Monday, May 28, 2007

What´s up down in El Salvador

A number of little things have started going on – one may even say I’m starting to work!

I’ll start off with my little fuel efficient stoves. Finally – I have one of the woman using it and the others will start soon enough. The woman who is using it loves it – she says it cooks the fries quicker and with less wood! Also that the wind doesn’t effect the flame. Yey! She has even agreed to go with me to the school to teach the women there how to use the stove correctly and talk about how great it is. The only draw back is that I giften the first three stoves – now I have had at least one person ask me to give her one. I said I didn’t have any more and she told me to go build another one and give it to her – this could get ugly. But, I told her I would teach the artisans and she could buy one from them. Thus, I’m going to talk with my artisans and ask when they would like to learn how to build them.

Speaking of my artisans – they seem like they are going to be a bigger project. An NGO is helping them build two new ovens in which to fire their pieces, but this NGO doesn’t have funds for improvements to existing stoves – like chimneys and roofs. So, I’m gonna put together a proposal and see what funds we can get. More on this in the future!

I also headed out to a market with them on Friday. It was this artisan market being held in a park in Santa Tecla. I basically just sat and watched them sell – but at least I got free food out of the deal and found some artisans that make cookies…the oatmeal raisin variety. I ate a lot of those and will prolly ask for more. Getting back to the community proved a little tight – there were a million people waiting for the bus at the terminal and it was a mad dash to get on. I, somehow, managed to get a seat! Though, the artisans didn’t realize it and when we finally got back and they saw me get off the bus, they were quite relieved. They thought they had accidentally left me back in Sonsonate. It was cute to see their concern.

Then, there are the English teachers. I’m working with two English teachers from the local school to work on their English (pronunciation, grammar and such), as well as teaching methods. This past Tuesday, I went into their classes to play a grammar game – it was tic tac toe but with words. In order to win the box for their team (whether it be x’s or o’s) they had to come up with a sentence correctly using the word in the box. They actually participated and the teachers were pleased. It was a good day.

On the other English front – my English classes bombed and I’m pretty happy about it. I prolly already mentioned it, but only two people signed up and so I canceled the classes. I can now say – ‘ I offered’ and I have. ‘tis nice.

Finally, I went to the swearing in of a new ADESCO up in Canton Carrizal. An ADESCO is a locally formed group of citizens to work together in order to help develop their community. After the swearing in, I went to one of their first meetings. I talked with the group and offered my assistance with technical stuff. The first being presentations to the directive about leadership. I also addressed their wanting of a project. Many wanted to start off with a large project – building a community house or repaving a road- I told them to think smaller. Before any NGO is going to help them with a large project, they want to see that the group has experience. This experience can be smaller projects – trash, fuel efficient stoves, new town signs – small things. So, hopefully, I can continue working with them and helping them get their legs beneath them.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Never trust a waterfall...

Over the past weekend, I went to another small business meeting. This time is was held in Perkin (small town located in the department of Morazan). It’s a beautiful area and high enough that it gets cool at night. The hotel even had hot water! I almost used it all.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a ride from the capitol out there – cause it can be quite a hike in bus. However, to get to the capital, I had to leave my site at 6am … that was a little harsh.

We started our little meeting around 1:30ish, I want to say… Anyhow, it mainly focused in two areas - the first being a small catalog that we want to assemble. This catalog would demonstrate the different artisan crafts available within out communities to different shops. I should’ve started by saying that most people at this meeting had a group of artisans in their community – whether it be pottery, hammocks, or seed jewelry.

The second part of the meeting was spend on discussing how to form the beginning of a manual-type thing. It would be used to help future volunteers organize income growth opportunities within their communities. It would cover things like selecting a project (making sure you’re not doing the same thing as everyone else or assessing an opportunity you can take advantage of), basic math…things of that nature.

Overall, it was an interesting meeting. It didn’t go in the direction I thought it would, though maybe that’s good. It’ll be interesting to see how it works out in the end.

After all that fun, we just kinda hung around. I caught up on gossip – someone had old magazines. It was just a blah kinda night.

