HOME!

So I'm no longer a PCV! I finished my service on February 17 because my COS date got pushed up a month due to the security concerns of the Northern Triangle countries. I won't even begin to get into all of that, but here's the overview: PC Honduras was shut down until furthern notice, PC El Sal pushehd my group's COS date up a month, the group that follows my group got theire COS date pushed up six months, and all other volunteers were offered the options to early COS with full benefits or to stay in country in to move to a cluster area. PC Guatemala was already clustering their volunteers so I'm not really sure what changes they will have to undergo.

After COS I went to Honduras for a week with friends. The plan was to get certified as an open water diver, but I got stung in the face by a jellyfish so that was the end of my diving experience. I had a rash covering about 3/5 of my body and I was miserable the entire time that I was there. After that trip I went to Colombia and fell in love! That country has so much to offer. It's absolutely beautiful and the people are very warm and friendly. I went to Medellin and Cartagena. It was a great way to slowly transition back into city life because Medellin is a busy city with proper transportation, big buildings, museums, plenty of bars and salsa clubs! I felt right at home in Medellin and I could totally see myself living there one day, primero Dios!

Well, now I'm back in the Ooosa and it's been going well so far. I've mostly been sleeping the days away and I'm pretty sure that this nasty, grey weather is to blame. I have a job after being home for only a week and I am very excited and grateful for this opportunity. Also, I'm now the proud owner of a 2004 Volvo S80! So many responsibilities in such a short amount of time! It is nice being back, sort of. Seeing friends and family is great! But I really miss the privacy of having my own house and moving out will be my next step once I pay off some of my student loan debt. That's all for now folks!


Mya

Home Is Where The Heart Is

On the way back from my early morning walk with Nicole, a volunteer and friend that lives ten minutes away from me, I realized that I am really going to miss this place. It hit me when we were passing by one of Nicole’s neighbors and he greeted and then que les vaya bien’ed us. It made me remember just how warm, sweet, and friendly Salvadorans can be. Now I’ve done (and still do) my fair share of complaining about how things haven’t gone as I originally planned and how Salvadorans can sometimes be really annoying/difficult to work and live with, but I can truly appreciate how much I’ve learned from them. As my time winds down as a volunteer I hope that when I leave I take the good things about this place with me. I hope that when someone asks me how I spent the last two years of my life I will tell them that I spent it with some of the best people on this earth.

Ugh! I’m going to miss this place! How’d that happen? ;) It's been my home for the past two years and my heart is here.

In other news…my father will be visiting me in January!! It will be the best birthday present ever! He’ll be arriving when this country is at its ugliest (dry season turns everything brown), but I will make sure that he enjoys his stay. I can’t wait for him to step off that plane in Comalapa!!!! I plan on showing him my community and the work that I’ve been doing here. Maybe I’ll put him on a chicken bus so that he can get a real sense of what my life here is like. Hit up one of the beaches, maybe the war museum, get some pupusas!!! It’s gonna be great! Hopefully we won’t butt heads too much during his visit…lol. I. CAN’T. WAIT.

Well, I have a pile of laundry that’s been calling my name since Friday, so I guess it’s time to wash it. Does anyone know how to get marshmallow out of cotton?


I hope that everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving holiday. Please eat some delicious food in my honor. I love you all!

Mya

Plan of Action

Hello Folks!

Here's the rundown of the past few weeks...

I had minor surgery after Thanksgiving and I was in the hospital for five days. Overall, I had a great experience. No one ever really wants to be in the hospital (especially in a third world country), but my time there was about as pleasant as one could ever hope for. The staff was very professional and the food was delicious! After my stay there I had to spend seven more days in the capital because I wasn't allowed to travel back to my site, which is four hours away. I stayed with the country director at his lovely, comfortable house. I couldn't have asked for a better host and I am very grateful that he opened the doors of his beautiful home when I needed it the most.

After twelve days in the capital I was more than ready to get back to my community. Even though all but one project have come to an end I really enjoy being in my site. It's probably because I know that my days here are numbered and I feel the need to spend as much time with the people in my site that I love the most. At times I don't like to leave my house because everyone in my community feels the need to remind that I only have a short amount of time left and they go on and on about how I'm never gonna come back to visit them or that I'll forget all about my amistades. Oh how I love them!

