Turkey Week!
This week was a pretty full week as well.
Monday I spent doing a dental presentation in the morning and handing out toothbrushes (thanks Dr. Levy!). The afternoon was just arranging for the last bit of transport for the materials. I can’t wait for the guy to start work so that it is less of my responsibility. Ohh…I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but if you would like to check out the progress of the project:
http://artisansofsddg.blogspot.com
Enjoy.
I´m not exactly sure what happened to Tuesday and Wednesday – I do remember baking brownies, but that brings us to Turkey Day!
I spent Thanksgiving in the home of a couple from Texas. They’re in town working with an NGO called Samaritans Purse. Along with myself, was another volunteer (Carl), a Salvadorian and an Argentinean. It was a nice evening of good home cooked food and good conversation. I also didn’t mind chillin and watching TV in the evening – I hadn’t seen CSI in ages!
Friday saw me running back to my community to get things organized for Monday. On Monday I went to the embassy to sell artisan goods with other volunteers. So, over the weekend I was receiving artisan goods in my house and making rather large signs.
One of the NGO´s that my pottery people work with heard I was going, so asked me to bring some of their other goods….I definitely got aprovechared (taken advantage of). Thankfully, all the artisans chipped in to pay for the transport and two volunteers met me at the embassy to help. I would’ve been in major trouble if Joe and Natalie hadn’t come along.
To show my undying appreciation, I invited them back to my house for a bbq. They took up my offer and we had a great night of good food and catching up. We even popped open a bottle of wine and read a love letter I had received that day. It was a sweet letter from a guy that I talked to for about 10 minutes in a bus terminal – this is why I don’t talk to boys.
Not much more, only that the photo that was taken of me at the MANA concert actually made it into the magazine…I’m famous!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
A surprisingly good week
Alright- so, we’ll take this from Sunday, November 11 - the day my laptop died. As you can imagine, it wasn’t that great of a day. It’s as so the reason I haven’t written in a while – the forlorn hope of getting it fixed quickly.
Anyway, that day was the artisan market – you know, the one we’re trying to get started every weekend. It was also El Salvador’s official ´Dia de la Pupusa´. A pupusa is a type of food – it’s a corn tortilla stuffed with refried beans, cheese and sometimes pork. Long story short – somehow I got stuck watching the town hall as performers used it as a changing area. It was a long afternoon.
I can’t say Monday faired much better. I initially thought someone had stolen my digital camera (turns out someone put it in a ´safe place´) and my laptop still refused to turn on. I have since found out that the power source is fried and am currently awaiting news as to whether it will live or not. I forget what else went down – but none of it was good.
That brings us to Tuesday and the brightening of the week. Tuesday was when I started buying materials for my project. We started later then I had wanted to – but other then that, it went incredibly smoothly. Well…as much as that term can ever really apply to projects in El Salvador….or maybe Peace Corps as a whole.
So, that night, I got home from watching my soap opera with Sonia and started getting ready for bed. As I’m brushing my teeth, I happen to glance over at my birdcage. Now, my birds weren’t in the cage – they were in a different cage that I keep them in overnight. Anyway, chillin in outside cage is a possum. He’s just chillin and eating the leftover food. I decide that this just really isn’t worth it and to go to bed. But, when I get in my house I realized I had left my cell phone over at Sonia’s. So, I headed over there to get it and while I was there told her about the possum in my bird cage. Well, her and her daughter promptly came over to check it out. The possum was still there! Sonia then heads over and closes the bird cage door and sends her daughter to go get her brother. Ricardo, Sonia’s son age 24ish, come over and brings his machete with him…… do I really need to finish the story?
The up side of it is that there is no longer an animal ripping open my trash and using my sink as a bathroom. So, I can’t say I’m that upset at it all.
Wednesday was another smooth delivery day of materials. By this time, I was in a pretty good mood – can’t quite say why.
Thursday was when I actually had time to go into the capital and see about the mostly dead laptop. While I was there, I decided to go to a concert everyone else was in town for - MANA. If you haven’t heard of them, don’t fret – they’re a Spanish rock bad. I found someone to pick me up a ticket and I went to the hostel and laid claim to one of the sofas – they had long since sold out of beds and it only cost me $2! Anyway, that night I went to the concert with a few friends and with those few friends I was able to sneak into the platinum section. How? – I have no idea, but with a $15 ticket I got a $75 view. We even had our photo taken for Blur magazine. It was an amazing concert and I´m pretty thrilled I went.
Friday came around and it was back to my little pueblo. The only other thing that happened was the soccer tournament that started on Sunday.
Anyway, that day was the artisan market – you know, the one we’re trying to get started every weekend. It was also El Salvador’s official ´Dia de la Pupusa´. A pupusa is a type of food – it’s a corn tortilla stuffed with refried beans, cheese and sometimes pork. Long story short – somehow I got stuck watching the town hall as performers used it as a changing area. It was a long afternoon.
I can’t say Monday faired much better. I initially thought someone had stolen my digital camera (turns out someone put it in a ´safe place´) and my laptop still refused to turn on. I have since found out that the power source is fried and am currently awaiting news as to whether it will live or not. I forget what else went down – but none of it was good.
That brings us to Tuesday and the brightening of the week. Tuesday was when I started buying materials for my project. We started later then I had wanted to – but other then that, it went incredibly smoothly. Well…as much as that term can ever really apply to projects in El Salvador….or maybe Peace Corps as a whole.
