Language Reconnect and Landslides

First and foremost, I want to thank you all for your concern during the recent rains and landslides here in El Salvador and your willingness to mejorar (make better) the situation. As some of you already know, and as you can read below, the landslides really hit Peace Corps close to home, literally, in our training site and communities around San Vicente. Por la gracia de Dios and pure luck, all PCVs and Peace Corps staff members survived the disaster, but family members, host families, and homes unfortunately did not fair as well.

Before getting into all the details about my experience during the landslide, let me describe some recent activities that preceded my return to San Vicente.

Tamales and el Dia de los Muertos

Following my last blog update, I had four days before departing from San Luis to return to San Vicente for my language reconnect classes and the beginning of PST2, our second round of Peace Corps training more specifically geared toward our program area. As you may recall, I had had such a pretty rocking week filled with great meetings that I decided to take it easy and enjoy a relaxing weekend with my host family.

As some of you may have already learned through photos on Facebook, I spent roughly three hours hand washing my clothes, like I do every week, and relaxing reading Running With Scissors while they dried. Some volunteers pay community members to have their clothes washed (mostly male volunteers, naturally) and most others complain incessantly about the task, but besides being the best upper-body workout in the campo, I really enjoy the opportunity to get completely lost in my own thoughts. And, you wouldn’t believe the sense of accomplishment you feel after successfully getting a really bad mud stain out of a white shirt.

In Salvadoran culture when there is a death, it is tradition to have a vela, essentially a wake, the very same night at the home of the deceased. At this event, in addition to paying respects to the dead, those who call drink coffee and eat tamales into the wee hours of the morning. Tamales, for some reason that hasn’t been sufficiently explained to me, are the traditional “death food”. Seeing as Monday, November 1st was el Dia de Los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), Mama Chila wanted to make chicken tamales. When I went into town, she sent me along with the shopping list that consisted of things that I had no idea what they were to buy for the big tamale making event. Luckily, people at the market were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction for all the special ingredients. In case you weren’t aware, you can‘t just make a small batch of tamales. Mama Chila told me we would be making a minimum of 100 tamales. It’s sort of like any Rech cooking production I have every taken part of; egg dying, chowder making, no matter. Go big or go home.

That Saturday, my host mother and sister, Lilian and Leslie, came to make tamales with Mama Chila and myself. I helped clean and rip the banana leaves in which we would be rolling the tamales and watched intently as the women of my host family made the special tamale masa (dough). I did not, however, help or observe Mama Chila wring the necks of nor pluck the feathers of the chickens that were running around earlier that morning. Another interesting tradition I observed was the burning of the newly slaughtered chicken feet that were then ground into a powder-like substance and rubbed on the knees of Rolvin who is about 10 months old. When I asked why they did this, Mama Chila simply said, to help him walk. Duh, why didn’t I know that? Finally, when the masa was ready, it was time to start rolling the tamales. I watched Lilian make one first, then she walked me through my first step by step, and by the third tamale I had the hang of it. The whole process is really quite simple, just lay out a banana leaf, spoon on a bit of masa, add a piece of chicken, some chicken broth, veggies, and roll into a nice little package. Towards the end, Lilian started making special tamales grandotes (really big) for everyone in the immediate family. Let me tell you, the tamale she made me was enormous and delicious, but we couldn’t eat the tamales until the next day (duh). After being steam cooked, they need to sit over night to allow the flavors to meld together. The next day when we did finally eat them for breakfast, the tamales were amazing. Mama Chila asked me if I would be making them for my family in the States. I explained to her and said I would love to, but we don’t have banana leaves where we live. No problem, she told me, she would just pack up a bunch for me when I come home for Christmas. If I get detained at customs it George H. W. Bush airport for an agricultural violation, you’ll know why. (Just kidding Embassy people who read my blog.)

Having enjoyed the traditional food of the dead, it was time for me now to experience the great tradition of el Dia de los Muertos. Monday morning arrived, I showered and dressed before helping cut flowers to decorate the graves of family members. Mama Chila dressed up in an adorable flowered dress (flowers are the things to bring and wear on this day), we arranged the flowers and were off to the cemetery in Chalchuapa. When I say it was like Canal Fest for you Tonawandans or a street fair for all others, I am not even exaggerating the slightest. Three city blocks leading up to the cemetery entrance were blocked off to traffic and jam packed with vendors selling grave decorations and traditional foods. As we walked to the cemetery, I just took in all the sights and sounds, including mariachi bands you could hire to play three songs at your loved one’s grave for $5. The cemetery itself was busier than an amusement park on Memorial Day. There were vendors inside as well, most of whom were stationed at their loved one’s grave sites. If the site happened to be along the walkway, even better- prime vending locations. The colors of the grave decorations were remarkable. I suggest you check out my photos on Facebook to get the full effect. Vibrant reds, deep purples, and marigold orange painted the grave markers, all things that would never be seen at a Forest Lawn cemetery in the States. I helped Mama Chila decorate two graves, we sat down and rested on one in between, and ate many traditional foods including coconut candies and yucca. All in all it was a very interesting experience and a great tradition to observe. It’s so much better to celebrate the lives of the dead than mourn their losses.

