Lots of Projects

September 5, 2008

Lots of programming for events and projects going on recently. We had a big to-do in the main town at the parish church this past week. It finally came to the point to hoist up the bells to the top of the façade. The story behind them is that a group of Franciscans came to the parish in the early 20th century and really solidified the place as a parish and in 1951 they had 4 bells made with the connections back in Italy and somehow got them over here and to the parish church in San Pedro Nonualco. It was said that you could hear the bells some days from quite a few municipalities over. In the earthquakes of 2001, the façade was critically damaged, so the parish brought them down in an emergency so as to save them if the façade came down in the aftershocks. The bells have been in storage since then….well, until this past Saturday. The parish sent out over 1200 envelopes to people all over the parish to get the funds to bring the hoist truck up to San Pedro Nonualco and everything came off as mostly a success. There were a few complications in the installation of the bells due to some size changes, but two were installed and rung and this week they are working on finishing up the other two.
Padre Tino told some funny stories of old people talking about how they had been sad the past years because they thought they were going to die before the bells ever got put back up. Now they said they can die happy because they know the bells will ring at the funeral mass. Tear.
For all you donors out there on the church reconstruction deal, you will be happy to know that your donations helped make that event happen. The facade should be done by the end of the year, wahoo!

Prep Work.

More Prep Work.

Padre Tino doing his baby thing with the bells. (the tiny bell hasn't been brought out yet.)

The St. Peter bell

What are they all looking at?

In other news, I invited as much of the community as I could this past Sunday to a meeting the Casa Comunal for information concerning trainings in different areas of agriculture. All morning it rained, and then the soccer game that I thought was for the morning was actually at the same time as the meeting, so I actually took out two chairs in the Casa Comunal… literally expecting that many people. But in the end some 15 showed up with a few who told me ahead of time they wanted to come but weren’t going to make it. The goal is to use some grant money that we almost have, haha, now that the meeting is over I can finish my part of the proposal, to go to the National University for Agriculture to take some lessons in grafting and other minor things. I hope it all works out.

Some of the members of ADESCOSAPEN, the parish volunteer group that heads of the church reconstruction.

lots of people.

a further back view

Finally, I held a meeting of all the ADESCOS (Community Development Associations) for the municipality to bring the stove project to more people, so that was fun. The guy in charge of the NGO gave his presentation on reforestation and these stoves that improve health, protect the environment, and cost the families less in firewood. Seeing how 80% of Central American families cook with wood burning stoves, I think this project could help a lot of families. Also, it should be good training exercises for the ADESCOs.

You can only see a few of the people, but there was actually representation from all cantones.

A foto of the stove we are promoting.

Work continues with the Medical Dispensary, Isabel is recouping from the death of her father and her and Consuelo are back in action. They have started a mosquito campaign starting with the water basins and are planning to fumigate now that they have supposedly killed the majority of the eggs for the next few months. That should be fun.

The group from all over the country that met in San Vicente the past week at our Project Design Seminar.

My group from San Pedro that attended the seminar.

Oh, almost forgot, I went with Juan Jose (Don Raul’s youngest) to Olocuilta, a city in my department of La Paz, where he participated in a Departmental Math Contest. He won his grade in the municipality and ended up getting third place in the Department…he’s really good at math, haha. We were reviewing the day before the stuff, and he was pretty quick with it all. I think he’ll get better as the years go by. The school that hosted it was a parochial school that is known as a “complejo” or complete school here. That just means that it has all grades…..1 through 12. Apparently it had some big donors from Spain from what I was reading….nice place. The more that I see get around this country, the more I see that Europe in the name of the EU and especially Spain, Germany, and Switzerland are super involved and invested here. Go them.

The school was really nice.

The baller himself

Juan Jose after having received his 3rd place in the Dept on stage.
agreed.... this tie is terrible!

As far as my eye deal goes, the first few people have completed their process with FUDEM and are getting their dates lined up for the surgeries, wahoo! Like I said before, if I get just one actually done and successful, I will be happy.

