Peaceful Pathway☮

Today marks my official second weekend in La Palma, Chalatenango, El Salvador.   Only 10 days in and I’ve already experienced a tumultuous series of highs and lows.   To begin with, let me tell you a bit about our swearing in ceremony as Peace Corps Response volunteers. Now, with regular Peace Corps, there is an extensive three-month training in which volunteers are introduced to rigorous shocks of culture, language, job assignment, etc.   With Response, everything passes with barely enough time to breathe.   I was whisked away on an airplane, trained for two (that’s right just two) days in San Salvador, and then taken straight to La Palma to begin my assignment with no phone, no internet, and a plethora of questions. Here is the group (missing one) of Response volunteers (and the El Salvador Country Director Jaime) signing our commitment to service. Taking an oath to serve to our country   Now, when I say taken straight to La Palma, I mean it figuratively speaking.

Here I sit, writing you from Hotel Entrepinos in San Ignacio, El Salvador.   High ceilings with cascading windows and a hand-painted wall entailing a scene with a white Central American cathedral surround me while the sound of a Spanish newscast echoes throughout the hall.   A bright blue pool sits outside the open veranda and a wall of green vines crawl the fence as if trying to edge their way inside.   At long last I have arrived not only at this physical place but at this point in my life where I have begun youth development in Latin America, something I have dreamed of doing for so many years.  The floor-to-ceiling painting reminiscent of an old time in El Salvador A number of events have led to today; and while they all feel like just moments ago, they have passed as if in a whirlwind.   First, I began the close of my service in Botswana, was the guest of honor at not one, not two, but THREE farewell parties, I took a trip to the Indian Ocean, and then flew to the Unite