I will preface this by saying that this blog update is not my best work. One good thing, though, is that it’s much shorter than normal!

Easter

The holiday traditions involving family have been what I have missed the most in Peace Corps. Spending the Fourth of July gorging on hot dogs, Janet’s potato salad, and Mom’s gin slush; cooking Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house and glutinously eating seconds while our paper crowns slide askew off our heads; and vegetarian Christmas Eve that’s anything but light with countless farmer’s cheese pierogis freshly made by the Kooky Ukies and fork tender salmon steaks, (can you tell food is a theme here?) all shared with loved ones amidst countless gut splitting laughs…these are the activities I most look forward to rejoining.

Easter, of course, is no different. Most often growing up we were in Florida visiting family and attending Easter Sunday mass in the overflow capacity cafeteria, gagging at the smell of rotting milk at the Church of the Epiphany in Venice, Florida or on some other Marohn Family Fun vacation. No matter where we were, though, the Easter Bunny always found us, Rosie Baby always managed to find a nearby Catholic church and we followed it up with an enormous Easter Dinner.

Since Dana and I left the nest, though, we tended to spend Easter back in the 716. This year, for the first time ever, neither one of us was able to make it home for the holiday, Dana being in Boston and I here in ES.

I spent my Semana Santa working, traveling to give small business charlas and editing El Camino. Seeing as I had to work first thing Monday morning, I wasn’t able to travel to my old host family for Easter Sunday, meaning I would spend it alone. Aware of how sad and pathetic that would be, I decided to do the next best thing: videoconference into Easter Dinner with my family. Mildly absurd? Yes. Awesome? You betcha!

On Good Friday, I hopped a chicken bus to the supermarket with the intent of buying all the ingredients to make the Salvadoran equivalent of the meal my family would be enjoying: ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, borscht, sweet breads and more. The first wrench in the plan was that I couldn’t find a real ham anywhere! Fresh asparagus was nonexistent and the canned stuff (gross, BTW) was $6 a pop! Winding up and down the aisles, not finding any of the items on my list I realized I’d have to get creative.

The meal that resulted, though it would cause my culinary idol Martha to want to debone herself like a duck, was pretty fantastic. Instead of a real ham, I managed to find some sliced, black forest ham, substituted mashed potatoes for a smashed plantain/potato concoction, and made a very creative version of white borscht. I also stumbled upon some challah bread and splurged on two Sam Adams to wash it all down.

My sad excuse for Easter Dinner.

3PM eastern daylight time I signed onto Skype and my family was waiting for me. They set me at my “place” at the table and I was able to share Easter Dinner with my family. Granted, the meal itself was a little rushed; the Sabres were playing in the first round of playoffs and the puck dropped at 3:30PM. I also was able to stream the game online while chatting away like I was watching the game in the B-lo.

If I couldn’t be with my family physically, virtually being with them was the best substitute I could have imagined.

PFCAC

By far, my favorite work/fun activity in Peace Corps is translating for the various service groups that travel down to aid the Salvadoran people in a plethora of ways from engineer projects to medical campaigns and everything in between. Not only is it a lot of fun, especially meeting new people from all over, but also the important, life-impacting work we get to witness.

Most recently, I had the privilege to meet members of an awesome NGO, Pediatricians for Central American Children (PFCAC). PFCAC, though it sounds like you’re hocking a loogey out of your throat when you say it, is far more than what their name conveys. They are a team of doctors, PAs, dentists, nurses, and other health care professionals who focus their work in the realm of child and maternal health. Unlike a lot of doctor brigades, PFCAC doesn’t set up shop in one of the larger cities and work out of a relatively comfortable space. They pack up their gear, lather on the sunscreen and hop in the beds of trucks to go out and work in the most remote, and often most neglected, areas The Savior has to offer. These guys aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, nor get rained on—definitely no prima donnas in this group!

