The computer lab is now up and running. The ministry of education ended up matching our donation of 10 computers and adding an additional 6 more! We now have 26 computers in the lab. We have hired a computer teacher so classes are sustainable after we leave. Each child pays $1 a month and this money pays the salary of the computer teacher. We are hoping the ministry will eventually hire a teacher for this position so the children don’t have to pay but for now, this is the best option. The children are enjoying the computer classes and especially sitting in air conditioning for an hour! A special thanks to McCutcheon High School’s International Club for making this computer lab possible. We appreciate all of your hard work on this project and we look forward to sharing more with you when we return home.

The library is also up and running now. This project is particularly special to me. I have worked with multiple organizations to make this library and I am happy to finally see all our hard work come to fruition. This project has been a roller coaster for me and there were times when I didn’t think it would happen. I put plenty of sweat and tears into this library and it all payed off the day I opened the doors. As of now we have over 600 books in the library. The pictures haven’t been updated but all of the shelves are now full on the original bookshelf and we have since added another bookshelf. There are another 200+ books on the way. I started the library with open library hours, allowing children to read before, after and between classes. I was worried the teacher’s weren’t going to utilize the library so I held a workshop to offer ideas on how to use the library as a learning tool. I realized the problem was that the teacher’s themselves were uncomfortable in a library. After familiarizing them on the workings of the library and implementing a special teacher resource section, they are now fighting over library time with their students. My favorite moment was when three 9th graders discovered a Shakespeare book and started screaming. I ran over to them thinking someone was hurt and discovered they were ecstatic to be holding a book by Shakespeare. They asked me if they could take it to their teacher to ask permission to study it in class. They ended up studying it and doing dramas from it as well. It is so refreshing to witness the student’s passion for reading and learning. They are starving for knowledge and it is heartbreaking that they have had to wait this long for the opportunity. A special thanks to the International Club again for their donation of books and library supplies. Thanks to the Faith Presbyterian Church for their donation to the Pensacola Rotary, which has been matched by 50%. Thanks to my friends and family for donating to the rotary as well. Also, Thanks to Cathy Tanner for all of her hard work searching for used Spanish books at library sales. All of you have given these children and the future children of the village an invaluable opportunity. I wish you all could have the opportunity to witness their gratitude first hand.

We also just finished our dental hygiene workshop in the village. Thanks to Dr. Ruter and his office and Klondike Dental for their donation of dental supplies to the village. Over 100 people were supplied with new toothbrushes and toothpaste and a better knowledge of proper dental health care.

Thanks to everyone that donated to the Women and Youth Development Scholarship Foundation. I was able to supply 3 high school scholarships in my village. Your donations also benefited other high school girls throughout the country of El Salvador.

So this is what we have been up to in the last few months. We have also been teaching geography and cultural lessons and Ross is busy with his older youth, kids club. We are currently working hard to solicit for water and electricity for the people in the village who are currently with out. There are still 96 families still without electricity and 79 families without water. I am confident we will be successful, I just hope it happens before we leave. We are also working with another NGO to start a health committee which will basically do everything we have been doing, after we leave.

As you can see, we have been VERY busy! We are running out of time and wishing we would have started these projects earlier. We only have about 6 weeks left to wrap up our work and hopefully, make everything sustainable. We are very emotional about leaving but I will save that for a later post.

Please feel free to check out the pictures on the side link.

What kind of work do you do? This is probably the most common question I receive as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Family, friends, people in El Salvador or anywhere else I find myself, almost everyone asks this question. Unfortunately, I really don’t have a straight answer. The best I can come up with is “a little bit of everything.” How else do I explain that my work spans from HIV/AIDS awareness training to coaching a teenage girls soccer team, among many other projects. How do I tell someone that some days I teach art to little kids, and some days I have nothing to do. I have no basic description, only a random list of activities and projects. Yet, strangely, my title is Rural Health and Sanitation Volunteer, which doesn’t exactly apply to more than half of the work I do. So yeah… to date “a little bit of everything” is the best answer I have. I hope everyone can make do with that explanation. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, sometimes finding our place or our project work within our communities can be the toughest part of the whole experience.

