First Impressions

Friday, November 25, 2016

Thanks Melanie for sharing your experience.

First Impressions

I first found out about CIS through my university which has an internship program where we get to work at CIS for three months on various projects. While they have a plethora of social programs from their clean water project to their youth scholarships and women's enterprises, their English school really caught my eye. I particularly liked CIS's focus on incorporating social issues into the curriculum to empower students to provoke change. I had never taught an adult class before so I was a bit nervous, but as I quickly found out, there was little I had to worry about.  

I didn't really have any expectations going into my internship besides being super excited about being immersed in a completely different environment and culture. Plus, I really wanted to learn Spanish and what better way to do that than living in El Salvador! Of course, I had some reservations about coming to El Salvador. On the other hand, my school has been sending people over for internships since 2008 and students had always had a great experience. 

My first week in El Salvador has gone by superfast. Everyone at CIS was very friendly and helpful. It was quite relaxed as I got acquainted with the area and the different projects. The biggest thing I had to adjust to was the weather since it's much more humid than what I'm used to in Canada. Since it's the rainy season there are rain storms at least every other day, which cools things down considerably during the night. I'm also constantly amazed at the amount of animal and plant life in an urban area like San Salvador. Every day as I walk to CIS I see so many different types of exotic flowers and fruit trees as well as all sorts of birds, including chickens just minding their business on the side of the road. And everywhere you go, you get a cool view of the San Salvador Volcano!   

                                Living in San Salvador

The food is delicious here and extremely affordable at an average of $3 USD a filling meal and drink (usually a fresco, aka natural fruit juice). There are fruits galore here, many of which are exotic ones rarely see in North American supermarkets, and all of them delicious. There are at least 3 or 4 comedores where you can get lunch around CIS so there's always plenty of options (breakfast and dinner are provided by the host family). My go-to lunch is roast chicken with rice, relleno de quisquil (chayote stuffed with cheesse... mmm) and a tortilla or two. And the frozen! I love how affordable the ice cream are here! I can get a double scoop waffle cone for $1.60. There’s also a tienda near CIS where they sell delicious fried things like freshly made fries, fried yuca (which honestly are better than fries), pastelitos, empanadas, and my personal favourite, Chocobananos, a whole frozen banana dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with peanuts, choco krispies, or spinkles. At 50 cents apiece, you can’t go wrong and it’s the perfect way to cool down on hot summer days. 

On a field trip with the Cultural Program through the central market in San Salvador. 

The two biggest things I've had to adjust to have been the humid heat and the mosquitos. Bringing breathable pants is something I would definitely stress, because the humidity and sweat coupled with long pants was uncomfortable to say the least. I’m also very glad I packed my hoodie since there were days were it  felt like 20°C, especially in the morning. And if you get cold easily, you’ll definitely want something warm while watching a movie at Reforma; they really crank up the AC there. There was even one time when two of my fellow CIS volunteers had to bring a blanket, it was so cold. Of course, it might’ve also been because it was a horror movie and they wanted some barrier between them and the scary nun in El Conjuro 2. I may or may not have used that blanket during the movie as well, to keep the cold away of course.

As for the mosquitos, a good investment is to buy one of those plug-in mosquito repellent things for your room, especially if you don’t have a mosquito net. They’re only $5 at Super Selectos  (the most common supermarket here) and they last around a month. 

Overall, the transition has been quite smooth. The wonderful people at CIS have definitely made the transition much easier and my host family has been really supportive. Everybody is always helpful and giving bits of advice about where to eat and cool things to do. Another thing that really made a difference was CIS’s Cultural Program because it allowed me to understand the history of El Salvador better and become more familiar with travelling around San Salvador.  

Melanie Zhang - York University Intern and volunteer with the English School