New Latrine!!!

March 3, 2009

So, yeah yeah I’ve been a slacker on this thing, but you guys should be glad…. That means that I am out working somewhere else instead of always at the computer, haha.

The past few weeks there have been a few things going on. First, I was translating for a week in San Juan Nonualco for Habitat for Humanity. There was a group of 11 Queen’s University students from Canada that came down to build a house. They were a good group of guys and girls. I am still trying to bring Habitat out to my site to build some houses, so keep your fingers crossed. Speaking of fingers crossed, have you have seen Hispanic baseball players cross themselves before or after doing something and then kiss their hand? Ever wondered why? I just learned that it’s because they are making the form of a cross with their thumb crossing over their pointer finger. Get right out of town, I never knew that.

The university group from Canada.

Anyways, also we had the scholarship ceremony for our 5 University scholars with representatives from Peace Corps, the US Embassy, the municipality, and the Church all participating in honoring the students. The five are now on their way to their degree.
I also attended the High School graduation here a few days ago. It starts with a Mass and then moves in procession to the graduation ceremony in the High School. That was nice too, check out some pics.

The graduation ceremony almost starting.

Mauricio (brother of Fran), Dona Amalia (mom of Fran), Francisco, and Manuel (uncle of Fran)

The stove project continues, piece by piece it is falling into place. Some communities are ahead of others in the process, but they are well on their way.

Finally, Don Raul and I have finished my new latrine/outhouse. It is stellar, much more stable than the previous….much less chance of people falling in. It is about 3.5 meters deep, which made it interesting for going in and out.

More or less beginning.

Different Angle.

Deeper.

Deeper.

Uh oh...

Oh ok, whew.

Higher.

For some reason this pic just makes me smile.

"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in
peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of
winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you
are certain in every battle to be in peril."

-Master Sun

Eye Surgeries with FUDEM!!!

February 3, 2009

I can’t think of too much to talk about as of late, just two things. First, is that I assisted our 3rd and 4th surgeries for the people who have eye problems. The first two I didn’t actually accompany through the whole thing, but since these two were for my neighbors I went with them for emotional support haha. I have been working with this group of people since the beginning of the year 2008, and now we are here a year later with the surgeries, wahoooo. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, but it did. The mayor’s office has helped out with transport to the capital and FUDEM has been very generous in helping out the people with little money for the operations.

One of the two had already entered into surgery and the second one is here waiting with the family.

Lightening the mood a bit by putting on the guy's hat who had already went in.

The second thing is that my birthday went by and it was actually pretty fun. We had one party in the main town where I do my internet work, and another (which was supposed to be a surprise) a few days later with my ADESCO. Fun stuff.

Alex and Nina Delfina made me a banner when we celebrated my bday in their house (where I do internet work) with hamburgers and hot dogs

very scary.

yummy.

Celebrating in the canton with the ADESCO.

We miraculously won another basketball game this past Saturday (I’m still trying to get a pic of our team up here) and we lost another close soccer game Sunday.

Ok, so I was late in posting this so, I now have a few things more to add before the end. The Scholarship committee that I am part of here in San Pedro Nonualco has chosen its 5 University Scholars for this year. We finished the selection process and held a meeting with the winners and their parents this week, the students are very excited. The San Pedro Nonualco Scholarship Committee started the year before I got here with the previous volunteer and a small group of teachers, directors, etc. They are all volunteers on the committee, which originally served to scholarship kids to high school. Now, the government is paying for high school, so the committee is focusing more and more on University scholarships. All the money that supports these very, very able students comes in from the US and Canada. Take a look at the San Pedro University Scholars 2009. There are three that will major in Math, one in Medicine, and one in English.

Our University Scholars.

Finally, the festivals of “The Sweet Name of Jesus” have finished once again, which means that the pilgrimage has come and gone. I did it again, this time knowing a few more people, so, that and the fact that I knew what to expect helped it to go by quicker. We left from San Pedro at 3am, got to the reunion point with the group from even further away, and from there left at 530am and did it in under 6 hours this time. Fun stuff.

Waiting in the streets at 5 in the morn for the arrivals of Kid Jesus.

Part of the group I was with.

