, almost all indicated a desire to pursue tertiary education after graduating from secondary school. When I informally polled them on whether they had ever set foot on a university campus, I discovered that none had, so I resolved to give them this experience. My thinking was that an in-person visit to a university would enable the students to conceptualize the possibility of tertiary education in a more concrete way.

The university that received us–the Instituto Tecnológico Centroamericano (ITCA)–was wonderfully gracious, professional and informative. The ITCA employee who coordinated our visit pulled together the directors of various degree programs within the institution, including gastronomy and restaurant management, auto repair, and electric engineering, each of whom gave a presentation describing their specific area of study. The information session was followed by a tour of the institution's neatly-manicured campus and lunch in the campus cafeteria, which is run by pupils in the gastronomy and restaurant management program. Overall, the campus visit was eye-opening for most of the students, and I hope it will help some of them define their medium-term priorities and navigate the decision that awaits them as they near their high school graduations.

Students after our campus tour

Remaining on the topic of university education, an observation I make is that nearly every university student I meet in this country is studying something practical and immediately applicable to the labor market; engineering, marketing, business administration, medicine, education and English seem to be the most common choices. This contrasts heavily with my personal experience, coming from a liberal arts background where intellectual exploration and the cultivation of critical thinking skills are emphasized more than learning a specific body of information within an area that translates directly into particular jobs.

The contrast between my experience and what I perceive to be the Salvadoran experience makes perfect sense when taking into consideration the state of the Salvadoran economy and the incentive ecosystem that it creates around a prospective university student. In a country where formal-sector jobs are incredibly scarce, one would be foolish to study political science and human rights as I did, if those degree programs even existed (which they don't). This is not to say that the small number of Salvadorans with degrees in such disciplines as anthropology and literature are necessarily doomed to a life of unemployment, but it is to say that to obtain a degree in a liberal arts field represents a significantly higher risk in El Salvador than it does in the United States. The freedom I had to pursue a liberal arts education with the confidence that it wouldn't prove financially ruinous was a luxury of having been born into middle class circumstances in a rich country with an incredibly complex and dynamic economy.

Who needs PCVs when kids can
learn from robots?

To shift gears and briefly summarize a couple of my other activities, I'll say that another recent highlight was Skyping into two high school Spanish classes in suburban Los Angeles to tell the students about Peace Corps and El Salvador (part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is sharing about Peace Corps and your country of service with other Americans). This was a wonderful experience and I was impressed by the complexity and thoughtfulness of the students' questions. Also, the gourmet café project has really gotten off the ground and my counterparts and I are hoping to open up shop before I finish Peace Corps in September. Furthermore, with a USAID grant I acquired some robotics equipment to support a technology education program at the school in my site. This is a fun, interactive program that I was happy to support. Lastly, I have begun advising a woman who just opened a small food store on sales and marketing strategy, as well as internal management. I'll elaborate on this project in my next post once I have a better sense of where it is headed; we're currently facing some roadblocks involving her health that could stop the store project in its tracks. Lastly, a week ago my site received two new Peace Corps Volunteers who belong to the Youth Development project within Peace Corps El Salvador. Back in September, I initially recommended to Peace Corps that it send a Youth Development Volunteer to my community and later got my community to execute the process of applying for a volunteer, and it is great to have not one but two finally here and eager to serve the community.

In my spare time, I am continuing to lay the groundwork for my post-Peace Corps relocation to the Twin Cities by networking via phone and internet, and I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

I'll conclude with this picture of cows crossing the river in my site. Interpret it as you please.

It's hot but I try not to talk about the weather, or updates from the past two months

I write this post from a delightful cafe in La Palma, fittingly called Café d'Café, where I have come to escape the heat in my site (March and April are suffocating here, and my house has an uncanny talent for trapping and storing heat, resulting in an overheated, minimally-clad, and agitated gringo).

Here are some arbitrarily-ordered and iced-coffee-fueled updates from my world.

General El Salvador Updates

A 6am hoop session in my site

Since my last post, the March 1 national elections for mayors and legislators happened. The outcome was a mixed bag. On the one hand, the left-wing FMLN party picked up city halls in the capital and largest city San Salvador, as well as San Miguel, the main city on the eastern side of the country. On the other, the right-wing ARENA party and its allies gained ground in the national assembly and are now the dominant force in the body that is El Salvador's unicameral equivalent of the U.S. congress. In my tiny municipality, voters overwhelmingly re-elected the incumbent mayor, who has been in office for nine years with little to show for it but some comically bright stadium lighting in the central plaza and a fence around the soccer field that does an acceptable job of keeping cows and horses off the grass. The opposition to the mayor garnered enough votes to secure one out of eight seats on the city council under a new law promoting pluralistic municipal councils.

Yesterday, regrettably, El Salvador's national assembly advanced a series of anti-gay bills, designed to constitutionally ban marriage and adoption for same-sex couples (these things are already illegal here, but not constitutionally). On the bright side, the vote was far from unanimous, with 47 of 84 legislators supporting the legislation, and to be ratified, the legislation will have to cross a higher vote threshold in the next legislative session.

