Club Titan

April 2, 2008

Well hello there people, I have finally gotten settled back into my site after a month of lots of traveling events. The last of which was my trip to Texistepeque, Santa Ana. A volunteer from a previous group held a big event to help raise funds for their computer program…..I’m actually working on that as well in my site…on a municipal level. The program we work with is Interconnection, and we can get full computers for about $100 dollars, for the baseline refurbished computer. No school can actually pay that here in country, but we are starting up fundraisers and stuff to help out. Anyways, I headed out to the capital the night after the big meeting we had in the Casa Comunal where the Health NGO turned over control of the Medical Dispensary to our ADESCO. This is a really big step for the community because now they will manage their own little “medical center.” I mean, we still don’t know how we are going to pay the 2 “nurses” that run it, because what they make from the sales of medicines really will just cover the sale of the medicines a little bit of what their salaries were from the NGO. I think that eventually the sales of the medicines will cover it all, but not for a year at least. SOOOO, we have to survive until we can solicit the mayor for funds in the next year’s budget. For the both of them that would be $200 for the next 8 months. If anyone has any good ideas on that one, I’m all ears. This was that pipe that burst a while ago that let all our community water drain away.

Me fillin in the holes for the pipes :)

Back to the trip, I went to the capital the night before and then headed out the next morning to the other side of the country, and actually hitched a free ride with 3 other volunteers and a friend they had made that teaches English in the capital. We got to Texistepeque a few hours before the game they had set up between us and Club Titan, a semiprofessional soccer team. Come to find out, the day before the national newspaper had a 2 page spread on them and how they have been number 1 the past few years in their division, yet are the lowest paid. Well wonderful! The girls team played before us, and got beat 6-0 or something. The Peace Corps male team, that’s us, had about 20 players show up, which they say is abnormal, so we rotated throughout the game. Club Titan wore red socks on their dominant legs so that the referee could call the goal back if they used it to score :) They still beat us 10-2. It’s a given that a bunch of our good players weren’t there, but they called back 4 goals they scored accidentally with the strong leg. Oh well. It was fun, they were sooooo much better than us, I think I’ll stick to basketball here, hah.



We came back through the capital, and took a day of luxury sitting by the pool in the hotel that the embassy uses. It’s really nice, apparently volunteers come into the capital a few times a week to use its gym and pool etc, but, personally I think that’s kind of a lame excuse to get out of your site. I mean I love to work out and all, I am only one bus ride from the capital, but becoming more successful in your community should trump your desire to stay in that kind of shape.

Stole this one off facebook, the army guy who posted it said I was doing an MRE commercial, ha

There’s my two cents. So yeah, the guitar that I brought back is doing nicely, it has my fingers nice and sore. I’m on Hey There Delilah right now…. I think I’ll be there for a while, although I need a capo for some other songs.

The same guy posted individual shots of all the PC people, this was mine ahahahahaha

Things have been really busy since I’ve gotten back. I’ve actually had to take a break on the whole reading thing for a while to get a handle on this stuff. I think I’ll end up skimming the rest of Charles Darwin and then move on. I sat down and diagrammed my projects going on right now on the little dry erase board that Aaron left me and actually surprised myself. Right now, it’s about 14 different “projects” that are sapping my life’s energy away haha. Some I am actively working on and other are in the development stages. For example today I have a meeting in the afternoon with Habitat for Humanity El Salvador. The Mayor, Don Mauricio (I hope), Don Raul, and I will be meeting to talk about what they can bring here. Tomorrow FUDEM, an NGO that does Eye Campaigns, is coming to meet with the mayor, my health promoter ladies, the parish clinic doctor, and me in the morning. So, there are opportunities opening up, I just hope we can take advantage of it. Not to mention we have cervical/uterine exams coming up in a week free of charge for all of our ladies :) hah.



Isabel, the health promoter, and I started the recycling campaign officially yesterday in the school here in the canton. We are going to go for a month and then see the final weights of the plastic and aluminum to see whether the morning or afternoon classes won….and then dish out prizes accordingly.



OHH yea, I had two neighbors dog die while I was away in Texistepeque. One in the twins house next door, and BUXY, the little girl dog at Don Raul’s died. I asked from what and they kept saying Dysentery, but that just didn’t sound right. They said another dog also seemed to be going the same way in the twin’s house, but recuperated eventually. Very sad, it was a cute pup. Apparently the younger grandkids at Don Raul’s took it hard.

This was Buxy's bed on top of a bag of corn.

Another random note, is that PC supplies free Newsweek Magazines at the office every month, and they are actually kind of good. They are short, simple articles of certain subjects by a varying number of authors. I am taking to them a little bit.



Finally, I am going to Esquipulas, Guatemala on a Parish trip this Saturday. Don Raul and Dona Amalia are in charge of the trip to raise money for the patron festivals of La Comunidad in August, so I’ve helped out here and there with what I could. It should be fun.



I close with a movie quote, wahoo. Actually, the soundtrack of this movie actually caught my eye this time watching it, it wasn’t too shabby.

Another random pic that I ripped from my cell phone, taken by the kiddies, if you couldn't tell, the pics of this post came from my phone and facebook

“If they ever tell my story, let them say, I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses, let them say I lived in the time of Achilles.”



-the closing lines of the movie “Troy”