When boarding their respective departure plane, I believe all volunteers had visions of amazing and “ideal” project work they would soon be immersed in. As we found our rows and seats we couldn’t help but think about how we are going to help make the world a better place, one small piece at a time. But for some Peace Corps Volunteers, the reality is they never find those “ideal” projects, and sometimes when they do, they don’t always work out.

So what is this “ideal” project work I speak of? Well, Peace Corps is a development organization, and like many other similar organizations, development is what they are after. Development can be viewed from many different angles and can be found in the smallest of actions. The definition can be debated over for hours (believe me, I have seen it done), but ultimately there is an agreeable ideal form. What makes a development project ideal is sustainability. What puts the icing on the cake is if it was developed from the “ground up,” commonly referred to as grass-roots.

Now this does not mean that other projects that do not fit into this ideal sustainable grass-roots category are not appreciated, needed or beneficial, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I am simply just trying to peg down the ‘ideal” development work. Most of everything we have done or been a part of thus far would not fall under this so called “ideal” category.

Ok, now that’s out of our way, so let’s move onward…

So after a little over a year of living in my community and no “ideal” project work coming across my plate, I went looking for it. Shouldn’t be two difficult to find, I thought. So I loaded up my gun and took my best shot, with the assumption that I would be celebrating my triumphs later on back home. Unfortunately, I had no idea my best shot was going to miss, and the duck would poop on my face and fly off, so to speak.

So here is where this story all begins…when we were first assigned to the community I was given a piece of paper with general information about the site as well as project areas of interest that had been expressed by the community leaders. With the grass routes style mindset this would be the perfect place to start, as the community leaders had already expressed their willingness and interest to work in this area. So I considered this list when selecting my “ideal” project venture. Several things were listed, many of which had already been addressed, and one area that had still to be touched-on was some sort of trash project.

Our community has no form of trash pick up. Current residents of my community have several options. They can burn it or simply just throw it out in the open. They can dig a whole and toss it in.  While not ideal, currently this is the best option. However, it is by far the least popular. Last but not least, is the most popular option. Throw your trash in the ditch and wait for the rainwater to wash it away, so it then becomes someone else’s problem a little farther down the line.

So there it was, the idea… we were going to start trash collection. The community was interested and it was very much needed, which set the stage for sustainability as well as ground up development. Everything was perfect. It was going to be easy enough to accomplish, right?

The process would go something like this. Solicit the mayor to send the town trash truck to our community once a week. Write a grant proposal to obtain funds for the community trash bins and organize a few community clean up days as well as workshops to teach the importance of trash pick removal. That’s it, problem solved, a cleaner community, healthier people and a gratified gringo. It all seemed pretty basic.

To start the project I planned a brief 30-minute meeting with the community leaders. I gave a brief presentation on why we needed this project and how it would benefit the community. We talked about the necessary steps to take in order to complete the project. Everyone seemed rather excited about the idea, especially how simple it appeared to be.

Then, at the end of the meeting it was time to divide up the responsibilities. The first step was to write the solicitude for the mayor. As the grant money to buy trash bins would do us no good unless we had someone to physically remove the trash. Alright… so who would like to work on the solicitude for the mayor? I asked. No volunteers, only excuses as they went around the circle trying to call one another out for not volunteering (It should be noted here that these are the community leaders, they are not just random people from within the community. Together, they are more than capable of getting together and writing a solicitude). Then came the proposition… Why don’t you do it Ross, you know how to use a computer. Well um ok… after all I am one of the community leaders, I think. I reluctantly agreed but only under the condition that one of the community members would do it with me. So after a few no shows for scheduled work times I went ahead and wrote the solicitude myself. After all, time was running out, the grant money we intended on asking for was only available for a limited time, and we all understood this. While this did make for somewhat of a tight time frame, it was by no means unfeasible. 

Next step, the solicitude has been written and needs to be dropped off at the mayor’s office. This I had no trouble finding someone to do. My counter-part, the local Health-promoter, and the most responsible and respected of the community leaders took it into town and hand delivered it to the mayor’s office.

