A Country of Opposites

Mark and I had a short day on Friday with some meetings at the Fiscalia (Public Prosecutor’s Office) and at a Family Court in the morning, so our co-workers Luis and Ricardo suggested we go to one of the many malls in the area for lunch. Off to the Multi-Plaza we went to get some very tasty Mexican food at the food court. When I first walked in I swore I had somehow been transported back to the States. I was met with a Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Quiznos, Subway, KFC, Burger King and the list goes on. We did go to one of the few stands that was not an American brand. Afterwards Mark and I decided to wander around the mall for a couple of hours shopping and relaxing. The mall is beautiful, modern and fairly new from my understanding.

After wandering around for awhile we walked onto a terrace to look around and directly across from this affluent mall filled with designer brands of clothing and shoes we saw a shanty town. Just one of many communities in and around San Salvador that live in true and utter poverty, this little community had several chickens roaming free, a number of pathetic looking stray dogs and men and women coming and going steadily. There could hardly have been a more striking contrast between the lives of the affluent and the poor in such close proximity. This scene got me to thinking about the many examples of extreme opposites I have noticed here.

Despite the almost overwhelming friendliness and openness the Salvadoran people are known for, almost every imaginable shop or business you can think of has a heavily armed guard due to the high crime rate. In fact, Thursday night Mark and I were treated to a traditional Salvadoran meal at a famous place called Arbol de Dios (Tree of God). This place is the local gallery of the artwork of Fernando Llort, a famous Salvadoran artist, and it houses a very good pupusaria. The warm and welcoming atmosphere of this lovely place is offset by one’s immediate encounter with a guard armed with a large shot gun at the door.

Another example I thought of revolved around children in El Salvador. I have noticed the wonderful “kid-friendly” nature of the Salvadoran culture and I admire it immensely. There are tons of family restaurants equipped with play areas for children (including Pizza Huts and KFCs) and children are allowed a great deal more space to simply be kids in public than I think is generally found in the US. Despite this kid-friendly environment, I have also noticed that there are no laws about child car seats and seatbelts. More than once I’ve literally seen children hanging out the windows of moving cars. Somehow that just seems contradictory.

I by no means intend this to be judgmental. These are just some things I have noticed as an outsider that I’m sure many Salvadorans are so used to they no longer consciously see. Sometimes I wish I could get into the heads of visitors to the United States to see our country through their eyes. My hope is that our work here can somehow help all Salvadorans have greater access to justice and improve the rule of law here.

There is one final note that I wanted to share, if only to ensure that I never forget it. While visiting the mediation center at the Fiscalia one of the public defenders who work in the center gave me and Mark a remarkable welcome. She thanked us for making “sacrifices” to come to El Salvador to help her country and she expressed her hope that our work will have a positive impact on her country. The sincerity of her message and its sentiments really made an impact on me. She made me realize the extent of my initial selfishness in coming. So much of my attention was on my need to gain experience and skills and, frankly, to improve my resume that I lost track of the real reason I should want to be here and the potential for what I do to have a real impact on the future of justice in El Salvador.

This was an unexpected but positive and even necessary wake-up call for me. What I do and where I go in my career can never be just for me and I ALWAYS have to remember the people of my host countries so that I never forget why I started pursuing this field. I always knew this experience was going to be an invaluable learning opportunity and in just three short weeks my expectations have already been surpassed.

Bienvenidos Mark!

I finally have my co-intern with me! Mark has made it safely to El Salvador and has been welcomed as warmly as I was when I first arrived. He, however, has had the added benefit of not arriving when half the office was going to be absent and thus his first few days in El Salvador have been more eventful.

Mark arrived Saturday morning and I picked him up from the bus stop along with several of Eva's friends. We went to lunch and then off to Eva's apartment to drop off his bags and to pick mine up for my move to Lely's house. After the new living arrangements were settled, we went off to the volcano for some "gourmet" pupusas at El Café del Volcán. We also had some Salvadoran hot chocolate (much better than that powdered stuff we call hot chocolate in the US) and fried yuca (very tasty). Shortly there after we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant with Eva's family to celebrate her sister's birthday. Even the Chinese food here is good. Of course by that point I was ready to burst. A whole day of eating!

Sunday has been the highlight of the week, however. We went to the beach! FINALLY! Just a 30 minute drive from the city, Playa Tunco (Pig Beach) is actually a fantastic surfing spot. The water was insanely warm and it was my first time swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Fun times! AND I managed to keep from becoming horrifically sun burnt! All in all, a very successful day. Mark and I are trying to plan a weekend there. There are a string of cheap hotels along the beach that generally cater to visiting surfers. The most expensive hotel is all of $60-$70 a night and it is absolutely beautiful. I'm sure everyone will be hearing more about our time on this beach in the future.







