Saturday, June 23, 2007

A slightly weird week....

6:15 am on Tuesday morning and someone is knocking on my door – do they not get that I am not awake/alive at this hour? It was a little girl asking/saying, “Don Justo wants to know if your coming to the town hall today.” I said yes and thought it would be the end of it. Then she started asking for a quarter for cheese? I don’t know, I don’t get it. The strangest part is that Don Justo never sent anyone to ask if I was going…..I swear I wasn’t dreaming.

When I finally did get up, I found that I have a new ‘cat’ or ‘rodent of unusual size’ visiting my house at night. This time, thankfully, not in my sink. Unfortunately, on top of some clothes. Yes, I will be sacrificing more peanut butter and taking whatever it is out…at least hopefully.

I also found out that I have a four legged spider in the house…I just feel so bad for him that I won’t kill him.

I’ve learned, this week, that getting three signatures on a tiny letter can be a full days work – even if one of those signatures is your own. You would think that you could locate a priest within a church, but he’s hardly ever there. And then faxing that same letter – I won’t even go into it.

Though, on a brighter note, my meeting with my artisans was a success – almost everyone showed up. They are also all in agreement with paying for the labor and will sign little contracts next Monday…YEY!

I just got back from a little celebration for a friends b-day – Sonia. Not the aunt of Iris, but another Sonia. I’m going to be teaching this one how to make pizza dough sometime next week. Kinda random – but she asked me to help her find a recipe and I did. I also tried it out – I make good pizza. Anyway, she lives a little further outside of town – through a few cow pastures. Which wouldn´t of been bad – but we had to come home while walking in the rain. Something about crossing a river before it got to high.

That brings me to Friday night – all nice and dry, took a hot bucket bath and everything. I´m sitting there talking with afriend about the meaning of the term ´booty call´ when my phone rings. It happens to be a bunch of bolos (drunkards) singing feliz navidad. Iris listens in and agrees that it is a bunch of bolos – but then turns to me and asks how they got my number....I promptly reply that of course they have my number, they´re my family. And thus went my night/week.

Monday, June 18, 2007

A weekend that didn't go the way it was suppose to...

Originally, I was suppose to be going to the beach but that was not to be. Instead, I was asked to be a godmother for a soccer team. Meaning, I would parade with them around town on opening day and then give them a soccer ball. So, no beach but God mothering.

Friday night was the gran final of my favorite soap opera - la fea mas bella. I was disappointed. It ended how I thought it would - which is great, but most of the final was scenes from a concert they held while filming the final. So, all the good stuff ended 15 minutes into it and then I was stuck with people singing. Errr...though, I did enjoy the brownies I had made for the event.

Saturday was when things went down hill. I got sick again - this time with a nice fever of over 102 degrees and a bad stomach. It took me down slowly and reached its peak around 8pmish. So, I called the nurse and she told me to take some un-aspirin (that is literally the name on the package), drink liquids and come into the capital early the next day to go to the lab (since it was the only one open on a sunday).

Sunday morning comes around and I've lowered my temperature - by taking unaspirin and sleeping with a fan on me - and I crawl onto a bus. And then I crawl onto a second bus. And then I walk (crawl) twenty minutes to the lab. It was so bad. I got diagnosed with a nice stomach infection and a UTI. I get the weirdest symptoms when I have UTIs - like knee pain. Anyway, it was bad and I wound up staying the night in the capital.

Though, what really got me was that I couldn't be the God mother anymore, I gave the ball I bought to Mayra and she was the God mother. I was so mad - I spent my money on that stupid ball and she got to give it. Errrr.

Anyway, it's now monday. I'm in the capital and procrastinanting. I really just don't feel like getting on the bus, I will, I just don't feel like it.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Time starting to fly by…..

I can’t exactly remember everything I did last week – I think it involved me doing a lot of writing and investigating. It’s also what I did for most of this week.

You see, for the proposal I’m writing – I need accurate information about the prices of certain building supplies (ie – cement, sand, bricks….), so, I went to a few hardware stores to get price quotes. What I wouldn’t kill for a good Home Depot.

Putting this budget together is a little on the irritating side, but, it’ll be worth it in the end…I hope.

And incase you are completely lost as to what I am talking about – here’s a summary. I’m writing a proposal to get funds to make improvements to the ovens of artisans in my community. These improvements include constructing chimneys and permanent roofs. The application requires a full detailed budget – that’s the part I’m working on now.

While in town, I had lunch with another volunteer – she was having a bad week, so I treated her to some food. We lived large and had Pizza Hut.

Last week I also managed to kill off whatever animal was using my pila (sink area) as a bathroom – yes, I had to sacrifice some peanut butter to mash in with the poison, but it was well worth it. I also got to see the ‘rodents of unusual size’ that now live in my backyard….I went to bed early that night.

