Un dia en la vida de nina alma

Hola todas y todos! (hello everyone)

Well I survived the weekend, so maybe that´s a good sign for the two years to come. Yesterday all of us gringos spent a day in the life of one of our family members. Since I decided not to follow a five year old or an eight year old around, I shadowed my host mom. The day began bright and early at five a.m. to make breakfast over a fire, then followed by a rouzing bucket bath. You become accustomed to cold buckets of water over your head. We then went to the market to buy food for the following week. Just think of a crazy black friday crowd, and that sums up the market. However, again like I mentioned before I have been learning to lower my standards of living pretty quickly. Here almost nothing is refridgerated and we definitely bought chicken at the market that had been sitting out, while the vender gives our change with chicken juice to add on. My host mom assures me that when we could the chicken, all is good! Haven´t gotten sick yet, so I am crossing my fingers. After several hours at the market, we took our means of transportation, the back of a pick up (I explained this in a post before) and headed back into the campo back to our casa. At that point we washed all the vegetables and fruit that we bought. And I say we, but I really mean me. The family´s economic situation is quite bare, and I am realizing if I want to eat vegetables and fruits, I am going to have to buy them myself. Which is fine, I am just glad I went to the market with her. After that, she made probably my favorite meal to come, a vegetable soup! After that, we all took some snoozes in the hammocks and then I learned how to wash clothes by hand (yes mom, I took a picture to prove it). It is definitely no joke that washing clothes is hard work here and definitely time-consuming, at least where I am. Today I found out that some volunteers got placed with families with wifi, indoor plumbing, including showers, and a washing machines. Some with paid help! So it´s definitely a big difference when I live with chickens, use a latrine, and bathe in a bucket. But I think this might make a little more sense and I might not have as big as a shell shock when I move to my permanent site, which is suppose to be very rural. That means most likely no electricity or running water. So we shall see about that.

Later in the afternoon, she took me to a local soccer match, which was very cool, except for the fact that culturally women do not watch sports here.

Also, for anyone who has not had a pupusa, you must try them! They are delicious.

I tried to post some photos here, but it´s taking too long, so I will find a different way to post them.

On another note, there are several cultural differences I would like to point out here while I am El Salvador. There is one in particular that I feel is important to address. The treatment of animals is a significant difference here. The animals of any monetary value such as the chickens (eggs, meat and to sell), cows (to sell), and the pigs (to sell) are very well fed and taken care of. They get fed three times a day and they recieve medicine when needed. Obviously it is in their best interest to take care of the animals. However, the animals that are considered as pets, are almost completely ignored. My thing is, why have animals that one you might not want and two that you cannot or won´t take care of? (For all you PIDA people, you might want to stop reading now). They say it is part of the culture, but I have a hard time seeing that. There are a lot of stray dogs who recieve the same respect. However I have two dogs and two cats that live at my house. The only food they ever recieve are table scraps, and because the family is not affluent, she really only makes what people will eat. I have to say this bothers me a lot, because I feel for these animals who cannot fend for themselves. One of the dogs was bothering them, begging for food, so he got put on a chain and essentially ignored. You would think the dogs would eventually go searching for food. So I think I am just going to start saving some food to feed to them, because I do not think I can be here and see these dogs in poor conditions. Or is it that my dog back in Texas was EXTREMELY spoiled. This is a cultural and personal filter that I am bring with me, but it is hard to see past it.

To end on a positive note, I am starting to adjust very well here and I think this will turn out very well for me. Spanish is already getting better.

Sorry if the post did not interest you, I am sure there will be more interesting things to talk about in the future. So KEEP POSTED!