Rural village life here in El Salvador is generally isolated and peaceful, but this week's national emergency changed all that.
It started early in the week, when gang members, angered by a new anti-gang law, started posting flyers all over the country threatening to burn buses if they operated Wednesday through Friday. Few Salvadorans can afford cars and most depend on an extensive bus network that goes even into very rural areas. And gang crimes here are usually perpetrated on buses.
Anyway, this caused a 72-hour shutdown of the buses, making it impossible for much of the country to get to work or other necessary destinations. Of course my town's water pump broke during this strike, and the people from the water company were too scared to come fix it. Even though they come in company vehicles, people were scared that the gang threats would extend to any large vehicle, or even the passenger-laden pickup trucks that sometimes substitute for buses. Anyway, our water was out and I couldn't leave to go buy water or shower and do laundry in the capital. Thanks gangs.
Usually gang members board buses, rob all the people and bus's fare money from that day, and then evacuate the bus and burn it. The anti-gang law was proposed after a bus was burned in July with all the people still in it and the gang members posted to shoot escapers. 17 people were killed and more were wounded. That I did not blog about because I didn't want everyone worried about me. It happened at night in one of the most dangerous parts of the country, so there's no chance I or any other Peace Corps volunteer would have been in that situation. The only reason I'm writing about it now is that it's mentioned in that BBC link. Thanks BBC.
Still. I can't believe there wasn't already a law making it a crime to be a gang member. And when I think of this week I'm kind of glad my service is almost over!
In that vein, I finally wrapped up the stove project with a clausura meeting, complete with a huge cake. Glad that's out of my hair! I couldn't take pictures, though, because I was too busy actually running the meeting. Just one more project to finish, which will happen Thursday. And the new volunteer gets here the day after that!
Paz y amor.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Deme, deme
Readers of this blog are probably sick by now of me complaining about "handout mentality" -- villagers coming up to me and demanding money and things they feel I am obligated to give them because I am from the United States.
Well, yesterday I was kind of forced to go to church, and the priest, whom I normally don't like because he's so oppressive, actually gave a sermon against that!
He said he saw people arriving at the mayor's office and demanding (not asking for) money for bus fare, etc., and it made him sick. "Let's not get used to acting that way," he said.
THANK GOD! (No pun intended.) I now like the priest again.
In other news, the comedor, like a cafeteria-style restaurant, in my town was robbed at gunpoint at about 1 p.m. last week. Luckily no one was there eating at the time, only the owners. But don't be scared for me, as now there is a permanent police presence in the town (there wasn't before.) It's sad that it took something like this for the police to do their jobs, though.
Paz y amor.
Well, yesterday I was kind of forced to go to church, and the priest, whom I normally don't like because he's so oppressive, actually gave a sermon against that!
He said he saw people arriving at the mayor's office and demanding (not asking for) money for bus fare, etc., and it made him sick. "Let's not get used to acting that way," he said.
THANK GOD! (No pun intended.) I now like the priest again.
In other news, the comedor, like a cafeteria-style restaurant, in my town was robbed at gunpoint at about 1 p.m. last week. Luckily no one was there eating at the time, only the owners. But don't be scared for me, as now there is a permanent police presence in the town (there wasn't before.) It's sad that it took something like this for the police to do their jobs, though.
Paz y amor.
Friday, September 3, 2010
This is the end...
I'm in San Salvador wrapping up three days of required medical appointments for Close of Service. I'm realizing I will be spending very little time in the village until I leave in October. We are constantly going to San Salvador for final interviews and administrative stuff, my job search brings me into town a lot to use the cyber cafes, and we are also planning some trips to the places we've always meant to go for the past two years, but have never got around to it.
In a way it's kind of nice -- I like leaving the village, meeting up with gringo friends, using the Internet. After two years I guess I haven't gone completely native! I have kind of been waiting for this part of my service, the part where I stop working and do whatever I want for a couple of months until I leave. There are still some projects to finish up in my site, but most of that will get done in the next two weeks.
I am medically fine and I guess it's time to go back to the village. Paz y amor.
In a way it's kind of nice -- I like leaving the village, meeting up with gringo friends, using the Internet. After two years I guess I haven't gone completely native! I have kind of been waiting for this part of my service, the part where I stop working and do whatever I want for a couple of months until I leave. There are still some projects to finish up in my site, but most of that will get done in the next two weeks.
I am medically fine and I guess it's time to go back to the village. Paz y amor.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Alia returns from El Salvador in need of a job!
After two years in the Peace Corps in El Salvador, I am coming home October 16. My immediate destination is my mother's house near D.C., but after that, I plan to move to wherever I get a job.
That's where you journalist friends and professors come in. I've started looking for jobs on the Internet but wondered if you have any leads -- contacts, job bank recommendations or postings you've seen that you could pass on? I'm already trolling through the UMD j-school's job bank as well as journalismjobs.com, but of course more resources are always welcome.
