Field-Based Training and More

Hola todos –

This last week I've been out and about – first on a weekend trip to Playa San Diego with my training group, then to complete my Field-Based Training at the site of a current Peace Corps Volunteer, Rachel, in San Juan Las Minas, Metapan, Departamento Santa Ana.

I don't have many interesting things to say about the beach other than it was very pretty (see pictures) and the water very warm. Vacationing has never been an integral part of my lifestyle, so the trip didn't feel necessary (I'm not a “Gosh, I could really use a vacation right now!” kind of person), but I got to spend many hours reading in a hammock next to the ocean, so I'm not complaining.

Field-Based Training with Rachel, just like Immersion Days a couple weeks ago with Cesar, was a very illuminating experience. Rachel's community is just a stone's throw from Cesar's, and equally charming. The family I stayed with had moved back to San Juan Las Minas just two years ago, after spending fourteen years in San Francisco, where he worked in a restaurant and she cleaned houses. They were wonderful people to begin with, but sharing a San Francisco connection made me feel even more at home with them. The dad, Flavio, is a really impressive man who takes on a lot of projects to benefit the community. For instance, he used his own money to construct a pond near the local school so that it would have agua potable all year long. He told me that he often finds success using Facebook to organize community members living in the U.S. around a common fundraising goal.

(A little background on this: There are six million Salvadorans in El Salvador, and two million in the U.S., meaning almost every family has at least a couple relatives abroad and many households depend on remittances from these relatives. Remittances [remesas, in Spanish], will be a recurring topic in future blog posts, as these money transfers have a huge impact on the Salvadoran economy and mindset.)

Activities we (I visited Rachel with two other trainees) did with Rachel included two charlas at the school (see photo), lunch with local schoolteachers, a meeting with a tienda owner, a tour of the Unidad de Salud (a health clinic administered by the Ministry of Health), house visits with the Promotora de Salud (an employee of the Unidad de Salud who visits people in their homes to educate them on relevant health issues and check up on their medical issues), and a meeting with the community's ADESCO. I won't delve into the details of each of these activities, but I'll say that interacting with different facets of Rachel's community—youth, educators, healthcare providers, community leaders, etc.--was a fascinating exercise that got me very excited to soon be done with training and to begin integrating into a host community of my own, and identifying how and where I as a PCV can add value.

San Juan Las Minas

I also saw my first snake in El Salvador during Field-Based Training, which was made all the more shocking by the fact that it was dead and tied to a boy's bicycle while he rode ferociously toward me.

This weekend is a normal weekend in Siete de Marzo with my host family. I plan to relax, catch up on homework assignments, spend some time with the family, and read. My sprained ankle episode two weeks ago gave me an excuse to go to the Peace Corps office, where I was able to pick up books from the little library the staff maintains, so in the last two weeks I've had the pleasure of reading The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman, and Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America by Adam Cohen. Hope bought me some Kindle books for my birthday, so I'll get started on those soon, starting with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.

That's all I've got for now. I realize I didn't offer many details about the beach of Field-Based Training, so feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions. Hasta luego!