Twenty Pounds of Toothbrushes, Sushi, and a Series of Firsts

Even before I applied to Peace Corps, I spoke with an array of former volunteers who all, regardless of where they served, told me that Peace Corps is what you make of it and don’t worry about being pigeon holed by your program title; you will be a jack of all trades working in a wide range of projects. I didn’t really understand what they meant by that. I simply thought, even well into my first weeks in site, that I am an agro forestry business volunteer and that’s the area in which I will be working pretty exclusively. Sure some tangential projects will come along, but ag business, that’s my domain. Haha. Not so much.

I quickly learned that the needs and wants of the community come first, no matter what. Who I am to say what is needed most in a community where I just arrived? Sure I can observe things I think they need, but my observations are made through my gringa lens, through my preconceptions of what is important. The reality of the matter is that the members of my community who were born here, who were raised here, who have lived here, and who have raised their own children here know far better than I do. During my community needs based assessment and house visits, I compiled a mountain of needs, wants, and project ideas directly from the citizens of San Luis. Among those of the highest frequency was the desire for health charlas. I have also observed the lack of dental hygiene and dental care in the community and thought that a community health fair would be a perfect way to showcase good oral hygiene techniques, basic first aid, eye sight checks, and other topics. A project such as this is sure to take a few months to plan, and one I definitely still want to pursue. But, last week when I was in a meeting with the school director (the equivalent of a principal) and discussed my potential participation in the school, he asked me if before the kids get out for their summer recess (the school calendar here runs from January to November) I could give a small charla to the entire school (we only have 120 students in grades K-6) on personal health. Of course I wasn’t about to say no, especially when I knew I had nothing major planned after my asamblea general until my second round of Peace Corps training in November, so we slated the date of October 26th for my charla.

Twenty Pounds of Toothbrushes (and Toothpaste)
When the director and I selected my charla date, he gave me two hours with the kids, some suggestions of topics to address relating to personal health, and full reign over the direction in which I could take the charla. Like I mentioned previously, a lack in dental hygiene is something I noticed right off the bat. (I blame my Grammy “D” for making me so observant of other people’s teeth.) Many of the young children have rotten teeth or have prematurely lost their teeth due to decay. Certainly this isn’t such a pressing issue as if they had their adult teeth, but habits are formed while young, and there are few other good habits like teeth brushing that need to be learned at a young age.

Every rural community has a promotor de salud (health promoter) who comes around to the community and gives education and resources relating to health from the government such as prenatal care, sex education, dengue and malaria prevention, etc. Knowing this, I gave a call to our Promotora de Salud, Edith Evelyn, hoping she would be able to hook me up with some toothbrushes for the kids. She informed me that she had a meeting at the Unidad de Salud (the government run health ministry and hospital) with all the other promotores de salud that Wednesday, she would ask for me if any such materials were available, and if I wanted I could come to the meeting, too. Unfortunately, that Wednesday was the day of my Asamblea General and both meetings happened to be at the same time, so I wouldn’t be able to attend. Evelyn told me that it wasn’t a problem and she’d be in touch. Thursday came and went and I still hadn’t heard from her, so first thing Friday morning I gave Evelyn a ring. She said, no problem about the toothbrushes, we just need to go to the Unidad de Salud together to pick them up. Seeing as my charla was the following Monday morning, that afternoon was the only opportunity we had to pick them up, so we planned on meeting up on the 2PM bus from my community to the main pueblo where the Unidad de Salud is. Everything was shaping up rather nicely.

Literally five minutes after I got off the phone, my friend Dana called with a proposition. She was going to have to stay in San Salvador Friday night due to a medical appointment and seeing as I was going to come in to San Sal the following day, why not just join her and our other friend, Lauren who was in for another meeting, for a nice girls’ night? I hemmed and hawed for a while, knowing I absolutely needed to pick up the toothbrushes, but also knowing I would already be in the pueblo and just need to hop on a bus to the capital. How heavy could toothbrushes be? I would be able to manage them no problem. I made the decision right then to head in to the capital a night early, toothbrushes and all.

Evelyn and I met on the bus without issue and once in Chalchuapa trekked our way to the Unidad de Salud. Much to my pleasant surprise, we not only got the 125 toothbrushes we requested, we got the deluxe tooth brushing packet from Colgate that included two toothbrushes and a mini tube of toothpaste. I was ecstatic with these great resources from the Unidad de Salud. It wasn’t until I picked up my very full bag that I realized 250 toothbrushes and 125 mini tubes of toothpaste sure weigh a lot. But, no matter, all for the health of children’s teeth. Evelyn and I thanked the doctor who signed off on our donation and started our trek back to where the busses are. That bag somehow gained ten pounds, I swear. Evelyn left me as I hopped on a San Salvador bound bus around 3:30PM, weighed down with my backpack and (minimum) twenty pounds of dental hygiene products. As if being a blonde haired, blued eyed gringa wasn’t enough of an attention getter, I was cargaring a dentist’s arsenal to fight the battle against tooth decay, plaque and gingivitis.

