Monday, November 22, 2010
I can hardly believe this worked. This is a little house tour for everyone to see where I am at. The street in the begining is the center of town, and that is the school in the background. Then we go into my room, then the store, then the kitchen, then the game room, complete with pinball machines, well sort of. Sorry for the writing in the middle, thats what you get for not paying for software. Now who wants to come visit?
Nov 20
Alright, I’m still here and still alive. I just got done with our second round of training, which lasted two weeks. The first two weeks took place in the town where my first two months of training happened. We learned more technical details about projects for us to do, such as organizing community politics, teaching English and about the environment, starting women’s groups and environmental groups, and doing world map murals. The second week was spent at the national agricultural university where we stayed in the dorms and learned about various agricultural techniques like grafting, composting, worms, soil nutrient balance, and crop rotation. All of this was difficult to learn and pay attention since it was in Spanish, but I still learned a lot. Most of it was not applicable to my site since they only grow coffee here, but it can be used for small scale gardens, of which only a few exist here.
Next week I have been invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with a family that works for the U.S. embassy. It is a tradition for these families to have volunteers over to celebrate. After that, in the middle of December, we have been invited to play against JIKA in the national stadium. JIKA is the Japanese equivalent of the Peace Corps. They also stay for two years as volunteers, but there are only 30 of them and word has it they get much more money for projects. Events like this are really nice get always and it really helps to have things to look forward to.
School ended here for the long break, and it starts back up in late January. Then I will be trying to form an environmental club and start teaching more. Until then, the coffee harvest just started, so everyone is helping with that, including lots of labor from out of town. I’ve heard that this is a dangerous time, since people actually make a lit bit of money the number of robberies increases, so I’ll have to be extra careful. I am told that for harvesting 25 pounds people are paid between $.80-$1.25 and in the best conditions a person can harvest 200 pounds in a day, but usually less. This is some really hard work with really low pay, but is better than no work at all.
11/21-
The men’s soccer team that I have been playing soccer with won our first game today, after about 5 weeks of ties. I let by an easy goal again, partly because the ball is always taking crazy bounces on our crappy field. It wasn’t nearly as embarrassing as last time, and I made up for it with some crucial saves later. Our offence came through with four points in the second half, for a 4-1 crushing.
Here are my project ideas as of now:
1. Stove project- I want to sell cooking stoves in the community that produce less smoke and use less wood. Some have already been sold, but I think there is opportunity to sell more. They cost $42 but people can only afford around $20, so I’m looking for some money to subsidize. I may be hitting up friends and family for donation if I can’t pull it off myself, so keep your checkbook handy.
2. Getting a trash pickup service- Apparently there was one for a time, but no one would bring their trash to the street. Now people just throw their trash in local rivers and ditches. It may be as easy as talking to the mayor and doing an education campaign to get the trash to the street, but it could also prove very frustrating.
3. World Map Mural- This is a popular PCV project that usually is done in the school. It helps kids learn about Geography (many can’t even find El Salvador on a map) and makes the school look nicer. It should be easy and fun, but I have to wait until school is back in session.
4. Environmental club- this would involve recruiting kids in 4-6 grade to do cleaning campaigns, make a garden, compost, watch movies, go on trips to parks and natural areas, and receive lectures on environmental topics. The hardest part will be drumming up sufficient interest and motivation.
5. Women’s Group- I think there is potential for a group of women to organize and do various fun and money making activities. This would build community cooperation as well as empower women and teach business skills, and would be a good setting to discuss women’s issues and the problems with the male dominated culture here. I am admittedly intimidated to start this one, usually female volunteers do it and I don’t know how well they would respond to me starting it (or their husbands for that matter)
6. Giving Environmental lectures in the school-fairly easy and straight forward, I have received a book of lectures and a calendar of when to do them. I will probably do one or two a week. Time to tap my inner professor.
7. Coaching the youth soccer team- the team was already formed when I got here, I just ref while they scrimmage. Hopefully I can find some funding to take them on some trips to play other teams. I have some trouble keeping the little bastards in line sometimes, but overall its fun and easy.
8. Economic development- my site has a good number of tourists coming every weekend to hang out by the lagoon. Now we sell them some food and drinks, but I think we could expand to souvenirs, jewelry, more snacks, and maybe even rent canoes or kayaks. This is kind of a massive project that I’m not sure will work, so I probably won’t start for some time until I get a better sense of things.
These are my main ideas. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and go catatonic thinking of all the things I need to do. The main problem now is that I don’t really understand the community enough to start, and I still only understand about 50% of what people say. Only time will tell what actually ends up happening. Let me know your questions or comments, I welcome advise and suggestions.
Alright, I’m still here and still alive. I just got done with our second round of training, which lasted two weeks. The first two weeks took place in the town where my first two months of training happened. We learned more technical details about projects for us to do, such as organizing community politics, teaching English and about the environment, starting women’s groups and environmental groups, and doing world map murals. The second week was spent at the national agricultural university where we stayed in the dorms and learned about various agricultural techniques like grafting, composting, worms, soil nutrient balance, and crop rotation. All of this was difficult to learn and pay attention since it was in Spanish, but I still learned a lot. Most of it was not applicable to my site since they only grow coffee here, but it can be used for small scale gardens, of which only a few exist here.
Next week I have been invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with a family that works for the U.S. embassy. It is a tradition for these families to have volunteers over to celebrate. After that, in the middle of December, we have been invited to play against JIKA in the national stadium. JIKA is the Japanese equivalent of the Peace Corps. They also stay for two years as volunteers, but there are only 30 of them and word has it they get much more money for projects. Events like this are really nice get always and it really helps to have things to look forward to.
School ended here for the long break, and it starts back up in late January. Then I will be trying to form an environmental club and start teaching more. Until then, the coffee harvest just started, so everyone is helping with that, including lots of labor from out of town. I’ve heard that this is a dangerous time, since people actually make a lit bit of money the number of robberies increases, so I’ll have to be extra careful. I am told that for harvesting 25 pounds people are paid between $.80-$1.25 and in the best conditions a person can harvest 200 pounds in a day, but usually less. This is some really hard work with really low pay, but is better than no work at all.
11/21-
The men’s soccer team that I have been playing soccer with won our first game today, after about 5 weeks of ties. I let by an easy goal again, partly because the ball is always taking crazy bounces on our crappy field. It wasn’t nearly as embarrassing as last time, and I made up for it with some crucial saves later. Our offence came through with four points in the second half, for a 4-1 crushing.
Here are my project ideas as of now:
1. Stove project- I want to sell cooking stoves in the community that produce less smoke and use less wood. Some have already been sold, but I think there is opportunity to sell more. They cost $42 but people can only afford around $20, so I’m looking for some money to subsidize. I may be hitting up friends and family for donation if I can’t pull it off myself, so keep your checkbook handy.
2. Getting a trash pickup service- Apparently there was one for a time, but no one would bring their trash to the street. Now people just throw their trash in local rivers and ditches. It may be as easy as talking to the mayor and doing an education campaign to get the trash to the street, but it could also prove very frustrating.
3. World Map Mural- This is a popular PCV project that usually is done in the school. It helps kids learn about Geography (many can’t even find El Salvador on a map) and makes the school look nicer. It should be easy and fun, but I have to wait until school is back in session.
4. Environmental club- this would involve recruiting kids in 4-6 grade to do cleaning campaigns, make a garden, compost, watch movies, go on trips to parks and natural areas, and receive lectures on environmental topics. The hardest part will be drumming up sufficient interest and motivation.
5. