one year in...

That´s right, everyday I have less time here. One year in, one year older (24).
I thought I would address a question Mom posed in her last letter. "Is it hard to get people to recycle here?"
YES. Change is always hard, isn´t it, and habit is always easy. In my experience, Salvadorans are very good at reusing. They´ll take things that I would consider useless and find a use for them. However, once something is considered trash, it´s often just tossed. The thing is, it´s too expensive to get trash pick up in the rural areas, so options are limited. Additionally, there´s the cultural element, which is that they often don´t even see the trash, whereas I see a beautiful country covered with garbage. It´s so sad to see people throw trash out the bus window, but it´s even sadder to see it in the community. It´s as though once they drop that piece of garbage at the soccer field, it´s not there. They really don´t notice it or think it´s gross. So yes, this recycling project is going to be difficult, but there is a family in my community that has realized the economic potential of recycling, and I´m working with them to get the project going in the school. Plus I promised to take the kids who bring the most recyclable stuff on a field trip. Slowly but surely people are starting to change their habits. I hope the kids bring a lot, especially plastics. The thing is, with no garbage collection, when you tell people not to just toss the stuff in the river, their option becomes burning, which is one thing when we talk about paper, but horrible (and smelly) when it´s plastic.
In other news, I passed my mid service med exams with flying colors, and I´m going back to the capital this week for some relaxation in the air conditioning and a late birthday celebration. Then it´s Holy Week, when nobody does anything but rest, go to church, and eat.