This past week I started to get things organized.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Starting to close up shop....
Monday, July 21, 2008
Pretty much done with stuff....
I (mostly) managed to stay on point!
I somehow got all the materials for the fuel efficient stove construction presentation together just in time. It was actually quite impressive how it all came together. I should explain a little more. Peace Corps asked me to hold a training for 20 volunteers on how to build two different types of fuel efficient stoves. Why me? Cause I’m the only volunteer left in the country who knows how…that why. There were only two snags -1- that there was only one saw to cut the bricks with and -2- the guy from PC brought the wrong size tambo (kinda like a thin metal pot). The pots are suppose to be about 18” between handles when measure along the side and about 12 – 14” high. Both the tambos he brought were about 2 or 3 sizes too small. But hey, we made it work.
During the training, one of my town drunkards came to hang out. This is the one who thinks he’s my boyfriend. He basically sat down and mumbled the entire time. The volunteers who came for the training found him highly entertaining…if only they knew.
The training got cut a little short ‘cause we ran out of time. Bricks take a long time to cut. I grabbed a ride with the group back to Sonsonate and then hopped a bus to the capital to grab dinner with a few friends. The snafu came when I didn’t receive the message canceling it and got stood up….kinda sucked.
The next morning I walked over to Banco Custcatlan to close my account. Why? You have to close your account before leaving PC and since the account only had a $1.15 in it I decided to close it down early in the month. Now, for the past two years I have been collecting ‘puntos de oro’ or gold points in hopes of getting myself a cool $25 Visa gift card. I walk in there to cash them out and the woman behind the desk tells me that almost 1000 have expired. What?! She then tells me that they expire after two years. I say I’ve only been in the country for two years so how could they have expired. She had no explanations and her boss was conveniently not there….so I got screwed and had to settle for a $10 gift certificate to the super market.
So, by late Saturday morning you can imagine how mad I was and to top it off I had to walk everywhere in the rain without an umbrella. Cue the violins.
I finally made it back to my site, took a hot bucket bath and a nap and felt way better.
Saturday night was the election of the Queen for our Patron Saint Festivals. Normally it is done during a dance, but we didn’t have money for that this year…so they went with a beauty pageant type set-up. I enjoyed it. You could tell it was the first year they were doing it – the girls were nervous, there weren’t enough seats and a few other mis-steps, but overall good. I got to award one of the trophies for something (probably Miss Congeniality). The only other problem was out of their control – rain.
Of course, there was griping the next day of how a dance would have been better and so and so should’ve won – but you can’t please everyone.
Sunday I headed over to the soccer team to watch Ricardo’s team pummel the competition (7 – 1). I enjoy being the Madrina (Godmother) to a winning team. Next week is the semis.
After the game, I decided to walk back home. Along the way, I managed to pick-up a bolo (drunkard). I was just walking and he came right up and started walking next to me talking about how beautiful I am and how much in love with me he is. Now, what made this different then the other times was that he continue to walk with me. I went and bought pupusas (tortillas stuffed with cheese and squash), and he just waited till I was done and then continued. He did the same thing when I bought a can of soda. So, I walked back to Iris’s house instead of mine and waited out the bolo while eating. Iris and Lito (her hubby) found this quite entertaining.
Once he was gone, I headed home to clean and wash.
And now I’m drinking tea and getting ready for bed. I’m also trying to keep the lights on for a long as possible to keep the bats from dirtying up my nice clean floor. I hate bats.
I somehow got all the materials for the fuel efficient stove construction presentation together just in time. It was actually quite impressive how it all came together. I should explain a little more. Peace Corps asked me to hold a training for 20 volunteers on how to build two different types of fuel efficient stoves. Why me? Cause I’m the only volunteer left in the country who knows how…that why. There were only two snags -1- that there was only one saw to cut the bricks with and -2- the guy from PC brought the wrong size tambo (kinda like a thin metal pot). The pots are suppose to be about 18” between handles when measure along the side and about 12 – 14” high. Both the tambos he brought were about 2 or 3 sizes too small. But hey, we made it work.
