New Twists on Traditional Holidays

First of all, I want to send a shout-out to all those that donated money to the Support Our Students project (or SOS as we're calling it). We got enough money to sponsor five girls for the whole year and one girl for half the year. We're still missing three girls and the other half of the year for the sixth, so there are still plenty of opportunities for you and your family/friends/neighbors/co-workers/club members, etc to support the project.

Well, the school year is officially off and rolling, I've already given my first test, and most of the girls got pretty good grades (it was just over the alphabet, and pronunciation of the letters, so they'll get tougher as the year goes on). However, getting ready for the school year, new classes, new students and internas, and helping the sisters get everything done that they needed also, really wore me out! After the first week of classes, I was already ready for a vacation! I hadn't had a day off in weeks, and it was catching up with me.

Sydney (the other American volunteer from El Salvador) wrote me to remind me of a meeting for all the VIDES volunteers in Central America that was from Feb 13th to the 14th, the first weekend after school started. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go since I was swamped with work and planning for class, but I went anyway, knowing how important it would be.

I took the direct bus by myself again, only this time, there was nobody at the station to pick me up, so I used my week's worth of experience in San Salvador from December to get on the right bus (a miracle, really) that let me off in front of the school in San Salvador, to meet up with the other volunteers from the area and we headed off to Soyapango, a town about an hour away, where there's another high school, for the meeting. I got to see some old friends from VIDES Santa Ana, as well as meet a lot of new people from El Salvador and Guatemala. Unfortunately, I was the only one from Honduras who could make it, so I represented with pride. As soon as I got there, one of the sisters asked if I knew Karina, and that I should go say hi to her. I assumed she was talking about the interna who used to be in the internado in Chalchuapa, but moved to Soyapango to study, so I went to say hi to her and see how she was doing. Only later on did I realize that there was a new American volunteer from Michigan there who's only been there a month! Once that confusion got cleared up, I went to meet the American Karina, and chat with her for a bit. Talking with her reminded me of when I first got there, because her Spanish wasn't very good and she was frustrated with her communication skills. Luckily, Sydney and I were there to remind her of how great it is to be a volunteer and Sydney could attest to my absolutely terrible state of Spanish in the beginning, that has evolved to almost-fluency.

In Santa Rosa, Honduras, the girls and I had been preparing for Valentine's Day (or Friend's Day as they call it here) all week long. I had been making cards and bookmarks and things for the sisters to sell in the reception area, and I had the girls in my English class make Valentine's Day cards in English, looking up the words in the dictionary. That actually did really well. Anyway, with all this prep here, and with El Salvador being a more "developed" country on a whole, I figured it'd be an even bigger (hence, more commercial) deal that weekend, but I was surprised to find that we didn't really do anything special. On Saturday morning, everybody got up around 5.30, we went down to a delicious breakfast that my friend Carlos cooked for all 40 or so of us, everyone went around and gave each other a hug and said happy Valentine's day, and that was it for the rest of the day. It was a little bit refreshing, because the day was more focused on improving the friendships and solidarity with everyone, a much more "love"-ey theme.

Once the we finished breakfast, we all got on a chartered school bus and headed out to a town called Suschitoto, where a family with a big house and a beautiful tropical garden lent us their whole property for the day. The two Guatemalans gave a presentation about their trip to the VIDES Congress in Rome in October, and talked about the new mission for the year. We talked about what we wanted to do in Central America and how we're going to do it. It was so inspiring to hear everyone's ideas, especially since VIDES USA is more about going to another country and living with a community full-time, but not really being active in a group. At least, that's how it is for me in Santa Rosa. The only group of VIDES kids in Honduras is in Tegucigalpa, and they're not very active right now. In Guatemala and El Salvador, it's the locals helping their own communities, kind of like a youth group, but more social service based, and more of university or professional types.

This year, our goal is to end gang violence in Central America (which is a very lofty goal) so that people don't have to live in fear to go outside of their homes. We're focusing on neighborhood solidarity and self-esteem, the root causes, so that maybe we can tackle things from the bottom up. I think it's a great idea, even though the problem's more about the mistreatment of women and the poverty here in Santa Rosa than gang violence. But I still think low self-esteem and lack of education is a giant cause of both of these things too, so I'm doing my part here by myself.

My favorite part was getting to know the other groups and realizing that we really do all have the same vision, even without ever meeting one another until this meeting. The Guatemalans met my VIDES friends from America when they went to Rome, and we saw pictures of them in their presentation. It was just so weird to meet these people that already knew my friends. We met in El Salvador, and they met in Rome, and none of us are from Rome nor El Salvador. It really is all about solidarity. Anyway, the VIDES in Guatemala has two groups, one in the capital, Guatemala City, and the other in Quetzaltenango, nicknamed La Chela. The two that came to the meeting are from La Chela, and they are proud to say that they're the only VIDES group in the whole world that has its own TV show. The TV station there donated an hour of air time for them every week, so they put on their own program and invited me to visit them so they can interview me! I have to say, I'm pretty nervous about it, but it would be pretty cool to say that I'd been on a Guatemalan TV show.

