A Trophy, 100 House Visits and My First Asamblea General

Time has been flying here in western El Salvador, and somehow I have managed to keep myself sufficiently busy and escaped the first months of service Ok-I’m-Here-What-Now? Syndrome. Whether it’s been visiting as many houses as possible before my first asamblea general (general assembly community meeting), traveling to play soccer on the PC women’s team, or spending nearly three hours hand washing my clothes, I have managed to effectively fight boredom and feel (relatively) productive.

Soccer
Much to my surprise, especially since I haven’t seriously kicked a soccer ball since Tonawanda Soccer Club peewee league back in ‘92, futbol, as it is known here, has become a significant part of my life. Like I shared in my last blog entry, I have begun playing regularly with the girls in my community. Of course since we’ve begun, our numbers have dwindled and surged, but now we are holding steady with a solid group of 15 girls who are excited and eager to play four days a week, usually during the hottest part of the day. With the group of girls I have now, I have transitioned from simply playing with them and goofing around to more of a coach figure. The girls expressed interest in learning new techniques and starting drills, but for me this wasn’t so easy. Ask me for a swimming, diving, squash, softball, even basketball drill, no problem I can rattle off a list, but soccer? I have no clue. Thanks to some help from Stefan back in the B-lo, I now have some simple, fun drills to run with the girls. You can tell that they are having a great time all while learning something new, which is a really cool thing to see.

This past Monday we did probably the funniest drill/skill practice. There was a lot of pushing going on for whatever reason- heat, raging hormones, drama (who knew 10 year olds had boyfriends?)- which I tried to explain would get them booted from a game if we ever get to play in one. (I’m working on forming a league with the girls’ teams of other PCVs nearby. It’s coming along, slowly but surely, as all things do.) This, I thought rather poignant, explanation did nothing to deter the girls. I can’t remember where I saw this drill, probably in Bend it Like Beckham, but I got the idea of having the girls hold their arms behind their backs while they played so they couldn’t push. Let me just say, hilarity ensued. (Bad placement of a Tucker Max reference, I know.) Try kicking a ball without balancing yourself with your arms. It doesn’t really work. Try just running with your arms behind your back. It’s so much harder than you’d imagine. Within seconds, there were girls rolling on the ground laughing after wiping out attempting to kick the ball. These girls are so full of energy and untapped potential, both on the field and off the field, I can’t wait to see how they continue to develop over the course of the next two years. Needless to say, the drill was pretty effective in getting the point across: no pushing!

Besides just playing with my girls, I also had the opportunity to play in my first game with the Peace Corps women’s team on October 11th. Though the game was in my home department, travel still took well over three hours, which meant that I had to leave my site the night before to stay with my PCV friend Bri in her site. It was awesome to see someone else’s site, to see how they are adjusting and what their living situation is like. Bri has a really great host family with a sister who is in university like my host sister, and host parents who are 100% entrepreneurs. For example, Bri’s host mom just earned her certification in cosmetology so she could be the beautician in their community. She even gave me a hair cut while I was there. The first one, she said, was gratis (free), but there after I’d be a paying costumer. I was a little nervous as she took the first few snips, and she seemed just as nervous as I was- I was her first blonde. I figured though, what’s the big deal? It’s hair, I’m a freak in El Salvador anyway with my pale skin and blue eyes, and it’ll grow back. In the end though, she did a great trim job while we all sat around and joked. Bri’s host mom even taught us a few explicatives. The whole family was very sweet and welcoming.

The morning of the game, Bri and I were up by 6:45AM, ate the Salvadoran breakfast of champions- eggs, fried plantains, beans, bread and cheese- and were on our way to the game’s site by 7:30AM. We met up with three other PCVs on the way there and arrived, finally, a little after 11AM. Unfortunately, due to the late notice of the game and how difficult it was to get to the game’s site, only seven female PCVs were present, but we borrowed four Salvadorans for our team. When I told our captain I hadn’t played in years and that I really didn’t know what to do in any position, she placed me as forward, told me who to mark, to run like hell, and hip check as much as possible, all while trying to score a goal. OK, no problem I could do that. Surprisingly I wasn’t so bad. A full game of play later under the beating sun, the Peace Corps women’s team reined victorious with a final score of 2-1. So no, I didn’t score a goal, but I did have a really nice assist for the first goal and rocked a girl on the other team with my hip checking skills. Also, I myself got rocked by a girl half my size, literally gringa in flight. But, it was ridiculously fun and we got a penalty kick off of it; really, not such a bad deal. As if winning wasn’t icing on the cake enough, it was topped off with a big side of ice cream when we found out we also won a trophy. We won the women’s portion of the entire tournament with one game. What an awesome first experience. Our trophy now sits in the Peace Corps office in San Sal where we plan on getting (most likely making) a trophy case for all our future victories.

