Some more details that maybe I´ve forgotten..
So to get here I take a bus from San Salvador or about an hour and a half and get off at the entrance to the community. Theres about 200 homes in the community I think.. actually i still havent figured it out bc when I ask people they tell me numbers anywhere betwee 100 and 300.. there are 270 students that attend the school, half in the morning and half in the afternoon... but most homes have more than one child. Anywhere from two to four generations of a family usually live together in a house or houses next to each other. Its also very common for teenage girls to have children of ther own.
From the bus stop I walk about 5 to 10 mins down a cobblestone-mud street to my house. Milingo is realy green. That was one of the first things I noticed... there are a lot of trees and plants in general which is really nice and makes it pretty. Its he rainy season now. There are 2 seasons, rainy and dry.. so it either rains every day or it doesnt rain at all. In November the dry season wil lstart and it will be less green and hotter, but then i will be able to go running since the ground won´t be so muddy.
Girls in the community like to do their nails a lot and they like to do mine, too. Ive had my nails pained like 7 times already and they paint them with diferent colors and designs, like flowers, dots, etc.
I boil my water and keep it in a big jug' I haven´t gotten sick so far.... I shouldn´t have said that though.... most of my peace corps friends have had some stomach issues so Im extremely lucky!
My family has cows, like 25 chickens, roosters that crow a LOT, 2 big pigs, two baby pigs, goats, and we ha a rabbit but it died, three dogs, and a cat. I think thats all the animals...besides the mice haha
I go to mass every sunday in Suchitoto with Karla, my host sister. The church is beautiful. Suchitoto is super close, quaint, small, and easy to get to and easy to navigate. Theres the post office, church , park, stores, market, internet cafe, etc. all right there in a span of a couple of blocks.
I bought a hammock the other day so after lunch when its hot and we´re all sittin around resting, I won´t be hogging one of the family´s hammocks...
The other day after like 2 hours of washing all my laundry and hangin it on the line, the line fell down and everything fell into the dirt! I think I almost cried, haha, but we just let it all dry and knocked off the dirt later.
The grandmother of the family died last week. When someone dies, all the family comes together and they stay up ALL night praying and singing and drinking coffee and eating pan dulce. Not everybody stays up all night but a lot of people do... they they have the funeral in the church the next day and then do the burial in the cemetery. Then for the next nine days they do a prayer service each night and serve coffee... then on the ninth day they stay up all night again. Then each year on the anniversary o the death they do the same prayer services for 9 days... and they do that every year for 9 years. Pretty intense but a tradition that I really like. I didnt make it all night...I went to sleep at about 1 or 2 oclock. but bedtime here is between 7 and 9 so that was late. People also wake up between 4 and 7 am.
Last night was one of the prayer sevices and the uncle of the family was teaching me to play songs on the guitar and he played and sang too. We had walked there in the rain so i was all wrapped up in a towel... and a little girl had put my hair in a million braids. We also had cake for my host fathers birthday. It was a fun night. Walking back in the dark-rain-mud was fun too...
I also forgot to mention that September 15th was independence day and there were a lot of parades and a big dance- a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of folklore dancing too... they girls wear really pretty colorful dresses!
I´ve been making a lot of new friends in my community, especially young women near my age, or anywhere between 18 and 35 ish which I count a near my age. Most of them have families and children, but they invite me to come over, to go places with them, etc. which makes me feel really welcome and like I have friends. Also several women have come to me with interest in starting a women´s group to sell things like artesania, jewelry, bags, embroidered cloths, anything we can make.... So I´m really excited about forming a women´s co-operative. I am also getting a friend to teach me to make these cool bags out of woven strips of plastic chip bags... chip bags make up a lot of the litter around here...they´re everywhere. So it would be awesome if we could all start collecting the bags and turning trash into money. I can´t wait to learn how to make them and show all my girlfriends-We´re having a meeting tomorrow about it. I only wonder if people would buy them... maybe in Suchitoto since turists come there. The great thing is that the women have lots of ideas and are really enthusiastic about it because a lot of them are mothers and a lot of them are single mothers and they don´t have jobs. Plus they enjoy having a reason to leave the house and spend time with other women. Helping women and helping the environment are two things I really am passionate about, so this idea gets me really excited! I really like these women, too, so it ill be fun to work with them.
Yesterday was a big community meeting to elect new leaders for the development association. It was supposed to start at 1 oclock and I got there a half hour late and of course I was the first person there... I enjoy the slow pace of life here and that everybody is chill about time. It can be confusing though.... I never know if I should show up on time or an hour later... its hard to know. Im the type of person who stresses out about being late though so its nice I don´t have to ever feel that way here.
The school director has spoke with me about ideas she has for me to work on at the school.. they include starting a school garden for the students to manage, and a plastic bottle collection program to sell them to recycling plants. Also she wants me to teach dance classes and help with the english classes. I will also be regularly doing environmental teaching activities in the school.
I´m also planning on working with another group of young women who are on the health commitee, because they want to go projects involving the issue of trash and trash burning and litter, etc. because all those things affect health, too. The goal is to get people to not burn or bury their trash, but to collect it and separate recyclables and for the garbage truck to come pick it up regularly.
So for those of you who have been askng me what I´m actually doing work-wise maybe that gives you a better picture...but right now I´m mostly just adjusting to the community and learning about life here and how things work in the community, and getting to know people... and working on my spanish.
If anyone actually read all of that I´m really impressed...... Everything is just so new and there´s so much to say!
!Salud! Adios!