Now we just had to wait, as we could not move forward with the rest of the project until this part had been figured out and the actual trash removal had been secured into the project framework. I was told it would take about a week for the mayor to get back to us. So we waited, a week went by with no response. So we waited another week, still nothing. Assuming something was wrong, as we should have received an answer by this point, we decided someone should go and talk to the mayor. Maybe our paper-work had been lost, maybe she was still pondering the idea, possibly she had agreed and word never made it back to us. We really had no idea; all we really knew was that it was best if someone go find out. But who was going to do it?

While I could have easily gone myself, I was refusing. This was just as much an organizational-development project as a trash project and I was not willing to complete every step along the way by myself. I had already written the solicitude by myself, which I shouldn’t have done, and I was not about to try and fix the first kink in the line as well. That would defeat the whole purpose of the project idea, which was, I remind you, a sustainable GROUND UP development project.

So my counter part agreed to go to the mayor’s office and see what was going on. A week later I met with him to ask what he had discovered. Turns out, he still hadn’t gone. However, he assured me he would in the next few days. I ran into him a few days later and he told me he still didn’t have the chance to stop by.  Time was running out to apply for the grant money and we really needed an answer about the solicitude. A week later I spoke with my counterpart again. Neither he, nor any other of the community leaders had gone to find out the hang up. With the deadline for the grant proposal only a week away, I was faced with a decision.

Should I go to the mayor’s office and see what’s going on? Would that defeat the purpose of my ideal development project? It’s such a small, really quite basic task, would it really matter if I went ahead and did it for them? Is there lack of motivation a sign that this project will unlikely be sustainable? From a development sense, was letting this project fail the right thing to do?

Soon after, the grant proposal deadline passed, and neither my fellow community leaders nor I had gone to the mayor’s office to uncover the hang up for our solicitude. So with the deadline now in the rearview mirror my “ideal” project was now dead in the water. No one, really seemed to care all that much, I think some of the community leaders had already forgotten about it all. But I still I found myself asking, was allowing this project to fail the right thing to do?

They say hindsight is 20/20 but if that is the case, my hindsight needs Lasik. I still am not sure if I made the right decision. Would the community have benefited from a trash project? Of course! Would doing all of the work for them have defeated the purpose of my project? I believe so. Does the development aspect of the project out-weigh the benefits they would have received from a successful trash pick up project? Ultimately, that it the question, and in all honesty… I still do not have an answer.

- Ross

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I know we are terrible at updating the blog so I thought I could at least upload recent pictures. One of the albums is of the recent mudslides here in El Salvador. The other album is of pictures of graduation and the scholarship winners. Ross is in the middle of writing a post and he promises to upload it soon!

Construction has concluded and here are a few pictures of the new and improved school. $217,000 later, welcome to the new centro escolar.

Before picture of the center of the school:

After picture of the center of the school:

Before picture of the outside of the library:

After picture of the outside of the library:

Before picture of the inside of the library:

After picture of the inside of the library:

Before picture of the outside of the computer lab:

After picture of the outside of the computer lab:

Before picture of the inside of the computer lab:

After picture of the inside of the computer lab:

We have also started work on the world map we are painting in the library.

The beginning:

A little bit more:

Almost finished drawing:

We are going to start painting the map with a group from the school next week. I will post pictures of the finished product when it is ready.

Once the world map is finished we will be moving in the books. We have about 100 books thanks to McCutcheon High School’s International Club! We have 100 books thanks to USAID. We are still expecting many more books that were bought with the money from a donation from Faith Presbyterian Church. We are waiting for the rotary to match their donation and then we will be adding several hundred more books to the library.

The computer lab is now ready to go and has been supplied with air conditioning to protect the computers. McCutcheon High School is currently raising money to ship us 10 computers to use in our computer lab.

In addition to the world map we have our regular ongoing projects. Classes have resumed since our swine flu hiatus so I am busy teaching English and health classes again. Our girls soccer team is really taking off. We solicited the mayor for uniforms a few months ago and we will be playing our first soccer game as a uniformed team this Saturday!

We will be starting two new projects soon. We will be starting a women’s club where we will give a health charla and cook a new healthy meal every week. Also, we are soliciting to bring trash pickup to our village. We are asking the mayor to send a truck once a week to collect the trash from five designated areas. If it works out, we will all be breathing a little better:)

I hope that is enough of an update for now. We will try to do a better job with the blog!