During the training, one of my town drunkards came to hang out. This is the one who thinks he’s my boyfriend. He basically sat down and mumbled the entire time. The volunteers who came for the training found him highly entertaining…if only they knew.
The training got cut a little short ‘cause we ran out of time. Bricks take a long time to cut. I grabbed a ride with the group back to Sonsonate and then hopped a bus to the capital to grab dinner with a few friends. The snafu came when I didn’t receive the message canceling it and got stood up….kinda sucked.
The next morning I walked over to Banco Custcatlan to close my account. Why? You have to close your account before leaving PC and since the account only had a $1.15 in it I decided to close it down early in the month. Now, for the past two years I have been collecting ‘puntos de oro’ or gold points in hopes of getting myself a cool $25 Visa gift card. I walk in there to cash them out and the woman behind the desk tells me that almost 1000 have expired. What?! She then tells me that they expire after two years. I say I’ve only been in the country for two years so how could they have expired. She had no explanations and her boss was conveniently not there….so I got screwed and had to settle for a $10 gift certificate to the super market.
So, by late Saturday morning you can imagine how mad I was and to top it off I had to walk everywhere in the rain without an umbrella. Cue the violins.
I finally made it back to my site, took a hot bucket bath and a nap and felt way better.
Saturday night was the election of the Queen for our Patron Saint Festivals. Normally it is done during a dance, but we didn’t have money for that this year…so they went with a beauty pageant type set-up. I enjoyed it. You could tell it was the first year they were doing it – the girls were nervous, there weren’t enough seats and a few other mis-steps, but overall good. I got to award one of the trophies for something (probably Miss Congeniality). The only other problem was out of their control – rain.
Of course, there was griping the next day of how a dance would have been better and so and so should’ve won – but you can’t please everyone.
Sunday I headed over to the soccer team to watch Ricardo’s team pummel the competition (7 – 1). I enjoy being the Madrina (Godmother) to a winning team. Next week is the semis.
After the game, I decided to walk back home. Along the way, I managed to pick-up a bolo (drunkard). I was just walking and he came right up and started walking next to me talking about how beautiful I am and how much in love with me he is. Now, what made this different then the other times was that he continue to walk with me. I went and bought pupusas (tortillas stuffed with cheese and squash), and he just waited till I was done and then continued. He did the same thing when I bought a can of soda. So, I walked back to Iris’s house instead of mine and waited out the bolo while eating. Iris and Lito (her hubby) found this quite entertaining.
Once he was gone, I headed home to clean and wash.
And now I’m drinking tea and getting ready for bed. I’m also trying to keep the lights on for a long as possible to keep the bats from dirtying up my nice clean floor. I hate bats.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
small update
The graduation went well. I wound up handing out the diplomas – I’m pretty sure I was asked to do it ‘cause the lady from the NGO didn’t know the women’s’ names. I was happy to oblige. Afterward Chele and his mom headed out. He’ll be back in August to give another training, but after I’m gone.
Wednesday I headed back in for my final dental visit. I took advantage of my trip in to pick up some Captain Crunch waiting for me in the office, buy bubble wrap for transporting pottery and doing some research. I was pretty lucky, while waiting for the bus to start my trip to the capital, Don Justo passed by in the pick-up…turned out he was headed in the same direction. I love it when I can grab a ride somewhere….anywhere.
I can’t say too much happened during the rest of the week. The soccer tournament on Sunday was surprisingly calm…there have been rumors as to why, but I won’t go into them. Iris’s mom also came in on Sunday, so it was good to see her and catch up. I believe I’ll have to head out to her house at least once more before the end of July.
Yesterday I finished up all the catalogs for the artisans. I’m pleased with how it came out and hope my artisans like it.
I have high hopes of finishing all my work this week and then coasting the final 2 weeks. If I stay on point, it shouldn’t be a problem. Hehehe.
