Thank You Friends & Family

Peace Corps El Salvador has a monthly newspaper that goes out to all the voluteers serving in this country. I decided to submit this piece after being in my site for 1 month. (It was published, but don´t be too impressed--most people get in.) Anyway...That was a very hard month, but the letters and support from my friends and family got me through it. I´m sure I´ll have these letters for the rest of my life and I wanted to thank you all for always giving me so much support.... and not just the letters, but the gifts, the packages, the emails, the calls...the facebook ¨like photo¨ thumbs up, and all. I´m here for El Salvador, for the people, for Peace Corps, for myself... and I´m here because of you. If you´re not quoted in my article, please don´t be offended! I´ve read them all and continue to read them all!

Here it goes...

Never Pass Up the Opportunity to Use the Toilet: Advice from a Newbee

“Be careful in the different country.” My Grandma wrote this to me in a letter that I read on the plane here, as I took one last glimpse of the lights and buildings of NYC with tears in my eyes. I believe she still thinks I’m in Africa, I know that she tells people her granddaughter is saving babies and every time we talk by phone she is flabbergasted that the connection is possible… but I love and miss her very much.

Before coming here, my older sister collected letters from all my family and friends who wanted to tell me how they felt about my upcoming adventure. Every few nights, I take one out. I smile at some, at others I laugh, and at most, I cry. I’ve been in country for almost 3 months now and barely have 1 month at site, and I already can see that these letters will be part of what keeps me here…Even if the last piece of advice in my Mom´s was “if you think you’re gonna crack, come back.” I am fortunate to have so many special people in my life and it just reminds me that the relationships we make and build will be the foundation of our future. The tortillas as we know them will cease to exist when we are back in the states but the bonds we have built with our communities will come with us.

I wonder if Maria from my high school volleyball team knew just how easy it would be to ¨meet amazing people and learn from them¨ or if Leah has also experienced ¨spreading enough love that it makes the overhead compartments burst open.¨ I feel so lucky to be where I am already and can only hope that I can give to my community what they have so quickly given to me. Granted at times I wonder if Gary was right when he said ¨I think you are kinda crazy for doing this¨. But I know that if I didn´t I would have just as much regret as my manager from my former internship who confided in me, ¨I always wished that I had done that¨. And many others have said, in words not so eloquently as Matt´s, ¨I think it´s really groovy that you´re taking this adventure¨.

¨Push yourself to the limit!¨ My cousin agrees with me that it is often the times of biggest sacrifices that bring the greatest rewards. When we fully exert ourselves, we truly find who we are. And if I ever feel like I just no longer have the will power to go on, I´ll have to remember the obligation my best friend Lisa made me make to Whinnie the Pooh Bear: “Promise me you’ll always remember you´re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think”.

My father´s advice was not quite as deep, but nonetheless, words of wisdom. He once told me “Never pass up the opportunity to use the toilet.” After my first experience using newspaper to wipe, I have also added “never pass up the opportunity to steal a little toilet paper for later” to the quote. But after the sight and smell of overused latrines, stories of people hanging off the back of pick-ups, and others who have just gone for it in their pants in public, I can now really appreciate a good toilet.

“The luxuries will be few but the rewards will be abundant” warned Patrice, a long time family friend. Luxuries in the sense of hot water, pasta dinners, air conditioning, clean feet and bug-less rooms, yes, there are limitations in Peace Corps El Salvador. But I have already been rewarded more than I deserve. The cool breeze that passes through the mountains bringing a taste of the waterfalls and allowing breakfast to fall from the trees onto my lawn each morning is just one specialty of my site. As I was picking up the mangos this morning, I smiled at little Marjorie when she called ¨Buenos Dias, Nina Jaime¨ over the fence as she was collecting firewood from her yard. I am still trying to convince my counterpart that I am fine living on my own and she does not need to move into her chicken shed so that I can live in her house. And as my friend John is sitting in his ¨cubicle at 4:31pm in Washington D.C.¨ waiting for the work day to end, I will be sitting listening to Juan play the guitar with his friends singing along, waiting until the night brings a tranquility that only the occasional bravo barking dog can disturb. There seems to be no limitations to the rewards.

I have a lot to look forward to in the next two years and when times are challenging I will take out these letters that contain so many important reminders, as well as the hearts of my family and friends. Right now, I am focusing on that little aspect of ¨confianza¨ with the community. So where am I at?

Well, I use “estaba” at least 5 times as much as I use “estuve”. I alternate between “si” and “mmm” whenever I don’t have a clue what someone is telling me. And where the eff is ¨figense¨ in the dictionary?” I hope that despite my days of incoherent blabbering, my canton will see my passion to be here, as I run alongside the men in uniform on the soccer field, present a gift to Marjorie´s third grade class as Madrina, and make lopsided tortillas and exploding pupusas with my counterparts. Because one piece of advice I have noted myself from one of my favorite authors, Paulo Coehlo is that “There is one language in the world that everyone understands. It’s the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose…”