Hoy

Today I learned a lot about community, family and customs. I was invited to my friend’s house for dinner. His family was celebrating Easter, and he invited our close group of friends to eat with them.

His mother is Salvadoran; she has 3 brothers and one sister that came to the dinner too. We asked one another which part of El Salvador we were from. As it turns out we are from the same place almost. They might be going down to visit while I am there. 

The interesting part of it all is that, even though we are from the same country…they still did, and had different customs than my family. We did things very similarly, but very differently at the same time. For example, my family plays a game called mafia. And they play a game called loup garou—essentially they are the same game, just a few things changed.

It’s interesting that we share the same big ideas, or concepts about culture…family gatherings, food, games, but we don’t all play or eat the same thing. This is how I have begun to understand how I might phase culture shock in my own country. Stepping into his house was it’s own country. I had to figure out how they did things there, and that is here in Utah…with a family that is from my own country.

While in El Salvador, I will be stepping into a bunch of little worlds. FUNDAMUNI will definitely be one of these places. I really have no idea how things will be here. Even though I have met most of the people I will be working with, I honestly don’t know their lives… how they think, what they value. I really enjoy meeting people. And learning from and about them. 

I am getting more and more exited as the days pass to be able to get to know the people that make up with organization.

Excitement is just one of the feelings I’ve been having… its all of it. Scared is another one of those feelings. Purpose is over coming all of those feelings. Its going down. 

¡Que Rico!

I had been forgetting to mention a huge part of my experience while in El Salvador. We don't really eat the same food as here. Burgers, Pizza, and Hot Dogs are a luxury over there. Pizza Hut and Burger King are the places we go eat if it's you're having your birthday celebration.
Any other time we eat PUPUSAS. Other things we eat include: Atol Chuco, frijoles, crema, queso, carne asada, tamales, elote loco, chiles renenos, dulces tia toya, horchata, and many more. I love these foods, but I haven't had them in a very long time.
Actually this is one of my concerns... there will be nothing else to eat but these foods. We don't even have regular candy, or chocolates. Most are made from dry fruits. It's healthy but sometimes you just miss your Nutella jar. I will probably eat pupusas every single day while I am there. This is how it just to be when I was little. Although delicious, you can get sick of them. Frijoles are another food that you eat every day no matter what. I know I will get sick of it. Eventually I know I will get use to it, or at least wait out the fact that this will be all there is to eat. I want to learn to make pupusas really well. And the curtido that is served with them, which is a kind of salad... I know the general procedure to make them, but to be honest they don't come out the way that they taste in Olocuilta (pupusa central of the world). I think it's really important to keep these recipes alive because I am the one who will pass on these traditions to my children. I don't want my family to lose their traditions after my grandmas passes. Right now she is the only one who knows how to make all of these meals. It is one of my goals to learn to make these foods, that have been around forever!

El Salvador Caliche-Slang 101

file://localhost/Users/adrilovo/Desktop/El%20Salvador%20Slang%20Language%20101%20Course%20for%20Non%20Native%20people%20«%20..Alternate%20Visions%20of%20Twisted%20Realiti….webloc

file://localhost/Users/adrilovo/Desktop/Caliche,%20the%20real%20Spanish.webloc

Just like I explained before about how people in El Salvador use to speak Nawat, now we have created our own words for things. I found these two sites that serve as a dictionary to the words that are only used in El Salvador. Even though I know a few, it was good to "review" this vocab lesson.

Perspective

Yesterday we talked about culture shock. Again I felt like this topic wouldn’t apply to me too much. It does though. As I thought about it more I came to realize that the communities where I will be spending a lot of time do things very differently than how the people in the city do. Bucket showers for example. In the city we take showers, they are cold and horrible but at least they are in a shower and not a well. I remember taking bucket shower in Africa. I didn’t particularly love it.

They also wake up really early in the rural areas. Most of the families literally follow the chicken’s schedules. Very early to sleep very early to rise, which is good. I want to change my schedule, follow D&C 88 more closely.

Today I met with Jay about my proposal. I am getting close to finishing! The more I write about my paper and the more I think about it, the more I am seeing that the water workshop is a kind of a long shot. Or at least this is how I should be writing about it. More realistic. This is hard for me because this is not how I usually go about planning to do something. I plan for it as if it will be 100% doable. And.. IF it doesn’t work out then I might have a little plan for it. I realize this is not how most people plan for things, but I find that  the less I have to fall on the more I make sure that my original plan works.

At the same time, this is not my NGO, these are not my children who I will be reaching. I am a beggar, to put it  dramatic terms. But its true. I am learning and this will be my role—at least for the first trip. Then we’ll see what I can accomplish. I need to make this more clear in my IRB and my proposal.