Between Christmas and New Years

December 27, 2007

My phone broke again. Bummer, it still works, but I can’t see or look up anything on the screen. It’s been a good phone, but I fear its days are numbered. Although, it saves me money cause I can’t call anyone. Just in case this thing happened though, I saved 2-4 on the quick dial one random day for Daddy, Rick, Cari…..1 is voicemail haha…one from each fam. So, if I decide to call anyone, it will be one of your cells :)

Let’s see….Christmas night, there were more “cuetes” or m80s, wonderful….as well as the procession of Nino Dios….Child God, from the son’s house to the manger scene in the Lopez house. They sang songs on the way, and had candles and the twinklers and roman candles lol. The scene ended with Rosary, still having trouble with that one in Spanish….and the Our Father…. And the Creed…. And the Mass, hahaha. Oh well.

Getting their prayer on.

Ummm yesterday, I got stood up by a high school chick. Haha. Naa… well actually yeah… the third day of distributing clothes came, and she didn’t show, nor did the other part of the group, but their attendance wasn’t necessary. Anyways, after a while, I returned the clothes and then got a quick cut of the thing on my face, and then hit up the internet, before walking back to me hoose with Don Raul.

Their manger with Baby Jesus just arriving.

Today, I distributed clothes with what was supposed to be the last day of this, but that will be Saturday with the girl that stood me up, apparently she was waiting in her community. Anyways, we left and got all that out of the way, in my own community, La Comunidad. We visited places, and helped out getting oranges that were out of reach for a while, that was fun….and then I ate lunch in the scholarship girl’s house. Wow. Super Catholics. I think I have a picture of their living room…it was a collage of Jesus in the living room, and FC Barcelona, the soccer team, in the next, haha. Naa, but they are very, very religious….I made the mistake of asking where he got a poster that quoted Matthew 26 as “Esto significa mi cuerpo”… “This signifies my body” below the painting of the Last Supper. I gave him a brief background and how people want it to say that in the States, but it doesn’t, and that translation is how you can distinguish between different faiths there. All other translations that I have ever seen have been “Esto es mi cuerpo…” etc, as well in English. Well, he was full of questions and explanations etc etc after that about that whole deal, oops. I really didn’t mean to bring that whole thing up, but I couldn’t help but ask where he got that poster after knowing he was a diehard Catholic. Apparently, “people” were giving them out outside of the Cathedral in Zacate, the dept. capital. Sneaky.

This is a pic of that mistranslation. The shiny Eucharist symbol in the middle was the fam's addition.

A new sign that is showing up on all the doors of the Catholic families. The Latino Church is calling their new program for the coming year, the New Evangelization. This decals for doors are part of the program to stand up for their faith, warning other "sects" of their "propaganda" is not wanted in this "hogar" or house....haha. I find lots of cool things doing house visits.


Tonight, I cut more bananas, tried the sole tree that has oranges that taste like mandarins, and then cooked and peeled Cacao beans after dinner. Fun stuff.

One of our scholarships girls, Carmen, and a fam after giving out clothes.

Actually though, this morning I also got into another religious conversation with a Pentecostal pastor of all people…. Assembly of God I think he specified it as. He is the brother, that I mentioned before, of my boss who was trying to send me a book he wrote on the town. I was sitting down the main road of the city, away from where I was going to meet the girl to give out clothes (because the bolos…drunkards had been bothering me the past few days). I sitting on a bench reading Dante’s Paradiso of all things when he walked up. He started the convo in English, but it quickly turned Spanish haha. He small talked, and then went to asking me if I went to Mass….do I believe in what the Catholic Church teaches, he doesn’t believe me, and then finally if I went to confession. HA. Awesome. He cracks me up. He then went straight into the fact that Spain conquered with the sword….yawn…. but then corrected his implication on religious doctrine with the fact that the Protestants did the same to the Indians and took their land in the US. Then there was discussion on how that Europe perceived native’s souls, and some Papal encyclicals and councils that we disagreed on in the 16th century, but it was good. He said the Pope decreed that natives were just animals with no soul, but the only bull I’d ever heard of at Furman, was one where the Pope pitted the Church against the conquistadors/hidalgos by saying that the were human beings and needed to be respected as such. Anyways, we then talked of the situation in America with the emerging interdominational megachurches and shrinking mainline Protestant traditional etc. Then he ended with telling me that the people here worship idols. Yawn again. Haha, that was mean. No, I just mentioned that I’m sure some people do, but in my community that I’ve yet to see it….but that I would agree with his condemnation if people were. That answer always seem to draw a …lack of response :)


Oh yeah, he also said that the US is going to fall by 2040. Whether that’s a fall of Rome fall or a Soviet fall I’m not quite sure.
This is the bugger I killed the other night by my desk.

Oh well, overall the past few days have been fun…. Religious bickering, cultural traditions, chocolates, bananas, coffee, broke up worthless phone that won’t show me the texts I have, long talks with the host fam, and other random things that I don’t remember that would be cool to write down….haha.


Finally, I begun to bring some order to my 45 gigs of pics and videos on the computer at night. Mainly, because I only have 8 gigs left free on the computer. It’s fun…. Traveling=fun.

“Even if we allow necessity as source for every love that flames in you, the power to curb that love is still your own. This noble power is what Beatrice means by free will; therefore, remember it, if she should ever speak of it to you.”

Dante’s Purgatorio, pg. 300…Canto XVIII, line 70

December 28, 2007

Life is good.

Those beasts of bananas. That poster is actually kinda big in the background.

Hugest bananas ever here, and I’m not kidding. I mean, one banana is three times the size of one in the US. I had to cut it into three horizontal slices and then three vertical to fit it into the skillet to be able to cook. They also have a different taste here, they are almost a pinkish color in the center…they are awesome. I also had 3 freshly cut coconuts donated to my cause, I love cutting those things open after drinking them dry…fresh coco flesh, very tasty.
I’m going to have to go on a banana eating frenzy though, I got lots to eat before they go bad…although I’m told they last a short while. I’m thinking maybe adding them in the pancakes Sunday morning… we’ll see.

