I´ve been through a complicated set of emotions in the past few weeks--through what I would consider my latest "adjustment period." The thing they usually don´t tell you about "culture shock" is that it comes in waves...some that are more intimidating and crushing than others. I had thought it was an orderly process--the honeymoon period, the culture shock, then the delicious profundity of feeling "settled" in a "foreign" place. Not true. Every time I´d get a wave of depression, self-doubt, or have another experience that convinced me that I truly don´t have as secure a hold on things as I thought, [View Full Entry]

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At the prodding of the youth, we put together an improvised play with a very short 2 weeks of rehearsal for Mother´s day. Uniting the two communities Ciudad Romero and Nueva Esperanza, we had a cast of 14 youth who cross-dressed to make the theme of gender more apparent and to internalize and understand the different "roles" that men and women play in daily life (plus, it´s just funny and campy--which is always enjoyable!). The play centered around a family, specifically a day in the life of Mamá Julia, who confronts the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, maintaining order [View Full Entry]

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Click the above link to see the work I´m doing featured in the ArtCorps May e-newsletter! (Haz un clic para ver una versión en español también!) Here´s the beginning of the article... Theater has proven to be a necessary tool for helping the youth of Bajo Lempa, El Salvador develop teamwork and leadership skills--and receive an invitation to perform internationally. "We believe that art is a tool that greatly facilitates the work that we do every day to achieve the empowerment of our communities and the strengthening of our organization," says Nohé Reyes of the Mangle Association, which received its [View Full Entry]

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¡AVISO! WARNING!: SOME CONTENT OF THIS ENTRY MAY BE DIFFICULT TO READ FOR THE FAINT OF HEART AND/OR STOMACH. That being said, I was recently inspired to write about my not-so-glamorous experiences here in hot, flat, rural El Salvador by the ingenious travel writer J. Maarten Troost, author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals ( The Book ). Reading this book and laughing out loud convinced me that it´s indeed okay--and in fact, quite healthy--to express my concerns and, well, deep-seated anxieties about my continuing lifestyle "abroad." "You´re the inspiration" So, one night while I was consuming a surprising amount of [View Full Entry]

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It is easy to talk about the first performances of this year in quantitative terms. The youth from Nueva Esperanza performed their play "Juntos podemos" (from a quote from the community--"Juntos podemos, pero solo no podemos nada": Together we can, but alone we can´t at all) on the night of March 28th. The play "Que no se vuelva a repetir!" was presented the morning of March 29th for an audience of representatives from the Committee of Victims, people from various organizations around the country and Central America that are working on re-constructing historic memory. The jóvenes from Ciudad Romero performed their [View Full Entry]

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Nearly every day here the issue of immigration hits and washes over me from this "other side." A taxi driver I met in San Salvador had lived in Venice Beach and spoke fantastically vulgar street English, which he probably learned from working in a Mexican restaurant on Wilshire. When I asked him if he had been other places around the States, he said yes. When I asked if California was his favorite, he fell silent. The customary "I like Americans--except for ´los negros´" followed. The anciano in his cowboy hat next to me on the bus started a conversation with me [View Full Entry]

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I've been living on my own for the first time in a small casita, complete with a large backyard bursting with fruit trees--mangoes, lemons, limes, oranges, bananas, coconuts, maranon (cashew), almond, and others that are still a mystery to me (that and I keep forgetting the names for them). I also have my very own pila and latrine to complete the picture, and Cristina has told me that she'll be giving me a couple pollitos (chicks), and Colombia will be handing over a kitten when it's old enough. Cristina jokes that all I need now is a dog, a cow, a [View Full Entry]

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These other previous musings are about things I've noticed in my spare time--really, what I've been doing most of is theatre (and I wouldn't have it any other way!). I'm currently working with four different groups, have rehearsals six nights a week (and twice a day two times a week), have bought costumes and paint, and have written 3 scripts. Those are the plain facts, but of course the intricacies of the groups are much more complex and not as finite. (Note: the first pictures match up with the text which pertains to them, and the following ones are in order [View Full Entry]

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Chuchos It's amazing the things you can learn from animals. I've learned so much from the people here, but two of the most interesting interactions I've had have been with dogs. Human culture affects them as well, just as it impacts food, beliefs, government, and the natural world. My first experience was with the dog Surdan, who actually technically belongs to Cristina's mother who passed away two years ago. Since he is now left to his own devices, he wanders around to all the houses of the family members, grabbing food when he can. He's actually a sweet, calm dog--which has [View Full Entry]

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When you wake up in the morning in Ciudad Romero, it´s to a dawn of sounds. Around 5 a.m. the chorus of a hundred gallos commence their melancholy howling, encouraging the insects to bring their buzzing from a forte down to a piano. Some time later, the air is sprinkled with the twitters and whistles and cries of the native birds, waking up in the early light. Then the mooing and baaing starts, along with the thumping bass of rancheras, reggaeton and ballenato being played way too loud at 6 in the morning, but loud enough so that the mujeres can [View Full Entry]

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