Living in the Desert

This Friday marks the last day at my site, for 3 weeks. Our group is heading back to San Vicente for 3 weeks of training.

While I´m excited to see everyone again, it´s going to be weird to go back to the training classes. Where days are structured, there is a lot of speaking English and I live with my host family.

I´m worried my Artesania class will fall apart while I´m gone for 3 weeks, but I do have a lot of faith in my community.

I run out of things to say in my blog, and I fear that this is because the novelty has begun to wear off. I still pause and watch the cows in the morning, and now the newly born baby horse, on my way back from the letrine. And I still enjoy yoga in front of the misty mountains just before 7am. But less and less mangos fall from the trees. The exhilaration from being on the back of a pick-up is gone. And I can safely say my taste buds have gone numb to eggs, beans and pupusas.

I have a long list of projects that my community wants to work on when I return in the end of June. Hopefully that will bring some new excitement.

In the meantime, I live vicariously through emails from home and photos on facebook.

It´s weird to think of summertime in NY without being there. I am desperately nostalgic. The May weather. The flowers and rain. The end of school. Parties in my over ground knee-deep pool :) Train rides to the city with half of pleasantville. Hot morning bagels. Cold afternoon ice coffee. Dinner with friends. Sun bathing... on pavement in NY.... or Martha´s Vineyard! and I can´t even begin to think about the chicken fingers at the diner (preferrably at 4am)...

But ah, alas, I am still in El Salvador. Where the weather ranges from really hot and humid, to slightly hot and humid. Where you complain about the dry weather, because the dust burns your throat and eyes. And you complain when it rains, for you can hardly walk in the mud. Where there is no variation in the food, and no parties for anyone except the bolos. Where coffee grows nearby in the mountains, but the only thing people drink is ¨NesCafe Instant Coffee¨.

So I think back to the reasons I joined. And bit by bit it comes together. I think of another Paulo Coehlo line, ¨Maybe the desert was created so we appreciate the date trees¨.