Language Reconnect

Last Tuesday I left San Luis to begin the long, well over six hour trek on bus to San Vicente where I would be having my language reconnect and PST2. I stopped overnight in the capital to split up the bus ride and to have an enjoyable evening with my friends before over two weeks of training. Wednesday, after more very crowded busses, I met up in the city of San Vicente for an enjoyable night of story swapping, catching up and $1 brewskis.

Thursday morning I officially began my language reconnect classes and returned to my host community of Molineros. The classes proved to be helpful and a great refresher. We also spent a lot of time on colloquial phrases so now I actually understand what people are saying to me instead of pretending like I do.

We all returned to our training communities where we were to live during PST2. It was great to see my host family from my training community, to catch up and chat. My host siblings Kevin and Monica had both passed all their final exams and will be moving on to the next grade in January. Many of the little kids had grown taller, a strange but awesome change to see in only two months. My host mother, Loli, bought my favorite foods of Molineros for me to knosh on, including fried yucca and pasteles.

My group, being reunited (and it feels sooo goood) decided to plan a weekend beach trip to Costa del Sol. After some quick research and expert negotiations by Dana and Karl, we had reservations at an awesome hotel and a private bus all ready for a 12PM departure Saturday morning all within our PC budgets. Needless to say, we were all very excited and couldn’t wait to hit the sand and surf.

Class on Saturday dragged on and on. Halfway through out session we finally had a break, so Dana and I went to the ATM to sacar some dinero for the weekend. When we got back to the training center, much to our dismay, we had received a phone call from our training coordinator prohibiting our travel to the beach and leaving us with permission to travel only to the capital. Disappointed, frustrated and annoyed, we finished our classes and headed to the capital.

Landslide

As disappointed and frustrated as we all were that we were not allowed to go to the beach and ended up in the capital, it turns out we were luckier than we could have ever imagined. At 6AM, Dana received a text message from one of her fellow training community members, Jeff, who elected to stay in the San Vicente area instead of traveling to San Salvador with us that there had been a landslide in Verapaz, many homes had been destroyed and the number of deaths was unknown, but high. Within two hours we began piecing information together from news channels, phone calls and text messages.

I’m sure you all have read or seen a television spot on the details of the landslide, so I won’t bore you with the details. Verapaz is a pueblo a mere 2 kilometers from my training community of Molineros and the place where my fellow PCVs and I used to run daily as PCTs. Fortunately my host community only suffered mild flooding. All Peace Corps Volunteers and staff have been safely accounted for, however, most of our San Vicente staff members lost family in Verapaz and some have suffered significant property loss.

President Mauricio Funes placed the nation in a State of Emergency, and Peace Corps enacted its own emergency response plan. We were all placed on Standfast, which means that if you are safe you stay put. Seeing as we were in the capital and safe, we did just that. As we were not allowed to return to our training communities due to the level of potential danger, we all remained in the capital until Wednesday. Most of us wanted to help right away with relief effort and wanted to return to Verapaz, San Vicente as soon as possible, but even today, we are not allowed back into those communities due to potential for more natural disasters. The decisions of PC are more than understandable, but we are here to help the people of El Salvador and we feel they need our help now more than ever, specifically in the disaster areas. Also, the hardest phone call I had to make was to my host mother Loli, telling her I wouldn’t be back and asking her to pack my bag so a Peace Corps staff member could pick it up for me. With so many other things to worry about, and needing an extra pair of hands more than ever, I had to call her and tell her sorry, I wouldn’t be of help to her, and hey, make sure not to forget to pack my toothbrush. I can’t even describe how I felt during that phone call, but none of those emotions were positive.

On Wednesday I returned back to my permanent site of San Luis with mixed emotions. Glad to be back and ecstatic to be able to attend the swearing in of my community’s new ADESCO directive and kindergarten graduation, I still felt crappy that I couldn’t be helping my training community. They had given me so much during training, a home, a bed, a reason to be in El Salvador, and I am powerless in helping them when they most need it. I know in time I will have the opportunity to help them, but for now, the way I can help them most is by asking you for your assistance. Know every little bit helps, and you’re not just helping well deserving strangers, you are helping members of the Peace Corps family. If you are interested in making a monetary donation to help in the disaster relief efforts in El Salvador, please visit, aidelSalvador.org. Aid El Salvador is an NGO started by returned Peace Corps Volunteers following the earthquakes experienced in El Salvador in 2001. To aid specifically in relief efforts, please note “disaster relief” under special instructions. Thanks again for your continued love and support.

On Sunday I will be setting off for training again, so I won’t be updating the blog for a while. I hope all is well and know I miss you all. A very special Happy Birthday goes out to my big sister, Dana! I can’t wait to be home next month to celebrate with you, I love you!

Very special thank yous go out to Aunt Lynn and Uncle Randy, The Hanitzs, and Jack and Janet for the very thoughtful Halloween wishes. Also, thanks Karen for the latrine info!