I've pretty much decided against looking in newspapers because of the job insecurity there. I am looking more at nonprofit journalism -- publications from organizations with focuses I like/have experience in. Examples are the environment, education (I was an environmental education volunteer here, so I mostly taught environmental classes and did projects in a school) and diversity, international or Latin American issues.
But I'm also not too picky. I know the economy is terrible and beggars can't be choosers. I might have to resort to office work at Peace Corps HQ in DC for awhile, and any journalism job would be better than that.
Even if you've got no job tips advice for me, let's meet up if you're ever in the DC area!
See you in October!
Paz y amor.
Paz y amor.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Wrapping it up
Our close of service conference is this Wednesday through Friday. I can't believe how fast it's come! At the conference I will pick my flight date and let you all know when I have it.
Ideally, we're not supposed to be doing much work after our COS conference, just preparing to go home. I was planning to have all my project finished by then, but of course my community has been dragging its feet/not doing anything at all to finish these projects with me, so I will probably still have to work on the school vegetable nursery, the health dispensary and the stove projects.
A new volunteer is coming to replace me in mid-September and I'll probably also be orienting him/her for about a month before I leave. But I will have a lot more time for departure preparations, online job searching, and most importantly, in-country travel and fun.
We are apparently in the middle of another tropical storm. I can't remember many days since May when we have NOT been in the middle of a tropical storm. I washed my clothes Tuesday and they are still not dry. I am wearing damp jeans.
Coming home to my mother's dryer is so close...
Here are some pictures from Nicaragua!
At the border. Later a bee landed on the lip of that Fresca can and I almost drank it, but Will grabbed the can on its way to my mouth and the bee fell in and drowned. I had been really happy to find a Fresca and was disappointed that I couldn't drink it. I believe I actually said, "I hate Nicaragua!"
That dark blob on the branch is a monkey!
We couldn't go to the top of the Volcán Concepción on the Isla de Ometepe because it had already spewed smoke 13 times this year. This is Will, our hiking guide and a German girl named Marian at the highest point we could go to. The water in the distance is Lake Managua.
Volcán Concepción
The silhouette of the revolutionary Augusto C. Sandino where he was shot by a firing squad overlooking Managua in 1934 (not 1956 as I recently said -- that was the dictator Somoza, sorry). I can't believe that in all the material I've read about Sandino, no one ever mentioned he was 50 feet tall.
Some 6,000-year-old human, deer and raccoon footprints were found in the mud near Lake Managua.
Paz y amor.
Ideally, we're not supposed to be doing much work after our COS conference, just preparing to go home. I was planning to have all my project finished by then, but of course my community has been dragging its feet/not doing anything at all to finish these projects with me, so I will probably still have to work on the school vegetable nursery, the health dispensary and the stove projects.
A new volunteer is coming to replace me in mid-September and I'll probably also be orienting him/her for about a month before I leave. But I will have a lot more time for departure preparations, online job searching, and most importantly, in-country travel and fun.
We are apparently in the middle of another tropical storm. I can't remember many days since May when we have NOT been in the middle of a tropical storm. I washed my clothes Tuesday and they are still not dry. I am wearing damp jeans.
Coming home to my mother's dryer is so close...
Here are some pictures from Nicaragua!
At the border. Later a bee landed on the lip of that Fresca can and I almost drank it, but Will grabbed the can on its way to my mouth and the bee fell in and drowned. I had been really happy to find a Fresca and was disappointed that I couldn't drink it. I believe I actually said, "I hate Nicaragua!"
That dark blob on the branch is a monkey!
We couldn't go to the top of the Volcán Concepción on the Isla de Ometepe because it had already spewed smoke 13 times this year. This is Will, our hiking guide and a German girl named Marian at the highest point we could go to. The water in the distance is Lake Managua.
Volcán Concepción
The silhouette of the revolutionary Augusto C. Sandino where he was shot by a firing squad overlooking Managua in 1934 (not 1956 as I recently said -- that was the dictator Somoza, sorry). I can't believe that in all the material I've read about Sandino, no one ever mentioned he was 50 feet tall.
Some 6,000-year-old human, deer and raccoon footprints were found in the mud near Lake Managua.Paz y amor.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
How transportation compromised my vacation
So I'm back in El Salvador and it's good to be home. This vacation really left me with the impression that El Salvador is not set up for tourism at all, even compared to Nicaragua, which is not exactly what most people would call a hot tourist destination. But there was one problem with the second half of our trip, and that was transportation.
First, we needed to take a ferry to the (gorgeous!) Isla de Ometepe, which ended up leaving earlier than we were told it would, so we had to wait for the next one. That delay, plus rainy weather, cancelled our beach trip that day. The volcano hike the next day was wonderful but exhausting because at the last minute our guide decided to take us on a cow path down the mountain, which was a difficult 4-hour descent, instead of the normal way. But all the resulting soreness was worth it for the beautiful views.
