On Salvadoran Time

So what’s a day in the life like for a Peace Corps Trainee? I’ll try and give you a brief synopsis of my schedule for a normal day.

First of all, it starts early. My host family begins their day around anywhere from 4 to 5:30am. My mother and father are up at 4 and the other two men of the house, ages 19 and 27, get up soon after to go to the fields for work. The women of the house, raging in ages from 14-25, get up anywhere from 4:45-5:30 and begin basic house chores before getting ready to go to school or work.

I usually get up between 5:30-6 in the morning and walk roughly a sixteenth of a mile behind the house and through the sugar cane fields a small river where I take my morning baths. Once finished, I come back to the house, get a new change of clothes and prepare my things for the day’s classes. For example, Tuesdays we have classes in the center city and I will pack a backpack with the various things I’ll need there; while during the rest of the weekday classes are held at my house every morning from 8am-4:30 or 5pm, and I will simply bring the books, note cards and note books that I will use to the table set outside on our porch.

After having done this, I’ll sit down to a wonderfully prepared Salvadoran breakfast, usually consisting of some combination of scrambled eggs, beans, refried beans, torillas, pupusas, or fried platanos. The food here is absolutely delicious! I feel like I have a gourmet chef employed full time. These plates are invariably coupled with a refresco, or a freshly squeezed fruit drink which is usually spiced up with a little extra sugar added to the mix. The only real difficulty that I have experienced thus far with diet has been the high carb and fiber. I’m sure you can guess what that leads to…

On a typical day of class here at my house, we’ll begin with Spanish, lasting until the afternoon when we break for an hour and fifteen minutes for lunch. Following lunch we involve ourselves in various community project and development activities. Yesterday, for instance, we went to observe an English class being taught at our local village school with the intent of learning the cultural difference in teaching style, the structure for grade levels, class environment, etc. This will typically round out the day at quarter to 5pm.

After class, I will often hike a steep trail just behind my house with a couple of fellow trainees that live with me in the village, which usually takes about an hour. At six dark begins to fall, and dinner is typically served around 6:30pm. Dinner or the time there after is when I have the most time with my family and with whom I spend the bulk of it speaking Spanish. This is the period of the day when everything learned earlier in the day can be reviewed and practiced. I also tend to use this time before bed to complete any home work assigned, though I have also found considerable time to sit and study before class in the morning, usually finishing breakfast around quarter to 7am.

Bedtime is around 9pm, and though it is still quite warm in the evening hours, the temperature cools considerably as the night progresses, making a thin blanket all that is necessary for the night. Thus the days go by quickly, full of various lessons and activities.