Anyway, after we spent an intense day in the meeting, we all got back on the bus and went to downtown Suschitoto to check out the historical cathedral, but it was being renovated, so we didn't get to see anything. We did, however, run into a giant group of newly arrived Peace Corps volunteers, and they kept trying to get Sydney, Karina, and me to get on their bus without realizing that we weren't with them. Of course, all the Salvadorans assumed they were already friends of ours since, of course, everyone in America knows everyone. It was just a very ridiculous half hour.

After all that confusion, we all got on our own bus and went to see Lake Suschitlan, about ten minutes outside of town. Most of the group went straight down to the shore and out onto a peninsula, but Sydney and I were chatting with one of the sisters and helping her walk down the path to the shore (it was really rocky and she has two prosthetic knees). When we finally reached the shore, she decided to wait for everyone else to come back instead of following all of them, so she went to sit down in a canoe that was on the shore. All of a sudden, two men came up to tell us that we were actually sitting in their fishing boat and that they were about to go out fishing. But when they saw how tired the sister was, they offered to take us for a quick trip around the cove while we waited for the group. So we got our own little tour!

After we eventually left from the lake about half an hour later, we headed back to the school in Soyapango and most of the people who lived relatively close by left to go home, leaving me with the Guatemalans, and some Salvadorans that lived on the other side of the country. Even though we were dead tired, we decided that we weren't ready for the day to be done, so even though we were already all changed into our pajamas and had our mattresses spread out on the floor, we moved them all to the side and turned on the radio and had a dance! The Guatemalans taught us all how to do a dance from there, the Salvadorans taught us all the cumbia, and I taught everyone the two-step! It was a very cultural night. And it brought on an early morning...

Since I had to be back in Santa Rosa on Sunday afternoon, and there aren't any direct buses on Sundays, I had to go "transbordando," meaning I had to take a series of buses back, that stop in every town. I left with the Guatemalans who were looking forward to a nine-hour bus ride, and we made it to the station in San Salvador at 6 am (meaning we had to be up at 4.30 to take the bus from Soyapango at 5). I got on a bus for the border and three hours later, I walked across, caught a shuttle to the bus station in the town on the Honduran side, and got on another bus for Santa Rosa. Then, I walked up from the lower section of town where the station is to my house at the top. I was walking in the door at 1.30, and just in time for lunch! Just as a comparison, it took me about four and a half hours to get from Santa Rosa to the school in San Salvador, and it cost me about $20. That's compared to the eight and a half hours from Soyapango to Santa Rosa, but only paying $6.50. I'm not sure which is a better deal. I'm just glad everything worked out.

And the strange thing was, that I went from being already exhausted and stressed out, to a weekend where I really didn't sleep much and traveled the whole time, and didn't touch any work that I needed to get done, to being refreshed and ready for the week, just from having the change, hanging out with my friends, and regaining the perspective. I think I had stressed myself out by focusing on the details and losing the big-picture vision that helps everything make sense. That's the kind of Valentine's Day I could stand to have every year, I think. Not ignoring it altogether, neither focusing on the romance, but acknowledging the day, spending it with friends in a loving atmosphere, and moving on.

Unfortunately, as far as my birthday went, it didn't turn out to be all that special, which in one very big way was fine with me. Here, the big tradition is to wake the person up by singing to them at 4 am. I do NOT like this tradition AT ALL. I would much rather everyone let me sleep in on my birthday. And that's just what I got. Because everyone forgot my birthday. I had no idea what to do, because I was not all that excited about turning 24 in the first place, but I knew everyone would feel really bad if the day came and went and they found out later that I just didn't tell them. So I told Sor Mirna and all the teachers sang for me in the planning period before classes started. Then, the computer teacher told my English class, so that when I got there, they had written "Happy Barday" on the board, which actually sounds more exciting that a birthday anyway. Then, they sang to me in English, which was really cool, because they'd only learned the song two weeks before for one of the girls' birthdays and they hadn't sang it since.

Then, the internas sang for me at lunch, while I was "monitoring" them and made me cards in their study time instead of doing their homework. It was all very sweet. Then, my American friend Dani and I went out to a pizza place here in Santa Rosa for a birthday dinner. It was delicious because it was American-style (very greasy), but then I got sick. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get back to America and have to re-adjust to greasy food. It's such a shame that the greasiness automatically tastes better than everything else, but after eating beans and rice for every meal of every day, pizza really messes you up. I was in heaven while I was eating it though, and do NOT regret it at all.

So, anyway, that's what I've been up to! I'm very sad to report that I clumsily dropped my camera again and it broke exactly the same way it did before, so I don't have any pictures to share. Sorry! Hopefully, everything will get all fixed up soon and we'll be back on the air. In the meantime, just use your imagination!