Now that I officially have 2.5 months left as a PCV I've been thinking a lot about what's next. To be quite honest the thought of going back to the States is daunting, but I know that I have to start the next chapter in this book we call "Life". In preparation for my future I have registered to take the GRE in February. That gives me about two months to prepare for the test. Also, we have our CLose of Service conference next month and PC will provide us with valuable resources for securing a job and applying to grad schools. All of this is a bit overwhelming right now, but I have to come up with a "Plan of Action" (my Dad's words) asap! Trying to find a job while having to deal with reversed cultural shock should be loads of fun!!!


Travel Plans:

My trip to Honduras was cancelled due to my unexpected surgery, so I will postpone that until after I finish my service in March. In a couple of weeks I will be heading to Guate for NYE! I can't wait! I've never been to Guatemala, but everyone that has gone rave about it. Also, I've been thinking about taking a trip to Argentina in March simply because I've never been and I've been dying to go for years. Also, I know that once I return home life will get crazy busy and I won't have any time or money to travel. Hay que aprovechar YA!

Well that's all for now folks! I love you guys so much and we'll be seeing each other soon (if not in March, April for sure).


XOXO
Mya

On the way back from my early morning walk with Nicole, a volunteer and friend that lives ten minutes away from me, I realized that I am really going to miss this place. It hit me when we were passing by one of Nicole’s neighbors and he greeted and then que les vaya bien’ed us. It made me remember just how warm, sweet, and friendly Salvadorans can be. Now I’ve done (and still do) my fair share of complaining about how things haven’t gone as I originally planned and how Salvadorans can sometimes be really annoying/difficult to work and live with, but I can truly appreciate how much I’ve learned from them. As my time winds down as a volunteer I hope that when I leave I take the good things about this place with me. I hope that when someone asks me how I spent the last two years of my life I will tell them that I spent it with some of the best people on this earth.

Ugh! I’m going to miss this place! How’d that happen? ;)

In other news…my father will be visiting me in January!! It will be the best birthday present ever! He’ll be arriving when this country is at its ugliest (dry season turns everything brown), but I will make sure that he enjoys his stay. I can’t wait for him to step off that plane in Comalapa!!!! I plan on showing him my community and the work that I’ve been doing here. Maybe I’ll put him on a chicken bus so that he can get a real sense of what my life here is like. Hit up one of the beaches, maybe the war museum, get some pupusas!!! It’s gonna be great! Hopefully we won’t butt heads too much during his visit…lol. I. CAN’T. WAIT.

Well, I have a pile of laundry that’s been calling my name since Friday, so I guess it’s time to wash it. Does anyone know how to get marshmallow out of cotton?


I hope that everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving holiday. Please eat some delicious food in my honor. I love you all!

Mya

Much Needed Advice

This past week I went to Perquin to translate for members of an NGO based out of New York. It was a great experience because I got some much needed advice about the future and ways to prepare for it...now that I have less than five months left as a volunteer. I've realized that it's ok not to be 100% sure (read: not to have any idea) about what I want to do with the rest of my life. I think trying to figure that out at the age of 24 is an unrealistic expectation. Many of the doctors and nurses that I spoke with told me that when they were my age they thought that they had everything figured out and they were wrong. I was advised to make mistakes, try a bunch of things, find my passion, and to ultimately do what I love/what makes me happy. That's all for now. When I figure out my next step you guys'll be the firsts to know.

Cuidense,
Mya

When It Rains, it Pours

Since my last blog a lot has happened. There were tropical depressions/ storms that affected hundreds of thousands of people here in El Salvador. It rained ten days straight and the sun was nowhere to be found. Bridges and roads were washed out and many people lost their homes and, unfortunately, about 3 dozen people died. The President issued a national emergency warning and PC put us on “stand fast” as a safety measure, which means that we were not allowed to leave our communities.