This morning some nuns from San Sal came in for the day of the Holy Innocents to the community and there was a big hoorah at my fam’s house for them. Apparently this older Franciscan nun has been coming to the community every year for a while to visit. They bring a pickup loaded with candy and toys and cake and piñatas and shoes for the poorer families and stuff, its pretty cool. They use it as propaganda to get young kids out to encourage them to go to Mass during the Christmas season, and give to the poor communities etc. At the end they gave out big sacs of pasta and corn flour to the moms. Once everyone left, we took them around to the older fams where they chatted and laughed etc…and tried to recruit the daughters lol. The older nun was really funny…. She would just be talking to someone and then turn around to the 25 year old daughter… so when are you coming to visit my convent? Crazy ole kat. What really surprised me though, was the community’s response. As each family came into the yard, they all brought bags of fruit and other things. By the time the religious left, the community had filled the entire back of their pickup with fruits, other foods, chickens, and a turkey, haha.

During part of their visit, while talking to Don Raul’s dad, I got to have the popular subject of religion and culture in the US with Don Raul’s bro, and somewhat Don Raul. The brother as usual pushed to the point of getting to my personal story to which Don Raul (my host dad) likes to talk about. He even brought it up in discussion with the nuns so we had a nice discussion on the American religious environment. I think they see me as a beacon of hope that there is hope for Catholicism and religion in America. So the topic always comes up in some form or another, hence me writing about it often here.

Following around the religious with their box of goodies.

I ate some sort of weird thing for dinner tonight at Don Mauricio’s house (my counterpart), it was the flower of some plant… but was really bitter. Oh well, add it to my ‘wall of weird.’ If you picked up that reference, shame on you. OHH and then, get this… when I come over, before dinner, I try and teach him a new thing on the computer to help with his bread business and the ADESCO. Afterwards, he always likes to show me something new on his kids Encarta haha, and then likes to ask questions about the world, or a country, or my time in Spain or something random. Well, this time, he went straight to point. He found the topic of the evolution of man on Encarta….I mean of all things. He went into how can he reconcile this with the Biblical account of creation, etc etc. Now how in the world am I supposed to explain this in Spanish, MUCH LESS English. I tried to throw out some general ideas, but I think that really threw a wrench in his train of thought. Sigh.

The Franciscans doing what they do.

Anyways, I’ve regulated on all my pictures on the computer, with the exception of the 2005 Mediterranean trip with the parents…I have mine, Daddy’s, and Cari’s that are extra gigs I could use if I could combine them. I just finished the Study Abroad pics, and the Rome 2006 pics from this past October. Good memories. We need to travel more. There’s a big world out there… I think, I haven’t seen all of it yet with my own eyes, but other people have told me so. :)

Picked up this quote during a wall of a neighbor while I was visiting their house….comments?

"No puede tener a Dios como Padre, quien no tenga la iglesia como Madre.”

You can’t have God as a Father, if you don’t have the church as a Mother.

Christmastide

Christmas Day 2007!

Ha, I had to lead off with this one. Me and the bro Francisco.

Hoorah! Well you would think that the early bishop’s would have chosen a day for Christmas that was colder in all parts of the world! Oh well. I’m just writing write now, while listening to some Andrew Peterson/Jars of Clay Drummer Boy to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and to fill my fam in on my Christmas Eve experience.

Nice gift Ansley, well done.

It was actually really cool, I was in the town early that morning, and ate pupusas at my normal little shop there. I walked around the market a little bit, met Rick online for a few to test out our video connection (more on that in a sec haha), then made the trek back to the house.

Margherita, the sis....crazy kat.

The rest of the morning I spent picking coffee of the trees, and then cutting bananas down with Don Raul at on his sis’ land and near some land he has near his dad’s house. By the way…his dad is on his 83rd year and was working up a storm here, crazy old guy.

Christmas!

I love bananas, and he gave me some to hang up in the house and let mature….I never knew there were so many kinds! Anyways, I ate lunch there, then headed back and napped on the hammock.

My Spanish teachers haha.

After bucket bathing really quick, I whipped up a Jello NO BAKE Cheesecake, which with the other OREO cake, was left by Aaron….they are awesome….no baking and only need like milk and butter and sometimes sugar. I brought it all later in time for dinner as a surprise for dessert and it went over really well…..as well as the santa hat that Ansley sent haha….. they def got a kick out of that. Watch the progression below:

I have my hat.

Not any more.

Moving down the line.

Still going.

Sweet, got it back.

We ate Pan Rellenos, which is like lettuce like stuff, tomato, chicken, cucumber and some kinda salsa in a kind of sub sandwich bread. They were really good… I ate 4. We joked about the dessert and then actually tried it….it wasn’t too terrible. We sat around the rest of the night and joked and danced a tad and played with the little twinklers fireworks things…. And what were basically m80s. Fun stuff.


Today, however, I woke up early and left some gifts and candy canes, on the neighbors tables, once again, thanks to Ansley, haha. My El Sal mom caught me though, because as I walked up in my santa hat, she came out of the house! I blasted her for not being at Mass, but she said since we were up late they decided to go to the 9 as well. HA….slackers. So I told her not to tell and left the stuff on their table. I am going to go back over for bfast…even though I usually eat that here.



Oh yeah, quick Christmas miracle, my phone’s entire flex part died yesterday, but after some petitioning, this morning, IT WAS REBORN!!!! Mwhahahaha.




