feb. 18th

February 18th 2010.
I don’t have anything super exciting to share today. Life is good. My family is much different now. We have been having a good time together and I have been spending more time with them because of it. My madre told me we now have “confianza”. Which means a mutual trust. Gaining confianza is big in Salvadorian culture. Once I arrive in my site I am not allowed to start working for about two months. Those two months are set aside for gaining confianza with your new community. So I will spend most of my time doing house visits, visiting the school, having meals with different families and becoming familiar with the local people. I am expecting to be placed in a village of about 250 people.
I just found out from another Peace Corps volunteer that a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed about a mile from my house as he walked to school because he wouldn’t join MS13. (the big gang—150,000 members) and then they also killed his mother. The gang violence is really bad here. And you know when you see a gang member. Most of them are covered head to toe in tattoos, including their entire face. They are some scary looking dudes. The murder rate here is astronomical. In 2009 alone there were more than 4000 murders… so far in 2010 there have been close to 500. El Salvador is about the size of Massachusetts.

Now onto my superficial side… I think I am going to buy the wireless internet card tomorrow from the cell phone store. Its 30 dollars for the card and 30 dollars a month for unlimited internet access… that is internet access wherever there is cell phone service. I think it’s worth it. When I first thought about it… I thought it was kind of cheating to get something like that…kind of like having a generator when you go camping… but then I realized I’m going to be living here for the next 2 years… why not be comfortable.
Right now it’s 7:30 at night and I’m laying in my bed… I usually go to bed around 8 or 830 every night. The other night I looked at my clock and it was 9:30 and I couldn’t believe I was up so late.
I have been doing a lot of reading lately. My life went from about 100 M.P.H to about 10 MPH. After training I usually come home and sit in my hammock and read or talk with my family. Right now there is not much else to do. It’s a much different lifestyle then from what I came from but it’s a nice change. It’s simple.
So to end this off I will tell you about my host grandfather who lives with us. Every day he sits in his chair in front of our house and watches the dogs and cars go by. He has 3 teeth and I cannot understand a word that comes from his mouth. On the first day I asked my madre how old he was… I thought she said 73. So I just presumed he looked much older than he was from so many years working in the sugar cane fields. Well yesterday I asked her again. Keep in mind this man not only sits in his chair everyday… but he also sweeps the entire front area.. Organizes the corn into piles and walks laps. He was born in the kitchen of my house in….1907. He is 103