One more thing though…I have to tell a story about something Ross did: Since the construction, the school has added a security door to the school that has locks on both sides. The lock on the outside is a slide bar that is only used when everyone has left the school at the end of the day to prevent looters from entering. The lock on the inside is used while school is in session to prevent the children from leaving school property. Ross and I were working in the school a few days ago when he started to feel sick and decided to leave. Without thinking while leaving the school, he locked the slide bar on the outside of the school, he did this about five minutes before the morning session was dismissed from school. Once I wrapped up my work, I walked down to leave the school but was unable to open the door. As classes were dismissed the students started piling up behind me. I started to realize that Ross had to be to blame because none of the classes had been dismissed after he left. Eventually a teacher came to help me try to free the doors. After a few minutes of pushing the doors the teacher started cursing about the juvenile delinquents in our town and how “malcriada” they were. I had to cover my mouth from laughing out loud knowing Ross was to blame for all of the chaos. Luckily a concerned mother arrived when she realized her child hadn’t returned home and freed us from the school.

-Meli

Love&Miss,

Meli

On March 28^th I attended a World Cup Qualifying soccer game between El Salvador and the United States. It was quite possibly the most interesting and exciting experience I have had to date in country. The following post will give you a little background information to better understand the circumstances followed by the story of the game itself.

Passion

 The people of El Salvador live and breathe soccer. While other sports, such as basketball and baseball, are played in the country there is no sport that can rival the popularity, passion or love Salvadorans have for soccer. From a young age kids begin playing soccer and many men will continue to play for local community teams in to their 50s.

Soccer History

 Although El Salvador has never been known for producing strong national teams the current national selection is playing quite well. They have advanced to the final round of World Cup Qualifying, putting themselves only one step away from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They have only appeared in the World Cup twice, with the last appearance coming in 1982. Unfortunately that glory was short lived when they set a World Cup record by losing 10-1 in the tournament opener.

On the other side of it, The United States selection has appeared in the last 5 World Cups and in recent years has consistently appeared in the top 25 of the FIFA World Rankings. Needless to say the Gringos were heavy favorites coming into the match.

A Brief Bit On Country Relations

 El Salvador has a unique relationship with the United States. Many different factors have shaped and influenced our current relationship. However, the two largest would undoubtedly be the civil war and immigration. While much could be said about both matters, I will give you a very brief explanation of both.

From 1980 to 1992 El Salvador was engaged in a brutal civil war. Rebel groups clashed with the US backed Salvadoran government for 12 years. In the 92 Peace Accords the rebel renounced themselves as a fighting force and became a recognized political party, quickly become the second most popular party in the country. The US backed party went on to hold the presidency for the next 17 years, until finally falling out of favor in the most recent 2009 elections.

Many statistics show that roughly 20% of the Salvadoran population currently lives outside of its borders with the majority of those living in the United States, both legally and illegally. It has also been noted that roughly 15-20% of the country’s GDP can be accredited to the money pumped into the country by Salvadorans living abroad.

Due to these factors American influence, both good and bad, has found its way into many aspects of Salvadoran culture. Subsequently making this game a very big deal for Salvadoran futbol fans

 The Game

 I had been told by many people that for safety reasons I would need to wear and El Salvador Jersey, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about this. It’s not that I don’t wish this country well, if they were facing any other team I would have been proud to sport the blue and white jersey. But we are talking about my country, my homeland, the United States of America. It just didn’t feel right to support the opposition, even if it was just a jersey. When I shared these feelings with other people some told me I was too competitive, that I needed to calm down and it was just a game. I quickly dismissed those notions, because we all know that people only say that because they themselves were never good at anything, haha.

After much inter-turmoil and debate I eventually heeded the advice of others and put on the El Salvador jersey. After all, these were going to be the same fans that only a few weeks back had forced FIFA (international soccer’s ruling body) to impose a $25,000 fine on the country’s soccer federation. Besides, I had never have really been a fan of having a warm cup of pee being hurled at me from 10 rows back.

Upon entering the stadium I was very much overwhelmed. At a maximum capacity of roughly 35,000, Stadium Cuscatlan is a rather small venue when compared to a large college football stadium stateside. However, nothing about it felt small. That may have had something to do with the fact that 34,900+ fans were Salvadoran and a good percentage were drinking. Needless to say the energy in Cuscatlan was electric, and enough to get any sports fans heart racing.

