Today is Sunday and we have the afternoon free, so i figured i could take this opportunity to update my blog on all we´ve been up to lately!! We´re coming to an end of our orientation week and it has been a lot to take in, but I think I can try to summarize a little of what we´ve seen and done so far.
There is a lot of history and culture, as well as political tension in this country. A lot of what I´ve heard so far seems to be sad and almost hopeless... but at the same time there are glimpses or communities of hope. This is mostly connected to the poverty in the country. Latin America has one of the highest gaps between its ultra rich and extremely poor. There are the few mansions you can see in the mountainsides or the occasional nice car, but mostly people here are just struggling to get by.
I´m trying to think of the places we´ve been so far in order, but i think im gonna have to resort to just listing them and about them. On the first couple days we learned about the current social situation around here. We had a presentation about how clean water is becoming scarce in the country and how there is a serious problem with the rivers drying up in the close future. About 89% of all rain water or something like that in the country is toxic or impure (nice to think about when you get caught in the rain)! Water privitization, actually privatization of pretty much everything, is a big economic issue/problem. We had a presentation from another guy about the history of El Salvador starting back with the Aztecs and Mayans and going up through the war... it was interesting because I learned a lot about how this country became what it is now. We also met with a lady who is involved with the political system around here and another one with a woman at an organization that´s alot like a women´t shelter and education center. That was cool or "chivo" in salvadoran slang! The organization does all kinds of things from medical exams to training women in the campo how to get better treatment in factories.
Another really cool place we went to was a Base Community. I don´t have my journal right by me so i don´t remember the name, but it´s basically a neighborhood who works together as a community to make the community better. We went to their meeting center area (so cute! there were flowers and posters!) and talked with one of the women who lives there and runs the religious services they have weekly and coordinates a lot of the events. There are a bunch of base communities around and they´re usually like grassroot movements to better their lives and often have religious affiliations.
The second half of what we´ve done so far is to go to historic areas that have to do with the war and Romero. We went to Romero´s house, the Church where he was shot and killed, and a center/museum where the Jesuit priests were killed. At this center there were notebooks with very graphic pictures of the corpses. When we walked around after looking at those pictures, i was kind of overwhelmed and felt like i just wanted to get away for a little while. The war is so sad and devestating, it´s hard to put into words. It´s even harder to realize that pretty much everyone you pass in the streets survived the war and probably has a horror story about it... We´ve done some talking and reflecting about this stuff, but it almost seems surreal listening to people´s stories.

On a happy note... Friday we went out to a kareoke bar! Sally is our coordinator-type-person for all the Sippies (what we´re called as summer interns) and she took us out with some of her friends. Sally´s in her early 20´s and from the states, but has been here now a year and a half. It´s awesome to hear her language skills and how she´s basically fluent after that short time here! Annnyways... the bar was pretty fun! I sang with one of the ladies "fotografía" by Juanes and Nelly Furtado and they would have breaks where they´d play dance music and everyone would dance. The part i loved most about this was that it wasn´t just young people in our group but like the mom in Sally´s host family and her sister and their friend who were a lot older and then a couple people in their 20s and then a couple teens. We managed to avoid the sketchy men as much as we could and had some good fun.
Yesturday we went to la playa (beach) that was about an hour away. The waves were HUGE and the water was like a bathtub! It was cloudy by the time we got there, so not that hot and we had a ton of fun playing frisbee and just enjoying ourselves.
My spanish is coming along. I freeze up when people talk to me and question me, but hopefully things will get better with time. Most people in the office are American and speak English, but all our speakers and Sally´s friends speak Spanish so it´s interesting... Apparently 40% of what is said in the campo is caliche (slang) so that will make it hard! I guess i´ll just work through it and see what happens. Food here is amazing and i love it! Pupusas, rice, beans, tacos, fresh squeezed juice, different tropical fruits! we went al mercado (market) yesturday and i bought some earings too. okay... this is enough to wear you out and i know its sooo vague and not really fun or detailed, but i promise from now on to be more concise and exciting!!!

Buenas y ojalá oír de Uds. muy pronto!!!