US Christmas and Random Pics

So I am in the States for a week for Christmas and it is a little colder than it was in El Salvador. Things are very tasty and I am enjoying all of the hot showers.

Here are some random pictures from the past few weeks before coming to the US.

A group of us at the AIDS conference preparing our presentations in San Miguel.

The road to the site where we were going to give our presentation was pretty bad, one of my group got sick.

The community house where we gave our presentation to a group of young and old alike.


A random pic of the bus that leaves my community everyday.

The parts of the stove project that I turn in to the families. All materials have been turned in to prepare for the models in the 6 different communities.
The very nice base that one family has constructed waiting to build the stove on top.

The view from our farthest out community, Roble Virolenyo, is also participating in my fuel efficient and smoke free stove project.

A view of the volcano of my pueblo from the valley near the river where I went crabbing and fishing with some families from my community.

One family that I fished with.

Win, Lose, and Rain

December 12, 2008 (pictures incoming)

Sunny with a few showers.

Haha… Just random frustrating obstacles that have crept up are erking some of my projects.

The first of which has been my computer. The machine itself is fine, but a laptop is worthless if you can’t charge it J The charger has been out a few weeks and has put a hold on some of my work here….and the blog….sorry fam. More on that later.

So let’s see. Since Thanksgiving I have been focusing in on the stove project and getting the models built. Yesterday, after helping take the municipal trash to the ‘dump,’ I went to the sugar mill and bought 27 gallons of molasses, the last ingredient I didn’t have, and today I went around in the municipal trash truck to all the cantons dishing out the stuff to the houses that are going to build the model stoves. The guys that helped me out are awesome guys…. I will have to go help them take out the trash more in the future. Now all the families have the part that I and the NGO have promised them, and I have to coordinate now to get the builder guy out to our town. That should be fun. I have to provide food and shelter for him til he gets them all built J I’ll cook, haha. I haven’t quite mastered the art of cooking beans and Salvadoran tortillas.
In other news, some more money came in for the church reconstruction project, so that was good. They are in a real bind right now here at the end of the second stage of building the façade and we are SOOOO close. Very frustrating, and I’m not even building the thing. From what I gather, they are about $8,000 from finishing the front. But little by little they will eventually get it all done.

My English classes move along, although sometimes I have to move the class times and move the weekday schedules around to fit around my main project emergencies, and I can see that it is frustrating some of the students, but…. what can I do? You can only volunteer so much of your time, hahaha.

Today, also, one of our scholarship collaborators/organizers from the Louisiana, Dr. Thomas Hymel, visited us, and hung out with me for the evening after our meeting with the scholarship students. He’s a real nice and laid back guy that is easy to chat with. He does a lot of good work for us/the San Pedro community. I hope he keeps doing so. He also brought me the charger that is sustaining my computer for the moment. My computer recognized it wasn’t my old one and won’t let it charge the battery, even though it seems to be the same power level as my dead one. So, looks like I will still have to get that new charger….I can’t decide on the versatile 65watt one that works in an airplane, car, or outlet, or the faster charging and better functioning 90 watter. Either way, I’ll order it soon to have it at the house when I get there.

Speaking of wonderful instruments of technology….my phone is reaching the limits of its existence and/or the limits of my patience level, haha. The battery doesn’t last a day, that was a given due to its age, but now it has a hard time getting signal everywhere and keeps cutting my calls short. I will remedy that while in the states as well hopefully.

My biggest problem right now with an ongoing project is a shortage in funds that the NGO that is my counterpart for my stove project. They have committed to about half the number of stoves (the parts they help out with) that I think people are going to want here in our municipality, after previously telling me earlier in the year there was no limit, so I am in the process of searching for possible sources to help out there. We’re talking approx. $3,500. I have one fund that I could occupy for like 1,500, but I am already collaborating on that fund to try and get our roof fixed on our community house and some other odds and ends there. I also had some problems getting affordable (free) exams (blood, urine, heart, HIV) for my people who need eye surgeries, especially with the electrocardiogram, but now of my first group I just have one lady who just needs the electrocardiogram, and then in January we can get the surgeries (hopefully). So we’ll see.

In visiting with Habitat for Humanity recently, I think there might be another opportunity there for us in the housing sector, so we’ll see how that works out in the next month. All projects will pretty much be put on hold in the beginning of January due to the elections of Mayor, in which I will be waiting to see if I will have the same mayor for the rest of my service, or if he will change….should be interesting.