Finally, after Mass today with the El Sal fam, I am going to go to my little internet abode in the casa de Nina Delfina, and Rick and Cari and I have arranged a little face to face video chat on AIM to surprise the parents, haha. Rick and I already checked it out, and it seemed to work. So that should be really interesting. The rest of the day should be chillin.




“Según lo prometido, Dios sacó de su descendencia un Salvador para Israel: Jesús. Antes de que llegara, Juan predicó a todo Israel un bautismo de conversión; y, cuando estaba para acabar su vida, decía: ‘Yo no soy quien pensáis; viene uno detrás de mí a quien no merezco desatarle las sandalias.’”




According to the promise, God took from your descendents a Savior for Israel: Jesus. Before arriving, John preached a baptism of conversion to all of Israel; and, when his life was coming to an end, he said, I am not who you think; one comes behind me whose sandals I am not worthy of untying.




Paul, in Acts of the Apostles




(Part of the Christmas Vigil Liturgy for all Catholics Worldwide)






A Very Merry Christmas to My Fam in the States.

Almost Christmas!

December 23, 2007


I’m actually writing in the morning here! I am slowly getting to the point where I wake up way too early for my tastes, but such is life. I am waiting for the bus to go to Mass in the town, so I figured I’d catch up on this now so that I didn’t have to do it later.

I made it to San Sal, got lost for a little while trying to get to the PC office, but eventually did. It was a good learning experience. The package ended up being from Ansley Quiros, HA. Ansley you crack me up. But there was some good stuff to give kids in the holidays. Thanks.

After I got some pics developed for the community at their mall, and got some ice cream. The only real movie out over here is The Golden Compass, but I didn’t have time to check it out. That’s an interesting situation, read some about it in an article here with Daniel Craig. Apparently the institution he works for is the Magisterium in the movie. Why doesn’t that surprise me?

Anyways, they still don’t have cleats to fit me here for any decent price, guess that will wait til I visit the states.

Proof that they smile when they don't know I'm taking a photo.

Sergio with some of the fams. They don't know how to smile for pics for some reason

Yesterday, I got to go distribute clothes with another scholarship kid, it was a learning experience as well. I mean we are poor here, but there in Santiago Nonualco, wow, much worse. It was fun though, those families are always super nice and it’s a good chance to go practice some Spanish. The house we were visiting with the three fams.

Sergio's dad already wearing at least two of the shirts.

Christmas is almost here! Mary and Joseph have finished making their rounds around La Comunidad and there is a late Mass tomorrow and then one on Christmas morning…I’ll prob be in touch with people after that Mass at 9….should be over by 1015 or so.



Also, I've had a little time to catch up on Dante the past day or two, I'm almost done with Purgatorio, if you've read Inferno, Purgatorio is definitely a must...they are like brother books.



“Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.”

Giving Out Some Clothes

December 20, 2007

Jiiiimeneyyyyy Chriistmasssss! ….to quote Blaze himself, yes Jerome you can smile now, you are the only one that got that. Actually Jerome, my host fam asked who you were today, we finished looking at the wedding pics and they wanted to see some pics of my family. A file came up of some senior year furman pics and they wanted to know who the guy was that was darker than them, HA!...I think one of the comments might have been wow, a black person! I got to explain that you are one of my best friends back in the states and then they were full of questions about everyone, it was a fun time. Although, I did realize how much weight I’d lost looking back at the pics, I miss the PAC haha. They loved the pics I had of that cowboy suit I wore to that Chi O function though.

They are cute. haha

Anyways, nothing too crazy been going on round here. Although I’ve given up on putting money back on my phone over and over. You people will just have to call me J It’s too much money and time and worry haha. So I have had money on my phone for a while, sorry.
A few days ago after a weekday Mass that I attended with the community in the town, it was a parish wide mass that they have every once in a while, Padre Tino called me up to the altar to introduce me to those who didn’t already know me. I know right, crazy. Made me go to the pulpit and speak a few words of what he called “castellano”…jerk. So that was interesting, he wants to get coffee sometime, which is good cause I got some fundraising questions for him for his broke up church building.

One of the brothers chillin in his pad.

Recognize this one Rick?

I made a sweet little potato “torta” they call it here the other day, it surprised the crud out of me, it was actually good. There is another one that I want to try too with potatoes. Food is good. Although, I eat a ton of sweets here, my teeth are going to fall out while I’m here, just gonna tell people that. Between the sweets and coffee and oranges, there is no stopping it.
Hmmm… oh yeah, today I was up at 5 to get on a bus to distribute clothes with the scholarship students of the high school. There is a family from the states that sent a ton of clothes with the Louisiana people, and they are supporting four students in the high school. They want the students to go our and distribute some clothes in each of the communities to families that need it. So, the committee put me in charge of that, go figure. So the kids and I set four dates, and the first one was today in the canton they call, Hacienda Vieja. It was quaint, perhaps more so than La Communidad, it just felt like there was more poverty there, but not sure. Anyways, we distributed the clothes to different families and I met the scholarshipped girl’s fam, which was just a grandma and a brother. Apparently her parents died when she was young. The families we gave to were apparently orphans and homeless etc, all kinds of stuff, so that was good to see and experience. They kept trying to thank me as God’s messenger and stuff, but I kept trying to get the point across that they weren’t from me, and that I wanted some of those clothes too, haha. They are all awesome people though.

The two scholarship girls and one of the fams we gave to.

A quick capture of the students giving out clothes to needy families.

This evening, they reminded me that the “santitas” were going to stay the night in my house if that was ok, of course it was cool with me. So I made one of Aaron’s Oreo nonbake pies, good choice Aaron, it worked out well, and had coffee waiting and the house clean when I heard the singing coming my way. Apparently every Christmas they have two little wooden statuettes of Mary and Joseph that they carry and come to a door, and act out the whole no room in the inn scene by song. However, they put the Christian twist to it, making it an edifying tradition to the faith, and I accept they petitions at the end to enter the house. Afterwards, they came in and the kids put them on the place I had prepared to stay the night, yet there is now Jesus. Because he hasn’t been born yet! The pics kind of foreshadow it though. Then they prayed a rosary on the mystery of the Incarnation, each kid taking turns, and then we had cake and coffee. Where they proceeded to wash all the cardboard plates I had left out and put them back soaked as if they were ready to use again, along with the Styrofoam cups, haha. I gotta get used to reusing those things here too, although, I don’t know if the cardboard is going to survive.

