You Know You´re in the Campo When....

This is a funny compilation of insights by myself and fellow Peace Corps volunteers about living in the countryside, ¨way out there¨ or AKA the Campo. We all love it but there are always funny, memorable moments that we want to cherish forever. They all make the PC experience that more interesting and enjoyable (I think).

1. 1. The bugs are as big as your face

2. 2. Every conversation you have is like having déjà vu

3. 3. That sock that fell off the laundry line is totally still clean

4. 4. When you finally do get to the capital, you find that a trail of dirt has followed you

5. 5. The clean clothes you definitely washed still smell after they dry

6. 6. That 4 year old in your town drinks more coffee than you do

7. 7. When people smile some (or all) of their teeth are gone or silver

8. 8. You guard your peanut butter and oreos in your bedroom like it´s your crack

9. 9. You go into your ¨bathroom¨ only to find its already ocupado…by a chicken

10. 10. You are awoken by roosters like clockwork at 10pm, 2am, 5am, and then whenever they feel like

11. 11. Spiders are not afraid of you

12. 12. You shower only to find, less than five minutes later, dirt on your leg

13. 13. Children participate as riders in the jaripeos (rodeos)

14. 14. Yes you can make coffee out of corn

15. 15. You proudly tell your friends that you can cut open a coconut all by yourself with a machete (I can!!!)

16. 16. You look up from your reading to find your grandma walking by with an upside-down dead chicken dripping blood and it doesn’t seem that weird

17. 17. Your new favorite things to do in the morning are sweep and mop your bedroom and then go wash your clothes by hand

18. 18. You gasp when tomatoes are more expensive than diez por $1 (or 10 for a $1)

19. 19. Pues, Nombre, and Cabal have become key vocab words in your every day conversations (study these before you come to visit)

20. 20. Your neighbor brings over her live trapped mice to feed to your cats (circle of life and better than rat poison in my opinion)

Hope that didn´t scar anyone. Its a wonderful ride here in El Salvador and every day I think to myself how lucky I am to live here in this beautiful country with these amazing people I work with every day. I get paid to play with kids, gossip with old women, visit houses to play with babies and learn a lot about the real world and what its like for people to live in it. Makes me think sometimes that the US isnt really all that real at all. Or if it is, I think I prefer it here more.