My new home

This is a picture of me pointing to my new home...I'm practically as far west as you can go. So, I only have to survive a few more days of training before I am officially sworn-in as a Peace Corps volunteer on November 30th. The past ten weeks have flown by, and it is definitely going to feel strange to leave Los Palacios for El Imposible. I feel fortunate to have been placed with such a great host family whom I have grown very close to, and I will really miss them….I definitely feel very much “at home” with them.

It looks like I will be living without electricity for awhile, and I will be bathing and washing my laundry in the river. It may seem strange to be polluting the water in a National Park, but it is really the only option for the community. There are no projects in the works for bringing electricity or water to the community because the ultimate goal of SalvaNatura (the NGO which oversees the park) is to have the entire community (about 27 houses) relocated to another area outside the park in a year or so. My new living situation is quite interesting, to say the least, and I think I will try to scope-out some other options once I arrive at my site. For now I am all set to live with a middle-aged, single Salvadoran man who lives in El Imposible...not the best situation. I really want to live in the community in which I will be working rather than in the pueblo, and for right now this is the only option. I’m going to have one of two rooms in an adobe house, but I don’t think I will be spending too much time in there. It is pitch dark and roasting hot in the room during the day because the only window, which isn’t even a foot wide, is filled in with wood for some reason.

While I was on my site visit I stayed with one of the park guards and his family. He has worked there for 25 years, and his house is right at the entrance to the park. While I was staying with them I noticed a nice looking toolshed that I think has the potential of being a perfect casita for me. It is close enough to the park guard’s house that I bet I could string some electricity over, and it is just the right size….there is even a perfect place for me to hang my hammock. The main problem is that there is nowhere else to store all the tools. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I’m definitely going to look into this more once I get there in December. I certainly never thought there would be a time when I would get excited at the potential of moving into a toolshed….keep your fingers crossed for me.


Overall I would say that my site visit went really well, and I’m excited about living there. The park is beautiful, and the people I had the chance to meet were very friendly and welcoming. While I was there I also had a chance to serve as a translator for three Scottish gals who have been traveling Central America for the past 4 weeks. In order to hike in the park you need to have a local guide, none of whom speak any English. Many of the guides are interested in learning English so that they can better communicate with tourists, so teaching English will probably be one of my secondary projects. So, since the girls spoke very little Spanish I went along on the 4 hour hike to try to translate when it was needed. It was a lot of fun, and it gave me the chance to learn a bit more about where I am going to be living. There are over 400 species of trees in the park, and there are 25 species of snake, including the boa constrictor and 5 poisonous ones…I hope I never see them. There are also a ton of medicinal plants, butterflies, beautiful birds, and cool animals like ant eaters.

Oh, so it looks as though I will be referred to as Kelly for the next 2 years because no one, including myself, can correctly pronounce my name in Spanish…fortunately my last name can also serve as a first. I'm not sure what my new address will be just yet, but I'll probably send an email out once I know it. Also, if anyone has any connections and can find some kids books in Spanish (used or new), please let me know. Books are always a great resource to have, and I would like to have some on hand at my site for the kids to read.

That's about it for now. I'm going to be spending the rest of the day hanging-out with my training group for Thanksgiving. Each of us prepared some type of food (I made about 8 pounds of mashed potatoes), and we are going to have a big dinner this afternoon. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Site Assignement - Hot Damn!!

I finally know where I will be living for the next two years….in the Parque Nacional El Imposible. Here is what my information packet says about my site and what I will be doing: “You’re so lucky! You’ll have the chance to work in the Parque Nacional El Imposible. Your counterpart agency is trying to help the 27 families that live in the park. They have formed several groups to work on ecotourism (viveros, honey production, trail riding, crafts, food, and tourist guides). You’ll be working with these groups teaching environmental education to take care of the protected area.”

My site assignment almost seems too good to be true. I have actually already been to the park and have seen the community in which I will be living….I went there on my immersion days about a month ago. It’s a beautiful place, and I am really excited about the type of work I will be doing with the community. I have been told that I can choose to live within the park (without electricity), or I can live in the pueblo which is located just outside the park (with electricity). I will know more next week after my 3 day site visit.

