More Gringos Then You Could Shake A Stick At

This was a frustrating, interesting and very quick week down in El Salvador. I guess I’ll start with the above title.

I still have the gringos down that are working with the church. Some are leaving, new ones are coming – so they are in a constant state of shift. They’re interesting because of the difference in how we live. I live out in the community, them in the confines of the church (for the most part). Some of them are truly petrified to go hang out where there are adult Salvadorians. For example, I invited some to go with me to the soccer tournament this past Sunday and they seemed excited to go. Later, when I asked if they were going to go – they weren’t so sure….someone had told them that there were a lot of drunkards at the tournament and it wasn’t a safe place to be. I told them that I go every Sunday and have never felt unsafe – so, I convinced a few to go. I think they just get easily spooked and I don’t think the priest they are with does anything to discourage it. Those that aren’t afraid don’t always have the sense they should. Saturday night, I was at the town dance and two gringas (an older woman and a 15 year old) were standing outside the front gate just to watch what was going on. I chatted with them in the beginning and then went to go tend to some other things. When I looked back, they were still there – which wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t for the fact that they were the only to girls standing outside in the dark surrounded by men. I walked over to them and suggested they head back inside the church.

The next gringos in town had my counterpart in the town hall confused. She comes up to me on Thursday and says that my boss is in town. I was like, are you sure….he usually doesn’t show up without at least a phone call. But, whatever. As I was walking down to the internet café, I came across two gringos that looked (not really, but to a Salvadoran) like my boss and a co-worker. I presented myself and asked what they were doing in town. It turns out that they were honest to God tourists! Who knew?! They were a couple that use to be into the .com’s and got out without going bust. So, now they travel the world on their boat – retired by their 40’s, not a bad way to go. They were in my pueblo doing some land travel. We talked for a while and they suggested that I find a way to continue living ‘outside the cubicle’….I’ll have to work on that. After we chit chatted for a while, I drew them a map and sent them on their way to the waterfalls. On their way back, they stopped by my little office to say thanks and take a pic of me. It’s kinda weird, I usually take pictures of other people to remember and tell stories – I’m now someone else’s story.

Now what made these first two gringo interactions (yes, there is another afterward) interesting was listening to their viewpoints on El Salvador or development. While conversing with the church group, one of the women told me it would be nice to live down here – where life is slower and there isn’t such an importance placed on what brand of clothes you wear. I found that fascinating because those classifications do exist down here – though they can be slightly different…such as if your family has a tv or not. I have visited people way out in the countryside that didn’t even have a cement floor – but they had a tv and stereo. And as for clothes – you can tell by which kids have uniforms for school and which kids go in regular clothes because that is all they can afford. Or the little girls that go around in pretty dresses because that’s the clothes they have, not because they want to. I found the tourists to of had a more experienced viewpoint on this. Maybe because they’ve been to so many of these countries. They’ve seen what damage development can do when done incorrectly – like making people dependent on foreign aid. They also made the point that many people just don’t think ahead down here – he’s offered people $100 upfront or $20/month for two years for the work they do on the boat and they almost always go for the first option. I agreed with him, but upon reflection – who could blame that worker. They’ve never been taught to think ahead, as our .com’er has, and that $100 would go a long way with food and clothes. Besides, by the time he’s offered the option of $20/month - when the guy is done with the work - that worker has already spent that $100 in his head. And who of us doesn’t do that – I do it all the time.

Then there was my third gringo interaction of the week. Remember, months ago??, when I built 3 fuel efficient stoves – well, the guy that invented the design I used stopped by my house on Saturday. How random! It turns out that he commissioned one of my artisans to build the stove, but only out of pottery. When he was talking to her about it, she mentioned that I had built a few…so him and his two companions came and found me. Granted – I’m not that hard to find down here. He turned out to be a fascinating guy who has made designing fuel efficient stoves his job. He was thrilled that I had built three and insisted on seeing one. We drove down to one of the women that had one and he checked it out…I got approved! After, we went back to the artisans place so I could check out the new design. We got to talking about it and him and I both agreed that it might be best to make the stoves out of to pieces instead of one solid piece of clay because of how fragile the clay is and how easily it breaks while firing. I told him I would work on it and send him pics if we figured it out.