Furthermore, March was the bloodiest month in El Salvador in a decade, with 482 murders, or an average of over fifteen a day in a country of just over six million. A vast majority of the violence is gang-related, but there is also a disturbingly high rate of femicide in this country. As volunteers, we are oddly isolated from the epidemic of violence in El Salvador, as the U.S. embassy and Peace Corps do not allow volunteers to be placed in crime hotspots. Furthermore, El Salvador is a quite safe country for foreigners. There is a culture of respect here for foreigners, and the government does a pretty good job of boosting the police presence in tourist sites. There is even a dedicated tourism police force that has a strong presence at popular destinations like Playa Tunco. I would say, if you're interested in visiting in El Salvador, don't be discouraged by the negative news articles you read about the country. Do practice common sense and follow the State Department's and the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office's advice for travelers, but don't write the country off as a travel destination. There is a lot of good here, in spite of the bad.

Easter street art made by young people from my community

Possible new PCV(s) in Citalá

It is looking likely that next month another Peace Corps Volunteer (possibly even two, a married couple) will be installed in Citalá, which will make for an interesting arrangement during my final months as a Volunteer. The new volunteer(s) will belong to the Youth Development program (I'm a Community Organization and Economic Development Volunteer), meaning they will focus during their two years on activities with students and people in their early 20s, in such areas as career readiness, healthy lifestyles, computer and English skills, and extra-curricular activities. If volunteers are indeed assigned to here (nothing is certain in Peace Corps until it's certain, and sometimes not even then), I look forward to helping to orient them and prepare them for a successful service in Citalá.

I'm laughing a little bit at my use of the verb "install" in the context of a Peace Corps Volunteer site assignment, as if we're sweaty, backpack-wielding software updates.

Twin Cities Networking

In my free time, I have been networking over the internet and phone with people in the Twin Cities, my next destination after Peace Corps (I say this with 99% certainty, acknowledging that life is unpredictable). The experience has been fantastic. The Twin Cities is (I don't actually know if it's proper to use the verb 'is' or 'are' when speaking of the Twin Cities, but I'm committing to the third-person singular for now) home to iconic companies (think General Mills, 3M and Target) and a plethora of creative and consulting firms, making for a world-class business community. In the last three months I have done calls with about fifty individuals who have been incredibly generous in sharing their advice, connections, and time with me. Minnesota nice is a real thing. Also, I have been very pleased by how positively people respond to my Peace Corps service. People seem to understand that Peace Corps is a commitment that challenges an individual in ways a more conventional job can't, and cultivates qualities like flexibility, intercultural fluency, and resilience. Overall, the experience of networking with Twin Cities folks has taught me a great deal about different businesses and career paths and gotten me very excited about spending the next chapter of my life in the capital of America's North, as some would have it.

New community group formation

A planning session with the regional tourism
organization I work with

One new development in my site is that a group of residents of one of the five barrios (neighborhoods) of Citalá is trying to organize itself into an ADESCO (essentially a neighborhood improvement council). I have managed to elbow my way into their startup process to see where I can add value, and I have been pleased to see a high level of motivation among group members. What's more, the group president is a young woman, a fairly rare and improbable occurrence in provincial El Salvador. So for now, four meetings in, I feel optimistic that this group will be able to get established and fight to achieve its goals, which include improving street lighting at night, securing vocational trainings for women and youth, and upgrading sanitation infrastructure in the community.

Now, based on my experience in El Salvador, I should have extraordinarily low expectations for this nascent group, despite the positive initial indications. My first site was a bust in terms of motivation and commitment to see projects through, my current site is slightly better but still significantly lacking in aspiration, and I continue to be jarred by the apathy that prevails here (not that I blame the Salvadoran people, as the apathy is a symptom of systemic problems beyond any individual's control). That being said, digging oneself into a malaise of low expectations to protect oneself against eventual disappointment is no way to live.

My first taste of frog

Ataco/Juayúa trip

Last month I spent a weekend between the two charming mountain towns of Ataco and Juayúa. If you ever travel to El Salvador, I would highly recommend visiting these places, which are about a ninety-minute drive from the capital. Ataco is famous for beautiful handicrafts and delicious locally-produced coffee, and has some nice restaurants and hotels and a particularly lively restaurant-bar called Portland, which features live music. Juayua hosts a food festival every weekend that fills up with professionals from the capital and offers delicious grilled meats (including frog, which I tried for the first time, and rabbit), fried shrimp and fish, and decadent desserts. There is also an impressive waterfall just outside the town limits. El Salvador has numerous touristic gems like these; unfortunately, the country's gang violence keeps foreign travelers away.

Juayúa waterfall

That's all for now. Don't hesitate to follow up with questions (frank.j.alarcon@gmail.com or Twitter). I'm also accepting emails of the "Hey, my aunt lives in Minneapolis, let me put you in touch" sort.

Cheers,

Frank