El Imposible is located in the country’s western-most department, Ahuachapán, and I will be living less than an hour away from the frontera (border) with Guatemala. The park is one of two national parks in El Salvador, and I have been told that it is home to more biodiversity than anywhere else in El Salvador. I really wanted to be able to work with an NGO during my service, so I was really excited to learn that my counterpart agency is an environmental NGO called SalvaNatura.

I’m going to be sworn in as a volunteer on November 30th, and then I move to my new site on December 1st. This means I will soon have a new mailing address…yet again. I should probably know my new address after my site visit. For all of you wonderful people who have been sending me mail, please keep it coming. Just keep in mind that my address will be changing, so you may want to hold off on mailing anything after next week….it’s been taking close to three weeks for me to receive my mail.

Hope all is well wherever you may be. I’ll post another update, hopefully accompanied by pictures, after I check-out my new home for the next two years!!

A few pictures

Ferris Wheels, Cheese, and Hippos

Since my last post I have been stuck on a ferris wheel for 45 minutes, stood in El Sal and Honduras at the same time, and I went to a circus where I saw hippos drink from a baby bottle….there is never a dull moment in my life down here.

So last week was the fiesta patronale in the pueblo closest to us, the culmination on which consisted of a big dance, a parade, and a lot of fireworks. I ended up going on a ferris wheel from hell with one of my family members. There were 4 of us crammed on a seat for 3, and the thing went so warp speed that I thought I was going to be sick…I had to close my eyes the entire time. To top it off, the ride broke while we were on it and we had to sit on the thing for 45 minutes while the workers proceeded to beat part of the ride with a sledge hammer in hopes of repairing it. Needless to say that was probably the first and last time I will ever go on any sort of an amusement park ride down here. I couldn’t believe people were still in line waiting for their turn after seeing that it was not functioning properly.

Moving on to Field-Based Training. Last week I traveled with 3 other trainees, a Spanish teacher, and a technical trainer to an area called San Francisco, which is located in Chalatenago. The volunteer who lives in the community set each of us trainees up with a host family, and he had a schedule of activities planned for us. I stayed with a mother and daughter who make cheese to sell in San Salvador, the capitol. They get up every single morning at 2am so they can leave their house by 3am, walk in the dark carrying cheese on their heads to the nearest bus stop, and then spend half the day in San Salvador selling their cheese….they do this every day of the week. They were a great family to stay with, and I learned a lot about the process of making cheese during my short stay.

One of the best parts of FBT was the 2 hour hike we went on. We hiked up to this huge rock that is actually split in half by Honduras and El Salvador. The view from the top was absolutely gorgeous. We could see El Salvador, Honduras, the Rio Lempa, and even Guatemala in the distance. That night we went to a house in the community and made individual pizzas with about 15 of the community members. We went through the whole process of making the dough, letting the dough rise, cutting up the veggies, and then putting the pizza together. Once they were all set we cooked them in the family’s outside “oven” that was heated with leña, or firewood. Everyone seemed to have a really great time, and the pizza was delicious!

The rest of FBT consisted of visiting a few local farms, talking with some kids about the importance of reforestation, helping a local farmer construct a worm compost in his pila, and taking cover from the incessant rain that we experienced. Overall, I had a great time and I am even more excited about becoming a volunteer in a few weeks.

So the night I got home from FBT was also the opening night for the circus in our community. I was really shocked when my family told me that there was going to be a traveling circus from Mexico set-up in the soccer field for the entire week. My family invited me to go along with them, so I decided to go and check it out. Let me just say that it was quite a show. There were a bunch of lions and tigers that were crammed into some small cages, and randomly enough there was a family of hippos. The animal trainer who fed the father hippo milk from a baby bottle was also one of the trapeze artists, and the two clowns were little people whom the audience really seemed to get a kick out of. It was an interesting night to say the least. I saw the hippos again the next day when I walked by the circus on my way to buy 10 pounds of corn ….they were eating grass while tied to a tree in the soccer field!

That’s all for now. Many thanks to all of you who have been sending packages and letters my way. It always feels great to receive mail, especially if I’m having an off day. I promise to get better with the letter writing. Things have been pretty hectic, and I haven’t been writing as often as I would like. My next post should be about where I will be living and working for the next two years. I receive my site placement next Tuesday!!!!! Oh, by the way, I now have a cell phone so if anyone wants to call me send me a message and I'll give you my number!