Earth Day Art, HIV, and a Charlie Horse

SO, I don't know what has happened to blogger, but its not letting me move pictures anymore, so until I figure out why, we'll have to deal with pictures all at once at the end of the post.

April 25, 2009

So Holy Week and Easter Week are over and things are starting to get back to normal. The twins turned two, so there was a little bit of festivity there. They are starting to sprout up and are trying to talk a lot. Check out a few pics.

These past few weeks the wood saving stove project has started to pick up steam. We started with the community furthest out, and knocked it out by turning over to all the families the materials. I brought Francisco along to help the crew of the trash truck and me to deliver the stuff. It was a lot of work, and a long bumpy ride, but with much success. The technician is coming this week to start building out there.

A few days ago, we knocked out two other communities, La Carbonera and San Juan Nahuistepeque, we are just waiting on the iron griddle like parts to get done at the NGO. I feel like that is going to be the holdup for this project. But that is the biggest problem, and at the same time best lesson for a Peace Corps Volunteer….we bring nothing to the table as far as resources go, so we have to organize really well, and keep on people, or things never get done. I’ve found that things get done better by just making friends with everyone, rather than relying on the fact that we are “Cuerpo de Paz” (Peace Corps), haha.

Oh man, normally, I omit all the things that go wrong in the projects, but I couldn’t help but laugh at the latest clownage. I borrowed a metal barrel from someone to bring molasses for the stoves, and didn’t know that the bottom wasn’t welded well to the top part. Well, that led to about 30 galones ($20) of molasses leaking out on the way back from the Sugar Factory. It was ALL over the Mayor’s Office’s truck and the front of the Mayors Office and everything. And there wasn’t any water to wash the stuff with. It was a terrible evening, haha. Now that I think about it, I think City Hall might be a better translation for Alcaldia….anyways, fun stuff.
In other news, one of the students of the rural school of San Juan Nahuistepeque in our municipality won second place in the country in a drawing contest put on by the Embassy and Peace Corps. So the country director and my boss and other people came to do a little ceremony in Celebration of Earth Day.

We also put on a big deal HIV/AIDS event here in La Comunidad in the Casa Comunal. I tried to stay more in the background and let the Health Committee and Isabel the community health promoter do the majority, and it actually turned out pretty well. We invited the head of the Infectology(?) dept. in the major hospital in the capital to do a talk on the history and current indices in the country, the parish priest to talk about prevention from a religious perspective, the head of Rural Health and Sanitation in Peace Corps to talk about its Biology, I put together a social drama with a youth group, and at the end CARITAS brought in a Testimony. I’d say we had close to 100 people there. Although at least half was a captive audience because we had a sign up sheet that we turned into the schools that had given permission for their students to attend.

Oh yeah, thanks to a donation from a group in Utah, we’ve been able to supply a school with a floor and electricity for what will now be its Computer Classroom. Through the same group we’ve also been able to supply the medical clinic and another school with their first computers. There is a third laptop, but I am looking for a hard drive to fix it with.

Finally, here in my home Canton, we have finished our internal study and pricings, land permissions, etc, to starting fix the potable water system. We will now start soliciting embassies, NGOs, and anything else that moves, hahaha.

Good times.

As much as I wanted to quote some of G.K. and his interesting take on tradition and democracy, I’m satisfied with this quote.

“Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything.”

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p. 47

The guys joking after seeing my leg.

my leg.

The escaped crab that showed up in my refri.

What I saw when I opened up my fridge.

Our Testimony at the AIDS deal.

The kids watching our drama by the youth group.

Our play, supposedly a scene from a local bus.

The mayor giving a few words.

(left ot right) Dr. Cedillos from Hospital Rosales, Mrs. Mari from CARITAS El Salvador, Mauricio Juarez President of ADESCO, Prof. Guillermo Garcia Mayor of San Pedro, Isabel Urias Health Promoter, Father Tino Parish Priest

Padre Tino doing what he does.

An activity led by Isabel.

The only pic that came out with me in it. In this activity we put on a song and had a bunch of kids mix what looked like cups of water. At the end we had a surprise AIDS test in each cup and in the cups that had vinegar, and not water, showed up tainted. Only the kids that we had told beforehand not to mix no matter what came out without AIDS. Fun stuff.

Dr. Cedillos giving his datum.

Bri, one of the Peace Corps bosses, doing the biology of HIV/AIDS.

our chain gang of unloading materials in the community furthest away

Some of the things we left.

A pic with the hermita within reach.

I was the one always covered in molasses.

Molasses

Pour it all in. On this trip I brought along Francisco to help and take some pics.

This was one of the fruit baskets made by the school that won the art deal.

Our country director giving the gift and some words of encouragement.

My boss giving a few words.

The truck that brought tubes for the stoves and bricks for the computer room at the school.

The kids at the ceremony.

The table of honor. Wahoo.

The scene for Earth Day beforehand.

The twins next door trying to blow out their candles.

Yummy.

Holy Friday

Check out some pics from Stations of the Cross here in San Pedro Nonualco. They have them on Main Street and its actually kind of cool because they are carrying a float with Jesus on it and at the Stations where Mary or John or whoever come into play they have another float with that person on it come in and then follow the Jesus Float. There is also a tradition here in Central America to make the stations with a colored sand and clay, its kind of cool. There are a few pictured here working from the end back to the beginning.

A brotherhood reenacting the crucifixion.
Coming up to the parish church in procession.