That’s all for gringos…at least for this week.

Other then that – I’ve been busy. My laptop charger decided it didn’t want to work anymore and my computer promptly ran out of charge. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I had to go to the capital to get it fixed. I found someone closer – but they were more sure of their abilities then I was….so, I went further away. It actually turned out to be a nice day in the capital. A nice breakfast of croissants and tea, then got the computer fixed (for free!), then just windowed shop before heading over to some place for lunch that also happens to have free wireless internet. I somehow convinced myself to go back to my site.

My other headache this week was my artisan fair. I’m suppose to be receiving two banners from my town hall and a third from a NGO. The only way I can get the NGO to pay for the third is to present a bill. So, I asked the town hall for this bill and they have yet to give it to me. Which wouldn’t be bad, but I have a meeting with the NGO Monday morning at 9 am…..I may not get the banner and that would be such a shame.

Alright…I’ve written enough. I’ll fill you in on the rest next time.

Barbara´s Menagerie

So far I have (whether I want to or not):

• two birds
• a turtle
• ants (small, medium and large varieties)
• lizards (small and medium varieties)
• mosquitoes (blood thirsty variety)
• one giant black rat

and the newest addition.....

• a bat.

Lazy

Yes, I’ve been bad. I haven’t written as I should, but things have gotten a little hectic and I’m just lazy.

So, I’ll just give you highlights as to what has gone down –

I’ve submitted my proposal to Partnership Program for the improvements to my artisan ovens – this will be explain more in about a week…I hope.

Power Point presentation for Riki and Lori – if you want to see it, you’ll have to email me that request. It was about a gift for them that never quite made it.

Cleaned computers – this harkens way back to the first few months of my service when two of my schools solicited computers. The computers have arrived in the capitol and I went to help clean them. Their casings were really quite gross. The work was boring but it did have it’s up points – like when that really strong tremor happened. We’ve been getting quite a few of those…but, no…it doesn’t make me nervous.

I made cinnamon rolls from scratch – go me!

Went and worked in an English class. I was showing a teacher how to play a grammar game with his students. I cut a paragraph up into words and the students had to put each sentence back into order. They eventually got them all right – took some time though. I enjoy working with the teachers – the only glitch is getting them to replicate the exercises after I’ve done them. Sometimes they want me to do them repeatedly. We’ll work on that.

Our latest round of the soccer tournament went off without anyone getting punched or disqualified. Sweet.

I have 8 other gringos in town now – there a church group that comes down once a year to play with the kids and help in the school. Apparently, their priest served down here about 12 years ago and comes back multiple times each year. I saw him around Christmas time last year. You can only imagine their surprise at running into me on the street. They were like – you live here alone? Yup. The group will be switching members sporadically, but as a whole should be around for about a month.

Working on saying farewell to Rachael – she’s the volunteer in the site next to mine and she finishes her two years of service this month. She’s already came down for a bbq (I made some really good food) and I headed up to her side for her last dance. I hope the newbie they put up there is good. I’LL MISS YOU RACHAEL!!

The only annoying stuff was when people thought I just hadn’t shown up for two days and didn’t bother to ask what I was doing. Surprisingly, I was actually working in the capital. All well – such is life.

I believe that’s all the highlights – everything else was the usual stuff. Later!

A bunch of visitors.....

This week I had a whole bunch of people out visiting.

Let’s start with this past weekend. Saturday I headed into Sononsate and had lunch with another volunteer…pizza. I’ve been having a lot of pizza recently, but I won’t go into it. It was nice to see her and I think it did her some good to talk with another volunteer. She is still a newbie and is having some slight difficulties in her community. Some are taking advantage of her and charging her more for things then they should. I can understand that.

Sunday was just a day of getting the house in order and watching some futbol. My team won….did you have any doubt? How could they lose with my ball? Also, I cleaned up as much as possible – the boss came out during the week.

Though, the most annoying thing was cleaning up the poison. My brilliant rats ripped open the bag of poison to eat it. That would have been great except that they ripped it open next to my plates and dishes = I had to wash all my plates and dishes.