A river runs through my community at three locations and many families live really close to it. The river had already flooded by day 3 and many people weren’t able to SAFELY leave their homes. My host Dad tied a rope from one side of the river to his store so that people could hold on to it when they braved the rains and left their homes for shopping. On day four of the stand fast I went to my neighbor’s house to make food packages for people that couldn’t leave their homes to go shopping. Each package contained 1lb. bags of rice, beans, sugar, and salt and a small bag of cooking oil. We made about 200 packages and then delivered them throughout my community. It was a good day and I felt great being able to help out my community. Some communities were hit really hard and it’ll take some time before they’re up and running again.

After ten days of rain and no sunshine, my furniture, house, shoes, and clothes were covered in mold and everything smelled gross. I really believe that my house was making me sick. I woke up with terrible headaches and swollen eyelids. I couldn’t stand being in my house, but I didn’t dare to leave out of fear that a tree or boulder would fall on me (landslides are very common) or that the river would wash me away. Finally the rains stopped and the sun showed its beautiful face, gracias a DIOS! The battle of Mya vs. Mold could finally begin! I took an entire bottle of bleach to everything that could be bleached. I soaked all of my clothes in soap (and more bleach) and threw a lot of stuff away. I am really glad that this is my last rainy season in El Salvador. Mold makes me gag and I just hate seeing it.


In other news, I will be home 4 or five months!!! I am so excited to be done here. Overall, I’ve enjoyed my time here, but I am anxious to start the next chapter in my life. I’m curious to see what God has in store for me.

Take care,

Mya

Update

So I guess it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing. A lot has happened over these past few months, but I’ll keep this short.

July-
I went home to meet my paternal grandmother for the first time. She is an amazing, funny, caring, loving, and inspiring woman. I cherished my time with her and I can’t wait to go to Nigeria.
My peaceful home stay with my Salvadoran host family came to an end when I came back from vacation. While away my host family decided that fourth and fifth grade students could have class in our living room until construction on the school is over. It was a very chaotic environment everyday with children running around screaming and staring at me while doing regular, daily tasks. I think they were out of class more than they were actually in class.

August-
I dealt with them (the kids) for a month, but then it became too much. I was stressed out and started to hate them and my host family for allowing them to be there. Long story short, I looked for another house and, after a terrible experience filled with lots of drama and horrible gossip, now finally have my on house for the next six months. The house is absolutely perfect and I am much happier. My host family has been acting a little strange with me, but over time I’m sure they’ll get over it.

Present Day-
I have about five months left down here in El Salvador and I still have not had a visitor. At this point I’m over it. Instead of begging friends and family members to come down here, I will travel to Honduras and Guatemala for vacation. Honduras next month and hopefully Guatemala for New Year’s (if we ever get that ban lifted). No hard feelings people…I know that if you truly wanted to visit you would have.

That’s all for now,
Mya

This PCV Loves to Get Down and Dirty

This morning at 3:30 the school committee killed a cow in order to raise money for construction. I even helped take off the skin! It was a very tiring job and I still can't get the smell of blood off of my hands, but I love how my community members were gathered around watching the morena get down and dirty. It made me feel a lot closer to them. Isn't this what it's all about? I still can't get the smell of blood off of my hands, but I really love my job!

Take good care and I love you all,

Mya

Peaceful Heart

My God has given me the strength to overcome some spiritual strongholds that I have been battling with for years. When you trust completely in the Lord and you stop trying to justify your failures, good things will happen! I continue to learn from the past while looking forward to a brighter, more Christ-focused future. I wish that I could explain just how peaceful I feel right now knowing that He is with me, but I can't seem to find the words :)

God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

Btw...work is awesome! I have a workout class up and running at the school and it's a lot of fun. Sometimes the kids make me feel old because they have way more energy than I do. Next Monday we're FINALLY starting the school garden! Tomatoes, anyone? Also, we got the land to start building the clinic!!! The Ministry of Health told us to cut down all the trees so that construction can begin, so we've been busy chopping away. The first day I went chapodaring my machete wasn't sharp so it took me an about an hour to chop down one tree. While taking pictures of all of our hard work, a tree fell on me and everyone started cracking up. Eventually I was sent home because, according to my neighbors, I am not cut out for that type of work. Take a look at my neighbor hard at work.

