Gastroinestinal Fun!!!!!!!!

Warning: This first part is not meant fot the faint of heart, I suggest if you´re sensitive, skip ahead to the designated area.
So......
If you´re wondering why I haven´t written in a while, it´s because for the past week I´ve been suffering my first gastrointestinal bacterial infection! Yay!
I pretty much knew it was going to happen at some point, granted I thought later rather than sooner, but I guess it´s taught me to be much more wary with my food.
I´m pretty sure it was an egg that wasn´t cooked fully, my Señora frequently fries the eggs like crazy on one side, but never flips them.
It began last Wednesday night, I´ll spare you the details, but that night on into Thursday let´s just say I was a leaky faucet at both ends.
Fortunately, the medical staff here is excellent and very responsive, and they immediately gave me meds. By Saturday I was feeling better, and I thought I was well enough to make the trip to San Salvador for a visit with my group. I was fine for most of the day, but the bus ride back was less than pleasant. I was able to make it to the front of the bus where the driver has a separate room with a bag, but still, I was mortified to be throwing up on public transport.
What was actually nice about this incident was how everyone reacted, all of the other PCV´s were totally supportive, saying ¨Don´t worry about it, it happens all the time.¨ We started laughing about it immediately, and all my embarrassment disappeared. I think this is a great example of how great all the other volunteers are; everyone´s completely open-minded and empathetic, it´s really easy to be yourself with them.
So Saturday I discovered that the meds they had given me weren´t strong enough, and by Sunday I was still throwing up. At this point they sent me to a doctor; I was totally dehydrated and needed an IV. Yikes. When I stepped on the scale, I found that I had lost 11 pounds in 6 days (although I think I´ve gained some back thank god).
They gave me stronger antibiotics, and pills to prevent throwing up. And now... now I feel much better.
It really is amazing to see just how much energy you lose when you have nothing in your system... food is wonderful.... when it´s cooked right.
My Señora was pretty cute, she felt terrible for making me ill. And while I appreciated the sentiment, I´d be lying if I said I wasn´t the least bit frustrated. I have since had a talk with her about food prep and I think I´ll be okay for here on in.

Okay, much less gross from here on in.
I´m getting excited about my Spanish. It´s getting better and better everyday. I had my first dream in Spanish the other day, and I caught myself thinking in Spanish too. It´s a slow process, but little by little I´m coming along.

This weekend we have immersion days, in which I and another PCV will visit a current volunteer at his site and stay there for two days. It should prove interesting, and I´m sure I´ll learn a lot. I be able to see first hand how life goes for a volunteer when they´re on their own. And where I´m going is a very mountainy region, closer to Honduras. Apparently it´s gorgeous, and we´ll have a lot of hiking (rock on). I´ll take pictures if I can.

So... aside from the misery of my illness, La Vida es Buena!

Salvadoran Pics

One of the many mountains. Apparently the tale with this one is that from far away it the range looks like a woman. Yes, these are supposed to be here gigantic breasts, and the far right begins her tiny little face.
San Vicente, as seen from a hill near my house. ¿Que bonita, si?
This is where I´m living for training. 6 of us total are living there, and although it´s a little crammed sometimes, it´s really fun. The family is always bright and lively. It´s kind of funny, there´s no indoor plumbing, but we have a playstation that the kids are always on. A lot of El Salvador is like that. I´m learning that when you have the essentials, everything thing else just seems extravagant. There´s a lot of joy in this house, even if it might not seem that way from the front view.
That dog is Mulan, after a couple of days of being bashful, he warmed to me. He´s pretty adorable, he always tries to get in the hammock with me. The other dog (not pictured), Muñeco, is a punk and I don´t like him at all. (Although I secretly want to win him over before I go).
This group is all of the other volunteers. We´re broken up into to 2 subgroups: Rural Health (me) and Municipal Development (Muni for short). This was right before we went on our separate ways for training. Everyone´s really nice... no drama yet. Hanging out with everyone has been quite a treat. But, I´m sure I´m eventually going to look at this picture thinking ¨Look how young and impressionable they are!¨

I´m pretty sure this is San Salvador, from the plane, but I´m not positive. The entire country is covered in mountains. Apparently, in the rainy season, everything is incredibly green... I´m looking forward to that.

Since I last checked in, eveyhting´s been going well. We visited a current volunteer´s site yesterday... he was way out in the boonies, but seemed to be thouroughly enjoying it. It´ll be an adjustment, but I´m sure eventually I´ll learn to love it.

Llegé en El Salvador

¡Hola! Hello to all from El Salvador!
Where do I begin?
El Salvador is an amazingly beautiful country, it looks almost prehistoric from a bird´s eye view. Next time I can I´ll try to post pictures of the country, but I forgot my camera today. There are mountains galore, I can´t wait for the rainy season when apparently everything is brightly lush.
It´s beautiful no doubt, but man is it hot. The first few days it was pretty windy and felt cooler, but now the wind has stopped and I sweat quite a bit.
The first two days of orientation my group stayed in a hotel in San Vicente, a moderate sized city about 60 km outside of San Sal (yes that´s right, km). What a party that was. It was kind of like camp: the adult version. We´re all excited and energetic, but our hormones are ablaze. I get along with everyone, they´re all so nice and approachable, instant friendships were made. Just some of the coolest people you would ever want to meet.
And... some potential crushes, but I won´t delve into that just yet.
After a lot of lectures all about what the hell it is we´re getting into, and a Spanish Assessment interview (which I miraculously scored better on than I thought), we were assigned to different groups based on our projects and our Spanish adequacy. So for the past few days I´ve been living in a fairly rural pueblo with a host family, not far from San Vicente. I´m stayong here for 2 months to better my Spanish before I´m assigned to somewhere more or less on my own.
My family is incredibly hospitible, and very patient. My Señora, Marisol, loves to talk and doesn´t mind that I fumble over my words and understand only about 60% of what she says ( I find that a classic smile and nod will get you pretty far). She has 4 kids, three teenage boys (Esteban, Nardo, y Jose) and a nine year old girl (Jesica). She´s probably the most precious thing I´ve ever seen. They are all incredibly nice and accomodating... but then, so are most Salvadorans.
The people here are wonderful. Everyone who passes you in the street greets you, and most are excited and welcoming instead of dismissive to us gringos. I find my Spanish getting better everyday; understanding more about the people here is probably the best pay off for that.
There certainly have been a couple of adjustments: no running water for one (although bucket baths and latrines are not as bad as you think), and it´s unsafe for me to run, so I´ve been constricted to using my room, which is about the size of my old bathroom (although, you´d also be amazed at all the creative exercizes you can come up with in a space barely bigger than you are).
But I´m happy here. I know it´s early, but I feel great.
Last night I taught my hermanos how to play Egyptian War. I was a little nervous to explain it in Spanish, and that some of the rules might get lost in translation. But they were all very patient, and when they all caught on they loved it. I can´t tell you how happy this made me, I felt elated, as if I made a breakthrough. I know it´s early but something I feel that I´ve learned is this: A smile is a smile and a laugh is a laugh no matter where you are in the world.
Paz a todo. ¡La vida es aventura!