Anyway, back to the week. Monday I had the second meeting with my artisans – but this time only about half showed up. Those who came, signed the contract and are ready to go. Ohh..if you didn’t know, for anyone who is going to benefit from this program, they have to sign a contract stating that they will pay for the labor, supply two bags of clay (which they all have since they work with the stuff) and that the materials will only be used for the stated purposes – they can’t change they’re minds and use the bricks to build something else. It also appears the solicitation will include the construction of one new oven. I suddenly went from under budget to a little over budget. But such is life.

This week I had my boss come out for a site visit. Peace Corps does site visits with volunteers at least 3 times during their service. It’s a good time to reconnect and talk about what’s going on, what you want to go on and where you hope things are going. I always enjoy talking with the jefe – he’s a really relaxed guy and someone you really feel you can talk to. With him came another volunteer – Stephen – just hitching a ride and Rachael was down translating something. I had four people in the house (including myself) and only three chairs. So, I sent Rachael off to Iris’s house for the final chair. Oops.

¿Que más? I had two trainees come out for immersion days. I’m not sure if you remember me writing about this about a year ago, (I know, a full freaking year) but Peace Corps sends trainees out to a volunteers site. The volunteer then sends those trainees to live with families out in the countryside. It’s only for two nights – one full day. It’s the first experience they have living by themselves. I had difficulty finding the second family, the first one is going to Iris’s parents house. The second one is going to a family of another friend. I don’t know them, but I’ve been assured they’re good people.

So, my two trainees (Stephanie and Kara) arrived around 11 am on Thursday. We went straingt to my place so they could put down their stuff and relax. It was nice to get their first impressions and answer any questions that came to mind. We ate lunch with Heidy and then started to get ready to drop them off. We were suppose to leave at 2pm – that didn’t happen. The driver was off someplace and nobody was exactly sure where. Thankfully – Lito stepped up and gave us a ride. I dropped Kara off with the Iris’s family and Stephanie went to the family of Don Kokie. I then spent the rest of Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning worrying about them.

During this time of worry, I worked on a few other things. I got my haircut ($1 special, of course), was stood-up for a meeting…things of that nature.

Finally, it was Saturday morning. Iris’s mom couldn’t get to the drop off spot till 9am – which was fine because at 8am I still didn’t have a ride to go pick them up. Thus, I hunted down Don Justo and asked for one. He said the driver would be right over. He came about 20 minutes late….which was fine, we would only be about 20 late in picking them up. But, of course, we didn’t go straight to picking them up. We went in the exact opposite direction in order to go pick someone else up. So, we were an hour late. All well.

When we got back to my place, we just relaxed a little. I made some pancakes, they took some showers and eventually, we got ourselves out the front door. We headed into Sonsonate…the local ‘big’ town. Of course, we hit up Pizza Hut for lunch before heading over to Super Selectos – the supermarket. I picked up food for dinner, a new pot (my old pots were rusting and I’ve gotten tired of scrubbing rust off of my pots) and whatever else the girls wanted. We also managed to go see a movie – Ocean’s 13…the only one that wasn’t dubbed. It was nice to sit in the air conditioning and watch a movie in English – you could almost forget where you were. Afterward, we ran back to my place, cooked dinner and got ready for the dance.

My community was having a dance on Saturday in order to present the candidates for queen (queen of the patron saint festivals). We only stayed about 2 hours, but it was enough to have a good time, dance and fend off some bolos. I think we got back to my place around 10:45ish. We were all ready for bed when we heard the evangelicals start singing. It wouldn’t of been so bad, but we could still clearly make out the music from the dance. It was like a battle of the bands…right in my house! I think I slept like a rock anyway.

That brings us to their final day here…Sunday. We woke up, had some more pancakes and hiked it over to the waterfall. It took about 40 minutes to get over there. Those girls walked so fast – I’m so slow nowadays. I’ve just gotten use to the pace that Iris walks. Anyway, we got over to the waterfall and there were more evangelicals there singing. It was so weird. We still got in and swam.