I have fallen truly, madly, deeply in love with my community. The bolos and even the super dirty children have taken up a big space in my heart! I love when the kids walk pass my house and scream out, "SALÚ NIÑA MYA", or when they run up to me at school screaming my name. On my morning runs, the old men that are heading to the fields always tell me that they will start running with me. I like to think that one day there'll be a group of senior citizens running beside me down the hill(haha). As my time here winds down the reality that one day I must leave this place hits me like a brick. My host sisters know that I have only nine months left and it kinda stings when they ask if the next volunteer will be a man or a woman. WHY ARE YOU GUYS ALREADY THINKING ABOUT THE NEXT ONE!? The old ladies always tell me that I should stay, get married and have a couple of kids with someone from my village...and then they offer me their sons or grandsons, lol.

All in all things coulnd't be better for me right now. Life is good, it's calling and I'm glad that I answered.

Have a blessed day everyone,

Mya

Prayers Answered

My oldest sister, Kelli, has just accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour! I've been praying for this day for a while and it's finally here. God is great and I am so happy that He has answered my prayers. I see good things in store for my family. He's a GREAT God!!

Carrera de Cinta

Hello All,

This post is a little late, but it's really important for me to write about it because it was one of the happiest moments that I've experienced as a PCV.

So back in early March, my community and I began to plan a carrera de cinta to raise money for the health clinic. A carrera de cinta is almost like a horse race. Ok so picture a limbo pole with small rings hanging from loosely tied strings. As the rider pass under the pole they reach up and try to grab one of the rings with a small pencil. The riders that get the most rings gets the most gifts from the "madrinas"(godmothers) at the end of the race.

At our event, the health committee and I got 50 madrinas (including two really great PCVs, Jordan Fox and Megan Butler) to participate and I was the "reina" (queen) of the entire event so I got to start the parade on top of one of the prettiest horses in town. Once the race was over each rider recieved at least one gift and some received two. Now, I dont find Salvo men to be particularly attractive, but there is something very sexy about a man on top of a horse...lol.

All in all, it was a great day. We raised more than $257 for the clinic and I felt like just another member of the community instead of the freakishly tall gringa. Life in El Pastor just might suit me :)

HIV Workshop El Tamarindo

Greetings!

This past weekend I took five community leaders to an HIV workshop and it was probably the best workshop that I've ever participated in. The chemistry amongst all of the participants was amazing. We invited a person living with HIV to give his testimony to the 25 others participants and it must have been the most impacting moment of the workshop. I was afraid that the participants might treat him differently after they found out the person that they had thought, up to that moment,to be just another community leader there to learn about the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Once the news was revealed the question started coming, but everyone took the news really well. I was really surprised by these Salvos...who can at times be very judgemental. Their interactions with the invited speaker changed FOR THE BETTER. It was probably one of the most emotional moments that I've experienced as a volunteer.


Life's good!

Life's Good

I'm happier than I've been in a very long time. Thank God! Learning to be patient with the things that I have absolutely no control over. Life's good and it's still calling.


Salu,
Mya

p.s. I will not be meeting Mr. Obama....such is life

The Rundown

Here's what's been going on lately:

1. Some guy threatened me in my site (the pic is the view from my bedroom window...i really hate to leave this place)
2. I now have to change sites
3. Went to visit my possible new site, it seems like there's a lot to be done!!
4. For some reason I'm still in my old site and now my running water isn't running
5. Seriously thought about going home for good
6.

Celebrated my birthday!
7. Realized that some people that I thought were genuine actually aren't
8. Realized that God is the only one that can help me
9. Renewed my faith. THANK YOU, JESUS!

Love you all,
Mya

Renewal

Recently I've been going through severe emotional problems due to my job and all that comes along with it. I feel so lonely at times and it's so hard to deal with it. There are people here that I can talk to, but I don't reall have enough confianza with office staff and volunteers wil give you advice one minute and then the next they'll be bad mouthing you, questioning whether or not you're here for the right reasons. My family doesn't call me as often as I would like...actually they really never call unless they know that I'm upset that they haven't called.

