This week a lot stuff got moving and some stuff was even finished!
Earlier this week, you saw how the world map was finished up. I walked past in on Thursday and Friday and it still seemed to be in pretty good shape.
The rest of the week I focused in on fuel efficient stoves and books.
We were originally going to go get the stoves on Tuesday, but that didn’t happen so they arranged it for Thursday….but that didn’t happen either. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem, but for the fact that a bunch of Rotarians were coming on Saturday to help hand them in and take pics. Let me explain that - Rotary International is sponsoring the Stove Team so that the stoves will only cost the people $20 instead of $40. They also allow people to pay $5 for four months…since people don’t usually have $20 laying around down here. Overall, a nice plan that the people like. Anyway, I begged the truck owner to go Friday morning with me and he was nice enough to cave. They got the stoves into the communal house in the community right before it down poured. On Saturday, we (Rotarians, Stove Team people and I) headed over to the community to hand the people their stoves. Unfortunately, we could only hand in about 2/3rds – the rest of the people were at culto (evangelical mass) and wouldn’t be done till 5pm. Nor could we convince them to come out for just an hour.
Other then the whole stove thing, I worked on getting some books organized. Rotary International (Are you noticing a trend? Have you supported your local Rotary initiatives lately?) donated to 13 schools - about 400 books each. These were nice books too – all in Spanish (yes, sometimes people donate books that are only in English) and with varying degrees of difficulty. Now my librarian and I are cataloging them and will soon be numbering them. Actually setting up the library will take a little longer. The school is having classrooms built and once they are built the library will get its own room. Right now it shares it with computers and there really isn’t space to sit and relax.
I also finished up the project with my artisans – I have officially handed in all the paperwork, receipts and photos. The last thing to buy was lamina and I caught the town driver heading into Sonsonate – so I aprovechared the ride and bought the stuff. It was really nice handing everything in….one less thing to worry about.
During all this commotion, I had a former volunteer and her friend stop by to check out the local pottery. Her friend (Cole) is a potter in the US and received a grant to study the different techniques down here. I felt bad that I didn’t really have food for them, I hadn’t expected them to spend the night, but it all worked out.
What else? My boss stopped by for my last site visit on Wednesday. PC comes to visit you in your site three times during your service – beginning, middle, and end. I pushed my site a lot so I’m hopeful of a new volunteer being placed her next May.
Juan Querendon (yes, a soap opera) finished up Friday night – I am happy to report that the people in love got to marry each other, the girl who couldn’t have kids is pregnant and the evil guy died.
I ‘judged’ the Reina Madre Flor de Mayo (Queen Mother, Flower of May) Church contest. Women (usually 40 and above) enter into the contest to see who can get the most votes. Votes cost $.05 each. The money they raise goes to the Church. I was in charge of counting votes and money for two candidates. It wasn’t bad and I even go a free dinner out of the deal.
Finally, I got the prize for the alfombra. We officially came in second place – behind some cheaters that used spray paint instead of actually dying the salt. The prize? A beautiful pitcher and glass set. The problem now is how do I divide that up amongst the team? Maybe I’ll sell it and buy everyone some pizza.
I guess that’s it – except for the three days of rain we’ve gotten. I’ve missed the rain, so it is more then welcome in my book. Everyone feels soo cold…I think it’s fabulous. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to make some tea.
Earlier this week, you saw how the world map was finished up. I walked past in on Thursday and Friday and it still seemed to be in pretty good shape.
The rest of the week I focused in on fuel efficient stoves and books.
We were originally going to go get the stoves on Tuesday, but that didn’t happen so they arranged it for Thursday….but that didn’t happen either. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem, but for the fact that a bunch of Rotarians were coming on Saturday to help hand them in and take pics. Let me explain that - Rotary International is sponsoring the Stove Team so that the stoves will only cost the people $20 instead of $40. They also allow people to pay $5 for four months…since people don’t usually have $20 laying around down here. Overall, a nice plan that the people like. Anyway, I begged the truck owner to go Friday morning with me and he was nice enough to cave. They got the stoves into the communal house in the community right before it down poured. On Saturday, we (Rotarians, Stove Team people and I) headed over to the community to hand the people their stoves. Unfortunately, we could only hand in about 2/3rds – the rest of the people were at culto (evangelical mass) and wouldn’t be done till 5pm. Nor could we convince them to come out for just an hour.
Other then the whole stove thing, I worked on getting some books organized. Rotary International (Are you noticing a trend? Have you supported your local Rotary initiatives lately?) donated to 13 schools - about 400 books each. These were nice books too – all in Spanish (yes, sometimes people donate books that are only in English) and with varying degrees of difficulty. Now my librarian and I are cataloging them and will soon be numbering them. Actually setting up the library will take a little longer. The school is having classrooms built and once they are built the library will get its own room. Right now it shares it with computers and there really isn’t space to sit and relax.
I also finished up the project with my artisans – I have officially handed in all the paperwork, receipts and photos. The last thing to buy was lamina and I caught the town driver heading into Sonsonate – so I aprovechared the ride and bought the stuff. It was really nice handing everything in….one less thing to worry about.
During all this commotion, I had a former volunteer and her friend stop by to check out the local pottery. Her friend (Cole) is a potter in the US and received a grant to study the different techniques down here. I felt bad that I didn’t really have food for them, I hadn’t expected them to spend the night, but it all worked out.
What else? My boss stopped by for my last site visit on Wednesday. PC comes to visit you in your site three times during your service – beginning, middle, and end. I pushed my site a lot so I’m hopeful of a new volunteer being placed her next May.
Juan Querendon (yes, a soap opera) finished up Friday night – I am happy to report that the people in love got to marry each other, the girl who couldn’t have kids is pregnant and the evil guy died.
I ‘judged’ the Reina Madre Flor de Mayo (Queen Mother, Flower of May) Church contest. Women (usually 40 and above) enter into the contest to see who can get the most votes. Votes cost $.05 each. The money they raise goes to the Church. I was in charge of counting votes and money for two candidates. It wasn’t bad and I even go a free dinner out of the deal.
Finally, I got the prize for the alfombra. We officially came in second place – behind some cheaters that used spray paint instead of actually dying the salt. The prize? A beautiful pitcher and glass set. The problem now is how do I divide that up amongst the team? Maybe I’ll sell it and buy everyone some pizza.
I guess that’s it – except for the three days of rain we’ve gotten. I’ve missed the rain, so it is more then welcome in my book. Everyone feels soo cold…I think it’s fabulous. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to make some tea.
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