After all that, they took showers and I then threw them on the bus to head home. It was really nice having company out, but it was sooo tiring as well. I was just so nervous in taking care of them and making sure they had a good time. I believe they did.

I spent the rest of the day…..watching futbol and working. I went down to the field to watch my team play, but the game got cut short. Someone of the other team got really mad at the ref and punched him. So, that team automatically lost. Thankfully, a large fight was avoided and there was just general discontent after for a while. Once everything settle down, I went home. Once there, it was time to get the house back in order. I still haven’t finished washing everything. What a pain.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Never trust a waterfall...

Over the past weekend, I went to another small business meeting. This time is was held in Perkin (small town located in the department of Morazan). It’s a beautiful area and high enough that it gets cool at night. The hotel even had hot water! I almost used it all.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get a ride from the capitol out there – cause it can be quite a hike in bus. However, to get to the capital, I had to leave my site at 6am … that was a little harsh.

We started our little meeting around 1:30ish, I want to say… Anyhow, it mainly focused in two areas - the first being a small catalog that we want to assemble. This catalog would demonstrate the different artisan crafts available within out communities to different shops. I should’ve started by saying that most people at this meeting had a group of artisans in their community – whether it be pottery, hammocks, or seed jewelry.

The second part of the meeting was spend on discussing how to form the beginning of a manual-type thing. It would be used to help future volunteers organize income growth opportunities within their communities. It would cover things like selecting a project (making sure you’re not doing the same thing as everyone else or assessing an opportunity you can take advantage of), basic math…things of that nature.

Overall, it was an interesting meeting. It didn’t go in the direction I thought it would, though maybe that’s good. It’ll be interesting to see how it works out in the end.

After all that fun, we just kinda hung around. I caught up on gossip – someone had old magazines. It was just a blah kinda night.

Sunday – not a bad day. After getting up, getting moving and eating, we were off! The group divided into two groups. One group went to check out another volunteers site and then the soccer game. My group chose to head over to a war museum (yes, very interesting. It was presented more from the perspective of the gorillas, but well done.) After that, we checked out a memorial as Mozote. Mozote is where a massacre occurred during the civil war – about 1000 people were killed. They included men, women and children. We had a wonderful guide who explained how the squadron of soldiers tricked the people into coming out and showed us where they were killed. It is a beautiful memorial and I highly recommend seeing if in town.

From there, it was getting a little late. I kinda wanted to head back to the capital so that I could catch a bus back to my site. I was told that wasn’t going to happen and instead we went on a hike….yey. We went down to the river Zapo and hiked for 30 minutes – well…it was suppose to be 30 minutes. A young Salvadorian kid approached us from behind an offered to lead us to the waterfall that was only 20 minutes away. Long story short – after an hour we had yet to arrive at the waterfall so we turned around and went back. It was a little bit of a bitch of a hike since I wasn’t wearing shoes meant for hiking – flip flops with an inch thick sole.

We made it back to the car around 3:30ish? Not sure – but then proceeded to rush back to the capital in a vain effort to get other people back in time for their buses. Yup, I was mad. I was more mad at the fact that I had to stay in the capital – it’s the end of the month and I don’t have enough money right now to cover such frivolous expenses. There was also the fact that I promised to help a friend with her English homework on Sunday night – that didn’t happen either.

So, Monday morning I got up early and got myself back to my site. Ya es todo.

Pics!

These pics span a long time...sorry for the delay!

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=192121178990071927/l=266683901/g=11114116/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

The rainy season has come!

I should clarify – I call it the rainy season, they call it winter. I am unable to bring myself to call it winter because the temperature still fails to dip below hot. Winter basically means you can actually sleep with a sheet. Though, I will admit – the thunder storms are spectacular. Not spectacular in the fact that they knock out the power really easily, but spectacular in their strength.