What else can I tell ya about? My mail carrier doesn’t want to carry my mail to Sonsonate for me, he thinks it would be better if I did it. When I see him next, I’m going to have a conversation with him about the job of a mail carrier. I hate the post office. If you have any questions or doubts about my hatred of the post office, please feel free to ask Maryann.

Or I can talk about how I made some of my own pottery – a turtle and a tray to be precise. All the artisans thought it was funny – seeing me covered in clay and having a blast. It took me three different visits to finish the pieces – once for the body of the piece, second for the details and the final to polish it. Unfortunately, only one piece survived firing – the other was just too weak.

We are also in the full swing of the rainy season – aka ‘winter’. It’s nice some days – just relax in my hammock, watch the rain fall and drink some tea.

That brings me to this week. Monday was the inauguration of the Ronald McDonald Children’s Mobile Clinic – it’s in town for the week. They do free medical work for children up to 18 years of age. It’s a brand new thing – the first one in Central America. Basically, what it is is that they have this big RV filled with doctors and stuff – then they drive from town to town. Not a bad thing.

Tuesday morning was spent building another fuel-efficient stove – this time up at San Pedro with Rachael. We did it with one of her small schools. I have a feeling I will be returning to San Pedro in the future to build more stoves. This could become quite the unintentional project.

Then I continued working with the English teachers. It’s mostly just working on their grammar and pronunciation. One is all about it and keeps me late just to practice speaking in English, the other can’t wait to get out. I’m also helping with different ways of teaching English – mostly with games. The last one was tic/tac/toe and the next will be a sentence game. I only do it in two classes with the teachers so they learn how to present and play the game, after that I leave it to them to do it in their other classes. I don’t want them to become dependent on me to execute the games. I hope they integrate them into their curriculum, but who knows.

Other then that, I just went in search of a candidate to be Queen of the Patron Saint Festivals with Don Justo and Heidy. I just sat there…nothing new. But it was fun on the way back when Don Justo first had to swerve to miss the cow and then swerve the other way to avoid the chicken. Ever just have any one of those days?

Alright, time for the weekend! Who doesn’t like a good soccer tournament?

*Just learned that the mail carrier will take my letters – something about a joke gone terribly wrong.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

A mesh of stuff....

So, the weekend was actually a little busy, but not in a bad way.

Saturday was spent cleaning – house really needed it, making cookies – I really needed them, doing some shopping and finally winding up over at Rachael’s place.

I got there earlier then either she or I expected. She was playing some soccer with some friends. We soon just headed back to her place and chilled. We ate cookies and avocados (not together, but still). Most of the time was spent chit chatting and catching up. She leaves in July – she’s done with her service. I’m actually hoping to steal some stuff from her….bwa ha ha ha ha! Anyway, we then watched ‘Volunteers’ – it’s a Tom Hanks and John Candy movie about life in the Peace Corps….

Any who, that was that night and the next morning I headed back to my site after some French toast. I head to get back for a baptism party - I had picked up a small present the day before…a little t-shirt that said New York. So, I had to get all dressed up for the party and that brought on the usual comments about how I should always dress that way from Sonia. Right…I don’t need provoke more comments on a daily basis. It was a nice little party, but it only lasted about 2 hours and when people were done eating, they left.

I then spent the rest of the day lazily in my house relaxing…it was quite nice.

Then Monday brought the week on – errrrr….

Somehow I was put in charge of an artisan market for the Patron Saint Festivals – which I’m actually kinda happy about. This entails contacting the artisans (which I already have done and have found some others to come), getting the opening day going and things of that nature. It’s kind of exciting.

My presentation for the community development group was cancelled. They need to get themselves organized – they want a project but they can’t even get together for an hour and a half for some trainings. This could be interesting.

So, I was going well for the week until Tuesday night – then I got horribly ill. I mean, horribly. I’ll save you the details, but just know I didn’t sleep for most of the night.

This means Wednesday was spent – first - visiting the doc and getting medicine and second – sleeping in my hammock. I just couldn’t get up.

Thankfully – the medicine worked quickly and I was able to head up to Rachael’s grand inauguration of her trash cans. It was a nice time and I even got a recycling contact out of the deal. The company wants to come to my little community and start buying recyclables also. I gave this information to the environmental agent in my alcaldia and she looked at be and got mad that I didn’t take her to the inauguration….fabulous.

That pretty much brings me to the next weekend. You see, I had to head into the capital on Friday – nurse wanted to make sure I was alright. Traveled all that way for a five minute consult with the nurse, but it was worth it. I had a nice night in the capital. Went to dinner with friends, decorated a cake and watched bad movies. Side note – it took me an hour and a half to decorate the cake cause I spelled out everything in sprinkles. Don’t ask me why.

Saturday morning I just took it easy and did some shopping with another volunteer. It was great to just chitchat and pick up some good food at the same time.

Sunday was spent – cleaning again. That house gets filthy during the week. Probably from the large (and I do mean large) rats that scurry around.

Hard to explain – but it was just a good weekend.

Now it’s back to Monday and work.

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.