My World in El Salvador: New Government and Random Stories

May 28, 2009

Well, things are always nice to start with a positive story. The neighbors family have an unproportionally large amount of birthdays in May, so they try and make a trip to the beach (40 miles…maybe) in that month once every two years or so. So everyone piled into an orange truck and we headed out to Las Puntillas. It’s the point of a little harbor basically. We went crabbing again with hoes and machetes…..I found 5 this time, so I’m getting better at digging holes in the mud, haha.

The 6th of May we had three more eye surgeries, all cataracts done by FUDEM, the eye NGO here, and they are mostly a success. One old person says she has more headaches, and another that his eye waters up a lot, and third says life is good, so I’d say it was a success, haha. That same day I headed out to the National School of Agriculture for our last Peace Corps training for my group. It wasn’t near as good as the last one, but I made a nice find with an NGO there called CARE that might work in water projects so, we’ll see how it turns out.
Habitat for Humanity came out to my site and we did some house by house publicity. They brought out the megaphone mounted on a truck, and about 5 people so we started handed out all their info. They basically work on building new houses or repairing the ones people have by giving credit at a lower rate than the banks. Not as exciting as I thought they would be at first, but they do what they can. We then went through San Pedro doing the same thing. Wahoo, :)
Later in the week Water, Trees, and People, the NGO collaborating on the stove project, sent a US representative to El Sal, who decided to drop by and visit the project here in San Pedro Nonualco. That went well, and she got to meet a bunch of the families and all that jazz.
Oh yeah, we ended up making it into the final tournament in the last spot (8th) for soccer. Which means we had to take on the number 1 team in the first round. We tied 0-0 in regulation and then won in penalty kicks. I pretty much helped in no way that game. No worries though, we played a much bigger and more physical team the next Sunday and got beat 4-0. I got there late, so I couldn’t play….my alarm didn’t go OFFFF.
Also in a proud moment, I would like to announce the completion of my porch closing in deal (except for doors). Don Raul and I finished that up, and I feel like a real skilled mason now.
Check out the pics.

Almost forgot, the mayor has now officially changed here, so this month has been me getting used to the new personnel, manner of work, and all that jazz. Work continues. This Monday the Presidency will change hands for the first time a leftist party in the history of the democracy, so everyone is interested to see how it works out. I have hopes and fears. Only time will tell.
A random note, I think I have heard on the bus a remake of the George Micheal? Careless Whisper song by some rock group. I don’t know if it’s not bad or just me liking some with a little bit of an American rhythm.

Everyone is planting their corn farms and bean “gardens” here now that the rain is here and things won’t dry up. An exciting time for all.

In random news things I’ve seen. I saw that the California Supreme Court upheld the gay marriage ban recently approved by voters. The vote was 6-1 if I’m not mistaken. Anyone want to know which of the 7 California justices was being considered for the US Supreme Court? Let’s see, ah yes, Notre Dame, seems like that’s just a giant cluster. What were they thinking. I saw a video where they were arresting priests on Notre Dame’s campus? Sounds to me like Notre Dame (administration) acted without thinking it through and then felt too deep to pull out. I guarantee they will think twice before giving an honorary degree to someone who is the leading figure in the fight against the Church in the realm of the most pressing moral issue of the day. For some reason, when I see the arresting of old priests at a Catholic school, it reminded me of the scenes in the third new Star Wars movie where the emperor, gives the command for the clones to turncoat on all the Jedi and shoot them in the back. Oh well, who knows why it came to mind. On the Pro-Obama side though, I got a chance to glance at his “Terminations, Reductions, and Savings” document for the 2010 budget and it’s impressive. Reducing funding by $17 billion to govt programs isn’t an easy task without making quite a few people, I’d imagine influential people, somewhat angry. What he is eliminating and reducing is of less importance to me at this point, more the fact that they are making tough decisions to bring part of the budget to more order while admitting that they will be spending more money in the next few years than any administration in the history of our nation. Whether that parts a good or bad thing, I’m not sure yet. Hmmmm what else, ah yes, saw where a Catholic priest got caught with a chick at the beach, and decided to change over to Episcopal church to be with her and so as keep his job as a pastor. It was on the front page here in El Salvador a few days ago too. I couldn’t help but get a kick out of the comments to the articles online about this. There were praising the Episcopal church for having been the recipient of a few renounced Catholic clergy over the past decades, even some that are serving as their bishops now. Ummmm….roight.…. And you wonder why the Episcopal church has so many problems nowadays with defining moral teachings? I have no idea why that might be. They also might want to check the recent entrance rate into the Catholic Church from the Anglican Communion and Episcopal side. Canterbury is the biggest Catholic promoter nowadays :)