It’s coming toward the end of the year, don’t forget the donate tab for all your write-offs and skymiles. All these projects come at some kind of cost, and the more I have to work with, the more I can help on these projects, and smaller ones that search me out from the families here.
I’m in basketball and soccer tournaments here. I play defense in the soccer games on Sundays and center in the basketball games on Saturdays. They play basketball every evening in the main town and it kills me that that I can never make it to play (and they rag me for it too). But such is life in the canton.

Just 10 days til the states. I bet its cold up there. Blast.

"Not to be encompassed by the greatest, but to let oneself be encompassed by the smallest--that is divine."

Holderlin in Hyperion, quoted in Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

THANKSGIVING!!!

I ate myself into a coma last night and this morning. I wont eat until tomorrow at lunch. Me and two other volunteers had super awesome hosts for a day and night by a foreign civil service family and it was one of the highlights of my year. Wahoo.

Whew.

I had a hot shower.

Helping Hands and First Year Medical Exams

November 22, 2008

Someone just sent this to me from our July 4th Soccer tourney.

First off, I want to send a happy birthday to Hagar from the 14th, if I’m not mistaken. Starting from where I left off last, the election went well in San Salvador. We were there at a TGIF in the capital and had the entire second floor to ourselves. They were ringing bells for every state that Obama won and booing for everything came out red. It was pretty funny. At the end of the night after both McCain and Obama’s speeches, I would say half of the people in that upper room were crying….sissies, hahahahaha. I will have to say though, it was quite impressive the celebrations that went on across the world after the news came out….I kind of don’t want to imagine what would have happened if McCain would have won. There seems to be a new promise of hope for the economy and foreign relations and the American image, but interestingly enough, what is hope for one, is often despair for others.

The two scholars, two of Don Raul's grandkids...graduating Kinder

The Kinder grads.

The Kinder dance.

I’ll explain, recently there has been a very interesting metaphor that has been cropping up here, from the Catholic Church of all places. Most recent was a preacher from New York from the Jesus Missionaries of New York who held a vigil in a stadium here in Zacatecoluca and talked about how that the latinos in the States had sold the economy of the Church for the economy of the country. By electing someone in the hopes of bettering the image of the country and its economy, they sold, he says, the soul of the country. It was an interesting take on things that now is showing up here and there as the same idea is popping up in the conference of US Bishops, as well as in some suburban locals… cough cough… Greenville, SC :)


The twins first steps!!!

Racing.

Anyways, for the most part, I’d say that Salvadorans are more or less excited about the Obama change and about him being a minority, but beyond that they don’t know much more. It has had the interesting effect of bolstering the Left here as well…the Salvadoran elections are in January and March of 2009. Both sides are using quotes from Obama and the detractors of the left here are using statements from Obama’s Latin America advisor against Hugo Chavez (whom they accuse of supporting the leftist party) against the candidates here. It’s in interesting politic. Fun times.

The goat, named Ash, that has replaced the cow Mauricio had.

In other news, my English classes continue to go well. I teach one in the morning to a women’s center for formation (can’t remember if I mentioned that previously) and one in the evening the Parish Hall that is open to everyone. Right now it’s about 10 in the morning and 20 in the evening. I am focusing on the pronunciation because it’s something that they lack here. Most schools outside the capital only have English class once a week and there is no way you learn enough material once a week to get where they want to go. I expect the classes to shrink the more they learn that learning a second language isn’t as easy as it seems.

Also, there was a little hoorah here for Juan, Don Raul’s youngest, for his First Communion. I actually had to leave right after it to go to run some important errands, but it was cool to see how all that stuff happens here….not too different. Except for in numbers, 168 kids had their first communion.

They are also having the 40 hours of devotion right now so the altar is all spiffy.

The baller himself.

A group of the kids.

Yumminess afterwards.

Also, there was another group that just swore-in as volunteers recently. The food was awesome in the embassy, we also planned a fun after-party.

The Swearing-In ceremony in the embassy of the most recent Peace Corps group.

Me with two of my bosses at the after party :)

I also took our high school scholarship students to Termos Del Rio (a water park on the other side of the country) out in Santa Ana, as well as a Mayan Ruins site San Andres on the way there. It all worked out well, and the water park was pretty nice too. I got stuck watching bags the majority of the time though because I was the only one that ended up going besides the students.

The water park.

About a week ago as well the yearly visit of the medical staff of Helping Hands, a Catholic medical missions group, came in and did consultations/medicines/surgeries etc for 2 days for 5 municipalities. I translated there for 2 days and got to meet a lot of interesting people. There was also a big group of Salvadoran medical students translating, there were about 15 of us in total. People were really interested in the Peace Corps after they realized that’s what I was. It’s funny to see people’s faces when they run into Americans in remote places. Although this time there were a few people that were more blunt, “why are you here?”….haha, with the implication of, why would you choose to do something like this for 2 years? Haha. There was also a group of young people who were in college and high school that were interested in Peace Corps and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and had lots of questions.

