Happy New Year!! Yeh for 2008! I have needed a new year for about a year now, so when the 31st rolled around I said: “bring it”. The New Year started off with a bang, actually it was a bang, room, shhh (all sound effects) from the wind that was and still is blowing through El Salvador. Adam, my extremely handsome boyfriend, and I brought in the new year with a beachfront view, other volunteers, and some ghetto fabulous champagne. After a Christmas week of chicken tamales, chicken sandwiches, chicken stuffed fried corn and just good old Salvadoran festivities in my site I felt both constipated and ready to drink a glass of bubbly with my man and some volunteers. Therefore the beach was a nice getaway: the food was amazing, company engrossing and view incredible; needless to say it was quite an ideal way to welcome a new year.
Once the festivities had calmed down and we were officially in 2008, Adam and I went back to his site. It was so nice to spend time with him in Dos Puertas, the poorest community in the department of Sonsonate. Even though the people are struggling they welcome me with open arms whenever I drop into town. “Joanna venga venga (come, come)” some kids say. Some of them ask me if I’m moving in, but most of them just run up and hug and kiss me until they get tired. This trip to Adam’s site was a little different. Dos Puertas is in the hills of Sonsonate so it’s cooler then the rest of the department. When we arrived coming back from the beach there was a brisk wind chill and the electricity had gone out earlier in the day. Adam assured me this was not usual but had happened every now and then. Well after a 7pm candlelit dinner I was in bed by 8pm and the winds had me shaking in my pjs by 8:01pm. Literally once the winds picked up I thought the house, Adam and I were going to end up in OZ. Fortunately and ironically Adam lives in a house that was built by USAID after the 2001 earthquake. It is the best made and biggest 2 room house in his community. The surrounding houses are aluminum siding one room houses that families of seven occupy. In the morning after shaking all night long with fear I woke up to find that many of Adam’s neighbors had lost their houses. One house across the street was battered by the storm: in the morning it was four wooden poles and a bed: it had lost all of its walls and contents. Adam’s house was the only house that had no damage.
What a way to start off the New Year. While this was really hard for me to watch and experience it was a good way to start off the New Year. I told myself: “be thankful for what you have, Joanna and you are in a place you can really make a difference.” So Happy New Year and I hope you all brought it in with a bang!
Once the festivities had calmed down and we were officially in 2008, Adam and I went back to his site. It was so nice to spend time with him in Dos Puertas, the poorest community in the department of Sonsonate. Even though the people are struggling they welcome me with open arms whenever I drop into town. “Joanna venga venga (come, come)” some kids say. Some of them ask me if I’m moving in, but most of them just run up and hug and kiss me until they get tired. This trip to Adam’s site was a little different. Dos Puertas is in the hills of Sonsonate so it’s cooler then the rest of the department. When we arrived coming back from the beach there was a brisk wind chill and the electricity had gone out earlier in the day. Adam assured me this was not usual but had happened every now and then. Well after a 7pm candlelit dinner I was in bed by 8pm and the winds had me shaking in my pjs by 8:01pm. Literally once the winds picked up I thought the house, Adam and I were going to end up in OZ. Fortunately and ironically Adam lives in a house that was built by USAID after the 2001 earthquake. It is the best made and biggest 2 room house in his community. The surrounding houses are aluminum siding one room houses that families of seven occupy. In the morning after shaking all night long with fear I woke up to find that many of Adam’s neighbors had lost their houses. One house across the street was battered by the storm: in the morning it was four wooden poles and a bed: it had lost all of its walls and contents. Adam’s house was the only house that had no damage.
What a way to start off the New Year. While this was really hard for me to watch and experience it was a good way to start off the New Year. I told myself: “be thankful for what you have, Joanna and you are in a place you can really make a difference.” So Happy New Year and I hope you all brought it in with a bang!
posted by jojotravels at 12:34 PM
1 Comments:
Hi, Joanna--
It's Katherine Huff, from Blair. I was on the alumni website and I'm checking out your blog for the first time. It sounds like you're doing a lot of very cool things! (at least, a lot cooler than me, sitting in New York complaining about unemployement, haha!). Good luck with everything!
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