There are only two problems I have with ‘winter’ down here. The first being the shear amount of mosquitoes. I went from being bitten every once and a while in my house to really having to cover or use spray. (I also use an incense type thing that I’ve not seen in the US – but it works!) This is from all the small puddles that the rain forms and mosquitoes breed in. I should actually expand this to include all bugs – they have all come out of the wood works. I’m talking flying cockroaches, beetles, evil ants – you name it and they have come. However, I will admit to having batting practice with my broom while trying to get a flying cockroach out of my house. Eventually, I did have success and shot his ass out my back door – it was kinda fun. My second problem is rats. My house is along a river…uphill so I’m not in risk of flooding…but the rats come up when the river is high. I hate hearing them up in the roof. I’ll have to start guarding my food more and put out some ‘bait’. Maybe I’ll borrow someone’s cat.

I believe I am taking on my first project – the restoration of the Church. The Church here in my little community is actually from the colonial period – so we’re gonna work on it and try and conserve it. I went and talked to the Padre (father or priest) and he was all about it. The only way I can work on this project is through the aspect of restoration due to the fact that Peace Corps is a religious. So…I’m nervous, but I’ll see how it goes.

Otherwise, life moves on!

A slow quick week

I could of titled this entry as ‘the package that was not to be’ – unfortunately, I was unable to get a package from Aunt Joanne. There seems to of been a miscommunication in relation to the mailings of packages. Packages are usually sent to me via regular mail because sending it through a specialized carrier (fedex/dhl) requires me to go to the airport to pick it up. There are also other numerous costs that were adding up that in the end defeated the chance of me getting the package….and now those evil people at DHL are eating my Girl Scout cookies!! Darn them!

That pretty much killed off Monday. Thankfully Tuesday was better. This ‘lil Ehlen BBQed it up! That’s right, I bought myself a $6 BBQ & charcoal and had chicken/potatoes that night. It’s a little harder to get the charcoal going since I don’t have any lighter fluid or alcohol in the house (I know, a shock about the lighter fluid). But I did it! Next up will be BBQing some steak? How sweet can it get….

That leads me to the stoves. I’ve placed all three within the community. The first two went to individual venders and the third went to the school. I’m anxiously awaiting results and to hear the opinions of the women. Then it will be onward toward teaching my artisans how to build them. Hopefully, it’ll all work out.

Otherwise, I just have been organizing a few little things. Hopefully, they will start coming together within the next few weeks.

Side note

Gotta read from the bottom entry up to the top - or it'll be all out of sequence.

Who likes reading out of sequence?

The Week Back

This week – I was actually busy! Who knew that could happen.

Anyway, I spent a good part of the week setting up things for my presentations that were on Friday. I gave one presentation about gender equality and the other about adolescent pregnancy, though, on the second one I had a nurse come in to give the talk about birth control methods and the condom demonstration.

Thankfully, the groups were small – only 8 students in the morning and 8 in the afternoon. I find big groups hard to control. Especially since teachers like to leave while I’m giving the presentation – they take it as a break. This makes it difficult to maintain the students’ attention and present the material.

During the week, I also built the final fuel efficient stove. I was using some of the sugar mixture from the first stoves. But, it smelt as if some of the sugar had begun the process of fermentation. That stuff smelled incredible strong, it almost knocked me down. But hey, its all good. I’m also in the process of testing the stoves. So far, they seem to work. I’m not sure how much wood they save. There seems to be some concern about the distance of the pot from the fire. I don’t know.

I also got cornered by the Priest of the Church. Well, first he invited me to mass and then to talk afterward. What am I going to say, no? You have to go once the priest invites you. So, after mass, I went back to say hi. I had to wait for a few minutes…so I began to imagine him starting to question me about the homily. He didn’t, instead he asked why he had only seen me at mass for Christmas – damn. I explained that it was difficult for me to come to a 2 hour long mass because I can’t listen to Spanish for such a long period of time without getting lost. We then moved on to topics that were even more fun. He initially though that Peace Corps had something to do with the Peace Accords that had been signed in 1992 down here (to end the civil war). I explained that I had nothing to do with that and then explained what I was here for. He then started to ask for help with the Church, since it is in desperate need of repairs. Unfortunately, I can’t make it one of my projects since the we have to be a religious, as well as a political and things of that nature. Though, I’ll still see what I can do.

Then we came back.....

After our wonderful stay at the Best Western….it was to the airport. Somehow, I’m not exactly sure how, Maryann got me on the plane.