After finding a seat, I quickly realized what a good decision I had made by sporting the El Salvador jersey. Upon entering the stadium, Salvadoran or not, if you weren’t wearing team colors you were immediately barraged with empty cups and any other sort of garbage fans could find laying around. As if that wasn’t enough, the fans would then begin to point and chant “Culeado” (a derogatory term for a homosexual) at them until the next victim walked into the stadium. There is something very shocking about the political incorrectness of thirty some thousand people chanting that word. Oh, and by the way… that word was not just reserved for non blue and white supporters. It was also chanted at the riot police that lined the field, International FIFA officials, and the three game officials who would oversee the game.

So there we were, our group of American gringos sporting Salvadoran jerseys, most likely assumed to be Europeans, we were for the most part…safe. However, my sense of security left as quickly as it came when our National Anthem began to play. As the entire stadium turned their back to the field, many of them raising their middle fingers (yes, it means the same thing in Spanish), our cover had been blown. Surprisingly we didn’t take too much flack, probably because we stood respectively forward-facing through the Salvadoran anthem that followed.

When the game started the energy level in the stadium tripled. The fans began chanting “Sí Se Puede” meaning “yes you can” as if to remind the players that they needed to at least try. This chant demonstrated how much of and underdog they believed themselves to be. While the US dominated possession they clearly weren’t playing with a lot of energy, especially on the offensive end of things. In the 17^th minute El Salvador found the back of the net with one of their few shots on goal. What happened next was a surreal experience. It was as if a bomb had gone off, like in an action movie. It was so loud that it was almost quiet and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Shirts came off, towels were waved and fences were climbed. There was not a full cup in the stadium, as everyone had tossed their drink up in celebration, causing it to rain down beer for a solid 15 seconds. Everyone was on cloud nine, except for me and few other gringo friends. My heart sank, the unlikely goal was more surprising than when I found out Ty Pennington and Ryan Seacrest were actually two different people (who knew?).

The game got back underway and the American team still seemed to lack the energy and drive to do what needed to be done. After 55 more minutes of lack luster play by the Americans, El Salvador struck again, this celebration rivaled that of the first, it now seemed that victory was imminent for the Salvadorans and the energy could be felt through out the celebration, which drug on much longer than the first.

After order had been restored play started again and with it came that typical behavior of faking injury in order to slow the pace of the game. While it is a tactic used worldwide it is notoriously common with Latin teams and its something you will never find written about the next day in the paper. Unfortunately for the Salvadoran team, these frustrating actions only seemed to light a fire under the Americans which absolutely dominated the final 20 minutes, scoring two goals to force a 2-2 tie.

With the second goal by the Americans the stadium reacted as if though someone had just dropped kicked a puppy into the back of a net instead of a ball. It was dead silent, no one muttered a word, hands covered mouths, seats were kicked, there was something very eerie about the silence. A few seconds later I pumped my fist in the air and grinned from ear to ear. It was a reaction that drew several middle fingers as well as some colorful language. However, fortunately for me everyone was still in extreme shock, and for the most part I was ignored.

With a great chance on goal in the final minutes, the US almost pulled off an impossible come from behind victory, unfortunately that shot never found the back of the net and the game ended in a 2-2 draw. While not the ideal outcome, all things considered I was content with the tie and happy to have made it through the game unharmed.

When the game ended we quickly left the stadium. Shouts and jeers in both Spanish and broken English were being hurled in our direction so we thought it best to choose that particular moment to exit the stadium.

Outside a sea of blue shirts, heavy with emotions, wandered off into the night unsure whether to be happy with the draw against a superior team or upset to have let a potentially historic victory slip through their fingers. The following morning the front page headline read “We Had It.”

-Ross

The quinceañera is the celebration of a young girl’s fifteenth birthday but it means so much more than turning fifteen, it signifies her transformation into womanhood. The quinceañera is not only a Latino tradition; some cultural equivalents include the Bar Mitzvah for Jewish boys and girls, the sweet sixteen, and the debutante ball.