The priest that came with Helping Hands playing soccer with the kids the whole time

All the docs and med volunteers

Nurse's station where I was translating

The doctor of the parish clinic here waiting for the other docs to arrive

The doors of the each doc station.

Hmmmm…..Also, I had my one year mid service medical exams for Peace Corps in the capital a few days ago. Apparently they say I’m healthy :)

So… more or less things are running smoothly, besides a few bumps that I’ve hit in my stove project, but hopefully that will all work out soon enough. For Thanksgiving we are going to be visiting with different embassy families to eat and all, so that should be fun.

"Wisdom is not just a gift, it is a habit formed by the will."

Anonymous

Trip to the National School of Agriculture

November 4, 2008

I’m going into the capital tonight after my first English classes to check out the election with some volunteers. Should be interesting now that a cold showed up for me this morning in time for it all, oh well. Everyone has been asking about here for the past few weeks. Every comment is like, "So that Obama eh? I hope he wins, definitely looks like it." I laugh sometimes though, especially in the case of central america which is slowly moving to the left, they equate our left as similar, when they have many differences. And the fact that Obama is anti-CAFTA, which many people down here don't know, there could me more consequences south of the border than they realize. Anyways, its cool because everyone down here seems just as excited as those voting up north.

Kids from the CBI, daycare basically from La Comunidad

There haven’t been a ton of things to write about in the past two weeks, but let’s talk about it anyways. Right after the last time I made an entry we had Don Raul’s birthday hoorah, so that was fun, all the fam was in town. We played lots of cards, enjoy the pics. OH, yeah, I also created a bracket for a spades (well their version of it) tournament. Everyone really got a kick out of it, even though my team got knocked out in the first elimination round. Don Raul and little Brian won. I’m thinking there will be another in New Year’s Eve day. A week later was Juan’s bday, Don Raul’s youngest son, wahoo.

Guys playing cards on my porch.

Don Raul checking out the polo shirt they gave him for his bday.

I think it fits.

Fun someone who fell asleep in the hammock early.

The past week for me has been a double doosy. We had the fumigation planning coming to a head for the whole canton in conjunction with the main town medical center, as well as my trip that I had planned for 25 people in the canton to the National School of Agriculture. The fumigation was a mess in the beginning due to scheduling conflicts with the main med people, but once we finally got started, our two volunteer groups and the ADESCO knocked out all 170 houses in two days. I actually was pretty satisfied the first day because finally all the mosquitos in the outhouse were killed, but from what they tell me they have returned with the wind, wonderful. Also, my house was basically a cemetery when I got back with all the dead bugs and cucarachas on the ground. Then I found a really big scorpion in the middle of the floor thinking it was dead, no… it was definitely alive, emphasis on the ‘was.’ At the end of the day it seemed to go over well, and wasn’t a huge cost for the ADESCO since the mayor’s office kicked in the gas and diesel and the medical clinic the chemicals.

"Rocking" the space between the community house and the road one Saturday

Only about 2 more days of volunteer work are lacking

What really has worn me out this week was our trip to the National School of Agriculture. This was a trip that had been in the making for months. We had been granted about $250 by a fund to take a group of people here from the canton to learn about how to graft trees (explicitly fruit trees), another group at the same time was learning how to make marmalades and syrups (fruit as well) and after lunch, we did a lesson on home gardens and vegetable cultivations. It all worked out well and in the evening we had a cute little 3rd year university girl showing us around and answering all the guys questions so that was fun to watch. I had to go back and forth between the capital a few days before trying to get all the supplies for the marmalades in time to make it out of the city in time for the Peace Corps Prohibition to kick in. There is an international conference going on of all the Latin American countries right now (as well as Spain and Portugal) and we aren’t allowed in the city while its going on to keep us out of possible political involvement, wahoo. In the end though, the trainings all turned out well, with the exception of one older guy getting lost on the campus, and we brought back 24 16 ounces glass bottles of Pineapple Marmalade and 24 smaller 8 ounce bottles of an orange-based syrup.
I have to finish paperwork for this fund now, and now that my English classes start in the main town on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it should get more interesting around here. In the mornings I will be teaching at a Center for Women’s Development and in the evening an open class in the parish hall. Computer classes in my own canton are planned to start in January. Also I have completed almost all my preparations for our municipal fuel efficient stove drive with the other cantons. I had to visit a new canton this week and then return to a previous one to clear up some money issues, but now we are ready for the six models to be built. We are rapidly approaching 200 stoves on order, I hope it doesn’t get out of control….lots of planning will be needed for that.