When it came time to leave the island, the ferry we were going to take had broken, so we had to wait another two hours, completely ruining the chances of getting to the Masaya volcano early enough to hike it. Instead we spent a relaxing night in Granada, watched the new Karate Kid and ate at a really nice restaurant that served amazing chicken parmesan.
The next day we went to Managua, where we saw some really cool things, including a huge silhouette of Agosto Sandino where he was killed by a firing squad, some human and animal footprints from 6,000 years ago, and a lot of old animal bones (mastodons and the like) at the national museum.
Yesterday we finally left Nicaragua on a 2:30 a.m. bus, which broke down on the border with Honduras. They tried to fix the bus for about 3 hours before calling for another bus to pick us all up, which took another four hours. Luckily we were stranded next to a restaurant and a bar, and by the time the new bus came to pick us up, I had made friends with some Mexicans who used to live in Silver Spring and spoke perfect English, I was a more experienced pool player and rather tipsy.
We finally got to San Salvador at about 9 p.m., where we ate some pizza and immediately fell asleep. I'm finally on my way back home now. It'll be hard to go back to village life after this awesome vacation!
Paz y amor.
First, we needed to take a ferry to the (gorgeous!) Isla de Ometepe, which ended up leaving earlier than we were told it would, so we had to wait for the next one. That delay, plus rainy weather, cancelled our beach trip that day. The volcano hike the next day was wonderful but exhausting because at the last minute our guide decided to take us on a cow path down the mountain, which was a difficult 4-hour descent, instead of the normal way. But all the resulting soreness was worth it for the beautiful views.
When it came time to leave the island, the ferry we were going to take had broken, so we had to wait another two hours, completely ruining the chances of getting to the Masaya volcano early enough to hike it. Instead we spent a relaxing night in Granada, watched the new Karate Kid and ate at a really nice restaurant that served amazing chicken parmesan.
The next day we went to Managua, where we saw some really cool things, including a huge silhouette of Agosto Sandino where he was killed by a firing squad, some human and animal footprints from 6,000 years ago, and a lot of old animal bones (mastodons and the like) at the national museum.
Yesterday we finally left Nicaragua on a 2:30 a.m. bus, which broke down on the border with Honduras. They tried to fix the bus for about 3 hours before calling for another bus to pick us all up, which took another four hours. Luckily we were stranded next to a restaurant and a bar, and by the time the new bus came to pick us up, I had made friends with some Mexicans who used to live in Silver Spring and spoke perfect English, I was a more experienced pool player and rather tipsy.
We finally got to San Salvador at about 9 p.m., where we ate some pizza and immediately fell asleep. I'm finally on my way back home now. It'll be hard to go back to village life after this awesome vacation!
Paz y amor.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Nicaragua!
Although I've been living in El Salvador for the past two years, I never really felt like a traveller...until now.
That's because I've mostly been living and working in the same village and only taking the occasional weekend trip to other places in the country, which are usually just my friends' places or San Salvador.
I forgot how much I loved hostel-hopping and sightseeing until this week, vacationing in Nicaragua with a friend.
So far we have spent one very sketchy night in Managua, toured the colonial cities of León and Granada, and have gone "volcano surfing" -- which is where you climb a volcano and ride a board down the steep gravelly slope. Fortunately we were sitting down. It's more like "volcano sledding."
Today we are on a beautiful island in Lake Managua and tomorrow we are climbing a really big volcano on this island...but we can't go all the way to the top because it's too active right now. Should I be scared?
The rest of our trip will involve a night hike on a volcano where you can actually see the lava and go through caves, and then a trip back to Managua where we might actually get the chance to do some sightseeing -- first priority is seeing the silhouette of Sandino where he was shot to death by a firing squad in 1956.
Can't do Nicaragua photos for you right now, and unfortunately both of us had our camera batteries die during volcano surfing, so there are no pics of that anyway. Watch this space!
Paz y amor.
That's because I've mostly been living and working in the same village and only taking the occasional weekend trip to other places in the country, which are usually just my friends' places or San Salvador.
I forgot how much I loved hostel-hopping and sightseeing until this week, vacationing in Nicaragua with a friend.
So far we have spent one very sketchy night in Managua, toured the colonial cities of León and Granada, and have gone "volcano surfing" -- which is where you climb a volcano and ride a board down the steep gravelly slope. Fortunately we were sitting down. It's more like "volcano sledding."
Today we are on a beautiful island in Lake Managua and tomorrow we are climbing a really big volcano on this island...but we can't go all the way to the top because it's too active right now. Should I be scared?
The rest of our trip will involve a night hike on a volcano where you can actually see the lava and go through caves, and then a trip back to Managua where we might actually get the chance to do some sightseeing -- first priority is seeing the silhouette of Sandino where he was shot to death by a firing squad in 1956.
Can't do Nicaragua photos for you right now, and unfortunately both of us had our camera batteries die during volcano surfing, so there are no pics of that anyway. Watch this space!
Paz y amor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
