slowly moving along

I can’t say too much happened this week, though I seem to say that about every week.

Worked on the world map – it is now fully painted and all borders have been redrawn. It looks quite nice. I’ve also added in the numbers. I hate it when I accidentally skip a country and then have to go back and number it and now it’s clearly out of sequence with the surrounding countries. Now all’s that left is to draw lines so a student can write down all the country names. I didn’t want to use my ugly hand writing.

Ayuda en Accion helped pick up some tables for me. In the budget of my artisan project was funds for the purchase of two tables. These tables are meant to be used for the artisans when they’re selling in the park or to take with them to set up selling areas in different parts. I was having trouble getting them since I don’t have membership to the Pricemart where they are sold. This NGO did and was nice enough to go get them for me. Another thing off the list...yey!

Over this past weekend I headed west to another volunteers site. Yes, I went and participated in a PC soccer game. But only because my friend lent me her sneakers…. you will remember that mine were stolen the previous weekend. It was a good weekend of hanging out with others and seeing someone else’s site. And incase you wondering, I think we won…but can’t be sure.

Now I’m writing this on Wednesday – the last day of the month. Apparently, they celebrate May 1st down here…so I have the rest of the week off. It’s a ruff life.

Ohh…and the bats have moved back in.

A good but long week

Monday I was suppose to draw the map, but I cancelled that activity in order to go to Iris’s parent’s place for a birthday lunch (b-days of Iris and her mom). Then Iris cancelled that on me and put it off till Wed.

So, Tuesday I went over to the school with my laptop and the town hall’s projector and copied the map onto the wall. I was helped by Zach – neighbor volunteer, and several students.

It actually proved harder then I thought it would. The map and lines were clear when standing back from the map, but the moment you got close it was blurry. Zach wound-up drawing most of Europe by hand.

Tracing, in all, only took a little over two hours. Afterward we had to erase some parts that students drew in that don’t actually exist…though I was tempted to keep one and call it the Republic of Ehlen, but decided against it.

Wednesday I got up around 4:45ish to get ready and head over to Iris’s parents house. We got a partial ride to where Ricardo tends to the cows. From there we walked down hill, crossed a river, up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill and one more up hill. I then passed out in the hammock.

I do enjoy going there – the house is nice, up on a hill (obviously) and has a really nice breeze. Plus, Iris’s mom is a pretty good cook. We stayed for most of the day and left around 5ish. Back over the previous journey and then home.

That night I skipped one of my soap operas to mix paint for the world map. I learned while mixing that oil paint eats through Styrofoam. I had finished mixing all the colors when I felt the first container and noticed it was rather weak. So, I thus ran around my house finding all my old plastic containers. Satisfied that all was set for the morning, I went to bed.

Thursday morning I lift up the orange container – which was a thin plastic yogurt container – and it exploded over my hands. I put it in Styrofoam while I ran over to Iris’s place for a plastic container since I was all out. Thankfully, the rest of the containers were strong enough that they weren’t affected.

Thursday was spent painting the map – there were 5 of us in total. The roof down there is just lamina – so it was incredibly hot throughout the day.

Friday I went back in the morning and did a second coat with the help of a few students.

I then booked it out of there for San Salvador around 11ish. I think the weekend was mixed.

I got to san sal, got off the bus and then realized I had forgotten my cesta (a type of bag) on the bus. I ran to the terminal in the next bus, but someone had already stolen it. It had my sneakers in it, but I’m more upset over the loss of the cesta. It was a pretty one and they are hard to find.

After that, it all picked up. I hit up lunch with another volunteer; we then shopped (I picked up two new shirts) and swung by the PC office. Afterward, it was off to the salon for a pedicure (me), a cut (another volunteer) and a massage (a third volunteer). I haven’t had a pedicure in so long and it was nice. It was by far the longest one I’ve ever had. I was the last to finish out of the three of us.

For dinner the three of us went to sushi. Yes, I ate sushi. I can’t say I’m in love with it…maybe it’s an acquired taste. After that I just crashed…it was late.

Saturday was a lazy day. Most of it was spent pool side at the Sheraton. I’m only a little burnt. By afternoon that was a small group of us – about 4. After the pool, we showered and got ready to do some shopping and hit up dinner. I didn’t by anything this time around, I was feeling a little poor after previous shopping and the dinner we were about to hit up.

After shopping we went to Benihanas for dinner. The chef was awesome, but the overall service wasn’t so impressive. By this time the group had doubled to 8 people. After dinner, we hit up a bar for about 45 min before calling it a night.