My host mom and the little statues coming in the house.

Rosary me.

The "santitas" hanging out around the light.

Tomorrow I am off the San Sal to get my package, develop some photos for the community, and pick up a few groceries if I still got some money.


I like this quote because it reminds us of the antiquity of the Sign of the Cross.

“Anyone can bless himself with the sign of the cross of Christ; anyone can answer ‘Amen’; anyone can sing Allelujah; anyone can be baptized, enter churches, build the walls of basilicas. But the only thing that distinguishes the children of God is charity. Those who practise charity are born of God; those who do not practise it are not born of God. It is indeed an important sign, an essential difference. No matter what you have, if you do not have this one thing, everything else is of no avail; and if you lack everything, and have nothing else but charity, then you have kept the law.” (St. Augustine, In Epist. Loan. Ad parth., 5, 7)

US visitor and a WEDDING!

December 13, 2007

Oh man, well much has gone on that I’m sure would be fun to tell in the past few days, but I’m not sure that I’ll be able to remember it all. Lets see… Tuesday, the 11th, I had to leave the house early in the morning to write a letter soliciting the mayor to help us with the salaries of the health promoter and the nutrition counselor in the town. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but the only medical program for my community is leaving and we’ve secured everything except for their living salaries this coming year. These salaries are what we are trying to get the municipality to help out with.

Our mean faces...Bryan and I

After that, I had to walk back to the house and change and then walk to the pueblo to meet with the scholarship committee. Apparently, the professor from Louisiana and his son were going to be there, and then afterwards, I was going to take the son for a few days to stay with me. What I didn’t expect, was that I would be translating the whole time. It was scary at first, but when I realized I could do it, it was awesome. Present was my Peace Corps Program Director, the principal of the San Pedro school, two secretaries, and then the professor and his son, and Rolando (PCD) tells me, ok you are going to translate for the committee to English and for the professor into Spanish. HA…and Rolando speaks pretty good English so I couldn’t make it up….. har har. It was fun though, I actually got a kick out it, although you always have to be careful on the whole power trip thing in a situation like that. Oh yeah, forgot to say that the meeting was to introduce me as the new committee member, to meet with the gringos who run the State side part of the scholarship fundraising program, and to discuss the fact that the government is now going to actually pay for the price to go to high school. Which by the way = awesome. Now the scholarship money will go to buy uniforms, books…pencils…folders etc, transportation to and fro, internet in the school, medicines, and hopefully a few trips a year to places around the small country to gain hands on experience. It’s a great cause I think. In addition, through this program called Joya Grande, that Louisianans are reps of, there are going to be quite a few university scholarships coming out of it in the next few years. Its awesome stuff, and here’s my plug for it:

*Were anyone to still want to do end of the year donations that are TAX WRITE-OFFS, feel free to check out the scholarship website on the side of this page, and call Tony Gasbarro who is an ex El Sal PC volunteer and part of Project Salvador Scholarship Fund. All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE from the US. Just be sure to tell him it’s for San Pedro Nonualco*

Anyways, that was cool, and afterwards we got lunch with Rolando the folks from the Bayou.

After, Rolando and Dr. Thomas took us back to my house, where we gave some clothes to the twins next door that they had brought, and then after checking out my abode, they took off and Harrison and I chillaxed.

The Scholarship Committee

Harrison is a sophomore at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette(sp?) and is studying civil engineering, so we had some good conversations about contour mapping and satellite imagery and stuff like that. Apparently he world with a company in the summer that does that kind of stuff too with light frequencies. Anyways, he’s a cool kid with a good heart, he brought me reese’s and other kids candy. (we arranged the reese’s before hand)

We hung out, visited previous peace corps projs, took a trip to the Bruja, and small waterfall and watering hole where we swam some with my host fam’s kids. The last one was really fun, there were some good pics and videos.

La Bruja, the pool and little waterfall

The Chicos

So this felt higher than it really was I guess, the climb along the wall was fun though.

We ate dinner at two different houses and I tried to cook some different El Salvadoran meals both mornings to give him different tastes of the country. Also, Aaron left me a sweet automatic blow up mattress for company….much love Aaron, much love.

Today, we visited some more stuff and then we walked back to town to meet with some scholarship students to talk. Classic El Salvadoran situation follows….. the lady who called me that morning to make sure I was coming to the meeting with the four scholarships students that the visitors wanted interviewed, never showed, so I had to entertain them with Harrison for an hour. They were over ecstatic about the scholarship thing, and were really nice to Harrison in appreciation. Apparently their daughter is really smart, but wasn’t going to go to high school because they couldn’t afford to send her to town for the schooling. She had apparently won a speech competition making it all the way up the nationals where she placed second, but wasn’t going to go to high school do to money. So that was my first hands on experience to what good this program is doing for the country because that would have been a shame.

At 2pm, I told them we were done, and that we had to go to San Sal to take Harrison back, and that I guessed no one else was coming. We took a family photo for the donors and got her thank you letter, and then I called the lady to tell her we were leaving, when she informed me that she wasn’t going to make it anyways lol. Crazy people and the other lady wasn’t coming back til Friday, hahaha. Oh well, we caught a pickup that was going to the capital and he made it to his hotel on time. I stopped by the PC office and dropped off another 3 dolla, because someone has sent me another package to THAT address, and they want to get it out. Hopefully I can go get it next week and see who its from. PLEASE send any packages to my new address here in San Pedro from now on……or I will send my minions to find you.

