Two weeks in

Hello everyone,

Reporting from the Department of Morazan! I have my site, it is a great little canton nestled in the mountains of Morazan. The town has less than 1000 people and has three separate smaller villages that make up the whole. These smaller villages are very far away, almost an hour walk up the mountain to get from end to end in my community. I moved into a brick home with a dirt floor. I have a small electric hotplate to cook some of my meals, a bed, two desks, a hammock, and some plastic chairs for visitors. One of my desks is full of Spanish material right now - I study every night for about two hours as I need to increase my comprehension of this language before school starts in January.

As an Environmental Ed volunteer the agency I will be working with the most is the local school. I'll be teaching English and Environmental Ed classes, starting in January. Which means until than, my job is to get to know the community and plan with the teachers once they come back in early January. I've gotten to know a number of community members so far. I eat lunch and dinner at Nina Marta's home, who is a really sweet woman. We watch Barcelona and Real Madrid soccer games (people here like Spanish league more than the team in their backyard, Vista Hermosa) and telenovelas. Telenovelas are soap operas, but with even more drama than those in the US, good for Spanish I guess. I also joined the community soccer team, we have a game tomorrow up by the border which will be pretty sweet, nice and cool playing in the afternoon.

The Christmas tradition in my town is very cool. About 18 different soccer teams from all around the area come to play in a tournament. The tournament lasts all day as there is only one field to play on. After, there is a baile and tons of food to eat. I'm excited to play and join in the Navidad celebrations. There is also no Black Friday here, which was a relief to me - but people are into the commercial Christmas here as well. I saw two other volunteers for Thanksgiving the other day which was good. Dia de los Pavos, as they call it here, has no significance to Salvadorans, so it was nice to celebrate with friends. And I just saw the Lions lost again, keeping that tradition alive as well!

Zach