September 9, 2008

So I forgot that I had promised to go to a get together hoorah in El Tunco (the pig, haha), La Libertad at the beach, so that was fun, but I really didn’t want to go because it is going to make things financially this month. But, if I hadn’t have gone it would have raised the prices for the rest of the volunteers in my group, so….. oh well, it was all good. Apparently El Tunco and the beaches around it have like worldwide respect for its surfing. Few had enough money to rent a board but one of these days I am going to learn how J…..in a place that won’t kill me haha. Like I said though, it was good to get away for a day, we met some Brazilians, Israelis, Canadians, a large sea-turtle came up and we watched him lay his eggs (kind of), and we were told by some guards the next day that some thieves came up that night that we were there with machetes looking for some gringos that they heard were at the beach. Luckily the guards had guns, haha…. They said they shot at them and they ran off.
Always fun in El Salvador.

A pic of the place we were at.

Tomorrow I have to go to El Sal to meet with the Wood efficient stove guy, and then turn in this grant proposal at the office. In the evening I got to come back to San Pedro to dig my hole that I’m going to live in until the first of the month.

the new pups at Don Rauls
the mama tied up so she wont run off and leave the things

“Do not say, ‘It was the Lord’s doing that I fell away’; for he does not do what he hates. Do not say, ‘It was he who led me astray’; for he has no need of the sinful. The Lord hates all abominations; such things are not loved by those who fear him. It was he who created humankind in the beginning, and he left them in the power of their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever one he chooses will be given. For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything; his eyes are on those who fear him, and he know every human action. He has not commanded anyone to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.”

Sirach (or known in early Christian times as Ecclesiasticus, “belonging to the church”) 15:11-20

New Things on the Sidebar of the Blog

So before my next post, I wanted to update you guys on some new additions to the things on the right side of my blog.

First of all, there is a DONATE tab that I put up that PayPal has. Its pretty nifty and it lets people who want to donate quick and easy do so with credit card, banks, or whatever means you want. This money will be used to help out families in need, or bring down the costs of some of the projects that we have here that some families just plain cant afford. To give one example, I have continued to pursue the stove project that the previous volunteer started, but on the level of the entire municipality. There are many, many families, especially in my canton, that dont have them because of the amount of bricks and stuff it takes too build it (we are talking 20 dollars, basically). The stoves however are done by a NGO called Agua and Arboles Para El Pueblo and they provide the more expensive parts of the stove. It has a chimney that protects the ladies from all the smoke from the woodburning normal openfires, and also reduces the amount of firewood needed by 50%, helping their pockets, and helping the environment.

Its a really good example of a project that people can donate to in small amounts and in the big picture it will reduce the cost of each individual family. Anyways, thats why I put the doodad up there, or people can continue to donate to the scholarships, medical clinic, or church reconstruction, and do it through this and just put a note in there to tell me where to put the donation.

EARN THOSE SKYMILES!!! haha.

Also, I have added a few fun ones like, "Things I miss in the US"....and the opposite "Things I will miss from El Salvador"...."Places I want to visit".... and "Current Projects...for those who care"

Enjoy.

"Girls love the worms"
PC Volunteer

Security Conference and Project Development..and worms

August 26, 2008

Well, for now all of the deaths and random crazy acts have slowed down a bit, which is good news for all here haha. The novena, nine days of prayer, that follows a Catholic’s death here started, but I had to leave that Tuesday to go to San Vicente. Outside of the city there I gave a talk and demonstration on vermiculture….WORMS!!!! One of my peace corps buddies has a school garden going there and they could use some cheap fertilizer deals. Anyways, after that on Wednesday, I took off with Bobby, the PCV, to get some work done, and him med stuff, in San Sal before our security conference the next day en Chalatenango, the department up north in towards the mountains. I put my usual food plan while in the capital in to action until we got to the conference….don’t eat unless you have to, haha.

A random pic of Kevin (grandson of Don Raul) in his bed early.

Don Daniel, Don Efrain, and Isabel after finishing putting up the first set of flowers that the neighbors had brought for the altar the last day of the novena

The final night of prayers in the rain. It was a rosary mixed with a song sung in between each decade and at the end a Bible reflection by Don Raul and another. The mayor sang the songs, he actually has a really good voice, I had no idea.

A group of us that were left at the end. They made be operate a video camera of one of Isabel's relatives.

The altar midday.

The next day I had a meeting earlier in the office arranging some scholarship stuff, and then we headed up north to the conference. It was a nice place, it had a shower too, but no hot water. They are still in the process of building it, but anyways, the security conference was actually a nice break. We had good food, and they updated us a lot on the security deal here in country as well as any peace corps policy updating that was necessary. We also mapped out all the parts in our east-central zone that were possibly dangerous for us to travel, etc etc. It was a good time. There were some interesting statistics that came out of it…well at least I thought, ask if you are interested haha.

