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

US Christmas and Random Pics

So I am in the States for a week for Christmas and it is a little colder than it was in El Salvador. Things are very tasty and I am enjoying all of the hot showers.

Here are some random pictures from the past few weeks before coming to the US.

A group of us at the AIDS conference preparing our presentations in San Miguel.

The road to the site where we were going to give our presentation was pretty bad, one of my group got sick.

The community house where we gave our presentation to a group of young and old alike.


A random pic of the bus that leaves my community everyday.

The parts of the stove project that I turn in to the families. All materials have been turned in to prepare for the models in the 6 different communities.
The very nice base that one family has constructed waiting to build the stove on top.

The view from our farthest out community, Roble Virolenyo, is also participating in my fuel efficient and smoke free stove project.

A view of the volcano of my pueblo from the valley near the river where I went crabbing and fishing with some families from my community.

One family that I fished with.

Win, Lose, and Rain

December 12, 2008 (pictures incoming)

Sunny with a few showers.

Haha… Just random frustrating obstacles that have crept up are erking some of my projects.

The first of which has been my computer. The machine itself is fine, but a laptop is worthless if you can’t charge it J The charger has been out a few weeks and has put a hold on some of my work here….and the blog….sorry fam. More on that later.

So let’s see. Since Thanksgiving I have been focusing in on the stove project and getting the models built. Yesterday, after helping take the municipal trash to the ‘dump,’ I went to the sugar mill and bought 27 gallons of molasses, the last ingredient I didn’t have, and today I went around in the municipal trash truck to all the cantons dishing out the stuff to the houses that are going to build the model stoves. The guys that helped me out are awesome guys…. I will have to go help them take out the trash more in the future. Now all the families have the part that I and the NGO have promised them, and I have to coordinate now to get the builder guy out to our town. That should be fun. I have to provide food and shelter for him til he gets them all built J I’ll cook, haha. I haven’t quite mastered the art of cooking beans and Salvadoran tortillas.
In other news, some more money came in for the church reconstruction project, so that was good. They are in a real bind right now here at the end of the second stage of building the façade and we are SOOOO close. Very frustrating, and I’m not even building the thing. From what I gather, they are about $8,000 from finishing the front. But little by little they will eventually get it all done.

My English classes move along, although sometimes I have to move the class times and move the weekday schedules around to fit around my main project emergencies, and I can see that it is frustrating some of the students, but…. what can I do? You can only volunteer so much of your time, hahaha.

Today, also, one of our scholarship collaborators/organizers from the Louisiana, Dr. Thomas Hymel, visited us, and hung out with me for the evening after our meeting with the scholarship students. He’s a real nice and laid back guy that is easy to chat with. He does a lot of good work for us/the San Pedro community. I hope he keeps doing so. He also brought me the charger that is sustaining my computer for the moment. My computer recognized it wasn’t my old one and won’t let it charge the battery, even though it seems to be the same power level as my dead one. So, looks like I will still have to get that new charger….I can’t decide on the versatile 65watt one that works in an airplane, car, or outlet, or the faster charging and better functioning 90 watter. Either way, I’ll order it soon to have it at the house when I get there.

Speaking of wonderful instruments of technology….my phone is reaching the limits of its existence and/or the limits of my patience level, haha. The battery doesn’t last a day, that was a given due to its age, but now it has a hard time getting signal everywhere and keeps cutting my calls short. I will remedy that while in the states as well hopefully.

My biggest problem right now with an ongoing project is a shortage in funds that the NGO that is my counterpart for my stove project. They have committed to about half the number of stoves (the parts they help out with) that I think people are going to want here in our municipality, after previously telling me earlier in the year there was no limit, so I am in the process of searching for possible sources to help out there. We’re talking approx. $3,500. I have one fund that I could occupy for like 1,500, but I am already collaborating on that fund to try and get our roof fixed on our community house and some other odds and ends there. I also had some problems getting affordable (free) exams (blood, urine, heart, HIV) for my people who need eye surgeries, especially with the electrocardiogram, but now of my first group I just have one lady who just needs the electrocardiogram, and then in January we can get the surgeries (hopefully). So we’ll see.

In visiting with Habitat for Humanity recently, I think there might be another opportunity there for us in the housing sector, so we’ll see how that works out in the next month. All projects will pretty much be put on hold in the beginning of January due to the elections of Mayor, in which I will be waiting to see if I will have the same mayor for the rest of my service, or if he will change….should be interesting.

It’s coming toward the end of the year, don’t forget the donate tab for all your write-offs and skymiles. All these projects come at some kind of cost, and the more I have to work with, the more I can help on these projects, and smaller ones that search me out from the families here.
I’m in basketball and soccer tournaments here. I play defense in the soccer games on Sundays and center in the basketball games on Saturdays. They play basketball every evening in the main town and it kills me that that I can never make it to play (and they rag me for it too). But such is life in the canton.

Just 10 days til the states. I bet its cold up there. Blast.

"Not to be encompassed by the greatest, but to let oneself be encompassed by the smallest--that is divine."

Holderlin in Hyperion, quoted in Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger