Addresses

I have discovered something that might increase the distinction between developing and developed nations: addresses.

In the United States and from what I have noticed in Europe as well addresses follow some type of pattern that includes something like the following:

Name
Number, Street
City/Town, Providence/State
Identifiable Code (like Zip), Country

Well, here that isn't the case. I first noticed addresses during training when all of my fellow trainees and I were assigned to host families in host communities. The list looked a little bit like this:

Alicea Cock-Esteb, Vargas family, Molineros (the town), up from the church

The last bit (up from the church), is their address. When I looked at the rest of the people on the list I noticed that Carol and Axel both also lived, "up from the church." Turns out we didn't all live in the same house, but we did live close. Here streets don't have names and houses don't have numbers. There are few mailmen and few people get mail at home. I currently get my mail at home because a teen guy named Carlos gets paid by my mayor's office to walk all over my municipality delivering mail. Most of the mail is care packages sent from the States and Carlos gets to know everyone. When he delivered a piece of mail to me for the first time he just figured out where I lived from asking other people. Since everyone knows everyone in the town they just told him, "Oh, the gringa lives in the middle of town in the purple and orange house, right next to Pablo's house." I guess that is my address. My official address is the following:

Name
Town
Municipality (like County), Department (like State)
Country

So there is some organization, though I still find it pretty miraculous that I get postcards, letters, and packages delivered to my home out in the middle of nowhere.

In the midst of this address revelation I started looking at food packaging for contact addresses for various companies. I have read many fantastic "addresses" at which I could reach the manufacturer, though this is one of my favorites. I was enjoying a Mexican meal (my version of it anyway), and was reading the back of the tortilla chip bag for fun. I noticed that to get in touch with company I could go to the Francas Portezuelos zone complex, near the uneven bridge, on the highway, 850 meters north of the lake, Building #4. Oh and there's a phone number in case I get lost. Ha, ha. At least they gave me a building number, but it doesn't even tell me the name of the highway...

I'll keep reading the labels and maybe I'll post some of the most helpful. :-)

In other news in my personal life, I got home a week ago from a wonderful vacation with my sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law. We spent some time in my town eating corn, visiting the corn fields, learning how to cook corn variations, and hanging out with people in my town, talking about corn. I think they got their fair share of corn (they were here in the primary corn-on-the-cob harvesting week). Then we saw a few highlights of this very mildly touristy country. They helped with homesickness, though shortly after returning home I got the news that my grandmother had passed away. Though it didn't come as a surprise it is hard to be so far away from home to support my family.

Lastly, some basic updates. We're getting a stove project going soon to provide families with healthier (less smoke and chimneys), time-saver (less firewood to collect), and more environmentally-friendly (fewer trees to chop down) stoves. I will be soliciting Peace Corps funds through friends and family so you will be receiving an email soon. I am quickly approaching my year-in/year-left date (September 5th), which is exciting. Sometimes I can see how much progress I've made and am proud of being here and doing what I'm doing, and other times I can't believe I've only been here a year and I'm ready to get the heck out. Thankfully the people here keep my decently motivated. Last note - my mayor reported to me Thursday that this has been the worst winter (quantity of rain and damages to roads), in the last 50 years. They have to spend an unexpected $30,000 building retaining walls (and for El Salvador that is a lot!). They have to spend an unexpected $30,000 building retaining walls (and for El Salvador that is a lot!). I guess that's why I've felt damp for the last several months.