Basically, I have been feeling very much neglected and alone (plus I had an intestinal infection ast week and thought that I was going to die). I just wanted someone to hold me and listen to what I had to say without judging me. I called an old friend and he encouraged me to stop looking to man and to start turning to God. In my mind I had been hearing this message for weeks, but I never sought Him out. Yes, I prayed...but only half-heartedly. I read the Bible...again half-heartedly. I was so caught up in how my family and friends were NOT checking up on me that I forgot that there is someone who will NEVER LEAVE ME! Someone that will be there when no one else can or will be there. Someone that'll listen to all of my problems, whether they're valid or not. SOmeone who loves me more than anyone has or ever will love me. I didn't turn to Him and I continued to suffer. I continued to let depression ruin weeks of my life.

I thank God for Akwasi's life. I thank Him for placing someone in my life that encourages me to nurture my faith and rely on The Most High. Today I'm feeling renewed, knowing that problems will come,but feeling capable of handling them. I know who's on my side and I can do nothing without His help.


Stay blessed,
Mya

Thanksgiving Weekend

I had thanksgiving dinner with an US embassy family and a couple other volunteers. Lindsey and I helped prepare the cornbread dressing (missing gizzards and celery) and some of the vegetables. I was in a weird mood the entire night and I’m not really sure why. I could throw out some ideas, but I’ll be nice today. Stepping into the family’s penthouse was like stepping into another world. HE HAD A PRIVATE ELEVATOR! It was really weird to have traveled from my site, where people make their houses out of plastic bags and palm leaves, to then spend a few hours in a place like that. It really messed with my head. After a few hours of eating, drinking, and socializing with a breed of Salvadorans that I didn’t know existed I was more than ready to head back to my hotel room. Unfortunately, I was the only one ready to leave, so I had to wait around for everyone else (didn’t want to be rude to my host). Finally we left and I returned to the real world…where my hotel room costs $10 a night and in order to save money I order a $5 pizza and split it with someone else. Next year, I’m pretty sure that I won’t spend my thanksgiving with an embassy family. Maybe I’ll make dinner in my site!

On Friday we had the party for the group that came down in July at a club called FOUR. This party was so much better than the party we had for my group. The club was a lot nicer and the dance floor was bigger. Needless to say many volunteers were fall down drunk and they made fools of themselves…and I was there to take it all in…mmmmmmmHAHAHA.

I also saw the new Harry Potter movie with 3 CO-EDers (Dan, Jess, and Erica). It was a good movie, but so much has happened since the second movie (which was the last HP movie that I’d seen before #7) and I’m really confused. I’ll have to go to Centro and find #3-6 and catch up on everything that’s going on.

It was a great weekend! I returned home and there was about 2 weeks of laundry waiting to be done. I left a few household chores slide while I was preparing for my HIV workshop. Washing 2 weeks worth of dirty laundry by hand makes for a very sweaty morning.

Love you all,

Mya

HIV WORKSHOP!

Hello All!

After countless weeks of planning my HIV workshop is FINALLY over!! What a great experience it was for me to have done this project in my community.

From the beginning:

In order to fund an HIV workshop I had to apply for a VAST grant. This was my first time writing a grant proposal and let’s just say that my first submission raised a few eyebrows…after REsubmitting my second proposal I was approved for $238! I know this may not seem like a lot of money to those that are reading this blog, but let me assure you that in a country like El Salvador this kind of money can go a long way. After I was approved to do the workshop in my site I became really nervous. I was thinking, “can I really pull this off? I’ve never managed funds before. Will my community be interested in doing this type of workshop? I don’t think that I have enough experience.” Thankfully these thoughts didn’t deter me from moving ahead. I met with my committee members and discussed the possibility of having a day-long, HIV-related activity. I explained the importance of the workshop by mentioning that the infection was already in the community (this got their attention!). They were all de acuerdo with having the workshop, so the planning began!