Since Monday we have been working on getting Mark familiar with the Mediation Project and the reports we will be writing. We've spent a lot of time reading and in meetings. Nothing terribly interesting until today when we went to talk to our USAID supervisors about the reports and their expectations. It was just a preliminary meeting but it means we're finally going to be able to start diving into our work. We were also invited to attend a fair-well party for the former Mission Director at USAID who is returning to DC to become the Regional Director for Latin America. It was a great opportunity to meet people and network. Luckily there was an afternoon torrential downpour that extended our stay at USAID for over an hour.

The real work has truly begun now that we have a better understanding of the large scope of the work we will be doing. We are still not sure of exactly who will be reading the documents we produce but interest was expressed by many people at USAID, so the pressure is on. Let the fun begin!

Visiting Home...Sort Of

Greetings everyone. I know it's been an entire week since I updated all of you on my adventures in El Salvador but I have been sincerely busy most of the week. This week provided me with some wonderful opportunities to start diving into the regular work of the office.

I have been invited to sit in on several sessions of an ongoing workshop to design a set of indicators to measure the impact of mediation on justice and the justice system in El Salvador. Although the meetings were in Spanish, I was able to follow the majority of the flow of the conversation. Hearing these representatives of the institutions associated with the mediation centers talk about the role and importance of mediation in their society was both interesting and inspiring because of their passion.

I was also invited to attend a recent meeting with representatives from USAID at the USAID offices in the US Embassy compound. That meant for a couple of hours on Thursday I was within US legal jurisdiction, so it was almost like going home for a little while. That meeting was quite the educational experience. The leaders of the two other Democracy and Governance/Rule of Law programs were also present, which gave me the great opportunity to learn more about the other types of efforts being made and the challenges they are facing. The good news is that the meetings was not all political fluff and nonsense, which I admit I was expecting to a certain degree. Instead, the meeting was a very frank discussion of the progress and remaining challenges in El Salvador. I was a really positive experience on a lot of levels for me.

As you may have noticed, I also like to talk about my social/cultural experiences and I had an interesting one last night. Eva has finally returned from her conferences, so we decided to go out for dinner last night. Originally the plan was to go to a Mexican restaurant Eva is fond of but we found it UNBELIEVABLY busy so off we went in search of a place where we did not need to wait in a line simply to get into the parking lot. We actually decided on going to a place called Buffalo Wings. For those of you who may not know/remember, I grew up in Buffalo, NY the home of the original Buffalo wings and I can be quite picky about my wings. To my astonishment, not only is this place very popular, they make some pretty impressive wings! Who'd have thought I would find such a great comfort food in El Salvador?!? If you consider how hard it is to find decent wings in the States outside of Buffalo, it is incredibly ironic that I can find them here. I love it! Globalization obviously isn't all bad.

A Week of Firsts

Well, I'm almost at the one week mark and it has certainly been an interesting experience thus far. I have spent the majority of my time at the office getting used to the people and the routines. Everyone remains amazingly nice and, with Eva out of town for a conference, everyone has been taking turns picking me up and dropping me off at the apartment. The majority of the week was fairly slow with me reading reports on the Mediation Project and the state of the justice system in El Salvador. Everyone is doing their best to incorporate me into the workings of the office as much as possible while I wait to have Eva return and for Mark to arrive. When both of them are in San Salvador I will be able to begin working on my main project for the summer, whatever that may be. [Side note: Salvadoran culture is extremely laid back and so the sharing of details before I came was pretty minimal. Luckily I was forewarned and I'm simply going with the flow and enjoying my chance to be in such a beautiful place for the summer until I do get the details I need.] So far my main function has been to aid in translating and proof reading messages from the office to USAID and other contacts who speak English.

Yesterday was a big day for me, however, because I was taken on a series of visits to several of the local mediation centers. This summer will see the beginning of a major evaluation program of the Mediation Project and a consultant has been hired by my office to evaluate the current efforts to publicize the work of the mediation centers and to make recommendations for improvements or additions. It was very interesting to finally see the place I had been reading about and to learn more about the way the centers function and their situation within the justice system. The fun part of the day was of course the fact that I spent most of it traveling with people who don't speak a lot of English and the Mediation Center Coordinators we spoke with didn't speak any English. Many of you know that the language issue was one that sincerely concerned me before coming to El Salvador. It is most definitely still a problem BUT I learned yesterday that my comprehension is not as bad as I had feared. I was able to follow the conversations fairly well and luckily we did meet up with a young man who works for the National Coordinating Office for the Mediation Centers who was able to roughly translate the parts of the conversation I was not able to understand. It was a very interesting but definitely exhausting day.

