Dylan and I have begun training in San Vicente, and as part of this training, we are living with a host family in a small, rural community near San Vicente. Agriculture and small businesses dominate here. The staple crops for food and selling are maize and beans, and sugar cane for sweet juices and dulces. Local fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat for the more well-off are popular food items. Dense corn tortillas are eaten with every meal! We have eaten lots of great food, notably pupusas, the national food of El Salvador. We are lucky to know a lady who makes what we think are the best pupusas en el mundo. They are corn tortillas filled with cheese and beans. We eat them with salsa and with curtido, a cabbage dish in vinegar that goes very well with the pupusas. (PC Volunteers should soak their cabbage in chlorinated water for 30 minutes to make sure it is decominated. This is important because a: Our stomachs are still adjusting, and b: About 90% of the water in El Salvador is unsuitable for either human or animal consumption. Water treatment is virtually non-existent and feces (animal and human) commonly contaminate water supplies).
We also eat soup of guisquil (a zucchini-like vegetable with a very cool name derived from the Nauhautl indigenous language of El Salvador), yuca, platano, and for breakfast, Corn Flakes or pancakes! For fruits, we have bananas (called guineos here), papayas, guayavas, anonas, strawberries, and lichas. Many new adventures in food, all of it delicious.
Infrastructure here near San Vicente is more developed than in more remote parts of the country. Many roads are paved (although potholes and rocks in the middle of the road abound). Many people have some electricity, running water (but NOT 'clean' water), and latrines. A few have toilets.
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