The gringo.

(we consider that word to have bad connotations, but the rest of the Latin world just uses it as meaning American haha.)

passing by a waterfall.

Part of the basketball team that I did the pilgrimmage with. (that guy stole my hat!)

Getting close to the end.

They also had different musical “artists” come through in those days in the main square, as well as a Cumbia group from Colombia. I forgot my camera those days though haha.
Check out the card table that my neighbor Mauricio and I made under a tree in between the two houses, hahaha. He found it about 15 minutes down the ridge and so we went and brought it back, along with other firewood. I tacked on the blanket that the planes give you from when I first got here, not too shabby.

The card table that my neighbor Mauricio and I made.

Also, I finally finished the then Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity, deep stuff. It took way too long to read, but there are a few things that it puts into perspective. In comparison, I read the Song of Roland (one of the oldest chanson de geste, so it is said) today in its entirety while in the hammock, haha. Charlemagne is the man, next to Roland of course :)

Roland and his horn.

“168

Count Roland realizes death is near:
His brains begin to ooze out through his ears.
He prays to God to summon all his peers,
And to the angel Gabriel Himself.
Eschewing blame, he takes the horn in hand
And in the other Durendal, his sword,
And farther than a crossbow fires a bolt,
Heads out across a fallow field toward Spain
And climbs a rise. Beneath two lovely trees
Stand four enormous marble monoliths.
Upon the green grass he has fallen backward
And fainted, for his death is near at hand.”

Song of Roland

(8th century oral tradition about the last days of Count Roland, nephew of Charlemagne, 12th century written ed.)

2009!

January 20, 2009

No time to post pics, of which there are a lot, right now, but in the next week they will be up here.

So yeah, loootttssss of things to chat about since I haven’t updated this thing in a while. I guess the brief overview of everything will probably be the best approach :)

Our current road project has reached in front of my house.

The twins in their Christmas attire

In the days before going home, I had a few events that were pretty interesting go on around here. First, while I was at the AIDS conference in San Miguel, a lady from Alaska that was there teaching the teachers here how to teach English asked to come visit my site. Apparently her group was going up to Perquin, Morazan, where the civil war museum is, and she had already been there a few times so she wanted to go check out a different place. Some of the other Alaskan friends that we have in common mentioned San Pedro Nonualco, and there ya go. She ended up making the trip one Saturday, and after I got back from a basketball game I met up with her at some of Rolando’s family’s house and took her to the canton for a day. I think she found it all interesting. She bought a pair of shoes the next day in the market to take back as a souvenir, haha.

Cooking lots of meat on the wood saving stove for our ADESCO Christmas Dinner

Dona Amalia in my santa hat before Christmas dinner

Umm... yeah haha.

The ADESCO Christmas dinner

After that Mauricio, the neighbor, and some other members of the community took off to La Herradura, close to the beach, for a day full of fishing and crabbing. We did this in a river, and at its deepest it was about knee deep (for me). …but this was at low tide, I think. Anyways, I ended up borrowing a casting net to catch little fishies and shrimp, and in the second part of the day it was off with a hoe to try dig up the hole where the crabs were hiding and stick your hand far enough down in the hole to grab them, pull them out, and stick them in a bag. It was definitely a new experience based on what I was used to doing in Charleston for these kinds of things.

Youth Group Christmas Play

Part 2
From there I went out to La Hachadura, in the department of Auachapan, right on the border with Guatemala, to the site of a couple from my group. They had soccer games set up between Peace Corps and teams from his site, so I went out to play and support. We ended up losing 5-3, which isn’t bad for us, but we played FOREVER. The referee decided to let us play to dark for the heck of it without telling us, so we played for an extra 40 minutes or so. All the gringos paid for that the next day in the lack of function of their bodies, haha. After the games, all 20 of us staying there, showered, that’s right, showered (they have a really nice place there), and then went to this little place that made different kinds of pupusas and smoothies. It was probably some of the best pupusas that I have had in the country. Later on they put on a dance just for us, but it was hard to get it started because of lots of shy Salvadorans, but eventually it got up and going once we got there. We actually left early, and apparently at time because some gang members or something showed up and started fighting. I wasn’t really clear on it all, but we were already back at the house hanging out. The next day we passed through part of Parque El Imposible, that is one of the biggest natural reserves left in the country. We hiked up to a waterfall and jumped off that guy. It was a nice place.