Finally, I was awoken last night by the tremors of a 7.1 earthquake off the coast of Honduras. It was kind of cool, but probably the strongest tremors I’ve felt here yet. Everything was swaying right to left, over and over. I walked outside in time to see some lights being cut on in neighboring houses. Crazy stuff.

Projects continue advancing here, more on that soon.

I finished Orthodoxy and there are a plethora of thoughts I’d like to put down, but here are just a few.

“The last chapter has been concerned with the contention that orthodoxy is not only (as is often urged) the only safe guardian of morality or order, but is also the only logical guardian of liberty, innovation and advance. If we wish to pull down the prosperous oppressor we cannot do it with the new doctrine of human perfectibility; we can do it with the old doctrine of Original Sin. If we want to uproot inherent cruelties or lift up lost populations we cannot do it with the scientific theory that matter precedes mind; we can do it with the supernatural theory that mind precedes matter. If we wish specially to awaken people to social vigilance and tireless pursuit of practice, we cannot help it much by insisting on the Immanent God and the Inner Light: for these are at best reasons for contentment; we can help it much by insisting on the transcendent God and the flying and escaping gleam; for these are at best reasons contentment; we can help it much by insisting on the transcendent God and the flying and escaping gleam; for that means divine discontent. If we wish particularly to assert the idea of a generous balance against that of a dreadful autocracy we shall instinctively be Trinitarian rather than Unitarian. If we desire European civilization to be a raid and a rescue, we shall insist rather that souls are in real peril than that their peril is ultimately unreal. And if we wish to exalt the outcast and the crucified, we shall rather wish to think that a veritable God was crucified, rather than a mere sage or hero. Above all, if we wish to protect the poor we shall be in favour of fixed rules and clear dogmas. The rules of a club are occasionally in favour of the poor member. The drift of a club is always in favour of the rich one.”

Orthodoxy, p. 148

A group called PICO, based in California, a grass roots community organization NGO, has started working with the parish here, and talking about the fact the everyone has certain rights, the guy said something that caught my eye in an effort to get people to think how to make good on their rights as well becoming involved to help make their rights a reality:

“All people have rights, but they also all have obligations.”

Delivering stove materials in the trash truck to a neighboring community.

BRICKS!

The driver of City Hall giving all you guys a thumbs up while tying up some barrils of molasses for the stoves.

The second part of the visit of Trees, Water, and People was visiting with the families where I actually live that have had the stoves for almost two years to evaluate their experiences.

The first part of the visit of the US NGO was to train the new families on how to use the stove and for the US representative to see how the project was moving along.

The lesson.

These ladies and gentlemen are the new City Council members for San Pedro Nonualco.

This is the new Mayor of San Pedro Nonualco, Mr. Sergio Orellana, seen here giving his acceptance speech and work plan for this term.

The exchange of the baton/scepter of the city, the symbol of power in the municipality held by each mayor (alcalde)

The previous Mayor, Mr. Guillermo Garcia, giving his speech while addressing the new government seated in the background.

This is sad that the pictures will be backwards, but.... oh well. This blogger continues to not let me move the pictures. Here is my new wall deal on my back porch that Don Raul and I did. Eventually will doors, it will keep the skanky ducks out that keep pooing ALL over my porch, hah.