The details of a quinceañera vary from country to country as well as in urban and rural areas. The majority of the quinceañeras I have attended have been thrown by families with an average monthly income of $150-$250. I know this because I know the monthly income of every family in our village from the census I completed 8 months ago. With this said these families are not throwing extravagant parties. The amount of people invited and the type of food varies from party to party but the one thing that is certain to be extravagant is the dress. The dress is typically a shade of pink but more modern quinceañeras have all different colors including blue and green. The dress is usually the most expensive item necessary for the party. I have asked on separate occasions the significance of the quinceañera compared to a wedding and they tell me the quinceañera is much more important, mostly because it is certain to happen whereas a wedding is not.

I recently attended a quinceañera of a student of mine who is financially better off than most of her classmates. I was able to learn what quinceañeras are like outside of the campo where we live.  Her court was made up of 14 young women and 14 young men, all dressed in specially made clothing. She had hired a videographer, 2 photographers, a dj, and an event planner. She changed her dress 3 times. The men and women of her court were required to attend dance practice for 3 months in preparation for the big day and about two hundred people were in attendance.  

Here are some pictures of the birthday girl

The ceremony began with the birthday girl and her escort leading in the court of honor while the guests were already seated. They were introduced one by one until everyone including the person who made the dresses had a moment in the spotlight. The father and daughter had their dance followed by the daughter and her escort. Then the dances of the court began. There was the traditional dance with champagne and the dance of roses but this very special quinceañera included another hour and a half of choreographed dancing, some of it to Salvadoran music and some to American music.

 After the dancing came the gifts. The birthday girl was showered with presents until everything she had been wearing was replaced with something new. She sat while someone removed her sandals and replaced them with a new pair. Her earrings, necklace, bracelet and ring were all removed and replaced with new shiny gold, even her fake roses were replaced with real ones. Finally her tiara was placed upon her head signifying her transformation into womanhood was complete. At this time everyone attending her party formed a line and handed her their gift. The table was quickly filled and the family moved loads of gifts into a basket to make more room. During the ceremony the attendees were served chicken sandwiches while the court enjoyed a catered meal. The cake reminded me of my wedding cake with multiple levels, except it was much larger and there were two of them. The rest of the night was spent sweating on the dance floor.

All of the quinceañeras I have attended have been identical to this one in regards to the ceremony but everything else is downsized. Usually less than 20 people are invited and there is never enough cake to feed them. Usually there is no court, only an escort. There is no dj, no photographer, no videographer. I asked a Salvadoran friend if she thought this quinceañera was typical and she laughed. She said for those in the city yes, but not for us pobrecitos. To explain how this fancy quinceañera was given in our poor little village, the girls mother lives in the United States and sent the money home to fund the party.

This last picture cracks me up because this is how they take pictures here. They are laughing and smiling and then you take the picture and get this. I don’t know how they do it. This is a picture of me with my closest girl friends in the community, although from this picture you wouldn’t guess they were my friends at all. It is just another cultural difference that they won’t smile for pictures.

-Meli

In reality, there are all different types of drinkers in El Salvador. The realm spans from non-drinkers to the binge-drinking alcoholic. The social drinker that occasionally has a one or two week bender would fall somewhere in the middle. However, because of the aforementioned stereotypes surrounding drinking, much of this part of the culture is very hush hush.

Now that I have given you the basic run down on drinking in El Sal I want to talk about the true honest to goodness “bolo.” These are the ones that have drank themselves into a permanent stupor and are so far gone they probably can’t even remember their full name. There are all different types of bolos; angry bolos, sleepy bolos, happy bolos, begging bolos… just to name a few. I think the type of bolo depends one their current situation, which revolves around one thing…when was their last drink.
While bolos come in many different shapes and sizes I would describe the average bolo as follows. They enjoy sleeping near and or on the road. Shoes, shirt and teeth are optional. Belts? Who needs em, most use rope in their place. There are never to proud to beg, usually asking for a quarter. Encountering a gringo may very well be the highlight of their day. I’m not sure what or if they eat. Their ears and noses are often bloodied from passing out on concrete. They urinate in public, but then again so do most Salvadoran men. They smell worse than anything you can imagine. I would guess that they range in age from 25-60. They absolutely love to interrupt any sort of meeting you may be in. Like most Salvadoran men they often wield machetes, however are often physically to incapable to present any real danger with it.The following is a picture from a training session we had last July that was interrupted by the young man who is seen sleeping in the photo. His attendance caused quite a stir in the meeting. However, the commotion didn’t last long, as he fell asleep shortly after taking his seat.