The Planning:

First we set a date that would work for everyone (Wednesday, November 24). Next I had to find a locale that could accommodate 20 people. I had originally thought about having it in the community, but my counterpart wanted to have it outside of the community, so I called the mayor’s office and asked if we could you the conference room there. They said yes and the only thing that I had to worry about at this point was food and transportation. There are a few comedores near the alcadía so the food wouldn’t be a problem. The only problem that I encountered was how to get everyone on the bus at the same time in order to make it to the workshop on time. I realized that there was no way that I could control this…I’d just have to trust them to be on the bus on time. Over the next week and a half I bought all the materials for the workshop; poster paper, markers, tape, etc and I began making everything that I would need for the workshop. Guys, this was possibly the most tedious work that I’ve ever done! At home, I would’ve created a PowerPoint presentation for everything, but that wouldn’t work for this particular workshop because my computer is practically dead and it would’ve added to much stress to my life if I would’ve had to get someone to loan me a computer and a projector…so I decided to do things the old fashioned way. It took a lot of time to prepare everything, but I was so proud of myself after I looked at all that I had done.

Problems Along the Way:

About three days before the taller I received a phone call telling me that the mayor’s office was no longer available for my activity! I almost had a panic attack when I heard this, but quickly I thought about the place in my community where we held my general assembly. The place put you in the mind of a tiki hut with its straw roof and all. Well, I went to talk to the cuidandero and he told me that I could use the place for my activity! Now I just had to find someone to prepare lunch for us and this is where my community really helped me out. Wendy, one of the committee members recommended her aunt Isabel as a potential cook, so we went over to talk to her and she agreed to prepare the food. She wouldn’t tell me how much she was going to charge me and I left her house praying that it wouldn’t be more than $20 (which is A LOT) because I had to stay within my food budget or I’d be forced to pull money from other places.
Another problem was that I didn’t trust anyone to actually show up for the workshop. Ok, well I was about 60% sure that most of my committee members would show up, but you never know because one of their kids could get sick or they’d go into labor (I have 2 preggers on the committee) or they could decide not to show up out of pure laziness. Hands down this was the most agonizing part of this entire experience. I even had nightmares that no one showed up to the workshop. Throughout all of this I kept reminding my neighbors and everyone else that I had invited what time we would start and where. After I had to change locations everyone was really relieved because they didn’t want to travel to the mayor’s office, ALTHOUGH THEY SAID THAT THEY WOULD! Now do you guys understand why I was freaking out about attendance?

November 24, 2010

I woke up feeling unsure about how things would go. I began to listen to gospel music in order to calm my nerves and to encourage me. Lindsey (she came over to help out/keep me from freaking out) and I got everything ready and headed out to set up for the workshop. On the walk over to the place I felt like I was going to throw up. Now, it may have been due to the fact that we didn’t eat breakfast (I hadn’t really grocery shopped in a while) and we had to walk on the beach while the sun was blazing down on our professionally clad bodies OR it could’ve been my nerves. So, we get to the palce and we start setting up. It was so hard to get the posters to stick to the “wall” because there really wasn’t a wall...so we had to hang posters from electrical cables and we stood a table on two legs in order to stick some posters on it. It took us a while to figure out how we were gonna display the posters and I almost had a nervous breakdown. Thank God Lindsey was there! She was like, “Mya, go away and let me figure this out!” For my own good, I went somewhere, said a quick prayer, returned and she had figured it all out!
At 8 o’clock no one had arrived so I began freaking out AGAIN! I kept repeating “Lindsey, if no one shows up I’m gonna crawl into a ball and cry.” From about 8 to 8:07 (yes, I remember the exact minute) I was pacing back and forth hoping beyond all hope that at least 10 out of the 15 invitees would show up. And then they began to arrive!!! At 8:12 twelve people had shown up and I swear that I wanted to cry. We started at 8:15 with a pre-test just to see how much they already knew. At about 8:24 my neighbor arrived and…THE EVANGELICAL PASTOR!! I could not believe that he showed up, but I was so happy that he was there.
Overall, the workshop was a success. It went much better than I could’ve ever imagined. There were a couple of glitches along the way, i.e. the pastor didn’t want to participate in all of the activities and I discovered that one of my committee members can’t read or write so I had to cut out one activity from the agenda. I had 93% of the invitees in attendance and seriously as a first year volunteer you really can’t ask for more! I really feel that the information was well received by all and I know for a fact that everyone learned something new. THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT, RIGHT?!?!

