The changes being implemented in PC Central America were interesting enough for the New York Times. Unfortunately, a similar story went out in a Salvadoran newspaper and the online comment board that followed was a sad handful of pretty harsh comments on PCVs which, while they sting, are really just another irritation.
Well, I can't say with absolute confidence, but it looks like the about to COS group that was scheduled to go home in March now has the option to leave sometime after our Closing of Service conference in mid-January. Still planning on traveling Central America after service, my friend Dan Clarahan and I have tentatively rearranged our travel plans for February, which would get us back in the US before the end of the same month.
This is a very sad situation. This place is near and dear to my heart, as is Peace Corps El Salvador. I hope that the staff, especially those in San Vicente, are not fretting over the holiday season, and that they are able to keep their jobs despite the big changes.
As for me, I just finished my med visit, and am only waiting for the PCMO to call me and tell me to get out of Dodge. I am so excited to get down to La Barra de Santiago and spend time with the Gallardo family for Christmas. However, being a short 7 kilometers from my former site and all my friends and not being able to visit them will be hard. El Cocolito is just not the place for me anymore.
Very Happy Holidays to everyone, and I will catch you all on the flipside.
Showing posts with label San Salvador. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Salvador. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Happy 50 something-th Birthday, Mom.
The elastic of my remaining underwear are unravvling at a rapid pace, I have adopted a fleet of leaf cutter ants as pets, it's getting REALLY hot again, and my tomato plants are as tall as I am and FINALLY have 'maters growing. It must be winter, and about time to make my way back home for a little vacation.
At this point La Yusa is so close I could smell it between whiffs of burning plastic and perfume (if my airways weren't clogged with snot and flim from this lingering cold from hell.)
In other good news, my women and I made our first batch of Shampoo, bottled it, and put the labels on. Those babes sold all the shampoo in the first two days. HEY YOOOO.
Next week we will be adding aloe vera to the mix and doubling up. I do HATE shampoo at this point, but I have to say, seeing the bottles all full of honey colored shampoo with the pretty labels was only bettered by how fast those women got them all sold. Bravo, ladies.
Finally, I bought a new camera memory to replace the TWO that have been stolen from me. So I've been taking some photos again. Though, mostly just of my ants, my bats, and stuff like that...
Next week I will be hosting a marshmellow roast in my yard for some local friends. These days, most of my 'friends' are between 4 and 14, so my late night activities have changed. Should be a treat.
Tomorrow will be a fun-filled travel day for a night in La Libertad, in a beach house with La Familia Pato. This month will fly by... I can feel it.
At this point La Yusa is so close I could smell it between whiffs of burning plastic and perfume (if my airways weren't clogged with snot and flim from this lingering cold from hell.)
In other good news, my women and I made our first batch of Shampoo, bottled it, and put the labels on. Those babes sold all the shampoo in the first two days. HEY YOOOO.
Next week we will be adding aloe vera to the mix and doubling up. I do HATE shampoo at this point, but I have to say, seeing the bottles all full of honey colored shampoo with the pretty labels was only bettered by how fast those women got them all sold. Bravo, ladies.
Finally, I bought a new camera memory to replace the TWO that have been stolen from me. So I've been taking some photos again. Though, mostly just of my ants, my bats, and stuff like that...
Next week I will be hosting a marshmellow roast in my yard for some local friends. These days, most of my 'friends' are between 4 and 14, so my late night activities have changed. Should be a treat.
Tomorrow will be a fun-filled travel day for a night in La Libertad, in a beach house with La Familia Pato. This month will fly by... I can feel it.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Scattered.
Another night in the city. This month has been chock a block with out of site time, but it's all been for the greater good: desarollo.
There happen to be quite a few new little tidbits of "chambre" to pass along. Blogging in bulletpoint:
• After damn near two months of medical vacation in Washington DC, the delightful Erica Matsumoto is back in action in the savior. A big thumbs up to her as well as the unknown organ donor whose ACL our fond friend will be using from now on.
• The one and only Ms. Clelia will be making the trip to El Cocalito in the coming week to check out the climate (and I'm, for once, not talking about the opressive heat) and maybe, hopefully, using her fierce jefa power to break the Cocalito curse.
• Thanks to my counterpart's love of selling trees and small plants at 100 percent profit, an organization will be implementing a two year environmental project that includes a compost site, contra-littering education and (drumroll) a regular garbage pickup service! Yes!!!!! oh, and I have some exciting project plans of my own for the coming months, including a leadership camp for rural youth. Fun!
• My nightly yoga has paid off in a peace corps appropriate manner. I can hover endlessly over unclean toilet seats or prickly brush for the duration of even the longest pee. I would much MUCH rather be running, but whatever. My self image is algo low but my hopes are high.
• I'm frustrated in oh so many ways currently. But technologically, I'm a mess. ipods and radios and broken laptops and podcasts and CDs. Jesus. I feel like I have my foot in two techno paradigms. Like I'm installing a Garmin in a Ford Model T. Just send me mix CDs, and make them count.