I ran into the older couple at the capital office today, apparently they are heading back to the States for good tomorrow. They wife, Sherry, her mom is 95 and apparently has taken a turn for the worst and needs people to take care of her, and the fam has called them back soooooo, sad, they seemed really down….obviously. Mike said he didn’t find out until later that he might could have stayed. That makes our original group of 29 go down to 26.

Tomorrow I have to go to the CBI graduation, its like a kinder/daycare project they got going here by my house. I am the official photographer for the event haha. That’s kind of a way Aaron raised money for the school or ADESCO, was by selling 4x6 photos for a dollar here. So, I guess I’ll continue the cause.

Me and the local crazy thuggin it at my casa, he's a story for later

I have found that powdered milk is good as long as its being cooked or in cereal, no good drinking. This is good because I can keep milk (powder) on hand now.
Also, apparently I’m a camel and don’t drink enough…..or at least that’s what I was told.

Inferno me:

“‘Now you must cast aside your laziness,’ my master said, ‘for he who rests on down or under covers cannot come to fame; and he who spends his life without renown leaves such a vestige of himself on earth as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water.’
Therefore, get up; defeat your breathlessness with spirit that can win all battles if the body’s heaviness does not deter it.’”

December 16, 2007

The dance at the Kinder grad

Ha, I just noticed that I forgot to put the last entry on the blog last time I was on. That means that the next post is going to be really long. Or I could just leave out all the small stories, that sounds like more fun. So yeah, today is Sunday, but Friday we had the kinder graduation and it went really well. I didn’t have the chance to get by to read to the kids before some of them have graduated, but all the kids still know my name, and want to know when Don Aaron is coming back haha. It was nice, I took lots of photos, and hopefully I can get that system of raising funds for the ADESCO that way. Although, the promotoras of the CBI came (they from a group that gets its money from UNICEF) and the one like 40 year old lady though I was Spanish at first and kept telling me that she wanted to marry a Spaniard the whole time. Not til the end did I put together that I was that Spaniard, and then I was like… naaa I’m a gringo. Then she told me she wanted to marry a gringo, all the ladies got a kick out of it. That sat around afterwards the whole time flirting. Crazy girls.

Kids at the graduation.

I helped half the day Saturday prepare for the wedding on Sunday by doing random things around Don Raul’s house and cutting banana tree leaves for tamales, and getting up early to make chocolate from their cacao tree, that was fun. I’ve been drinking chocolate all weekend. That afternoon I ran to the town for internet and Mass. Still trying to learn that whole Our Father, Credo, and other Catholic parts of the Mass through my missal, but its taking time.
Grrrr.

Sunday, up again at 530 to bring chairs from the casa comunal and to finish last minute stuff.

Which, speaking of last minute, this place cracks me up. The only thing that I’ve found that actually starts at the time posted here, is Mass. The wedding Mass was set for during the 9am normal Mass for the town. We were supposed to leave at 8 from the house, we left at 830, and then the pickup that a friend had brought to bring the groom and the bride’s fam (us) broke down a few yards on the way. We started walking, they got picked up and ended up getting to the church (with the groom) about 8 minutes before it started. HA….imagine arriving to the church 8 minutes before your wedding. Cracked me up, but it all worked out. I was charged with taking photos with my camera, mainly because the only other one there of the Godfather, broke.

The fam entering the church

Speaking of differences, I’ve noticed a few in the wedding hoorah. Here, as I think is the case in a lot of older cultures, the man’s family has to pay for everything, even the bride’s dress I believe. Of course, I’m sure that the Lopezs helped out in some way, but they couldn’t believe that we put it all on the woman’s family (well I told them except for the rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner, but they don’t have that, so…haha). Also, the Godparents play a huge role here. The parents of the bride accompany her through the streets to the church, but then she is sat by her family once within the church with the Godparents, who are the ones that participate in and throughout the marriage parts of the Mass. I guess that’s because the godparents are charged with the spiritual growth of the kids as well, so in all the major spiritual church events during their lives here, the godparents are the main players.

After Communion

After the wedding the with Padre Tino and Godparents

After getting back to La Comunidad for the reception, things went somewhat smoothly, everyone wanted to see the gringo dance, I got to sit at the table of honor, all the jazz. It was fun. Although they don’t like to switch dance partners all the time like us gringos while on the dance floor, I could never get away from the one I went on the “floor” = harder dirt, with. Oh well. Its all good.

Still in a lull on Dante, been really busy lately. Tomorrow it continues with a meeting with our 32 scholarship recipients in the town early, but Tuesday, I hope to be able to take it easy.

“By a tradition handed down from the apostles, which took its origin from the very day of Christ’s resurrection, the Church celebrates the pascal mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday”

Vatican II

Settling In

December 7, 2007

Happy Birthday Brother Williams!

Ya old fart. I hope the Pita House and PF Changs held you over today….jerk. Hah. Its all good. Exciting news, tomorrow I’ve decided to start eating oranges again….wahooooo. I have an unhealthy obsession for those things.

My stomach adjusting here to random things is ever fun, but its cool, I think its getting adjusted.

I’ve been out and about in the community here and there. I sat in on the Health Committee’s meeting today and the ADESCO’s meeting the other day. I’m meeting with the school director tomorrow in town before Mass. Actually it turns out that the lady’s house I go to for internet is his Aunt, so we are going to meet there, while I pay may debt. Yes, debt. The other day I went into town to use the internet and send some letters, but halfway through my time on the computer I left to send some stuff while the post office was open, only to realize I had left my wallet at home. So, I couldn’t pay for that, nor for the internet I was using, and when I told her, instead of getting mad, she gave me a cup of coffee and my favorite quesadilla bread……so sweet. She always has a handicapped son that is always there who is really nice and actually knows a lot about computers.

