Asi es la Vida

The changes being implemented in PC Central America were interesting enough for the New York Times. Unfortunately, a similar story went out in a Salvadoran newspaper and the online comment board that followed was a sad handful of pretty harsh comments on PCVs which, while they sting, are really just another irritation.

Well, I can't say with absolute confidence, but it looks like the about to COS group that was scheduled to go home in March now has the option to leave sometime after our Closing of Service conference in mid-January. Still planning on traveling Central America after service, my friend Dan Clarahan and I have tentatively rearranged our travel plans for February, which would get us back in the US before the end of the same month.

This is a very sad situation. This place is near and dear to my heart, as is Peace Corps El Salvador. I hope that the staff, especially those in San Vicente, are not fretting over the holiday season, and that they are able to keep their jobs despite the big changes.

As for me, I just finished my med visit, and am only waiting for the PCMO to call me and tell me to get out of Dodge. I am so excited to get down to La Barra de Santiago and spend time with the Gallardo family for Christmas. However, being a short 7 kilometers from my former site and all my friends and not being able to visit them will be hard. El Cocolito is just not the place for me anymore.

Very Happy Holidays to everyone, and I will catch you all on the flipside.

Good Morning, El Salvador.

Time in El Salvador is a tricky mistress. I hardly left my house all day yesterday ( you would have found my in my PJs, on my floor, embroidering and watching episode after episode of Arrested Development ) and yet, when I rolled into bed around 8:30, the day felt like it zoomed by.

The PCVs and incoming trainees got some interesting news on Friday afternoon regarding service in El Salvador. All the incoming trainees for El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua will not be brought in for "safety and security reasons." Fair enough, Central America isn't the safest or securest place in the world, which we see in the article on Genevadeclaration.org called Trends and Patterns of Lethal Violence. I'd link it, but why place worrisome information directly into my mother's hands? Lets just say: Doesn't it feel good to be number one?

The decision to halt the entry of trainees to El Salvador wasn't, in my opinion, a bad one. I love El Salvador. I really do. I generally feel safe (maybe just because I'm a streetsmart badass) and I feel that the PC wants to keep their volunteers safe. But there are only so many steps one can take to insure safety. No matter where you are, you never know what might happen when all your safety and security training falls just short. I feel horrible for the sites that are going to hear the bad news that no one will be coming to help them, but as the security continues to deteriorate, I'm glad that PC seems to be acknowledging the difference between the PC experience of cultural missteps, big projects, and exciting adventures and the experience of desensitized gringos, real anxiety and a legitimate unease in public transportation.

Anyway, the initial result for PCVs here in country when we heard the news was "and THEN what?" As always, the appearance of "chambre" worthy news led to the great gasto of tigo saldo, and everyone was telling or hearing tales of so and so told so and so and that fulano said that we're being evacuated by midnight... or some such nonsense.

Do I love El Salvador? Yes, absolutely, this is my home.... Would I mind if they sent me home a month  or two early? No. I spend my days shooting the breeze with my women and embroidering tablecloths, not a hard way to live till March, but.... I would welcome a little Yusa in my life. (Lets not exaggerate what that would look like. Think, embroidering on  my couch, watching expanded cable and being constantly on the grid. At least for the first week, while I work on washing the campo off my skin and re-learn using a fork.)

All I ask for is that I fulfill my winter plans. Christmas in La Barra de Santiago with my very beloved former host family, and New Years in Antigua, Guatemala, with my two beloved Daniels.

Anyhow, I'll be disconnected throughout Christmas, but, I wish you all very Happy Holidays. Try to reign in your jealousy that I get to play around on the beach, eat chicken foot soup and light off fireworks throughout the holiday. I'm pretty excited for it.

Paz, amigos.