Wednesday I headed back in for my final dental visit. I took advantage of my trip in to pick up some Captain Crunch waiting for me in the office, buy bubble wrap for transporting pottery and doing some research. I was pretty lucky, while waiting for the bus to start my trip to the capital, Don Justo passed by in the pick-up…turned out he was headed in the same direction. I love it when I can grab a ride somewhere….anywhere.
I can’t say too much happened during the rest of the week. The soccer tournament on Sunday was surprisingly calm…there have been rumors as to why, but I won’t go into them. Iris’s mom also came in on Sunday, so it was good to see her and catch up. I believe I’ll have to head out to her house at least once more before the end of July.
Yesterday I finished up all the catalogs for the artisans. I’m pleased with how it came out and hope my artisans like it.
I have high hopes of finishing all my work this week and then coasting the final 2 weeks. If I stay on point, it shouldn’t be a problem. Hehehe.
Ohh...and I am officially coming home on the 14th of August - I have the plane ticket.
Alright, quick little update, I know, but enough.
Alright, quick little update, I know, but enough.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
lots of people seeing
On Friday (July 1st) we celebrated Sonia’s birthday. Since she obviously couldn’t be asked to cook for her own surprise party, we decided to go with Pollo Campero (kinda like KFC). It was all going well enough leading up until the actual day. I think she truly believed we weren’t doing anything for her birthday and thus proceeded to cook herself her own birthday lunch. I was invited along and it was good food. The only problem was that I had to get on a pick-up for 45min to pick up the food for the party – there is nothing worse then hopping on a pick-up on a full stomach. I managed to do it without dying. Jessica came with and we picked up the chicken and the cake.
Then Sonia decided not to go to a meeting she was originally going to go to and walked in on Iris’s cooking. So, the surprise was ruined. But the party turned out to be fun. I thought it was going to be bad since Sonia wasn’t in a good mood…but she got there and all turned out well. I think a high part was when we brought the cake out and proceeded to put 47 (+ 1 for good luck) candles on it. Nope, she didn’t get them all out on the first shot.
The following day (the 5th of July) the American Society held its annual Fourth of July party at the Sheraton Presidente. It’s always done on the weekend closest to the actual day. Unfortunately, the party was on a rainy day so not too many people came (neither volunteers nor embassy staff). It was nice for the fact that that improved our chances for the raffle. A number of volunteers won gift certificates. Another good point was that we got to talk to the Ambassador for a while and hear his view points on what the country needed (El Salvador), what his background was, and what he wanted to continue to do.
After the party and the short spurt of fireworks, some of us headed over to a local club. I’m not if you could define it as a club…it had a DJ and small dance floor, but also served food. I guess you would call it a restaurant/club. It was a fitting place to have my group’s despidida (good-bye party) since it is where we had our swearing – in party. We ended it where we started it. The party itself was great since it stayed small, there was no cover charge to get in and the music was good. Afterward, I headed back to the Sheraton Presidente – another volunteer had enough reward points on his credit card to get a free room, and thus I aprovechared and crashed there. There is nothing better then a hot shower without the free of electric shock.
Sunday came around quick enough and it was time to head back to my site with Natalie. We (Joe, Natalie and I), of course, hit up breakfast at Shaw’s for some Belgium waffles and the breakfast buffet. Afterward, Natalie and I went shopping and then back to my site. Joe had some training with PC and since Nat can’t be alone in her site she came home with me. The trip would’ve been nice, but the artisans from Guatajiagua sent clay to my artisans via volunteers. I was hauling around at least 30 pounds of clay. It was insane.
We got back to my site with just enough time for a short nap and snack. Then it was time for my second and last class on the pottery wheel. Thankfully, when we arrived, Silvia was there. I needed an artisan to give me some clay – I don’t have it lying around my house. Natalie and I then spent the next 2.5 hours playing around on the pottery wheel. It was also fun to tease Chele and Hugo (Chele was the 18 year old giving the classes and Hugo is his best friend here). At the end we paid them well and thanked them both. I tend to get spoiled since I just show up and play with the clay and other tend to clean up for me afterward.