Anyways, so that’s all going well. And, everything is set for the LA professor and his son to come now, I think on Tuesday. The only thing is that I have to find things for us to do in the community for 2 days, I mean, I can’t even find enough things for myself to do for 2 hours….haha. I might have to email Aaron for suggestions.

“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”

December 9, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTER WILLIAMS!!!

Well, as I said, I'm not quite sure what you're day was filled of, but I'm sure it was gloriousness and screaming of kids and spitupping. Haha, you are officially 11 years older than me for a monthy and a half.

So portion control on breakfast, yeah, still need to work on that for one person. I seem to have a habit of making too much for me to eat, although I always eat it all, but it uses up too much of my resources and is just… well too much. Also, the milk here that comes in boxes, wow, not the tastiest stuff ever, but it goes fine in cooking things and in cereal so, I guess that’s good. Come night time though, man, I am a snack machine, rationing my snacks so I don’t run out too soon is always a helpful retardant though.

There are many more pancakes on that plate than this view makes it seem.

I’ve started a Sunday morning ritual now of making pancakes or French toast. French toast is harder though because it is hard to keep sliced bread on hand, but I made like 10 pancakes today and ate them all, they were tasty.

Mmmm oatmeal pie.

My kitchen.

I met my boss’ Rolando’s brother in the pueblo yesterday on accident at Nina Delfina’s, the place I do internet. I ran in there before Mass to finish trying to download the season premiere of Smallville, which I might add I finally accomplished, only to find out that night that it somehow just gave me the audio, wonderful. Apparently he heard that’s where I was going and asked if I was Catholic, when I answered yes, he responded with he didn’t believe it…..in English, hahaha. So he wanted to practice and we did for a while, but then he told me that he didn’t believe that I was a gringo and Catholic, because all the US was Protestant. Then I felt compelled to mention that we are the second most populated Catholic nation, next to Italy. The puzzled expression is the best. I left the whole 200 million Protestant number out of the picture haha. He eventually told me he was a pastor in San Sal. Didn’t wanna go there with the boss’ brother. It was all good, although he kept inviting me his “field” to play soccer I think.
Anyways, weird.

I finished the Inferno. Crazy stuff, but I thought it was really good. I particularly enjoyed the use of Greek Mythology to relay Christian messages, a good measure of the reentry of the classics at the time…aka the rise of Thomas Aquinas. Also, the whole thing just make’s you see Hell’s doors as much wider than the world makes them out to be sometimes. It’s was always interesting to note the number of people he had in Hell that Dante seemed to see as decent people but with a certain vice that they struggled with. He would have compassion for them, or yet their better side, and then his guide would have to remind him that these people were in Hell, haha. Then Virgil, his guide, would always comment on the fact that…. There are more people in that hole than you think….. I think a lot of times nowadays the world plays on the fact that most everyone is going to heaven. When in reality, that might not be so easy a task.
Purgatorio should prove interesting.

“And I—my head oppressed by horror—said: “Master, what is it that I hear? Who are those people so defeated by their pain?” And he to me: “This miserable way is taken by the sorry souls of those who lived without disgrace and without praise. They now commingle with the coward angels, the company of those who were not rebels nor faithful to their God, but stood apart. The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened, have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them—even the wicked cannot glory in them.”

In the Ante-Inferno, Canto III, Dante’s Inferno, p. 69

Feeling Better

December 05, 2007

Nothing too crazy to report, except for the fact that I think my stomach is finally coming back online. I actually peed today a few times….which means Im finally getting hydrated again. Wahoo. I did some reading on the whole thing and apparently sweets and acidic fruits don’t help stomach things….. go figure. Anyways, I found a sweet place to get on the internet up in the main town, so that is encouraging. I can plug in my laptop which is sweet to get updated and have access to all my stuff at the same time.

I also went to the capital of the department to get groceries and stuff for my house, that was interestingly fun, although I bought too much to put in the basket that the volunteer left for groceries…oops, and then the bus didn’t run again so I got to carry it all back. My arms wanted to die, luckily I hitched a ride in a truck about half way there. It was crazy though….anything slightly American is super expensive. It was five dollars for honey bunches of oats. Much learning to do about how I’m going to go about shopping for food. I am going to start making my own breakfasts here, but keep eating lunch and dinner over at the neighbors so I can keeping practicing Spanish and learning more foods to cook. I actually made my first full meal this morning for bfast. It was eggs with tomatoes and onions in it, cooked bananas, and an avocado with green tea…..mmmmm. Believe me, every breakfast won’t be that luxurious. But, I went all out for my first one.

I did my first washing of clothes today as well. That’s not the easiest work ever to do all that by hand. But it got done. We’ll see how that goes. Hopefully its all there in the morning.
Got blisters on my hand today in like the fourth swing of a big hoe, right in between the leftover calluses from weights and baseball.

I finished Lord of the Flies two nights ago, it was an interesting book. Started Dante’s Inferno today.

I got this text a few days ago from Nick, another beginning volunteer.

“What the **** did I get myself into?”

Goodbye Training, Hello Comunidad

November 26, 2007

Spent the day in San Vicente once again for our last day of official training. Everything went more or less smoothly. I did get a phone call in the middle of our sessions though from my program director Rolando asking if it was ok for a kid from the US to stay with me a few days out of the first week that I am in my site. Apparently, his dad is a professor at LSU, and is one of the scholarship donors and an environmental specialist that works down here a lot in El Salvador for different organizations. I really have no problem with it. It’s just sad that I won’t have had much time to make connections to make the kid’s experience a better one. I think he’s 19 years old kid if I’m not mistaken. Oh well, it’ll be a good time.