It was a short ride to El Salvador.

We sat and had lunch in the airport before I got up to go. It was horribly hard to leave her there, doing her homework. Yup, it was ugly.

I slowly made my way through customs – cause there was a huge line – got my bags, and hopped on a $3 shuttle.

Thankfully, that night there were a whole lot of volunteers at the Estancia. So, I wasn’t alone, but had to guard my toblerone from theft.

Sunday I went back to my site and saw Iris – who promptly fed me lunch…she is just so good. She also called the muchacha to come and was clothes for me. Of which I had a lot – it’s rough robbing Maryann of her clothes.

The other good thing was that I had a busy week…those can be lifesavers sometimes.

Rafting

So, I believe that brings us to the 18th. Maryann and I got to the hotel around 8pmish. It was good for what we wanted it for, a place to sleep for a few hours before our next days activities. Plus, I was able to get us a Peace Corps discount – since that is the hotel the volunteers use. Otherwise, it was a pretty run down place.

Our final activity of an amazing trip was river rafting. They picked us up at 6:30am and took us to their business center, which is about 2 hours away from the capitol. Apparently, we went through three different types of forest – a cloud, a rain and another type that I can’t remember. I love it when tour companies try and sell the bus trip as part of the adventure. It’s not, it’s a bus trip – get over it.

Anywho, the trip was broken up between those who were there for two days and those who were going to do it all in one day. We were part of the first group. We were paired up with a pair from Salt Lake City and a prankster guide. The other two couples on the trip were very obviously from the hard core business sector. It was fun talking to them.

Anyway, we paddled until 3 or 4pm. We made stops for lunch, waterfalls and cool pools. The rapids weren’t to bad, since they are still in the dry season. Though, you could tell when a big rapid was coming up since the photographer would paddle up ahead.

We pulled in the lodge and just chilled for a little while. Maryann and I checked out small pools and waterfalls before finally succumbing to the call of the hammocks.

That night everyone crashed early. We ate a fabulous dinner – they even prepared me tuna instead of beans since they found out about my bean problem. Afterward, I proceeded to beat the photographer at 4 out of 5 rounds of connect five. He assord me he was letting me win out of courtesy.

The next morning was started with a wonderful breakfast – I even helped a guy out who h a type of bee land in his syrup….he wasn’t so pleased. Otherwise, we had a hike up to a water slide. The water was definitely cooler up there. It was a fun little slide, but I think we were more interested in continuing down the river. It was at this little waterfall that I realized that I had failed to put my contacts in. So, Maryann being the wonderful sister she is, fastened a glasses stabilizer system out of medical tape…it’s a shame we don’t have photographic evidence.

Anyway, we paddled our butts off and had a great time doing it. I randomly got knocked off the boat, and our guide had us paddle head first into a very large rock. We believed right to the very end that he would turn us…he didn’t. Maryann and I thought it was hilarious, the others not so much. Maryann and I also got a ride from the kayaker when we fell to far behind our boat. Yup…he had to work hard to get us back – because of the life vests of course.

At the end, we all piled back on the bus for the ride back to the center for some lunch. It was a good lunch. Then they gave us rides back to our hotels. Maryann and I switched hotels and went to the Best Western – which turned out to be a great idea. It had a free shuttle service to the airport, a free happy hour and free internet. Score!

I celebrated my last night with a hot bath, a steak dinner and the theft of Maryann’s stuff. Bwa ha ha ha ha.

Diving in Playa Hermosa

So, to actually get to the beautiful Playa Hermosa, Maryann took this shuttle service. Which, granted, was a little more expensive then the public buses, but if we were to take those we would have had to go all the way back to the capitol and then out to the beach – a long ride, practically all day. So, we took the 5 hour option that included door to door service and a snack! Yey!

Playa Hermosa is a beach that is just really starting to take off as a tourist destination – it’s not there yet, but getting there. Our beautiful hotel was located right on the beach and had a good restaurant. Around the area were a few more hotels being constructed. We got there sort of late, so it was just an evening of a wonderful dinner (I had the filet minion – it was good) and to bed.