Such is life at the moment. I have sent off my absentee ballot through email (go SC), and will be
in the capital Tuesday night with a group of volunteers to see a new, interesting era begin in American and international politics. I hope it turns out to be for the better and not for the worst.
Oh yeah, the rains have stopped here, and now the temps have dropped 10 degrees or so and its super windy….already messed up my roof again, doh! Anyways, its super tough to bath for me in the cold wind, but oh well. This is the last day of the month, so the prayers at 4 in the morning will stop (as will the loud bells), it has gotten super hard to get out of bed to do meet them lately in the cold. I just realized the last day of the month in October is Halloween, haha…wow.


I’ve really dropped the ball on the camera lately, I even forgot it in our trip to the National School, but they are going to put some article in some magazine or something, so they were there taking pics. I am going to ask them for some.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Nov. 1 was All Saints Day and Nov. 2 Day of the Dead/Deceased, depending on the translation. I had some nice conversations with different people as to why our culture puts more emphasis on Halloween and not Day of the Dead. It was fun to elaborate the differences in our culture, which was dominated in the past by Protestant culture, and the Catholic culture's differing interpretations of what is meant by the "Communion of Saints." On this day in hispanic culture everyone goes to the cementeries to clean up the burial sites of loved ones and attend Masses praying/remembering the pilgrim souls of those who had come before us.

Day of the Dead/Deceased, Nov. 2 of every year

An interesting idea or two that are taken somewhat out of context by just quoting this part, but it’s a decent representation of certain ideas:

“Belief appears no longer as the bold but challenging leap out of the apparent all of our visible world and into the apparent void of the invisible and intangible, it looks much more like a demand to bind oneself to yesterday and to affirm it as eternally valid. And who wants to do that in an age when the idea of “tradition” has been replaced by the idea of “progress”?

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, pg. 52-3

Lago Coatepeque and a Trainee Visit

October 14, 2008

So the highlight of this post will be the visit to Lago Coatepeque, a volcano that blew its top countless years ago, then caved in on itself leaving (eventually) a super sweet lake in the “crater.” Fortunately for me, I forgot my camera, I’ll go back though eventually.


Before getting there though, I went up to my neighboring municipality, Santa Maria Ostuma, to visit a different stove project going on up there in a canton. I got there a few hours earlier and hung out with the volunteer and her fams. Their farms are super nice up there, they have tons and tons of 3 different kinds of pineapples. They picked one in front of us and chopped it up right there…. So tasty. They were building this stove with a teen church group for the canton’s church, so I kind of stayed back and watched as they did it. They call it a “rocket” or “turbo” stove because it’s small and portable, but super efficient. It’s the same idea for the ones that we are building in our municipality, but just on a smaller scale :) The fun part of this story is that I got trapped in the church while a super storm came up really quick. So I missed the last bus back to San Pedro and ended up calling a friend with a car to meet me in the main town to give me a lift. The Suzanne drew me a map to get back to the main town, and after getting back soaked, I took refuge in the main church until my ride got there. It was a fun time.

Aerial view of Lago Coatepeque

Eventually I got back to my house and was up at 430 the next morning to go out West to El Congo where another pair of volunteers were waiting to go shopping for food for our year anniversary at the lake Coatepeque. We had about 20 people from our Peace Corps group confirmed for a lake house we had gotten for 3.50 a night per person. Not too shabby for a decent place on a volcanic lake. I mean this thing makes our lakes in SC look like ugly stepsisters haha. Anyways, we had decided for a few of us to get there a day early to buy all the food for three days. We had posted meals for each time of day and a different chef for each one to take charge….I know right, welcome to the Peace Corps mentality. At the end of the day, it actually all worked out really well for the 2 full days that we were there. All the meals were delicious, (I was chef for the barbecue of hamburgers and hot dogs, day 2) I ate 3 ½ hamburgers (one was a double) and 4 hot dogs….it had been a while since I had eaten that stuff ok! The last night we threw an early halloween party and everyone was in costume for the evening... you'll notice everything from dancers, joe biden/sarah palin, to the joker. On a different note though, I was surprised though that the places there that are supposed to be like tourist spots that we passed by, didn’t even have change for a five. Classic….if you travel to El Salvador sometime in your life, only bring 1 dollar bills.

In costume. Crazy group of volunteers. Joe Biden is hilarious.