Sushi
After wrestling my oral hygiene materials off the bus in the Western Terminal in San Salvador, I hopped on a local city bus to meet up with my girlfriends for dinner. The bus ride was thankfully very quick as I was very hot and very tired, and couldn’t wait to meet my friends. When Lauren and Dana caught sight of me literally dripping in sweat and lugging my toothbrushes, they couldn’t help but laugh. Naturally they were curious as to why I brought all these charla materials with me, but after they heard my tale, they not only understood, but were surprised I was already soliciting donations and giving charlas.

Dana and Lauren decided on sushi for dinner, and thanks to the guidance of a few veteran volunteers, we were able to enjoy a fabulous meal at half price. The trick is that you need to get your order in before 6PM and if you do, all sushi rolls are half off. On a Peace Corps budget, learning that was like finding the holy grail.

To describe how delicious miso soup and a spicy tuna roll with avocado is after maintaining a diet of mainly beans, corn and eggs is nearly impossible. The three of us savored our meal as we discussed our sites, how programming was going, our Asamblea General experiences and encouraged one another. It may seem silly, but little times like these, the opportunities you have to sit and decompress, and speak in English, after days upon days of solitude and Spanish, are precious.

A Series of First
After a fabulous weekend in the capital at our favorite hostel (Lonely Planet even describes it as being a little too Peace Corps oriented) I was up and on a bus back home by 8AM Sunday morning. Once back in my community it was all dental hygiene charla prep. (Be sure to check out my photos on Facebook, there is a great one of my “Four Steps of Tooth Brushing” poster, not to mention some action shots of the charla itself.) I really had no idea I would be making so many presentation posters like I did back in high school. Sometimes I feel like I am still in Ms. Abernethy’s Spanish class, staying up late preparing to give an oral presentation (yes, Mom, because I procrastinate) when I make these posters. But, as any good presenter, or teacher (I hardly feel like I can call myself a teacher), knows, visuals help. My favorite comment came from my host grandma Mama Chila: “Nina Rosellen! El cepillo aparece como un cepillo!” (Rosellen, the toothbrush looks like a toothbrush!) I must admit I was a little shocked, too, that the poster turned out as well as it did; that just goes to show you I did learn a thing or two in Mr. Adams’ art classes.

9:30AM Monday morning rolled around and I was ready to rock and roll. I packed up my cesta (big, florescent basket) with all my materials, toothbrushes and camera and strolled on down to the school with enough time to set up for my charla’s 10AM start. Much to my surprise and dismay, the school was closed! As it turns out, the director cancelled classes for the day because he, who also teaches first grade, had to attend a meeting in the pueblo. This isn’t a rare occurrence as there is no teacher substituting and no real requirement for days of instruction that is enforced. Shocking, I know; the education system is in development and improving little by little. Needless to stay I was disappointed and a little mad that the director didn’t inform me that classes were cancelled and I was unable to give my charla, but at this point I couldn’t change what happened, and from what other volunteers have shared, meeting changes and cancellations are common place, so I better learn to suck it up and deal with it. On Tuesday I spoke with the director and we rescheduled for the next day, Wednesday.

Because of this change in my schedule on Monday, I had the opportunity to participate in one of many firsts this week. I sat down with the women of my host family and shucked three huge sacks filled with corn to later make tamales and atol (a beverage made of corn that if it is reduced enough is sort of like a pudding, otherwise is like a pudding that hasn’t settled, served warm). Mama Chila came and wrapped a traditional Salvadoran apron around my waste (I wish I had taken a photo), sat me down and showed me how to shuck the right way, saving the husks for tamale making. Two hours later we finished the mountainous task, I helped clean up while my host aunt, Chio, took the corn to the mill to make tamales. When she got back she and my other host aunt, Soyla, taught me how to tamalear (make tamales). I love how they make verbs out of nouns here! Little by little I was getting better, and by the end you could no longer tell my tamales apart from the rest, a huge accomplishment! After the tamales were steamed, I was able to try to the fruits of my labor, and they were pretty delicious. I think what makes them so good, though, is the lard, sugar and milk added to them, not just the corn.

