Cast of Characters

It’s hard to write about my life down here at times because most of what I have to say revolves around people, completely unknown people to anyone who would be reading this. So I figure I’d introduce you all to some of the people I spend most of my time with here in El Salvador.

Niña Blanca: The matriarch of my host family. She is short, thin, and as her name suggests, light skinned. Her hair is black with gray streaks and whenever she tells a story her eyes get really big behind the petite glasses she wears; when she gets to an important part in what she’s saying, she draws out the words, pronouncing them slowly and nodding her head.

Lucho: A 23 year old Salvadoran who normally wears a well groomed beard and loves to cuss in English. My first week here he spent most of his time text messaging his three girlfriends, but lately that seems to have slowed down a bit. Lucho is just his nickname; his real name is Luis. He’s one of Niña Blanca’s sons, and spends most of his days listening to music or watching TV. I watch Heroes in Spanish with him most weeknights at 7. His favorite character is Sylar.

Rolando: The health promoter of the village I live in; Rolando is also raising chickens to sell the eggs as a secondary source of income. He often speaks with quick, abrupt noises like 'hhhut' or 'hheee' and walks with just a hint of a swagger. The definition of the noises seems to depend on the context of the situation. He usually wears cologne and sleeps in the remesa house next door to where the rest of the family stays. (A remesa house is a name for an especially well constructed home by Salvadoran standards, built with money sent back from a family member working in the states. One of the other brothers in the family works in Atlanta and built this home for when he retires and moves back to El Salvador.)

Violin: I'm still not quite sure on the spelling of this name, and I don't know if he is either. This is the second Luis, and he's probably the reason the two go by nicknames. His name is pronounced vee-o-leen. He's the smallest ten year old boy I’ve ever seen, and is alternately charming, mischevious, helpful or annoying. My main partner in crime for our mango exploits, he isn’t part of my host family but spends most of his time there anyways. He and the other kids are constantly picking up and examining anything they can find in my room, from bookmarks to batteries and everything in between. I stopped wearing my digital watch after a few weeks of being here. I've never worn one regularly and am not sure why I thought I would here. He was mesmerized by the illumination feature on the water and I lent it to him. He’s been wearing it every day since even though it slides up and down his forearm like a hula hoop. It still scares him whenever the watch gets wet and he once asked me if he would have to repay me if the water ruined the watch. I've explained to him that it is water resistant, and even spashed some water on it myself to show him I wasn't worried, but he's still not convinced.

Eva: The Salvadoran woman from the capital I’ve been dating. I met her at the beach a couple months ago during training and visit her in San Salvador every few weeks when I get a chance. She is tall for a Salvadoran, has short black hair (though she tells my its been dyed blonde since last time I saw her) and light skin. She insists on picking me up from the bus terminal when I get into the capital, which saves me a lot of time and hassle navigating the bus system through the city. She’s seven years older than me, a former beauty queen who now acts in television commercials (though she avoided my question when I asked her what was being advertised in the commercial she did last week), and lives a radically different life compared to anyone I know in the village. I had dinner with her at her Aunt’s house last time I went and saw her. The tamales were sweet and had dates in them. Tamales from the village are always salty with chicken. I ate the first one quickly and accepted a second one to be polite, though I got a bit of a stomach ache afterwards from being so full. She lives with this aunt, and guards do foot-patrol of the neighborhood at night with shotguns. Her aunt feeds the guards beans on occasion, mostly out of goodwill and but also because she knows she'll be rewarded with extra vigilance on their behalf. Eva and I text message a few times a day but rarely talk on the phone, mostly due to how much trouble I have understanding Spanish through the muffled reception of my Samsung.

Katy (Pronounced Kat-e) : Niña Blanca's 5 year old granddaughter, a sassy little diva who squints her eyes when she giggles (which is often) and is usually seen running around with her friend Goldie or hanging out with her mom in the small family store that she runs in a building a hundred meters or so from the house. She yells my name when she sees me, though sometimes it comes out Cabo and other times Kay-oh. Lately she's been begging me to swing her in my hammock several times a day. I usually relent and bounce her around like popcorn on the hammock until my arms are sore. Her giggling is interrupted every time she bounces up into the air or rolls side to side in the hammock as I swing and shake it; it sounds similar to when someone is saying 'ummmmm' and another person is patting their back to a beat, knocking the air out just for a second and changing the tone.