So, that night, I got home from watching my soap opera with Sonia and started getting ready for bed. As I’m brushing my teeth, I happen to glance over at my birdcage. Now, my birds weren’t in the cage – they were in a different cage that I keep them in overnight. Anyway, chillin in outside cage is a possum. He’s just chillin and eating the leftover food. I decide that this just really isn’t worth it and to go to bed. But, when I get in my house I realized I had left my cell phone over at Sonia’s. So, I headed over there to get it and while I was there told her about the possum in my bird cage. Well, her and her daughter promptly came over to check it out. The possum was still there! Sonia then heads over and closes the bird cage door and sends her daughter to go get her brother. Ricardo, Sonia’s son age 24ish, come over and brings his machete with him…… do I really need to finish the story?
The up side of it is that there is no longer an animal ripping open my trash and using my sink as a bathroom. So, I can’t say I’m that upset at it all.
Wednesday was another smooth delivery day of materials. By this time, I was in a pretty good mood – can’t quite say why.
Thursday was when I actually had time to go into the capital and see about the mostly dead laptop. While I was there, I decided to go to a concert everyone else was in town for - MANA. If you haven’t heard of them, don’t fret – they’re a Spanish rock bad. I found someone to pick me up a ticket and I went to the hostel and laid claim to one of the sofas – they had long since sold out of beds and it only cost me $2! Anyway, that night I went to the concert with a few friends and with those few friends I was able to sneak into the platinum section. How? – I have no idea, but with a $15 ticket I got a $75 view. We even had our photo taken for Blur magazine. It was an amazing concert and I´m pretty thrilled I went.
Friday came around and it was back to my little pueblo. The only other thing that happened was the soccer tournament that started on Sunday.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Just the basics
Alright – maybe the disaster that was going to be my market didn’t materialize. The market was small, but nice. We had vendors come from Sonsonate, along with a few locals. I really think they could get an artisan market going here…they just have to be patient and put in the time. Word doesn’t spread about markets all that quick sometimes.
This week was actually a little full as well.
On Tuesday I had a fuel efficient stove training. It was suppose to be in the communal house – but only two people showed up. That made me panic a little – but then we realized they were both from the same community development group. So, we packed up our things and took the training to them. We got there and about 8 people in total came out. That was awesome! They loved the stove and are thinking about making more to sell. I hope they do – they are a new group and taking on a small project would do them good. I actually hope to work with them on this.
I should explain a little about the community group. Down here, small communities can form in to government recognized groups called ADESCOS. With this legalization – they can approach NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) to solicit projects without the need of the town hall.
Wednesday brought on Halloween aka El Dia de las brujas aka the day of the witches. Everyone likes to go around and say – ‘congratulations on your day!’. Thank God it’s only for one day. I did manage to carve Jack O’ Laterns with Mayra, Iris and Heidy. Now, pumpkins are pretty rare down here….so I went for watermelons! Ohh…except for Iris’s – they have a pumpkin like vegetable down here – only it is green instead of orange. They came out great. Everyone put them in front of their houses with the candles I provided. The kids went running from house to house checking them out…it was pretty funny.
Now we’ll just jump to Friday when I managed to arrange to have a meeting in a place called ‘Mr. Doughnut’. This meeting was with a different community group and an NGO that specializes in fish/shrimp aquaculture. You know – where they breed these things in tanks. Anyway, the NGO said it didn’t start new projects, but worked with those already on the move. That being said, they gave us great advice on how to get started and to whom to turn to.
Besides the success of the meeting – the doughnuts were great. I even remembered to bring some back for others. Damn I’m good.
That brings us to today – Sunday. Not much to talk about. Just that the seasons have changed and we have officially entered into the windy season.
This week was actually a little full as well.
On Tuesday I had a fuel efficient stove training. It was suppose to be in the communal house – but only two people showed up. That made me panic a little – but then we realized they were both from the same community development group. So, we packed up our things and took the training to them. We got there and about 8 people in total came out. That was awesome! They loved the stove and are thinking about making more to sell. I hope they do – they are a new group and taking on a small project would do them good. I actually hope to work with them on this.
I should explain a little about the community group. Down here, small communities can form in to government recognized groups called ADESCOS. With this legalization – they can approach NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) to solicit projects without the need of the town hall.
Wednesday brought on Halloween aka El Dia de las brujas aka the day of the witches. Everyone likes to go around and say – ‘congratulations on your day!’. Thank God it’s only for one day. I did manage to carve Jack O’ Laterns with Mayra, Iris and Heidy. Now, pumpkins are pretty rare down here….so I went for watermelons! Ohh…except for Iris’s – they have a pumpkin like vegetable down here – only it is green instead of orange. They came out great. Everyone put them in front of their houses with the candles I provided. The kids went running from house to house checking them out…it was pretty funny.
Now we’ll just jump to Friday when I managed to arrange to have a meeting in a place called ‘Mr. Doughnut’. This meeting was with a different community group and an NGO that specializes in fish/shrimp aquaculture. You know – where they breed these things in tanks. Anyway, the NGO said it didn’t start new projects, but worked with those already on the move. That being said, they gave us great advice on how to get started and to whom to turn to.
Besides the success of the meeting – the doughnuts were great. I even remembered to bring some back for others. Damn I’m good.
That brings us to today – Sunday. Not much to talk about. Just that the seasons have changed and we have officially entered into the windy season.
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