We are going to be ordering new PC jerseys soon and I have to choose a name to put on the back of mine. I think I am going to go with Chapudita which means “little rosie cheeked one”, which is what every Salvadoran calls me after I have been outside for more than five minutes. It’s got a nice ring to it, and if that one professional football player can have Ocho Cinco on his jersey, why can’t I put Chapudita on mine?

100 House Visits
As you all know, during my first weeks in site my main responsibility, in addition to getting to know the people in my caserio, was to conduct a community needs based assessment. I did this by going on house visits nearly every morning with my walk-around committee, a different pair of community members everyday who would accompany me. During each visit, I would tell my new neighbors a little about myself, about Peace Corps, why I am here in San Luis, and why I am sitting in their home at the present. I then conducted a very basic census and questionnaire, collecting pieces of data such as age, occupation, education level, what types of crops they grow, whether they had interest in learning about certain topics, and concluded with discussions of their perceptions of the needs of the community and their ideas for potential projects. For anyone who is familiar with Latin American culture, you know that pena- shyness, shame, embarrassment- is a common and ever-present force. People aren’t as eager or willing to express their opinions and needs as Americans and at times it was like pulling teeth for me. Accordingly, I had to cap my daily house visits at seven, because I found I grew too frustrated to take the time to pry a little, encourage a lot and cajole ideas from them. Also, the amount of machismo, male dominance over the female, is another Latin American cultural aspect that I have, and will continue, to combat here in El Salvador. During some visits, I had women tell me they weren’t able to talk with me without their husbands present, they had no ideas or were incapable of producing them. Every time I encountered a woman like this, it killed me to see all her untapped potential, her insecurities after years of being told she’s not as good as her male counterpart, and all the ideas in her head that she just has too much pena to vocalize. What killed me the most, though, was when I was conducting my questionnaire at the home of a man who had five daughters with his wife. I asked him, after he had listed off to me his ideas, whether his daughters or wife had any ideas or thoughts they would like for me to include in my data. He responded by saying something like, “If they could think they would have ideas, but they can’t.” I was so appalled I didn’t know how to respond. All I could think was that my father would never say anything like that about me, that he always encouraged me and how different and difficult life must be for these girls without the support of their fathers. (You’re probably thinking, “start a women’s group!” Don’t worry, I’ll get to that part of the story in a bit.)

This past Thursday, as lunch time was quickly approaching and I sat down to my last house visit of the day, I realized that I was about to start my 100th visit, really quite an accomplishment. It wasn’t one of my best visits filled with great conversation and strong brainstorming sessions, but it was a memorable one nonetheless and a true landmark event for me. I completed more house visits than any other volunteer had in Peace Corps El Salvador. Knowing that seven more house visits wouldn’t make any statistically significant differences in my data analysis, and also liking the nice even number (gotta keep ‘em even, Cait), I decided that I was finished. Number crunching would be easier, and I’d have one more day to do quality analysis and preparation.

After a weekend away in the capital with my friends celebrating October birthdays, I arrived back in San Luis Sunday morning relaxed, rested (well, sort of- dollar drafts at Tony Roma’s will get you every time) and dove right in to my analysis. All Sunday and Monday I spent number crunching and found out some remarkable things, such as the average household spends over three hours per week collecting firewood for cooking, which has the potential to be cut down to three hours every month if an efficient wood burning stove is used instead of traditional, open-air fires. The efficient stove project is going to be one of my first here in the community. At $30 a piece, a hefty price at first glance, they quickly pay for themselves in the amount of firewood and time saved, not to mention the added health benefits of these near-smokeless stoves. There is a whole bunch more information, but I won’t bore you all with it. Tuesday was spent making my posters and planning the structure and content of my presentation. I made four posters: Todo Sobre Yo, Cuerpo de Paz, El Programa de Agricultura Sostenible, y Nuestra Comunidad- San Luis. Translated: All About Me, Peace Corps, The Sustainable Agriculture Program, and Our Community- San Luis. Everybody loves visuals and they served as more of a guide for me during my presentation.

