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