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.