It was a nice break, although I left my umbrella out there, but luckily the rains are starting to subside.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I passed through San Sal on the way out to Santa Ana for that shebang and had from 10-12pm free so I caught a 2.75 matinee, Babylon A.D. The movie, ehh, but the plot was something really weird. Vin Diesel was a mercenary hired to take a girl who turned out miraculously pregnant by a supercomputer to New York where a high priestess of a world-wide Cult waiting to become official religion by harnessing this girl’s “virgin-birth” awaited them. Heh, sorry, I’m smiling reading over what I just wrote.


Lastly, a Peace Corps trainee from San Vicente has spent the past few days here with me in La Comunidad as part of his Immersion Days. Peace Corps sends out each trainee during their training time to different communities where they are supposed to be immersed in the culture a day and then stay with the volunteer a few days to ask questions, learn about life, etc. My guy is a biology major here in the agfor program and is a nice guy. The first day he stayed with another family, then after bfast the next day my health ladies dropped by to pick up him and we met supposedly to shadow them through the community on their house visits. However, due to the mayor’s truck breaking down, that was going to be our ride in the afternoon to San Sal to buy new medicines, and meet with a prospective donor NGO, we had to walk to the main town and take the bus. From that moment on, it was pretty funny because we were rushing all around the capital city trying to get our stuff done before the last bus headed back to San Pedro Nonualco. We managed to buy the medicines we needed, but one of the NGOs didn’t have the check ready for putting in electricity in two of the medical dispensaries here in cantones of SPN. At the end of the day though, we had to split up and I went to our meeting with the beautiful Dr. Hurtado at FUSAL who accepted our petitions for medicine and is helping out tremendously.
We made it back to San Pedro but with a large box of medicine and no ride to La Comunidad haha. The hung out in the parish house waiting on the Padre to get back from periphoning for a worship event the next day for a ride, but luckily the mayor came by and helped us out.

The next day was even better for the trainee because we picked oranges all morning with Juan and Francisco, Don Raul’s sons, and then Francisco left and came back about 10 minutes later looking for me because he had slashed wide open from his wrist to the middle of his hand on a fence while carrying firewood for some friends. There was 0, I repeat that, 0, trucks in the canton at the moment, and Isabel, the health promoter was in the main town as it was a Saturday, so with the help of my trainee (who is first aid certified, nice coincidence), we decided it hadn’t hit the radial artery, we took off the rope they had tied over a tourniquet that had cut off circulation and then loosened the tourniquet they had tied around the actual wrist and had Francisco put pressure on the actual wound. At this point, after calling his dad who was at a church event in the main town, we starting walking toward the main town (40mins). It being a Saturday, the government med clinic is closed, so the only option was the parish medical clinic, that was opened on the weekends for just this scenario, because sutures were going to be necessary. I called the doctor at the parish clinic though, and he said that he could do it if he had the tools and thread and all, but that they didn’t have any. Hah, sweet. So eventually Don Raul found someone to send from the main town and Will and I went with Don Raul and Don Amalia with Francisco to the Hospital in the capital of the department, Zacatecoluca (another 35-40 mins). Getting to Zacate, I was reminded that the hospital there was destroyed by the earthquakes in 2001, and still haven’t been rebuilt, so they are operating in a temporary, barracks style deal. This is the same place we took Isabel’s father when he died a month and some ago.

In the end, everything worked out and he got 8 stitches and aTetanus shot to boot. He can still play cards too, so that’s good for me. We got back to the canton in time to make the ADESCO meeting for 2 hours, and then getting back to my house where the people were gathering outside my house for the final prayers at the end of the novena of my neighbor’s daughter.

I detail all of this for two reasons; First, I thought it was hilarious that Will, my trainee friend, was getting a lot of exposure to things here. He asked at the end of the night kind of bewildered, “Are all your days like the last two we’ve had?” Haha, no, not usually, only about once a month. Secondly, the whole Francisco deal has reawaked me to the fact that I need to get back on the ball to get the parish clinic the tools (well contacts) they need to capitalize on the training that these young doctors who are donating their time and money have. Also, once again the need for a municipal ambulance is put in front of me, many, many people have asked about NGOs that could possibly donate one here because it’s a huge need. I think it’s workable too because if the municipality retains it as an asset of theirs, the government pays for maintenance and gas. They have parish volunteers who are nurses for the expertise and drivers from the mayor’s office. What are lacking are the resources to buy a used ambulance, but we’ll get there. If there are any ideas on one that could possibly be donated, don’t worry about transport etc etc, that stuff can be worked out.