They also tried to push the whole getting in touch with our new community card today and the fact that the first few months this should be your only goal, and not getting big projects going. Everything that we do they say comes from the amount of community support that we get. Which is fine with me, apparently the first few months go really slow with a bunch of extra time, but I plan on doing a ton of house visits to get to know everyone, maybe even follow around the health promoter at times to get to know some of the people.

I could have used this part from Grudem’s book this summer for my paper. Take note of his analysis of this part of Romans 5 in connections with “inherited sin.”….aka original sin. He makes good points throughout this section, of which this quote is only a small portion.

“1. Inherited Guilt: We are Counted Guilty Because of Adam’s Sin. Paul explains the effects of Adam’s sin in the following way: ‘Therefore…sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned’ (Rom. 5:12). The context shows that Paul is not talking about actual sins that people commit every day of their lives, for the entire paragraph (Rom. 5:12-21) is taken up with comparison between Adam and Christ. And when Paul says, ‘so [Gk. Houtos, ‘thus, in this way’; that is, through Adam’s sin] death spread to all men because all men sinned,’ he is saying that through the sin of Adam ‘all men sinned.’” (p. 494)

p. 499 also has some interesting notes on the idea that infants are in fact in a state of sin, while in pp. 971-980 goes against most of Christianity today (and the earliest Christian bishops), in denying infants baptism… although that “Christianity” is divided on what baptism actually means). Although, I don’t think I have the resources here at the moment to write on this subject. Oh well. Maybe once I’m at my site.

November 28, 2007

Hmmm, the past few days I have been in orientation for the real thing. Peace Corps, El Salvador…..hoorah. Its been both interesting at times and boring. The best part was today when the embassy security and some other staff came in to give us a few briefings on safety and other things. The guys were former marines that were hilarious. Yet at the same time…all business. They compared El Salvador to some cities in the US and other places, and their crime rate per capita…. HA wow, not even close. I think the homicide rate was like 4 times that of the worst cities in the US. There were close to 4000 homicides last year in the first 9 months supposedly in 2006. Apparently they are having a lot of trouble with gangs and with those gang members being deported out of the US. It was also funny too because the security guy was going through a slideshow that had all kinds of protocol for new embassy people. He tried to skip it, but we were all joking that the suggestions were like…never call a taxi, never ride public transportation, never talk to anyone that is native and speaks English, etc etc….all things that we have to do as Peace Corps, but that the embassy tells their people they will get robbed doing so…a running joke for us now. Anyways, there was a bunch of other cool stuff too. I made some contacts in the embassy, that’s always cool.

I got my haircut fixed today, so that’s good, people were actually really down about it earlier. True story: a girl was telling me about a dream she had that I was in, and she was happy about it cause it was pre-first haircut. Haha.

Hah! Who is that guy? Estefani loves messing with my hair.

So, orientation is all over now. Tomorrow morning we leave our host families at 6 in the morning to gather in San V and head to our Counterpart Meetings and for lunch and swearing in. Very fun.

Me with my Salvadoran fam!

Very sad night, the family is very sad that their gringo is leaving and that makes me sad. It’s a really nice family. They think that I am excited about leaving though because I have been smiling a lot the last few days. They are saying some of the same things that mother was telling everyone before I left. I have told Mercedes though that I will visit often, and if anyone visits that I will bring them by.

The boys.

Aww. Tear.

To close, I’ll mention a high school activity that we did to close out training. We each took a piece of paper, wrote our name on top, and then passed it to the left for the rest of the training class to write something about us on it. Kind of a souvenir thing for our class. It was actually kinda fun for me, I wrote down some crazy stuff on other peoples things just to freak them out. I laughed at a few comments on mine though (stuff about my recently destroyed hair abounded).

“Always remember: you/your haircut will always be bonito to someone”

“Rhett, your hair looks ridiculous, but we are homies anyway”

“I got electric clippers and a guacal (plastic bowl). Don’t pay for haircuts anymore. You’re awesome!”

“I truly believe your new haircut qualifies you for joining a boy band. PLUS you’ve got killer dance moves……”

The other theme was ‘wisdom’ in the comments…I mean really where did that come from?

“…….I respect your wise comments in classes.”

“You’re a wise man Rhett. I seriously believed that until you got your haircut. But you know what? You own it well and for that I admire you!”

“Wisdom is your strength. Seriously.”

There are others but, more sappy, inappropriate, or boring/irrevelant.

November 30, 2007

We made it!

So the last two days have been crazy busy. Yesterday I got up and sat around til the sun rose, then took a bucket bath with water that my mom had warmed up…. Sweet! That made it somewhat bearable. We said goodbye at the bus stop and we went off to the training center. Just me and my laptop and what I was wearing for the next few days. (I borrowed Gabriels shoes once getting to the center because I didn’t bring any nice ones). We left and got there a little late at 830am, but it ended up all being good. Our swearing in and counterpart day was all held in FEPADES, which Im not quite sure what that is. It was a nice basic conference center setup. Both my counterparts showed up, but without anything to take my luggage back to the community….wonderful….they waited on the truck from the Municipality to show up most of the day, and it eventually did….around 4 pm. We spent the morning in orientation with our counterparts (those who we will work most closely with the next two years) and then had some lunch. During orientation though I got to give a talk in Spanish to the whole group, that was cool. After lunch, we had the swearing in with the Minister of Agriculture from the El Sal gov and the DCM, Deputy Chief of Missions from the Embassy. They gave decent speeches praising PC, blah blah blah. It was nice though, we had both anthems, and then had to take the oath to defend the constitution etc.

My counterparts are the two faces directly to my left. This is in our orientation with them before the swearing in.

Yeah, yeah, lets get it on.

Anyone notice anything that yours truly had to fix in this pic?

