Well, I´m all better, and I´m thrilled that I am because this past weekend was quite phenomenal actually. We had our Immersion Days- I went to visit a current volunteer at his site to see what the hell it is that I´m about to get into.
Mike´s (the current volunteer) canton is pretty far out there... we were in the southeastern part of the country in the State of Morazon up in the Cacaguatique Mountains, about a two-hour pick-up ride southeast of Gotera... (if you have a map, that´s about the best I can do).
You know, I´ve been nervous, contemplating the possible remoteness of my future site; but after visiting Mike, I´m almost hoping I´ll be isolated.
One benefit is that usually the more remote spots are also the most beautiful, and this place was no exception. The hills were gorgeous, and some of the vistas... even gorgeous-er. I watched the sunrise the first morning and teared up from the beauty. I could see the Golfo de Fonesco, the islands off in the distance, and I swear I could even see Nicaragua (really... you should get a map if you want to visualize this entry).
But even better than just how spectacularly beautiful the site is, are the people. I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again, Salvadorans rock. And in the remote spots, they rock even harder. It´s much easier to get to know people, build trust, and usually they´re more prone to want to work with you. I was there for three days, and I´ve never felt more welcome in my whole life.
The second night I was there I was invited by two girls, near strangers, to have a sleepover at their house. And while I´ll admit the bed was a little crammed, the gesture was moving enough to compensate.
I played all sorts of games with tons of kids, but one in particular, Xulma, was incredibly affectionate. When we were hiding together for hide-and-seek she hugged me and said she wished I would stay forever. I damn near cried, and I had known her for 12 hours . I usually don´t have much patience for kids, but the children here are showing me kindness I´ve never seen before.
All this... and I haven´t really told you what I did there. I got to help with the honey harvest. We zipped up in sexy suits and pulled honey combs out of bee boxes (that´s a driect translation). It was pretty effing awesome (I´m still not sure whether I want to use French for the entries, but I probably will eventually).
Also, to give you an idea of what kind of work I might do, I helped spread cement for a latrine project Mike is working on.
Mike´s been here for 2 years, so it was a cool mix to have us at the tail ends of our journey. Granted, I know the first few months on my own will be very challenging (the aloneness in particular), but after seeing a place that may very well be the spitting image of where I´ll go- I know the pay offs will be more than worth it.
I stupidly forgot my camera, but next time I´ll post pictures. Paz y amor a todos!
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