Whew, I’ve really been slacking on the picture side of this post, I pretty much didn’t have my camera for any of it. Next time.

In the former Cardinal Ratzinger’s book Introduction to Christianity which he wrote for and through his students back in the late 60s, the first section is about Doubt and Belief and he brings up lots of anecdotes and neat little points that I can’t include, but here is a small excerpt.

“Just as the believer knows himself to be constantly threatened by the question of unbelief, which he must experience as a continual temptation, so for the unbeliever faith remains a temptation and a threat to his apparently permanently close world. In short, there is no escape from the dilemma of being a man. Anyone who makes up his mind to evade the uncertainty of belief will have to experience the uncertainty of unbelief, which can never finally eliminate for certain the possibility that belief may after all be the truth. It is not until belief is rejected that its unrejectability becomes evident.”

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, 1968…..Page 45

Planning and Projects

October 4, 2008


Ok, so it’s been about a week and change since I updated so, here goes for all you (5) people that just come rushing to this page every day to see if I have updated :). Also, I've kind of been slack about taking pictures at events these past few weeks, and I have forgotten the pics of the kids at the fiesta, but I will post those later... .words will have to suffice.


I went about a week ago to the cap to price our scholarship student trip out to the western part of the country where they have the Mayan ruins. There are two places that we have interest in taking the students. The first is called Joya de Cerén and is acclaimed to be the Pompeii of Latin America. They say that because they (archaeologists) were able to fill some of the holes left by the incinerated bodies and animals and dig down to even the rows of corn that were left covered in ash. Unfortunately though, I have been to Pompeii and there really isn’t much of a comparison. The scale to which we are talking is so much bigger in Pompeii as well as the fact that the site of Pompeii preserved an older and more sophisticated civilization that is more fun to check out. They are rebuilding the museum and I think that’s where they have all the nifty stuff from here at the Joya, so whenever they get that done it should improve the site a lot.
ANYWAYS, the next spot we are planning to visit is San Andrés, this place is a little more established and has a museum where they will take the kids on a tour, they have an indigo “device” from the Maya/Colonial era and they have a large main plaza with some of the bigger ruins intact. Apparently San Andrés (well not it’s named that at least, I doubt it was named St. Andrew at the time) was the center of the civilization in the valley and Joya de Cerén was one of the many outlying farming village.



The plan is then to eat lunch and then go by the Termos del Rio, a water park that seems pretty cool that they have out in Santa Ana. It’s more expensive, but we are getting some discounts and stuff since its school related, but that part still has to be finalized.



The morning of the last day I was in the capital my body started to hate me and I think I am just now pulling out of all that mess. So that factor plays in the background of all the rest to come. This same day I had to head out early because I had a meeting in the cantón of Roble. Roble is the Cantón farthest away from San Pedro Nonualco, but we had set the meeting for the fuel efficient stoves in the middle of it so I didn’t have to go as far though, and so that people would actually come, haha. They ended up bringing me a horse that I rode half the way up on, and then switched with my guide who went the rest of the way. The meeting actually went really well, even though I pretty much wanted to keel over for most of it….we had the shindig in the middle of the street, and I answered all the questions, etc etc, and then I got on the horse and headed back. This time I didn’t get off, haha. An hour and change later I got back to San Pedro where I had left my stuff at Alex and Niña Delfina’s house, where I do all my internet work. My stomach gave them a few surprises there, but eventually I made it back.



The majority of that has passed now and most of my work has been working in the different cantons organizing the powers to give presentations on everything in each community and then seeing how many families are going to be interested. We met in a school a few days ago in the last community and twenty five families signed up right afterwards. Yesterday, I brought representatives from all the ADESCOs to our Community building here in our canton to see and answer questions about the stoves, and thank God now that all that is over. We are looking right now at about 132 confirmed interested families and we haven’t even built the models in each community. That’s our next step, hopefully by the beginning of November we can start. From what we have priced, it’s looking like its going to be about $25 a family from start to finish and they all know that and still there is lots of interest, so we’ll see. I’m trying to find a way to lower that price still because there are some families that can’t afford it, but we’ll see what comes through.



In other non-stove news, I visited with the other medical dispensary that we have restarted up in one of the “kid days” and it seems to be moving along really well. Every Wednesday that invite mom’s (or dad’s, but they are usually working) and their kids to come and receive a talk on a certain health related topic, and in the process they weigh all the kids and give them a little nutritious meal. This time the health promoter from the main town had come in to give the talk and a Japanese nutrionist (from a program similar to Peace Corps…but Japanese…JICA) did consultations with the moms.