The important people. Left to Right....Peace Corps Agfor/Envir. Ed. Director, El Sal Min. of Agr., US Chief of Missions (slack ambassador didn't show), PC Director, Youth Development Director

After all that it was a cluster of trying to find my counterparts, my bags, and some way to get them to the community. I had just one suitcase and a bookbag but the suitcase was really heavy from all the tech books they gave us. Eventually while we were waiting out by the road, they came just in time for me to catch the last van out of the place to the hotel they had us in. If not I would have had to have taken like three buses I was told. Whatever.

That night, we hung out in the “hotel” for a while, then took cabs to go check out Sushi Itto for dinner, before the big Peace Corps send off at some club close by that place. The sushi was ok, but we got ripped off big time on the bill. I’ll leave it that cause Im tired and ready to get some sleep. Speaking of sleep, I got to bed at about 4 last night after being used to like 930pm bedtimes. To the right is San ISIDRO!!

The peeps from our bus every morning.

I was up at 8 this morning to say all our goodbyes to the group, and a group of us went over to the central Peace Corps office to get some stuff done. I got some seeds from the bank there, did some student loan stuff, and locked away my valuables in their safe.

From there we hitched a ride back to San V where I stole some more tech stuff off the computer there, and then I got food with one of the guys and headed out to my site, which took forever! The 40 min walk at the end was the worst. But I’m here now. And its all good.

Tape all over my package that says, "RECEIVED ALL BROKE UP"

Although, I have a critter problem, no TP, and the onset of a bacterial infection. Stupid San Salvador. All three don’t help the whole latrine gloriousness. Tomorrow I will spend cleaning and arranging, and listing what I need to get.

“The idea that humanity is multiplying at a terrible and accelerating rate is one of the false dogmas of our times. From that notion springs the widely held belief that unless population growth is immediately contained by every governmental and private method imaginable, mankind faces imminent disaster. These ideas form the basis for an enormous international population-control industry that involves billions of dollars of taxes as well as the full time efforts of scores of private philanthropies. Embodied in their agenda is the sort of social planning that actually mandates draconian control over families, churches, and other voluntary institutions around the globe.”

The back cover of…..The War Against Population, Jacqueline Kasun (1988, rev. 1999)… a book I found on Aaron’s shelf (the volunteer I’m replacing)

December 1, 2007

Today I gradually felt better, in a few days I’ll be back to 100 percent. I unpacked everything today and cleaned out the pila for the “bath.” I have to wait to clean out the main pila under the water falls again Monday, if not I won’t have water to use for 2 days haha. So, for the most part, all the house is ready to roll. I have to wash clothes tomorrow, for that I got soap from the house next door . I did have a nice surprise when I got here though. The guy had left a table and his computer speakers for me to use. Sweet. He also left shinguards and cleats for me to try on and see if they fit. Basically the stuff that he didn’t have room to take. So that’s cool. Mass tonight was interesting, it was slam packed in their cathedral and it was leaving a concert afterwards. I saw some people that I already knew though, that was kind of neat….not to mention my host-family. Their church is in need of some serious repair though. The earthquake in 2001 did a real number on it….its amazing that its even still standing. I’m in the process of making a meeting with the priest though, maybe I can help get some funding for that. Tomorrow I’m heading to the meeting of the ADESCO and the health people to check out what’s going on there in the afternoon. During the morning though Im going to go check out the soccer tourney in the pueblo at 8. Our team is playing and my host brother apparently is in with that so wahoo.

I got a list of things to buy, Monday I’m off to go do that.

“Myth, legend, and superstition are all the offshoot of self-revelation, or better defined as self-explanation of the present phenomena.”

Anonymous

December 2, 2007

Welcome to the beginning of the new liturgical year. Haha, and guess what? The house across the street has lights on a tree! That floored me. Hello Advent. I say that with the Die Another Day theme song by Madonna playing the background haha. Well, the day is over finally and it was kind of long. My stomach was still destroyed for most of the morning, but I decided to attend the soccer game of the community as part of the ongoing tournament they are in. It’s a mix of young and old, and a whole different world as far as people go. Very funny it is. The cleats the previous volunteer left though don’t fit, so, guess that’s something I’m still looking for.

Later in the day, I attended a special meeting of the ADESCO (the organized directive of the community that gets projects moving) and ASPS, the health group that I said Annie would like a while ago. Come to find out, they are in a pinch. The dispensary here in the cantón (town) apparently was a project by ASPS that was supposed to last for two years and that end is in March. At the point, the doctor has to leave, and the “nurses” of which there are two I think, will no longer have salaries available. So, the nurses called a meeting to try and get the support of the ADESCO to continue to fund their work here through medicine and salary.

Wow, for me, sitting in on the meeting, it was a shot to the gut as to what my role is here as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Their actual jobs are on the line, they want to continue to provide training and consultation and reduced costs for medicine so people can actually afford to buy it, and they asked the reluctant ADESCO for help (which they don’t have a ton of resources, and then for my help to keep their cause alive. Crazy stuff. So much for getting to know the community first and letting the jobs come later. They are going to discuss what role the ADESCO will play at their next meeting this Sunday, so I have some research to do between now and then.

After that, I went down to the valley with Don Raul and his fam that was in from San Sal to check out the river. It was cool, with big spots to swim around and stuff. They want me to teach them how to swim haha. Maybe later, cause we got their late. There is also enough plastic bottle waste down by the river to make a few dollars for school by selling it to the municipality.

Anyways, to close the night out, my host dad and I got into the whole Catholic discussion, and the world’s religious situation, and then he wanted to know my story and why I was the only Catholic in my family. All of which seems to come up a lot in El Salvador. But, we had a good convo for a while before dinner on everything, he’s a suave guy.

Tomorrow I’m off to Zacatecaluca to buy groceries with the big yellow, green, and pink bag thing that the previous volunteer left….So I’m too cheap to buy a new one, so sue me.

“Don’t kill too many Evangelicals down there…. only as many as you can get away with.”
Chris Gilliland