When I got back to my site, I had a visit from a volunteer friend that was waiting to pick up his family from the airport the next day. The community was happy to see another “Cuerpo de Paz/Peace Corps”, which oddly enough tends to become a proper noun here, so he got to meets my fams and see San Pedro Nonualco, and climb the façade of the church reconstruction project. It was a good time.

With only a few days left before heading back to the US, I had a basketball and soccer game. Man, I played terrible in both, and we got bashed in both of them. So I was very ready to get away for a while, haha.

US VISIT
The fam.
Before talking actually about the US, a funny story comes to mind of that morning before flying out. I was sitting on the side of a street corner at 5 in the morning in San Pedro Nonualco, and sitting there I realized that it wasn’t too quiet at all. The roosters were all screaming away and I hadn’t even noticed it. When I first got here, they were SOOOO annoying, and I sat there almost all morning and didn’t even notice them. ANYWAYS, I got a ride from a friend in SPN to the airport, and with my borrowed suitcase from the neighbor I got on one of the nicest planes I’ve been on. The ticket was bought through Delta, but I flew continental in my first connecting flight. It was a new plane, with new seats, and a tv screen in every seat, and outlets in every seat to plug in devices. I picked from a list of 18 movies, and then played Battleship the rest of the time, haha.

There were some delays but eventually I made it to Houston/Atlanta/Charleston, where the fam was there to meet me. It was really good to see everyone, and also this arrival started the many hot showers of which I took advantage. The food was also really good to diversify a little bit and eat lots of different foods. Although, we all got a kick out of the fact that getting back late to the house the first day, all there was luckily was leftover beans and rice. Classic.

I spent lots of time at the house with the nephews and fam and even had an hour or two to chat with Joe and Joey, and in Greenville with Jerome. I wanted to meet up with some others, but it didn't work out.

The Christmas Mass at the Cathedral was also very nice, it’s a very beautiful building. The next day we went up to Greenville for the birthday party for Elija and the baptism of Charlie. The party was fun and good seeing Joe and Susan and everyone else, and then the Baptism was the beginning of a fun road of godparenthood for me, mwhahahaha. Poor Charlie and the cold water, marble does that.

The little guy.

Bath time.

The fam at St. Mary's

The beginning of my (god)parenthood, mwhaha
Eventually, I went back to Charleston to prepare for my return, and gather some gifts that I wanted to take back for some family and friends. The trip was fairly non-eventful until the end when they lost both of the suitcases (I came with one basically empty one, and returned with two full ones, haha). A week later they came in. New Years, came around a day or two later, and that was fun with lots of sub-like sandwiches and a Salvadoran Spades, double-elimination tournament, that I put on. Very fun.

Salvadoran Spades Tourney

Leaving for the procession from the neighbors house celebrating Epiphany

Processing in the street

Manger Scene

Final Prayers
After all that, everything settled down and work started up again. I finished up my English classes, while classes were going to start up again at school. I also began prepping for the coming week of wood-saving stoves building. A technician from Santa Ana came in this past week and we built 7 stoves in 5 days all over the municipality as models for what should prove to be my biggest project this year. We did a lot of walking, haha. But now things are in motion for getting the whole project started.

Different pics of wood saving stoves that we built during the week all over the municipality

Notice the old stoves.

Oh yeah, I went to Esquipulas, Guatemala again with my parish a week ago. I went on the same trip last year in their efforts to raise money for the patron festivals in August. It was fun, and two gringo friends came along. They continued their travels from there in their vacation time, and I was very jealous, haha.

The cultural dancer guys.

Prayers of the faithful.

These old guys are very good.

Very long line.
Finally, the elections for what would be Congressmen and Mayors was yesterday, so that was interesting to see the whole deal of how it works here in a young democracy. The mayor will change here in San Pedro in May, so I will begin working with a different group of people as far as the mayor’s office goes. Things never stay the same here for too long.

“I might not be smart, but I am educated.”

ME, this past week