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!