Sunday – not a bad day. After getting up, getting moving and eating, we were off! The group divided into two groups. One group went to check out another volunteers site and then the soccer game. My group chose to head over to a war museum (yes, very interesting. It was presented more from the perspective of the gorillas, but well done.) After that, we checked out a memorial as Mozote. Mozote is where a massacre occurred during the civil war – about 1000 people were killed. They included men, women and children. We had a wonderful guide who explained how the squadron of soldiers tricked the people into coming out and showed us where they were killed. It is a beautiful memorial and I highly recommend seeing if in town.

From there, it was getting a little late. I kinda wanted to head back to the capital so that I could catch a bus back to my site. I was told that wasn’t going to happen and instead we went on a hike….yey. We went down to the river Zapo and hiked for 30 minutes – well…it was suppose to be 30 minutes. A young Salvadorian kid approached us from behind an offered to lead us to the waterfall that was only 20 minutes away. Long story short – after an hour we had yet to arrive at the waterfall so we turned around and went back. It was a little bit of a bitch of a hike since I wasn’t wearing shoes meant for hiking – flip flops with an inch thick sole.

We made it back to the car around 3:30ish? Not sure – but then proceeded to rush back to the capital in a vain effort to get other people back in time for their buses. Yup, I was mad. I was more mad at the fact that I had to stay in the capital – it’s the end of the month and I don’t have enough money right now to cover such frivolous expenses. There was also the fact that I promised to help a friend with her English homework on Sunday night – that didn’t happen either.

So, Monday morning I got up early and got myself back to my site. Ya es todo.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Pics!

These pics span a long time...sorry for the delay!

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=192121178990071927/l=266683901/g=11114116/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

The rainy season has come!

I should clarify – I call it the rainy season, they call it winter. I am unable to bring myself to call it winter because the temperature still fails to dip below hot. Winter basically means you can actually sleep with a sheet. Though, I will admit – the thunder storms are spectacular. Not spectacular in the fact that they knock out the power really easily, but spectacular in their strength.

There are only two problems I have with ‘winter’ down here. The first being the shear amount of mosquitoes. I went from being bitten every once and a while in my house to really having to cover or use spray. (I also use an incense type thing that I’ve not seen in the US – but it works!) This is from all the small puddles that the rain forms and mosquitoes breed in. I should actually expand this to include all bugs – they have all come out of the wood works. I’m talking flying cockroaches, beetles, evil ants – you name it and they have come. However, I will admit to having batting practice with my broom while trying to get a flying cockroach out of my house. Eventually, I did have success and shot his ass out my back door – it was kinda fun. My second problem is rats. My house is along a river…uphill so I’m not in risk of flooding…but the rats come up when the river is high. I hate hearing them up in the roof. I’ll have to start guarding my food more and put out some ‘bait’. Maybe I’ll borrow someone’s cat.

I believe I am taking on my first project – the restoration of the Church. The Church here in my little community is actually from the colonial period – so we’re gonna work on it and try and conserve it. I went and talked to the Padre (father or priest) and he was all about it. The only way I can work on this project is through the aspect of restoration due to the fact that Peace Corps is a religious. So…I’m nervous, but I’ll see how it goes.

Otherwise, life moves on!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

A slow quick week

I could of titled this entry as ‘the package that was not to be’ – unfortunately, I was unable to get a package from Aunt Joanne. There seems to of been a miscommunication in relation to the mailings of packages. Packages are usually sent to me via regular mail because sending it through a specialized carrier (fedex/dhl) requires me to go to the airport to pick it up. There are also other numerous costs that were adding up that in the end defeated the chance of me getting the package….and now those evil people at DHL are eating my Girl Scout cookies!! Darn them!

That pretty much killed off Monday. Thankfully Tuesday was better. This ‘lil Ehlen BBQed it up! That’s right, I bought myself a $6 BBQ & charcoal and had chicken/potatoes that night. It’s a little harder to get the charcoal going since I don’t have any lighter fluid or alcohol in the house (I know, a shock about the lighter fluid). But I did it! Next up will be BBQing some steak? How sweet can it get….

That leads me to the stoves. I’ve placed all three within the community. The first two went to individual venders and the third went to the school. I’m anxiously awaiting results and to hear the opinions of the women. Then it will be onward toward teaching my artisans how to build them. Hopefully, it’ll all work out.

Otherwise, I just have been organizing a few little things. Hopefully, they will start coming together within the next few weeks.