The health promoter talking with the moms

The JICA nutritionist giving consultations

Oh, almost forgot. Peace Corps brought out the new Agroforestry/Environmental Education group to my site a few days ago to get an idea of life here and I got to teach how to plant live barriers. Luckily I remembered how to build the A-level thingamabob or I would have felt like an ignant. My boss and one of the ag engineers came out too to check things out too, so it was a lovely time, until it rained on us. They have a good group and I think I heard of a few master’s degrees as well so, they will do fine.


Finally, today I went with the kids of the CBI, basically a daycare for kids who aren’t of age for kinder that the government has here and that is administered by my ADESCO, to a gathering for the whole department that the government put on. It was nifty, there are only two CBIs in San Pedro Nonualco, one in the main town, and one in my community. So it was about 50 kids under the age of 5, haha, craziness. It was held at another “complejo” school, one like that school that I went with Juan for the math competition, but this time government and not parish run. It was actually interesting because it was a Sports Complejo….they focus on development through sports…..anyways, there were a ton of kids there and now I have blisters on my hands from pulling the string on too many piñatas up and down all morning.


This week coming up proves to be a long one. I will be heading out to Santa Ana to prepare for our year anniversary party on the lake that we are throwing, haha (yes our group is crazy) and then when I get back there will be a volunteer in training that is going to come out to my site to stay from Thursday to Sunday. Should prove interesting.

My health promoter ladies in La Comunidad cleaning up the wound of a neighbor who chopped off part of his big toe with a machete.

I can’t help but put in this Newsweek comment that appeared in the July 21 week as my quote to close this entry. There was an edition that came out in April that had articles on Pope Benedict XVI and this reader from South Africa pretty much nailed it on the head with his taking it to modern “thought”…. If you can call it that.


“Evaluating Pope Benedict


The author of ‘Why this Pope Doesn’t Connect’ (April 21/April 28) states that Benedict pales in comparison with his predecessor in a number of respect including ‘looks, vitality, charisma, showmanship, tenure and popular appeal.’ Is she referring to the head of the Roman Catholic Church or the lead in a high-school rock band? Surely these specific characteristics are of scant importance in a person leading the largest Christian denomination on the planet. She goes on to state that certain other elements make him unsuitable or unpopular as an ideal pope, including his unfortunate visage, his predilection for traditional papal fashion and the fact that he served as John Paul’s theological ‘enforcer.’ Again, one can only wonder why anyone would deem these features important in determining Benedict’s acceptance among Roman Catholic Christians. Surely his religious devotion, intelligence and peculiar application of church dogma would be of far greater interest. The article further opines that the Roman Church operates in a “chaotic world” and then ends by saying that American Catholics understand that they will not be satisfied in their desire for the church to change. It does leave one wondering whether the world would not be less chaotic if it was less American and more in line with church teaching.


Johan Marnewick


Johannesburg, South Africa”


Published in Newsweek, July 21, 2008, page 10.

El Salvadoran Independence Day

September 20, 2008

Well not too much to report as of late, but I think it only appropriate to start out with one of my worst fears coming true. I’ve gotten used to just going to bed as of late, whereas as for the first few months I always checked my bed because of the ants that kept invading it in the beginning. I fixed that problem, but now I will be sure to start checking it again :)…..check out the pic…..

I spy.....

oh.... hello there.

come to bed my sweet...... ahahahahaha

Yeah, that little guy was waiting for me the other night. After a 15 chase around the room, I finally got tired of trying to spear him with my machete and just chopped him in half with a knife…..haha.

In other news, I have enjoyed the latest rash of remakes of US songs here. I thought that most of the 80s and some 90s songs they were remaking in Spanish, but turns out now they are redoing the Elvis songs too. They basically just steal the beat and change the words to rhyme in Spanish, but it’s pretty funny. Is that legal? Haha.

Also, we have started to hold meetings for the scholarships that we are going to give for the University for 2009 as the San Pedro Nonualco Scholarship Committee. There will be 5 scholarships given to students and residents of San Pedro in the amount of $1,000 a year given in disbursements of $100 a month. All of the money comes from donors in the United States and Canada. The scholarship committee started working with just High School students helping pay the tuition and costs, but now that the government has started paying the majority of that this year, we have been able to turn more of the focus on a level of education that the majority of them never thought possible to be able to attain. Slowly I think the committee will work its way to just focusing on the University scholarships if the government continues to pay for high school tuition. As always, anyone wishing to donate to giving students who have no chance at going to college without help, feel free to do so through the donate tab or email me if you would like a tax-deductible way to do so. The first meeting we held for just our town we had about 40 people show up with another 10 who told me they couldn’t be there but wanted to apply. I think we are planning on starting the selection process on December 1, 2008 and finishing up in time for me to head out to visit home for Christmas.

Hmmm…. Ah yes, I also finished my worm box the other day, a miniature model of what I saw up in Chalatenango (the northern province of El Sal) that time. Knowing my luck though, about 5 minutes after me and some of the neighbor kids finished cementing the floor of it, a storm came up with the hardest rain here I’ve seen in country all day and filled the plastic that I had covering it to the point that it sucked all the plastic into the cement and brick boxes and then proceeded to fill the two boxes. Life is good.

prepping the ground for my wormboxes, haha, i love that word

I forgot to take a pic until now of the process

finishing up cementing the bottom part

after it all filled up with water and prepared it like this so as not to turn into a "turtle pool" as everyone said it looked like, haha

In political news, the whole Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Evo Morales (Bolivia), with a little bit of Honduras, deal here has become pretty huge. Everyone (those who have access to media) is always interested to know what I think and if I have heard the latest updates. Commercials now are all over the place here on TV bashing Hugo Chavez and linking him to other leftist political parties here in country in an effort to gain advantages for the coming elections. Apparently, last night they showed a clip where Chavez was caught talking about the El Sal elections coming up and how that he hoped the left won because they are guerrillas. Anyways, it’s all getting really interesting down here, but from what I’ve heard from the US (and from reading online), it doesn’t seem to come up a ton. Same ole crazy world.



Finally, El Salvador celebrated its Independence Day on September 15 of this month, and it was all pretty cool. There is a Mass to start it all off in the morning and then all the schools gather in front of the mayor’s office for a little presentation and then they all line up (each one has a band and dancers….kinder to high school….it’s pretty amazing) and start to parade throughout the streets of the main town. Then each one swings back around to the main plaza in front of the office to do a final band hoorah, and then pass on to let the next one come in and be announced by the mayor. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Don Raul’s kid Francisco was directing the band of the high school so I was there to take pics of them a lot as well.

During the anthem here.

The middle schoolers as dancers for their group

The High Schoolers.

The kinder boys.... awesome.

The kinder ladies.

More high schoolers.

Almost forgot, I finished the Book of Mormon....whew. Now I kept Thomas More as a nice redirect afterwards, now I can get into that, but I haven't decided what next. More will be a challenge if I actually let it.

I saw First Knight with Sean Connery and Richard Gere last night on tv at the neighbors house and a dialogue caught my eye. Enjoy.

"Arthur: We have had our share of war. Now, I look forward to quieter days. But first, admit our guest.

- Malagant...- Malagant is here at my invitation.

Malagant: May I congratulate the King on his forthcoming marriage. I see my place hasn't been taken yet. I was first among your knights.

Arthur: You left of your own free will.

Malagant: We each of us must follow our own road.

Arthur: Where does your road take you? To Leonesse?

Malagant: Leonesse is my neighbour. I offeredthe lady a treaty of friendship.

Guinevere:- Is burning villages friendship?-

Malagant: Yes, My Lady...Your land is becoming lawless.Were you not just attacked?

Guinevere:- You know who attacked me.-

Malagant: I made it my business to know. Justice has been done.-

Guinevere: You know no law above yourself!

Arthur (reading): "Armed forces to be given access to all Leonesse." "Troops to assist in the enforcement of law... in all Leonesse."

Arthur to Guinevere:- Do you want to sign this?-

Guinevere: I'll never sign it.

Malagant: She's very brave...now she's to be married. Will Camelot protect Leonesse?-

Arthur: Is Leonesse in need of protection?

Malagant: Come. Arthur.I'm here to settle this business. Leonesse is too weak to stand alone. Let's say half each. The lesser gives way to the greater. What nation is greater than Camelot? The land of justice. Come... your hand on it. We'II all live together as friends.

Arthur: You offer mewhat isn't yours to give.

Malagant: You all know me.You know I'm a man of my word. Don't make an enemy of me. - I mean no harm to Camelot.-

Arthur: You know the law we live by. Where is it written. Beyond Camelot live lesser people? People too weak to protect themselves, let them die?

Malagant: Other people live by other laws.Or does your law rule the world?

Arthur: There are laws that enslave men. And laws that set them free. Either what we hold to be right and good and true is right and good and true for all mankind under God. or we're just a robber tribe.

Malagant: Your words are talking you out of peace and into war.

Arthur: There's a peace you only findafter war. If that battle must come. I will fight it!

- And I!- And I!

Malagant: The great Arthur...and his great dream. No dream lasts forever.