Now, the whole reason we chose to come to this particular beach was for diving. So, early Sunday morning we headed over to the dive shop. I didn’t have my certification card on me because directing my family where to search through my things back in the US didn’t quite work out. Normally, this isn’t a problem because they can look these thing up on line – the web site was down on Sunday morning. So, we missed out on morning diving but got it in time for the afternoon dive. We weren’t thrilled about that, but such is life. We went snorkeling, or tried to, along the beach instead. Two minutes after getting into the water, my goggles self-destructed. Seriously, I’m talking about lens popping out and rubber coming undone – I’m a little agitated about this cause they were suppose to be good goggles and I had only used them a hand full of times.

Anyhow, the afternoon dive was beautiful. It was a spot called Argentina. We met a nice pair of friends diving, whom would soon become our dive buddies. I won’t go into all the cool stuff we saw – including a sea horse, but just know it was cool. My only problem during all the dives was seasickness – I didn’t get it while the boat was moving, it was only when the boat stopped that things turned ugly.

Once we got back, we showered and just recouped – diving can be very tiring – with the pulling on of the dive suit, the tanks, the currents and getting back in that stupid boat. It was then off to a wonderful little restaurant. Unfortunately, this little restaurant was about a 15 minute walk away….in the dark. But the food was amazing.

Then it was Monday. We met our dive buddies on the beach around 8:30ish to go off to a dive site that was approximately 45 minutes away, but well worth it. On our way out, we got to see a pack of dolphins jumping out of the water and riding the waves just below the surface. It was really cool to see. We also saw packs of sting rays? Well…one type of ray. The dive site was beautiful. There were white tip sharks, huge manta rays, sea turtles, and many lively fish. And the currents were incredible. Everyone was just flying back in forth in unison under the water. It was a two-tank trip, meaning we got to make two dives. It was ugly between those dives…I felt incredibly ill. But I tell you, once I was a foot or two under the water – I felt fine.

Since we got back late from that dive trip, we couldn’t hit up the afternoon, which was fine by me cause I was exhausted. I think we just spent the afternoon chilling at the dive shop, reading on the beach, and just relaxing. It was nice.

For dinner, we headed back to the phenomenal restaurant – but this time we avoided the dark beach and hit up the even sketchier streets. Halfway though our walk, we met up with a random guy from the US who had just gotten to the beach and was looking for a place to eat. We invited him along – figuring if anyone attacked us we would throw him in front – and continued on our way. He turned out to be a nice guy taking a vacation before starting a new job.

Then, came our last diving day, Tuesday. We didn’t really enjoy these two dives. We didn’t have our dive buddies, the water was cold, visibility was nothing and the people we went diving with weren’t all that. It was good to get the experience, but still. I guess nothing could honestly follow up the previous days diving.

That afternoon, we chilled at our hotel until our dive buddies stopped by and invited us to their hotel for some drink and monkey viewing. There weren’t any monkeys, but there was a nice strawberry daiquiri. We just watched a beautiful sunset and then headed back to the hotel for dinner – neither us really wanted to hike it to any other place.

We actually ate dinner with a nice couple who was celebrating their anniversary. We’d been talking to them all week, and finally sat down with them. They are a couple who knew just how to pick on each other.

The next day was more or less a traveling day. The morning was spent on the beach and the afternoon in a shuttle bus.

Arenal/Fortuna – First Stop

Wednesday morning, Maryann and I hoped into the Alcaldia’s pick up and got a ride to the airport. We were off to Costa Rica!

After we landed, we hoped a cab to the bus terminal to pick up the bus for San Carlso – where we hoped to catch the next bus to La Fortuna. It looked like we were gonna make it since we cached the 3:30pm special. Specials don’t stop as often as the regular buses. Unfortunately – fogged stopped any chance of that happening. We got there 5 minutes to late. But, instead of waiting two hours for the next bus….we hopped a taxi. The guy did the job off the meter….but I think he underestimated how far he would actually of had to go, so, he screwed himself a little bit on that one.