My next first of the week came the following day in the afternoon when we held my ADESCO’s meeting of the new directive. As all meetings in El Salvador, we started thirty minutes after the appointed start time, ran much longer than we needed to, but gracias a Dios, we accomplished some things. For starters, Don Miguel, my counterpart and newly reelected president, informed us all that this meeting was the first time in his four years as president that the entire directive was present at one of their meetings. To me this was shocking, that never before had everyone fulfilled their obligation as a member of the directive, but was also pleased to see the change and to observe that these people are (hopefully ) dedicated to their posts. The ADESCO directive and I now have a symbiotic relationship in which I help them with their organization and the execution of projects, while they help me in getting the citizens of San Luis excited and involved in their community. What I was really pleased with during this meeting is that we selected a day in which we will meet every week without fail. Grant it this process took well over thirty minutes, but it was done, a check mark for an accomplishment! We also decided that this Saturday at 1PM on the school grounds we will be breaking the piñatas that the Alcaldia (mayor’s office) brought to the community during that Wednesday’s Asamblea General. They were originally meant for El Dia de los Ninos, but that was about three weeks ago, a little late. Regardless, we are going to have them for the kids, an event which they are sure to love. We had to adjourn the meetings a little early because it got dark and there are no electric lights in the school, but on the whole we had a very successful meeting! I really couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome.

Wednesday morning at 10AM finally came around, I rolled up my sleeves and gave my first charla to a very large, very age diverse group of children, and needless to say I learned a ton. I am certain I got more out of the experience than the kids.

The director of the school suggested all 120 children be in one room together so I didn’t have to give the charla more than once. Not having any prior experience, I thought, ok there’s no problem in giving a simple tooth brushing lesson to kids K-6, ages 5-15 (yes, there are 15 year old 6th graders). Goodness was I wrong! But, just a lesson learned for the next charla. All things considered though, things went pretty well. Because the confines of the room were too restrictive, we moved outside right away. To start out, I tried to play Four Corners with the kids, a game my group in Molineros and I played with our youth group there all the time. In Molineros, our numbers were much smaller, which naturally made the game easier. Here, my numbers were too large, the little kids didn’t understand the directions, and the big kids were too cool to follow them. After about a half round of the game, I saw that things just weren’t working and I needed to change gears and move on. I then transitioned to the educational variation on Four Corners where instead of numbers each corner represents the answers yes, no, sometimes, and I don’t know. I read statements such as “I brush my teeth everyday” and had the intent of the kids each going to their appropriate corners and discussing why there were standing where they were. But, the thing I knew previously and stupidly hoped wouldn’t be an issue is pena, the ever present Salvadoran embarrassment and shame complex. No one was willing to show their true responses, so what ended up happening was everyone ran to the same corner, following the crowd.

I know this lesson sounds like a huge disaster, and really up until this point it was. I wasn’t getting the participation I hoped for, no one was really listening, but thankfully it all turned around. We returned to the classroom where my fabulous steps to tooth brushing poster was hung up, and we had a quick discussion on why it’s important to brush your teeth, at a minimum, twice a day. Much to my surprise the kids participated, listened to each other and had some very great and some very funny ideas. We then went over the four steps of tooth brushing and pretended to do the actions with our “cepillos de dedos” (finger brushes). I then passed out the Colgate “Bright Smiles, Bright Futures” packets and we all went outside. We then practiced brushing our teeth together and honestly, I have never seen kids so excited over such a simple thing- it was AWESOME! Like I said, I think I learned more than the kids, especially in effective charla giving, but they definitely had the fun and that couldn’t have made me happier.

My last first of the week happened this Wednesday afternoon. Remember how I mentioned last week being approached by a few women asking to start a women’s association? Well, I printed out flyers and invitations, passed them out and hoped that I would get five people to attend my meeting. Much to my very pleasant surprise, over thirty women were in attendance, all of varying ages from 13 to well into their 70s. During this meeting we talked about what we want from our women’s group, what we want to do with our women’s group, we elected a directive and we also chose a name for the group. I am very pleased with the results of the election and feel we have some very strong, innovative women at the helm. Also, the name that they chose is pretty creative and illustrates what I think their mission is going to become: La Asociacion de Mujeres en Busca del Bienestar de la Comunidad. The Association of Women in Pursuit of the Wellbeing of the Community. Pretty powerful, don’t you think?

On the whole I have had a pretty amazing week. I have been keeping busy, playing soccer with my girls in the afternoons and have had amazing formal meetings. I am very fortunate to have been welcomed into my community and to have people who want and are willing to work with me. During training, one of our instructors told us that when we return to PST2 after two months of service (that is our second round of training more tailored to our programs that I will be attending starting November 4th) some of us will come back tired, run down and frustrated while other will waltz in with a swagger, a confidence and a sense of accomplishment. Luckily for me, I’ve got swagger and couldn’t be happier. Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t all been a cake walk and I’ve had some days filled with doubt, but on the whole, things are pretty good. I just can’t wait until one of you finally buys your ticket and flies your butt down here so I can show you, instead of telling you, how amazing this experience is.