Sunday was a longer day then what I wanted it to be. I had a late breakfast with some friends. While at breakfast I learned a friend was heading to the hospital sick. So, we finished up eating and then headed over to the hospital. From there I realized that I had completely forgotten to pay the hostel for my two nights there. After walking back there and paying, I was finally able to hit up the bus to get back home. I stopped in Sonsonate for food shopping, and got home around 4 something – way later then I wanted.

So, overall it was a good weekend, just tiring.

updating

The week started out nice enough.

I went food shopping on Friday and ran into the Priest from San Pedro – the next town up. He’s a gringo who has been working in El Salvador for 48 years…I can’t even imagine. Anyway, it was raining and he gave me a lift back to my place. He originally was just going to drop me off at the bus stop – but seeing as it was down pouring, he didn’t have the heart and took me all the way home. Sweet.

Once in Santo Domingo, he took me to meet a German that I had yet to meet. His name is Hans Christian and he’s been living here for a quite a while. I’ve known of him but just never made it over to say hi. He’s about 70 something years old and is married to a nice Salvadorian woman who bakes great cakes.

Saturday was spent cleaning Iris’s store…it was really gross. Her and Nina Ada started by cleaning the ceiling. Ceilings down here are exposed – meaning you see all the beams and the underside of the roof, which in this case was lamina. We these types of ceiling you see all the spider webs and dust. So they went up there with large brooms and went at it. I joined in after that part and cleaned the higher shelves since I am by far the tallest of the three. It took the majority of the day to complete and by the end my nose was filled with dust, but it was well worth it. The store looks great and I got a free lunch out of it.

Thus since I cleaned all Saturday, I really didn’t want to Sunday….so I paid Nina Lupe to come wash all my clothes. She’s great.

I should make a small note here – Nina means girl, but they usually say it as a term of endearment before the person’s actual name. So Nina Lupe is really just Lupe.

The rest of the week went quick enough. I had lunch with another volunteer on Tuesday, we do it every once and a while to catch up on life.

On Friday I went to the school to paint a wall sky blue. It was more a grey sky blue, but will still serve its purpose. We didn’t paint the full wall, just a large box on it. Inside the box is where the world map will go. I painted the first layer with five students; the second layer wasn’t possible till way later in the afternoon. So, a teacher was nice enough to offer to take care of it. I’ll go back on Tuesday to draw the map.

I had a scary spider incident on Friday night. There was a large grey one (large being about 3 inches in diameter) chillin by my back door. So I went and got my broom to kill it – only it escaped by flying (yes flying) 2 yards to my desk and running. I thus spent the rest of the night sniffing relaxation aroma therapy (thank you Maryann) while imagining this spider seeking revenge. Yes, paranoia – but it was a large, scary spider.
The weekend brought rain – finally a cloudy day! Too many days of sun tend to get to one’s head. I enjoyed it by reading, sleeping and eating. That brings me back to Monday.

Pics

The pics of the alfombra are in two albums....enjoy!

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=20341207324394665/l=358307969/g=11114116/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Ants come marching

I can’t say too much has happened since the last blog entry.

Work wise, we’re starting to really move on the fuel-efficient stoves. I had a meeting where only two guys showed up to see a demo on the stove. These two guys then set up times to get demos done in their communities. Now both those communities are putting in orders for the stoves. Word of this got around quickly, so now I have other people asking for fuel efficient stoves. I think this is a nice small project to do in my last few months of service.

What else am I doing to finish up down here?

I just finished buying paint to paint a world map in the local school. Originally, the paint was supposed to be donated, but that fell through. So, instead of going back to the school and saying that I lied about receiving paint – I bought it with tip money I received from translating at that medical brigade. We start work next week.

Ayuda en Accion (NGO – Help in Action) is renewing work with my artisans. Apparently, the last woman in charge of Santo Domingo from AeA wasn’t exactly up to par. So my artisans are a little weary. But, I’m a little more optimistic since I know the guy in charge there and believe he is sincere in getting the work going with them. He’s the guy I occasionally have tea with and chit chat.

Other then that, not to much going on.

I woke up this morning to ant invading the house near the front door…I swept them out and threw down some poison. I don’t understand why they find my tile floor so attractive.

I’m also starting to get nervous as the end of my service approaches. Time to start thinking of what I want to be when I grow up. I think I may stay here till August 7th – just long enough to celebrate the Patron Saint festivals.
Who knows