A note...

This blog's title is a clever rhyme that has nothing to do with Vietnam! It refers to the Hairspray song "Good Morning Baltimore." See, it rhymes, and it has to do with my life! From (near) Baltimore to Salvador!

I got a cell phone number. You'll see it if you're my friend on facebook. I include the U.S. exit code and the Salvadoran country code also for your convenience. So it's a really long number but it's exactly what you'd have to dial.

In answer to some of your questions, it is "winter" here so it's not that hot. In the city it feels like 87 degrees but at home in Cañas it's much cooler, especially when it rains which is still every day. Inside the house sometimes it's boiling hot, so we all just sit on the porch. And the harvest is coming soon (November-December) for corn, beans and sugar cane.

Yesterday our group went to the anthropological museum in San Sal and learned all about the country's history which, like most Latin American countries, is laced with persecution of indígenos. The word "indio" is still used as an adjective here to describe crude or uncivilized people or things. But the indigenous population here has almost thoroughly assimilated and I get the impression that it's worse for them in other Central American countries.

Then we went out for pineapple pizza at Pizza Hut and walked around Metro Centro, the big mall. Globalization is scary. Burger King and Pizza Hut are everywhere in the capital, as are Levi's and Nine West. My friends and I agreed that it's more of a culture shock to go to a mall in ES, where everything is trying to be American so the minor differences REALLY stand out. Our country houses, with their latrines and farm animals, are easy to adjust to by comparison.

Which makes me realize I didn't address one thing -- yes, I do have electricity and running water (most of the time) here. In fact, I'll go through a day in the life (expect another one of these when I get to site):

6:00 a.m. - wake up. Take a shower (which is curtained off outside, but I do actually have a shower head, not a bucket bath.) Get ready for Spanish class, brushing teeth at an outside sink with bottled water because I will never be able to drink the water here. If it's Sunday, no class, go running with some of the other ag/env crew. Before class or after running, am force-fed large breakfast of beans/eggs/tortilla/plantains by Doña Lorena.

7:30 a.m. - Walk up a big hill to Spanish class at another trainee's house or catch a bus to the training cener in San Vicente for some other Peace Corps-mandated activity (tomorrow it's an English teaching workshop.)

noon - Lunch, either packed by my host mom for San V or eaten at my house after community Spanish class. Again, always too large.

1 p.m. - More Peace Corps workshops or Spanish class, often followed by time to plan our community youth groups.

3-4:30 p.m. - Community classes end, hang out and play cards/soccer with other PC friends. Sometimes walk a few minutes to visit trainees in nearby community. If in San V, stop by Internet cafe/post office/supermarket.

6-6:30 p.m. - Dinner at home. Again, too much food.

After dinner - Watch TV/play games with family. We get Smallville, House and 30 Rock here, as well as tons of news and crappy Jerry Springer-type talk shows. Games are improvised with few actual toys (sliding bottle tops across a table to knock down a dictionary mounted on a stick, doing a "Shell Shuffle" type game with a leaf and other bottle tops.) But it's still fun and it really made me realize how uncreative Americans are with their ready-made entertainment.

9-10 p.m. - Bedtime.

Yes, those early-to-bed early-to-rise hours are correct. I don't know what you all must think of me.

But I know what I think of you: I miss you! Thanks for the comments and emails! Write more!

Paz y amor.