The Big Day
Finally Wednesday, October 21, 2009 rolled around, the day of my first Asamblea General, my first real presentation in front of my entire community, all in Spanish, all by myself (with a little help from my boss, Rolando). The day was off to a rocky start when our potable water, which is supposed to be running every other day, was cut off only about 30 minutes after it began running. This was nowhere near enough time for my host aunt, she’s more like a sister, Soyla to clean out the pila- the large water retainer- with bleach (it prevents mosquito larvae from growing and spreading malaria and dengue) and refill it. In the time the water was running, the pila was only filled about 5% of the way. This meant bathing for me was a bit more of a precarious situation with the significant lack of water. Of course wanting to be fresh and clean for my big day, I had to think quickly, Tim Gunn it and make it work. I decided a face and hair wash and thick deodorant application would have to do for the day.

Noon time rolled around, I was starting to get anxious waiting in my khakis and navy blue polo (talk about American stereotype) and I was expecting my boss Rolando between 1:30 and 2PM, so headed down to the school where my counterpart Don Miguel and I began to set up and prepare for the meeting. I had my posters hanging in no time and found myself sitting on a desk, swinging my legs and reading and rereading my notes after having swept the meeting area and finished the minimal preparations. Around 1:15PM people started to arrive, yet no Rolando. This wasn’t so surprising to me, this is Latin America and time and punctuality is more heavily dictated by the sun than actual clocks. I passed the time by eating some cucumbers with lime juice and hot sauce that one of the ladies were selling. When 2PM rolled around, I got a little nervous when Rolando still wasn’t there, so I thought it would be a good idea to eat some more, oranges this time. Finally, 2:45PM rolled around, 15 minutes after my asamblea was supposed to start and still no Rolando. I decided a phone call was in order, though I was sure he was turning up my road as I was calling. When he answered, the background was far too quiet for him to be driving and I knew then something was not right. As it turns out, he mixed up his schedule for the day and forgot that he was supposed to be in my community with me for my asamblea. Angry, frustrated and on the verge of tears, Rolando realized and apologized for his mistake and hopped right in a car to head to San Luis. Everybody makes mistakes, so I couldn't be angry with him, especially when he remedied the situation and got to my site as quickly as possible. Thankfully we were able to rearrange the order of the meeting to allow for the hour and a half necessary to arrive in my site from San Salvador. Rolando arrived apologizing profusely just as the other agenda items were being completed and we went up on stage to start my portion of the presentation. Still stressed and not feeling as comfortable or confident as I would have liked, I began my meeting. A few sentences in I abandoned my yellow legal pad filled with notes and just let it flow. By some divine intervention, my Spanish flowed beautifully, my community actually listened while I spoke, and I was even successful at making a few jokes. Rolando closed out the meeting for me, and as it all ended I was feeling great. Apparently my presentation was pretty great, everyone really did understand me, and to boot I had three women come up to me after the meeting asking if we could start a women’s group. This Wednesday we are going to have our first general interest meeting of the Women’s Group of San Luis. Even more exciting, during the election of the new directive, three new women were placed on the ADESCO directiva, bringing the total now up to four. This is a huge step for my community and a giant leap toward combating machismo and promoting gender equality.

The Next Steps
Now that my community diagnostics are complete, I officially begin my work as a Peace Corps Volunteer, that is until I have to return to San Vicente for my second round of training. Though the days are few until I head out, I’ve got quite a few things going. In addition to the women’s group meeting next Wednesday, I will be giving a health charla- talk or lecture- to the kids in the school on personal hygiene, specifically related to teeth brushing and hand washing. Dental care is really an issue here and an important problem to address at a young age. I am currently working with our community’s health promoter to get donated toothbrushes for all the kids. So far, I haven’t been so lucky, but I’ll keep you updated. Also, Tuesday I will be meeting with the new ADESCO directiva and will be able to make a plan of action for the entire community. In addition to all this, my soccer girls are keeping me busy with four days of practice a week and want to play longer every day we are on the field. They are pretty awesome.

All in all, I have to say my first months have been a success in site. And if the time keeps flying as quickly as these last two months have, I will be back in the States before I know it.

A very special Happy 23rd Birthday goes out to my BEST FRIEND Caitlin Anne McIntyre! I miss you very much and am sad I am unable to be with you on your special day. Additionally, a Happy Belated 24th Birthday goes out to Stefan- I’m sorry I couldn’t join you and all the other COTers at Squire’s last Saturday, though I did think of you while I drank a beer in San Salvador. To all my ROC loves, I missed you very much at Mel Weekend and have really enjoyed Facebook stalking all the photos. Lastly, but certainly not least, CONGRATULATIONS go out to CARLA BURNS on officially swearing in as a member of Peace Corps Senegal last Friday. Way to go girlfriend! And Yorda in Morocco, hang in there girl. We can’t wait for you to join the PC Club.

Much love to you all back in the States