After all that came to a close, I headed back through the cap where that next morning I caught the US/SPAIN basketball preliminary, wow we dominated them. I think we won by like 37 points or something, crazy. Also around that time I caught Michael Phelps 8th gold medal, although it wasn’t the 7th which I heard was much more fun, it was still cool to watch….seeing as it was one of the few I got to see. We, we being some peace corps volunteers, had some good talks….go figure….about politics, with a philosophical twist, while waiting for some of the Olympic doodads to come on (commentary by the way of the Olympics is so much better in the states, and coverage). One of the main ideas that was discussed that crossed my radar was a discussion of the process of getting to the point to be candidate for the Presidency of the US, and how in the recent decades, the candidates that have been given as options have been, well, an interesting mix. From there the discussion branched everywhere from right-left interpretations of why, to the comparison of the development of our culture with that of the late Roman Republic (yes yes, I know, that part was awesome you are thinking, haha). The people involved in the discussion were seasoned travelers and well read and educated people, so I just got to sit back and soak up as much as I could, it was good stuff to make you think about it all in a big picture.

So let’s see, I got to come back to the community for a few days, during which I caught three things… snake, a scorpion, and a cold. I woke up one morning to the rucus of a bunch of birds messing around in the space between my roof and walls (which isn’t unusual), but this was something totally different. So I got out of bed to see what the deal was, when I see curled up in one of the metal rafters a nice pet snake, haha. He was about 5 feet long and an inch thick in some parts, and had just eaten something a few hours before. I got my machete out a stick I had handy to get rid of the birds, and then I saw to ladies walking down the street that I knew, so I figured it would be more fun to jump into the street and scare them with my machete in hand first…. So I did that, then we all came in to check out the snake. I called Don Raul and he came over and pushed it out with a stick and I accidentally came in with a little overkill and separated its head from its body for the most part. I kind of felt bad after I found out it wasn’t poisonous…..then I got over it :) From a distance.

The little guy up close.

on the ground by my porch.

Don Raul laughing at my prey.... haha.

Then later I pulled back the little curtain that covers where I bath and a scorpion was chillin there. I got him with the barbecue grabber things that Aaron left….mwhahahaha. He wasn’t very big though.

Then I caught a cold.

A few days later, I took 4 community leaders from around the municipality to San Vicente for a Project Design and Management Workshop put on by the Peace Corps training staff. We were there for a half day, full day, half day. It was pretty neat, there were 5 volunteers and their people in total and everyone by the end was friends with the rest it was all peace and love haha. The guys seemed to get a lot out of it, and I hope that in the end they used what they learned.
Oh yeah, haha, this story cracked me up. So the people here like to eat armadillos, normally you have to hunt them. However, the other night Don Raul was coming back to the house by flashlight after leaving his cow for the night, when he said that he saw something running towards him in the path. The thing, he said, didn’t even notice him, and then he realized it was an armadillo. So with a smile on his face he pulled out his machete, and when it got close enough he chopped it in the face and shazaam, bfast. No wonder he came back with a big smile on his face. The next day, Mauricio came out with one. He said his dog had trapped it, haha.
Finally, I made lunch the other day for Don Mauricio, Mario, and Don Raul in order to get them together to start a grant proposal to USAID for a trip to the National school of Agriculture here. The only thing is that while watching US Basketball team in the gold game, I knocked over the entire bottle of marsala cooking wine that I had found, watching it shatter all over my floor. So I ended up making pasta with fried chicken and a tomato sauce on top instead of chicken marsala. It turned out ok, but what a waste. Very sad.

The armadillo that was molesting Don Raul.

That’s all I got for now, adieu.

“Wow, so ants like green boogers.”

-Peace Corps El Salvador Volunteer

Also, check out the latest Anglican fun. Damian Thompson is a journalist that covers many a interesting stories in England and abroad.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/07/08/c_of_e_bishop_will_lead_anglicans_to_rome
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/07/13/wales_tells_canterbury_to_get_lost
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/07/16/exanglican_communities_to_become_catholic_rome_confirms
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/08/13/american_anglican_diocese_in_conversion_talks_with_roman_catholic_church