Immersion Days

Tomorrow through Sunday morning I'll be taking part in "Immersion Days", a component of Peace Corps training in which trainees spend a few days shadowing a PCV in their site. I'll be spending my Immersion Days with a Youth Development Volunteer named Cesar, whose site is a caserio outside the city of Metapan, in Santa Ana department. He is about six months into his service, which is right about the time PCVs are expected to launch the projects they intend to undertake for the rest of their time in-site (at least in Peace Corps El Salvador, the first six months or so are usually dedicated to conducting a community assessment and confianza-building, and maybe initiating a couple small projects, like English classes, geared at getting to know people in the community). On Cesar's agenda over the next couple days are activities such as a couple basketball practices with youth and an English class, also for youth. It'll be interesting to experience life in Cesar's site and ask about the challenges he has faced so far and the strategies that have worked for him in gaining his community's trust. Observing his situation won't be a perfect window into my life seven months down the road, as all communities vary with respect to resources and needs, and because his focus is Youth Development and mine is Community Economic Development, but I expect my three days in his site to be illuminating. I'll be sure to blog my observations when I get back.

In other news, I'm very curious to see what President Obama has to say tomorrow about making higher education more accessible, though I think I'll have to wait until Sunday to have the requisite internet access...