I had the opportunity to spend about four days with this remarkable group, their first two and last two, and it was amazing to see how much they came together as a family over the course of a short week. The first day I was with the group we traveled up to fellow PCV and mountain dweller Helen A’s site in literally one of ES’s most remote areas. Helen’s site is a solid hour and a half truck ride from the nearest municipality and about two hours from the closest Unidad de Salud, or major health unit. PFCAC has now been visiting Helen’s site, formerly RPCV Laura K’s who was responsible for starting PC’s relationship with PFCAC, for about two years.

As PFCAC will be returning in July, the purpose of this trip was mainly fact finding, identifying the needs of the community for the team to come back well prepared this summer. Also, we were fortunate to have a dentist in the group who got busy straight away pulling teeth of young children, often the source of countless issues. I paired with one of the head doctors, Dr. Scott, and started making the rounds. We went on about ten house visits and in traditional Salvadoran fashion, were warmly welcomed into their homes. Dr. Scott, an ER doc from Long Island, has been dutifully studying Spanish, so much that he almost didn’t need me!

On the whole, the day was a success. Some sick kids got immediate attention and care, we transported a little boy with suspected appendicitis (I was feeling his pain!), gathered some valuable information and left the community with a great sense of confianza and anticipation for the next trip.

I was sad to leave the group after only two days, but I was scheduled to give three trainings that week that simply couldn’t be rescheduled. Though I couldn’t actually be helpful to PFCAC during the week, I was able to hook them up with some sweet swag. I had my jersey people make some awesome official PFCAC soccer uniforms that turned out great!

At the end of the week, I met up with the group again in San Salvador at the Crowne Plaza (I never said they didn’t spoil us!). After an incredible hot shower, blow drying my hair and putting on clothes that don’t qualify as safari gear for a change, the docs treated us to a delicious Mediterranean meal, drinks and hookah. The jokes that were shared around the table had me laughing in stitches all night long and into the morning.

The next day, Daniel, Jessica, Dr. Zehra and I were up bright and early to work on a proposal before heading out to that day’s campaign site. We put in a solid two hours before loading up the bus and heading out.

Once at site, we didn’t waste any time and got right down and dirty with a community meeting about health concerns. I did the majority of the translating, and let me just say, translating for two very chatty, passionate docs is no simple task! Thankfully, though, it went really well.

The rest of the day was spent seeing patients, doing house visits and giving a dental charla. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I ended up taking the lead on the teeth activity. A bunch of kids, Daniel, Jessica and I talked about good oral hygiene habits, played some dynamicas, and then got to play my two favorite oral hygiene games: the rabid dog and spitting contest. With the rabid dog, the object is to see who can make the most foam while brushing their teeth, and hence look like a rabid dog. Afterwards, seeing as we were outside, we played the spitting game to see who could spit their spent toothpaste the farthest. PFCAC’s photographer and my new RPCV best friend, Nick Boire, has some amazing shots of the event, and once I have access to them I will share them. Nick also took my stereotypical gringa-holding-a-baby shot. Thanks, Nick!

Photo by Nick Boire

Photo by Dave Douglas

The entire experience with PFCAC has been wonderful. I am very glad to have been included in their trip, and even more pleased to be taking more of an active role in planning their next in July. Daniel and Krystal, PC’s dynamic duo, have invited me to help in the process and I jumped at the opportunity. You’ll be sure to hearing more from me about PFCAC!

Please visit pfcac.org to see all the amazing thing they have done for the people of El Salvador.

El Camino
Last Friday was a bittersweet day for me when I finished up my last issue of El Camino as head editor, dropped off the PDF at the printers and passed off all my responsibilities to my friend, Lilah. I have to say, of all the work I have done in Peace Corps, one of the things I am most proud of is El Camino. If anyone is interested, I can email along the PDF version of my final issue.

A special thanks goes out to Jack and Janet who surprised me with a care package of baked good goodness, photos and a lovely piece of art by none other than Miss Julianna. Thank you so much for never failing to remember me!

CONGRATULATIONS go out to my big sister, Dana on her graduation from the Kennedy School of Government! I wish more than anything I could have been there with you to celebrate.

Last but not least, a Happy Belated 60^th Birthday goes out to my Dad! I love you and can’t wait to celebrate with a Sam or two in just 69 days!