Now that I’ve trained my community leaders I will use them to educate the students at the local elementary school. Sustainability at its best!

I love life and my job!

Salú
Mya

Volunteer Festival in Suchitoto

Yesterday there was this volunteer festival in an artesany town named Suchitoto. My Country Director and Peace Corps Response Coordinator took me and two other volunteers to the festival in order to represent Peace Corps. We had a booth set up where we offered information about the PC to other volunteers organizations in the country as well as to the local/tourist population that were there. It was a great day overall. I got to meet the JICA sub-director and I invited him to my site. JICA is basically like PC, but it's a Japanese organization and they have TONS of money...hehehe. I've had the chnce to work with a JICA volunteer/nurse this past week at the Table Fair and I found her to be very chispita!

So back to the festival...there was music (which probably caused me irreversible hearing loss), pretty awesome dancing by the National Academy of Dance, and food from Louisiana (the jambalaya was terrible, but the gumbo was great!). I met some really cool Israelis and we discussed many things, wwe spoke alot about keeping the Sabbath and travelling. I would love to go to Israel one day.

Right now I'm in my hotel room in San Sal with a terrible cold. I have to go back to my site in a few hours, but I really don't have the strength to get out of bed. I feel just terrible. But mentally and spiritually I'm doing just fine. I feel so blessed today and I thank God for His constant protection.

Love and live life!

Loving Life

Hey All!

It's been a while since my last update, so here I am! First and foremost I'd like to say that I'm extremely excited about going home to Chicago for Christmas. I can't wait to spend some time with my Mom and my crazy sisters. Hopefully I can catch up with some friends, but vamos a ver que pasa.

As very few of you know, I applied for a VAST grant to do an HIV workshop in my community and I got it!! So the day before Thanksgiving I will be having an 8-hour workshop in my pueblo to train community leaders on HIV awareness and prevention. I'm really excited about it...but also a little bit stressed out. I've never planned anything like this before and I just hope that things go well. Also, my committee members have been showing up to the meetings that I've been holding. I just hope that this will continue because it'd make things a lot less stressful if my commuunity could actually get organized...primero Dios verdad?

Recently I've been in great spirits! I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my chest and now I can breathe a little bit easier. It seems like certain things that I was afligida over are now falling into place quite nicely. I feel stronger today than I did last month, hell even last week.

My God is good and He has given me the strength to leave behind the things that are not good for me. What a wonderful God I serve.

I'm loving life! I love my job! I think that I might just extend my service in 2012.

Love you all,
Salú

GLOW Camp

Hey all,

This past weekend myself and 10 others PCVs from the eastern region of the country took 25 girls to a 3 day leadership camp on the beach. In this culture it is uncommon for kids to spend the night away from the home, so this was a great accomplishment for me (being the youngest volunteer amongst the other camp leaders) because my neighbors trusted me enough to send their daughter with me. The camp was awesome! The girls were between the ages of 12 and 16 and most of them had never been to the beach or even outside of their village . Just to see how excited they were to see the ocean was amazing. At the camp we talked about many important things such as leadership, effective communication, domestic violence/healthy relationships, the importance of higher education, etc. We also did many activites with the girls such as: self defense workshops, nutrition workshops, bonfire w/smores (definitely a hit!), bracelet making worshops and journaling. I can't even begin to explain how beneficial this workshop was for them (and for myself). Most of the girls come from VERY small towns and had never travelled anywhere alone. To be in a position to teach these girls something new and valuable is a great feeling. In the future I plan to do another camp and invite different girls.


I feel good here in El Salvador. Good times are ahead and I'm looking forward to them. Difficult times are also ahead, but I feel stronger to deal with them. I love and miss you all.

Stay encouraged!

Salu