Under the Weather

You'll be pleased to know that the title of this post is indeed an intended pun. I was feeling pretty bad a few days ago, have rallied, am well again. Aaaaannnd the payoff: 

Hurricane Matthew has been harassing centroamérica all weekend. The storm counts among its casualties one blue Samsung cell phone and a usb internet connection.  I left my window open a bit the Friday that the rains started and came home to a very damp library and some deceased electronics…The rains, predicted to end Sunday have now been extended through Tuesday. Which means that my laundry, which I so boldy hand-washed on Sunday, will never dry (honestly the extra rinse will probably do it good…I don’t think I did a very good job). Luckily my new raincoat protected my torso this afternoon as the rest of me was swept away in the rain during an epic seafaring adventure to Citibank.

R.I.P.

Inappropriate joking aside (too late!!), as of yesterday the floods had claimed one official victim in El Salvador. Considering the past tragedies that have resulted from similar floods and the lamentable emergency response system the new government inherited, this is actually quite positive. Still I think its important to remember that heavy rains, the likes of which many experience in the states as a large inconvenience (as I have), can be catastrophic to communities without the infrastructure to manage such emergencies. 

I think I’m making progress food-wise. Yogurt has been a big hit thus far, as has Special K, powdered milk, granola bars and trail-mix. I even bought some apples, although cleaning them is hardly worth it; I’ve gotten bananas a couple times but they come super ripe here, not the greenish way I like. Is that silly? Yes…Today at the comedor I had tortillas filled with cheese and fried (?) in…something…unclear. NOT the same as pupusas, for whatever reason. I also had pizza hut this weekend for maybe the third time in my life, at a graduation party for a newly licensiado. I also tried dorritos with beans. Nouveau comida típica, maybe. (I don’t want to capitalize the D in dorrito because I feel it gives them too much credit, but by not doing so am I letting them enter into the vernacular like Kleenex and Xerox and Band-Aid? Oh my.)

I’ll leave you with some good advice:

Murals at the National University

Algunas cositas más

Saludos todo@s!

All is well here, all is warm.Yom Kippur passed me by this year, desafortunadamente, but I've found comfort knowing that next year, just like this year, I can open up my prayer book and read that this year I was inadequate, next year I will be better.

I've just gotten access to internet at home now via one of those prepaid USB drives. I wont have it always because it doesn't belong to me, but I'm sure that the intermittent access to facebook and megavideo on evenings and weekends will really add a lot to my life.

I've settled into my room pretty well, with the handy edition of a mesita gracias a my landlords/house fam and nice layer of dog hair gracias a my new best friend. The food situation is a little complicada. At home, I'm not really up for cooking very elaborately thus far, plus I've experienced at least one power outage and I think the refrigerator experienced it as well, or so my carton of milk seemed to tell me. Luckily my yogurt is proving heartier than the aforementioned milk, and Super Selectos is fully stocked with over-priced dried fruits, nuts and granola. Eating out como vegenteriana, rice and beans and cheese on the side has become a lunchtime staple at the nearby comedor. On good days there's chili rellenos con queso, or tortitas de orroco (yummy little egg and veggie patties). In case you were wondering.

My cell phone has been experiencing technical difficulties, or rather my cell phone provider doesn't seem to be much up for providing. I may have to get a new one with a different provider, because so far there is at least one person (with a different provider) unable to call me but who I can reach just fine. And the problem has been diagnosed to be on my end---why would service problems mean that I can call someone but they can't call me, I ask you?? Insanity. We went to the mall to address the situation at one point, to no avail. But the mall, my goodness. Apparently it's the largest shopping center in Central America, though I'm not sure how to qualify that given that it's really a collection of the same handful of store multiplied throughout (these include: Mister Doughnut, Regge, and Pollo Compero among others), kind of like eight copies of the same shopping mall stacked on top of one another.

I've met some super cool folks, eaten some outrageously delicious homemade bread, and seen some groovy music. Workwise, I've already got my hands pretty full of things to do, all of them engaging/exciting/interesting and whathaveyou.So until next time...

Hilary

First Day(s) in San Salvador

¡Dias primeras en San Salvador! 

I've still got much orienting and being oriented ahead of me. It's warm and I'm sleepy, but I've found a regular supply of coffee, such as it is: though El Salvador provides the rest of the world with outstanding coffee, it's difficult to find anything of such high quality in the country; all the best coffee is exported and folks here are generally left with some pretty mediocre stuff. 

It's the rainy season here, which so far has manifested itself in the evenings with short, powerful thunderstorms that soon pass. The mornings and afternoons, however, seem pretty dry. "Partly sunny", as they say, or is it "partly cloudy"? 

I'm looking forward to neglecting this blog regularly, but if we're all lucky maybe I'll throw up some snazzy updates here and there. So far, highlight include: 

Getting sassy with pupusas 

Laura showing off her dinner

En casa

Until my next post, know that I'm alive and well, or at least groggy and warm, and hopefully doing very exciting things. lots of love,

Hilary