So that was my first week in my first formal office position. Those weren't my only "firsts" this week, however. On Wednesday I had my first pupusas. For those of you who do not know what pupusas are: they are a very traditional and popular food in El Salvador y son deliciosos (they are delicious). They consist of handmade corn tortillas filled with quesillo (a Salvadoran cheese) and they can also have chicharrón (pork), frijoles refritos (refried beans), ayote (squash), or loroco (an edible flower) among other fillings. Rocío was kind enough to take me to a local pupusaría where she bought me one of every kind of pupusa they had for me to try. Out of the four she bought I probably ate the equivalent of 2.5-3 of them. We also took a picture of me eating one to make Go jealous so here you are Go...



I have one last first to share that is a little embarrassing but I think it's a bit amusing as well. First, you need to understand that the climate in El Salvador is actually so mild year-round that most homes don't have heating or cooling systems. This also means many homes do not have water heaters, mine included. As a result, for my first week I was taking VERY cold showers thinking I didn't have much choice in the matter. Tonight, however, I was in less of a hurry to shower and I took the time to examine the unusual shower head and realized it had a switch on it and voltage rating. Lo and behold, the shower head is designed to warm the water! Now the water is by no means hot. I wouldn't even call it warm. But it is no longer so cold that I feel like I am getting a bucket of ice water poured over me through a colander. So, this is my first electric shower head and I had my first shower that didn't turn me blue since leaving the States. I hope you got a chuckle out of my ignorance because frankly I thought it was pretty amusing.

My best to everyone in their various summer locations. I hope to soon be able to tell you more about this interesting city and about my fascinating projects at the office. Adios!

Bienvenidos a San Salvador!

Greetings everyone!

This marks the first posting on my blog of my adventures in El Salvador. I have never been much of a faithful correspondent but I fully expect to have so many wonderful or at least amusing experiences that they will be worth sharing.

I just arrived in the country late last night after a full day of traveling and sitting in airports. Actually, I only spent about 5-6 hours in the air with an additional 5-6 hours sitting in the Houston International Airport (aka George Bush Intercontinental Airport). I finally arrived in San Salvador around 9PM local time (11 PM EST) to the warm welcome of Eva, Rocío, and Luis who drove me from the airport to Eva's apartment where I will be staying until Mark comes to join me from Guatemala.

During the 30 minute drive Eva and company began giving me my first lessons in Salvadoran Spanish. Salvadorans emphasize things by expressing them with diminutive suffixes. When you're thankful for something you say "muchisima gracias". When something is cool you say "chivo" (which actually means goat - this is a distinctly Salvadoran slag use) and when it's really cool you say "chivismo". My primary goal is to simply avoid insulting anyone during my stay here. So far, so good.

I also had my first glimpse of a volcano last night, which my companions found fascinating. Since they have obviously grown up around volcanoes they think nothing of it but I was excited. Even better was seeing the volcano this morning, which is conveniently and beautifully framed by the large window in Eva's living room. It's far from being the only volcano in El Salvador and once I figure out which one it is I will let everyone know. Eva and Rocío tell me this one has not erupted since the early 20th century.

For those who don't know, I am interning with DPK Consulting on a USAID sponsored project. This morning was my first morning at the office. Eva brought me in to meet everyone and I received a wonderful welcome with a banner and balloons and flowers. Almost everyone in the office is bilingual so I have time and lots of support to improve my weak and rusty Spanish. After introductions I was given several reports and documents to use to begin to acquaint myself with the Mediation Project that I will be working on this summer. I only spent a few hours there before Luis took me to the supermarket and brought me back to Eva's apartment to take it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

As for my specific duties, I'm still not sure what they will be. Eva actually had to leave this morning after dropping me off at the office to go to Honduras for a few days, so for now my job is to learn about the project and begin to plan for an upcoming presentation in Miami. I'll get more details on the rest of my summer when Eva comes back.

For now I'm off to do some more reading. I'll do my best to update this frequently and to post pictures as well. Best to all and I look forward to reading the comments that I am sure will come flooding in!

Best wishes to all!