While sometimes providing very humorous circumstances the bolo situation is actually quite tragic. I have no idea the life span of a bolo, but I can’t imagine it to be very long after entering the permanent drunk stage. A volunteer friend of mine witnessed one of his local bolos puking up blood in the road, then watched his funeral procession pass the same spot two days later. One can only imagine the physical toll that it must take on a person’s body as well as the emotional toll is has on friends and family.

I don’t really have any definite reason as to why someone becomes a bolo. Like most social problems, I assume it can be chalked up to the often tragic circumstances of living in an impoverished and underdeveloped country. 

So if you are ever passing through El Salvador and you see a shoeless and bloody eared man laying in the run-off water on the side of the road and you find yourself asking “is this normal?” the answer is yes, unfortunately.

-Ross

World AIDS Day turned out to be a great success and I hear I am somewhat famous for the dance moves I pulled out in the parade that later ended up on television. All the planning and charlas were worth it to see my community come together to celebrate the day. I truly feel that they are well educated about HIV and AIDS and that it will make a difference in their future decisions. I owe thanks to my Grandma who sat with me on Thanksgiving Day and helped me make all of the ribbons for the event!

We really haven’t done much in the last month since we returned from the states. The people have shut down for the holidays and aren’t interested in working right now. I have been using this time to write lesson plans for the life skills course I am going to start teaching in January and to test my stoves before I start giving them away to people. I used a stove a few days ago to test how long it would take the water to boil. It took about twenty minutes which I thought wasn’t bad. Then I tested how much wood it burned and over 2 ½ hours it only used three small pieces, a huge success as well. Then I watched the smoke to figure out the best way to minimize the smoke. I found that placing three tiny pebbles under the pot made the fire more efficient and created less smoke as well, success, success, success. I went to bed that night very happy with my achievement and ready for the next day so I could give them away. When I woke up the next day it looked as if my stove had vomited. All of the insides had poured out through the base. So now I am back to the beginning. I am searching for a different type of dirt that might hold together better. I used dirt from my yard for the ones I made and this dirt is basically like sand. This is a huge setback as I was ready to get this project done and move onto other things but I guess it is part of the process.

I will be starting the library project next week with restorations and cleaning up the room. Then we will be painting the world map and moving in the first forty books of the library!!!

-Melissa

Eating cake is one of my least favorite activities in this country, it comes in a close third behind dumping the trash basket full of poopy paper that sits next to the toilet and being constantly cut in-front-of in any sort of line I happened to be standing in. The cake here is always soggy, as if it were soaked in water before being iced and usually has layers of jelly like fruit filling that taste nothing like fruit. It is relatively expensive, and for this reason you have to eat every last bit. On top of that most people are so excited to be sharing their cake with you that they watch you take every bite just waiting for you to swallow each time so they can comment on how great the cake is and ask if you agree, in case you changed your mind from the last bite.
In El Salvador a much bigger deal is made about the 24^th than the 25^th. In fact, Christmas Eve seems to be the actual holiday, and Christmas is just the next day set asside for recuperating from the night before.
We spent Christmas Eve with our original, in-site, host family (below our a few pictures). Our Christmas feast consisted of chicken sandwiches and tomales. The latter I can only describe as wet cornbread compressed tightly in a large leaf with the smell of new pair of tennis shoes. The familiarity of this odor had been a topic of discussion many times over for Melissa and I until one day we had a break through when she pegged the nail on the head with the new tennis shoes comparison.

After several hours of fireworks, chicken sandwiches, tomales and even a little bit of dancing Melissa and I headed home at around 11:15 p.m. giving us just enough time to fall asleep so that the midnight firework tradition could wake us back up and then trickle on for the next two hours.
Christmas day was spent alone in our house, lying in hammocks, watching movies and gorging ourselves on all the American style junk food that we had found in the grocery store a few days earlier, including Doritos, Double Stuff Oreos and Milky Ways.

I will leave you with this a Christmas pic of Tilly…I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday

- Ross