Anyway, we got to the hotel around 8ish? We checked into our beautiful room and then went and got dinner – cause we were famished. The hotels restaurant wasn’t that bad. After all that eating fun – we went back to a room full of ants. Mostly in the bathroom – but big guys. So, we opted to call the front desk and change rooms. This turned out to be great for two reasons – one being that there were no ants in the second room and the second being that the back area of the room had a phenomenal view of the volcano.

That brings us to Thursday when we went cannoning in the morning. That’s when you repel down sides of rocks next to water – or at least that’s how it was for us. It started off a little rocky since my stomach decided that vacation was when it didn’t want to feel well – but then everything settle in time for the first repel. I believe we did a total of about 5 repels with a group of about 8 or 10 people. It was a fun time of getting wet and learning a new skill – I should get a Girl Scout patch or something. The repelling even came with lunch! That is where we met the owner of the business. She was an American and a little over eager. It was funny to see and a little annoying when she got pushy. Maryann and I soon noticed a trend – if an American owned the business - there was always a release form to sign, but if a Costa Rican owned it – there wasn’t.

After all the fun of the morning, we just chilled in the afternoon. Or should I say that I just chilled in the afternoon? Maryann had to do some homework. I checked out the natural spring pools and the spa – who doesn’t love a late afternoon massage? I had quite a number of knots in need of some work. And then both of us hit up a nice steak dinner. I miss good steak. You know – a piece where you don’t have to cut with the grain of the meat and it doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through. It was wonderful.

Friday was a packed day – we’re not about lazy vacations apparently. In the morning, we went caving (or spelunking for those of you in on the vocab). We had the fortune of being the only two people who had signed up for the tour that morning. I’ll get into why this was fortunate later. Anyway, we got there and found out this wasn’t a cave overly touristy – you still needed to wear helmets with the lights on top. We hiked through and checked out the rather large spiders, the different bats and the beautiful rock formations. And since it was just the two of us and the guide – we got to go check out smaller and less visited areas. Of course, this included me crawling 20 feet on my stomach through a rather small opening – thank God, I’m not claustrophobic. Other fun included getting hit on the head with a stick a few times. Explanation – before crawling through a small opening, the guide advised us to keep our heads low until we were sure we had cleared the rocks above. So, I go crawling through and lift my head and whack it into the rock (don’t worry, I have a helmet on)…I then crawl a little farther and do the same thing. I then look up and see the guide was whacking us on the head every time we lifted our heads. What a sick joke that Maryann and I found hilarious. We then made our way out of the cave via the crawl and when back to their center. They then asked us to help film a short thing explaining why it is best if you don’t bring your camera and let them take the pictures…which was true since it was wet and dark. We’re still waiting to get that film back.

The afternoon was a nicely relaxing one. We hung out at our pools till 3 or 4ish and then headed into town for some food. It was really good – I love rotisserie chicken. The town itself was nice to check out. They had some little shops and a town center. Around 5ish we hopped a taxi to take us to some other natural springs. We went later in order to get the lower price and enjoy the hot water when it was cool out and not while it was boiling out. This springs are naturally heated by the volcano. They had springs of various temperatures. We, personally, staked out a spot where a seat had been formed and the hot water could come crashing down your back. It was wonderful. We spent a few hours just chilling in the hot water and switching pools. We also spent time being lost. Those pathways were very confusing. And once we were done – it was on to the dessert bar. That’s right – tiramisu, mousse, melted chocolate/caramel – all a little piece of heaven.

Then is was Saturday – our last day there or least half day. We woke up and got our free breakfast. Then it was off to the hotel zip lines. Zip lines are lines that have been strung between two large trees. You connect on and fly down the line. I seemed to have trouble stopping and thus got the reputation of hitting trees. I want to clarify that I never actually hit a tree – I just came in a little quick. After the first few, I’m waiting at the next platform and look over just in time to see Maryann in the superman position flying down this line (with the help of one of the guides). I was like – that is so typical. The next line she went down upside-down. When they saw I was jealous, I got to do it too. I must say, it helps to be two single girls vacationing – cause the guides weren’t gonna do that with the girls who’s boyfriends were standing right next to them. Hehehe.

Alas, that brought to an end our adventures at Fortuna. We hopped on a shuttle bus headed for La Playa Hermosa.