That night I crashed after a simple dinner – lugging that clay around all day was really tiring.
Monday we didn’t do too much. Natalie spent a good part of her day working on some papers to get into graduate school. I spent a good part of the day cleaning. I hadn’t had a chance in a while to clean up and there was just bat shit and dirt. That and I needed to wash some clothing. During the rainy season you kinda gotta wash clothes right after they get dirty cause it can take a while to get them to dry.
We also went through some of my stuff and I gave her a bunch of stuff – like spices I won’t be using, DVDs and things like that. She helped me sort through my clothing…I get emotionally attached to my clothing, so I needed an outside opinion.
Time went pretty quick with her here. But she left this morning and this afternoon I have my artisans graduation from their pottery class.
Then Sonia decided not to go to a meeting she was originally going to go to and walked in on Iris’s cooking. So, the surprise was ruined. But the party turned out to be fun. I thought it was going to be bad since Sonia wasn’t in a good mood…but she got there and all turned out well. I think a high part was when we brought the cake out and proceeded to put 47 (+ 1 for good luck) candles on it. Nope, she didn’t get them all out on the first shot.
The following day (the 5th of July) the American Society held its annual Fourth of July party at the Sheraton Presidente. It’s always done on the weekend closest to the actual day. Unfortunately, the party was on a rainy day so not too many people came (neither volunteers nor embassy staff). It was nice for the fact that that improved our chances for the raffle. A number of volunteers won gift certificates. Another good point was that we got to talk to the Ambassador for a while and hear his view points on what the country needed (El Salvador), what his background was, and what he wanted to continue to do.
After the party and the short spurt of fireworks, some of us headed over to a local club. I’m not if you could define it as a club…it had a DJ and small dance floor, but also served food. I guess you would call it a restaurant/club. It was a fitting place to have my group’s despidida (good-bye party) since it is where we had our swearing – in party. We ended it where we started it. The party itself was great since it stayed small, there was no cover charge to get in and the music was good. Afterward, I headed back to the Sheraton Presidente – another volunteer had enough reward points on his credit card to get a free room, and thus I aprovechared and crashed there. There is nothing better then a hot shower without the free of electric shock.
Sunday came around quick enough and it was time to head back to my site with Natalie. We (Joe, Natalie and I), of course, hit up breakfast at Shaw’s for some Belgium waffles and the breakfast buffet. Afterward, Natalie and I went shopping and then back to my site. Joe had some training with PC and since Nat can’t be alone in her site she came home with me. The trip would’ve been nice, but the artisans from Guatajiagua sent clay to my artisans via volunteers. I was hauling around at least 30 pounds of clay. It was insane.
We got back to my site with just enough time for a short nap and snack. Then it was time for my second and last class on the pottery wheel. Thankfully, when we arrived, Silvia was there. I needed an artisan to give me some clay – I don’t have it lying around my house. Natalie and I then spent the next 2.5 hours playing around on the pottery wheel. It was also fun to tease Chele and Hugo (Chele was the 18 year old giving the classes and Hugo is his best friend here). At the end we paid them well and thanked them both. I tend to get spoiled since I just show up and play with the clay and other tend to clean up for me afterward.
That night I crashed after a simple dinner – lugging that clay around all day was really tiring.
Monday we didn’t do too much. Natalie spent a good part of her day working on some papers to get into graduate school. I spent a good part of the day cleaning. I hadn’t had a chance in a while to clean up and there was just bat shit and dirt. That and I needed to wash some clothing. During the rainy season you kinda gotta wash clothes right after they get dirty cause it can take a while to get them to dry.
We also went through some of my stuff and I gave her a bunch of stuff – like spices I won’t be using, DVDs and things like that. She helped me sort through my clothing…I get emotionally attached to my clothing, so I needed an outside opinion.
