One Day In the Life

Una dia en la vida,

Hola todos! Estan buenas? The Spanish is starting to really pick up which is insane. I mean, I still talk at the level of a two year old. But a two year old who is on schedule to start beggindergarden at the normal age!!

For training we had a version of ‘take your son to work day’. I got to follow my family around and see how they live a normal day. I woke up and worked with my house mom a little bit – in the garden, the kitchen, etc. Salvador, especially in rural areas which are very conservative, has a reversed society. Gender roles are very obvious and not broken. The men bring home the bacon, and the women take care of the house and the kids. Men actually have little conversation with their families, and I have learned that this is not disrespectful. It is just the way things are. I do my own dishes and try to help out, but it is very hard to. My house mom continues to do my laundry even though I tell her not to. (We don’t have a machine, laundry is done by hand).

At around 10:00 am, I went into el campo (the fields) with my house dad. Every man in El Salvador carries a machete around with him at all time. It is used for work and is a little intimidating at times (who is going to mess with someone who has a machete?). Assuming I would be working with him I was very excited to start breaking down some walls in terms of conversation. He left me with my brother Ociel, who is 18. However, he did give me a machete and I spent 4 hours cutting down branches. We dry the branches out and use them to build a fire under the stove that we make tortillas on! I got a little bit of respect because I had a huge blood blister from using the machete. All the guys thought I would complain because I am a lazy American. They kept looking at me saying “te duele? Te duele?” Which means, does that hurt? I said no, and that was the first time the old man here called me by my name Jaime – Jim doesn’t fly here.

I also learned a word that only men use when people ask: “como estas?” (how are you). Men say: “Estoy cachinbon” Which just means ‘I am fine’. It doesn’t mean much, but when you are in the field with a bunch of old school farmers and you just throw out “Cachinbon” like you know what you are doing – it’s like dating the cool girl at school or something? Haha, wow I’m weird.

Other than that, life is slow here. I wake up REALLY early, between 6 and 7. Take a bucket bath, eat breakfast and either take the bus to San Vicente for training, or stay in my canton for language and cultural class. We are starting to get into the swing of things and I am anxious to see where I fit in.

I have been real good about being excited to be here. However, Monday someone told me that it was St. Patrick’s Day. I had completely forgotten this, and at that moment a shock of homesickness was sent through my entire body. I have spent the last 4 Saint Patties with my best friends just having fun and enjoying being young and dumb. It made me think about Dave Hannon too. Those of you who don’t know him, he is one of my best friends who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan – I haven’t seen him in almost 8 months. This was the only day that I spent a great amount of time thinking about others at home wondering what they were doing. Especially everyone at Michigan State. I can’t imagine what Vraniak and Willy were up too, haha. (And watch out for those 428 Grove ladies).

Jokes: Why don’t you ever put an Irish man’s drink on the roof?
- Because he will think it is on the house.

Why do you only give an Irish man 239 beans?
- Because one more and it would be two-farty.

(This is an example of how I spend my downtime)



I cannot add pictures just yet, because we have certain rules about the Peace Corps computer and software that we cannot break. But the second I can, I will put a bunch up. I hope you like cows and volcanoes.

Thank you so much for the e-mail responses, you have no idea how close to home it takes me,

Jimbo