• Selfishness, or rather, greediness is a recurring and frustrating theme here. In a world where the over uttered "prestame" and "regalame" mean the same thing in the end, my patience has been thoroughly tested and my trust broken. I wish people would stop asking me for money. I wish folks would stop asking me to gift them things. I wish I could just say no without feeling compelled to give an excuse or feel selfish.
• I saw my friend Philip Shilts bearded salvadoran twin at metro centro today. I think that pretty much rounds out my salvo twin spotting. I've seen damn near every one of my friends and enemies in this country. The little kid down the highway who looks like my second cousin Emry, the cobrador on the nice 259 bus that looks like my uncle Tony, my neighbor Oscar, who is the spitting image of the cartoon character Bobby Hill and now a coffee cup frequenting Philip Shilts whose surprising cameo this evening brought up a chain of thoughts:
* I told my friend Dan Hinkle that, due to his chronic inability to keep a hangout date, the verb shiltsed was created. No matter who was standing me up, it became the commonly used word for myself and my dear roomate Kelsey.
* I recently read a book by Sarah Vowell called "Assassination Vacation" in which she wrote about the rivalry between Edison and Westinghouse. After inspiring the creation of the electric chair by zapping animals with AC electricity in an attempt to demonstrate its greater danger over DC, Edison suggested that the verb to describe the act of dying by electric shock, which we now call electrocution, should be "westinghoused."
* the shower in my hotel room has an electric hot water shower head. In many of the hotels here, these things electrocute you. It varies from a slight staticky shivering felt on the knobs, to a full force Westinghouse to the body. Dan Hinkle calls them widowmakers.
* thinking of widowmakers my mind strays to the palm fronds that regularly fall from my trees. I did a little online research, very little, and could find no true statistics on the deaths caused either by falling fronds or coconuts. I'm kind of disappointed. I still won't hang my hammock in my front yard, though.
There happen to be quite a few new little tidbits of "chambre" to pass along. Blogging in bulletpoint:
• After damn near two months of medical vacation in Washington DC, the delightful Erica Matsumoto is back in action in the savior. A big thumbs up to her as well as the unknown organ donor whose ACL our fond friend will be using from now on.
• The one and only Ms. Clelia will be making the trip to El Cocalito in the coming week to check out the climate (and I'm, for once, not talking about the opressive heat) and maybe, hopefully, using her fierce jefa power to break the Cocalito curse.
• Thanks to my counterpart's love of selling trees and small plants at 100 percent profit, an organization will be implementing a two year environmental project that includes a compost site, contra-littering education and (drumroll) a regular garbage pickup service! Yes!!!!! oh, and I have some exciting project plans of my own for the coming months, including a leadership camp for rural youth. Fun!
• My nightly yoga has paid off in a peace corps appropriate manner. I can hover endlessly over unclean toilet seats or prickly brush for the duration of even the longest pee. I would much MUCH rather be running, but whatever. My self image is algo low but my hopes are high.
• I'm frustrated in oh so many ways currently. But technologically, I'm a mess. ipods and radios and broken laptops and podcasts and CDs. Jesus. I feel like I have my foot in two techno paradigms. Like I'm installing a Garmin in a Ford Model T. Just send me mix CDs, and make them count.
• Selfishness, or rather, greediness is a recurring and frustrating theme here. In a world where the over uttered "prestame" and "regalame" mean the same thing in the end, my patience has been thoroughly tested and my trust broken. I wish people would stop asking me for money. I wish folks would stop asking me to gift them things. I wish I could just say no without feeling compelled to give an excuse or feel selfish.
• I saw my friend Philip Shilts bearded salvadoran twin at metro centro today. I think that pretty much rounds out my salvo twin spotting. I've seen damn near every one of my friends and enemies in this country. The little kid down the highway who looks like my second cousin Emry, the cobrador on the nice 259 bus that looks like my uncle Tony, my neighbor Oscar, who is the spitting image of the cartoon character Bobby Hill and now a coffee cup frequenting Philip Shilts whose surprising cameo this evening brought up a chain of thoughts:
* I told my friend Dan Hinkle that, due to his chronic inability to keep a hangout date, the verb shiltsed was created. No matter who was standing me up, it became the commonly used word for myself and my dear roomate Kelsey.
* I recently read a book by Sarah Vowell called "Assassination Vacation" in which she wrote about the rivalry between Edison and Westinghouse. After inspiring the creation of the electric chair by zapping animals with AC electricity in an attempt to demonstrate its greater danger over DC, Edison suggested that the verb to describe the act of dying by electric shock, which we now call electrocution, should be "westinghoused."
* the shower in my hotel room has an electric hot water shower head. In many of the hotels here, these things electrocute you. It varies from a slight staticky shivering felt on the knobs, to a full force Westinghouse to the body. Dan Hinkle calls them widowmakers.
* thinking of widowmakers my mind strays to the palm fronds that regularly fall from my trees. I did a little online research, very little, and could find no true statistics on the deaths caused either by falling fronds or coconuts. I'm kind of disappointed. I still won't hang my hammock in my front yard, though.
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