Time went pretty quick with her here. But she left this morning and this afternoon I have my artisans graduation from their pottery class.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
two weeks in one
Sonia’s b-day was actually on Sunday, but since she was spending the day selling food at the soccer tournament we thought it best to wait till Monday. We didn’t tell her this, of course, so she thought we had forgotten all about her b-day. Monday afternoon we made out way up there and surprised her with sandwiches, soda and cake! It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.
That was pretty much the high point of the week.
Otherwise, I worked on books for a little while and on a catalog for my artisans. Next week I hope to finish both the books and the catalog. *It is now the following week…yes, I know I should’ve published. The books are mostly done. I can say I’m in agreement with their filing method with entails ordering books in alphabetical order by title (not author) and then just numbering them 1 through whatever. This after we went to a training entailing how to organize a library. But, there is nothing I can do about it now so I’ll just have to let it go. The catalog is moving right along. Though, each artisan wants their own private catalog – I said that I would only to a communal one, but I would give them a disc each with the information if they wanted their sons to change it for them. All were content.
This Monday (we’re talking about the 30th now) I made my way over to the dentist to get some cavities filled. I though there was only one, but apparently there were two – quite deep ones. The dentist overall was great – he had a cool camera so you could see pictures of what was going on in your mouth and was very friendly. My only tiff is that it felt like he waited to strike pain before giving me Novocain to fill the cavities. Not cool. Afterwards I headed over to the PC office to pick up some paperwork and then on home.
On my way to the bus stop I had a scary guy moment. He (a guy in military boots, shorts, no shirt and funky hair) was walking towards me and I decided to give him some room. Just as we were about to pass each other, he steps into my path, grabs me by the shoulder and starts screaming. I pushed him off and kept walking…thankfully he decided not to follow but did continue to scream. I hopped the next available bus and got home.
Iris made me a cup of tea…she’s so good.
I was lying in bed last night and came to the conclusion that I would rather have rats then bats for the following reason: rats don’t shit all over my house and leave bits of food. I think the rats help keep bats away since they run on the beams that the bats like to hang off of. So, if you’re ever given the choice – take rats over bats.
And that’s all for now.
That was pretty much the high point of the week.
Otherwise, I worked on books for a little while and on a catalog for my artisans. Next week I hope to finish both the books and the catalog. *It is now the following week…yes, I know I should’ve published. The books are mostly done. I can say I’m in agreement with their filing method with entails ordering books in alphabetical order by title (not author) and then just numbering them 1 through whatever. This after we went to a training entailing how to organize a library. But, there is nothing I can do about it now so I’ll just have to let it go. The catalog is moving right along. Though, each artisan wants their own private catalog – I said that I would only to a communal one, but I would give them a disc each with the information if they wanted their sons to change it for them. All were content.
This Monday (we’re talking about the 30th now) I made my way over to the dentist to get some cavities filled. I though there was only one, but apparently there were two – quite deep ones. The dentist overall was great – he had a cool camera so you could see pictures of what was going on in your mouth and was very friendly. My only tiff is that it felt like he waited to strike pain before giving me Novocain to fill the cavities. Not cool. Afterwards I headed over to the PC office to pick up some paperwork and then on home.
On my way to the bus stop I had a scary guy moment. He (a guy in military boots, shorts, no shirt and funky hair) was walking towards me and I decided to give him some room. Just as we were about to pass each other, he steps into my path, grabs me by the shoulder and starts screaming. I pushed him off and kept walking…thankfully he decided not to follow but did continue to scream. I hopped the next available bus and got home.
Iris made me a cup of tea…she’s so good.
I was lying in bed last night and came to the conclusion that I would rather have rats then bats for the following reason: rats don’t shit all over my house and leave bits of food. I think the rats help keep bats away since they run on the beams that the bats like to hang off of. So, if you’re ever given the choice – take rats over bats.
And that’s all for now.
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