From a distance.

The float.

from a distance.


Video of the start.

The procession.

The painting "pure love" done by the high school students on the road.

Sand painting.

Another Sand Painting.

Started putting the white painting on the church.

Semana Santa (Holy Week!)

So, this program is being dumb and wont let me move things down, so, we will have to deal with it like this til I can fix it later. The pictures at the top here are meants for the later parts of the post... haha... good luck.

Don Raul with his granddaughter at the beach. I put the orange peel on her head... its supposed to be a crown
They said I should do my hair like that everyday....whatever.

Our creation at the beach to protect the hole in the top middle that had fish in it.

The artists.

Always gotta get some cards going.

The bishops at the burial with the Franciscans in the background.

Padre Max.

The Facade with the first coat of paint on the day of the funeral.

Top of the volcano.

The crater of the volcano Santa Ana.

A pic I took above my head while walking.

Two other volcanos.

The burial chamber in front of the altar where they buried Padre Max.

A different view.

The New meets the Old.

The next wall that is to be started.

April 6, 2009

The moliendas... where they juice the sugar canes.

taste tests!

The steam geyser.

The pools they are building.

Let’s see, March. I went with some members of my community a few weeks ago to “el infernillo”… “the little hell”. It’s a small ravine on the side of the volcano where a stream passes over a heat vent, leading to a strong shoots of water vapor shooting out of the ground and lots of sulfur. When there is more water in the rainy season it forms pools of warm water, but right now its pretty dry above ground. They are building a little tourism dilly there to catch the water and make thermal pools, should turn out interesting.

After, we passed by the sugar cane grinder deals in the country and got to taste the sugary substance that bubbles to the top, very tasty.

About a week ago Mauricio, the neighbor, and I decided to go hunting for crabs and fishies in the streams close while going swimming in the different places where the water is deep enough to frollick in. I lost my machete as we were on our way back at night time and it fell out, couldn’t find it the days after either. I think we are going to go this evening to crab and fish in the night time.

Gin Rummy in the middle of nowhere.

Here are some pics of the progress on the church reconstruction. They were stalled a while without funds, but now got the paint donated so are back at work. I’ve also started taking pics of the wall that they have in mind to start next so that we can send out some grant proposals.
Next, ah yes, I had an awesome time going out to climb the Santa Ana Volcano. It’s the tallest volcano in country, and just erupted in 2005. They have had it closed off since then and have just now reopened it. We have a volcanologist as a volunteer out there working with the El Sal gov who was our guide and all that jazz. That’s the first time I’ve seen something like that….talking about the crater. I mean one wrong step and its weeeeeee 2000 feet down to the superheated acid lake in the middle. We took a pic as a group at the top, but they haven’t sent them out yet, so oh well.

Video from on top of the crater, and a snippet of the Crater Lake Coatepeque.

When I got back from that, I arrived in time for what would be the equivalent of a wake for us, but for the Italian Franciscan priest that evangelized 30 some years in San Pedro Nonualco. A group of Franciscans came in the early 20th century here to the region and evangelized this area. Padre Maximiliano spent some 32 years in San Pedro and then was moved to another place close at the end of his life. He had asked to be buried in the San Pedro parish church when he died, so the parish honored that request upon his death. Here are some pics from the wake and then funeral. He was a very honored and respected person in the region for his humility. 2 bishops came, and a large group of monks from the Franciscan order, and a large group of the diocesian pastors were there in support. There were tons and tons of people, and even the small groups of evangelicals were showing up at the Mass.

Seeing as yesterday was Palm Sunday, now Semana Santa (Holy Week) has started here and the majority of the people are on vacation, especially the govt. There are processions and confessions and Masses all week and seeing how I wasn’t here last year to check it all out, I am excited to see how it goes this year.

Oh yeah, this past weekend I went with all the host fam to the beach to go fishing with cast nets and all and hang out. It was a nice relaxing time. The kids and I built a large sand “thing” that was supposed to not let the water get in, but we had to leave before we saw how many waves it took to knock it down, haha.

Finally, the stove project continues to move along, with the recent vacations and deaths and stuff we still haven’t been able to send out the materials, but the week after holy week we are going to start again. We have the funding necessary and all that jazz soo… wahoo. Also, we have finished measuring everything we need to fix our potable water system now, and only need the land permissions and prices. I have priced the pvc in the US, so I have an idea, but we need to find out here. Once we have all that it will be time to go knocking on doors at different institutions.
The last project I am looking to do here is probably one of the most important (and within reach), it is to fix up the casa comunal (community house) so that it isn’t useless in the rainy season. The roof is going on 20 years old (and we aren’t talking shingles, haha) and they need to fix up the outhouse, need some chairs and tables, and a board to put community announcements would be key. I am finishing up the paperwork on all that too with the Development Committee, and hope to have it up on the Peace Corps Partnership site soon (http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors).

I finished the book On Being Catholic and have also finished El Alquimista (The Alchemist) in Spanish. Both were edifying, but the Alchemist was actually a really thought provoking book, if it exists in English you should check it out. It’s by Paulo Coelho and it’s about discovering the meaning of life haha.

“Los alquimistas hacen esto. Muestran que cuando buscamos ser mejores de lo que somos, todo a nuestro alrededor se vuelve mejor también.”

“The alchemists do this. They show that when we try to be better than what we are, all our surroundings end up better as well.”

El Alquimista p. 185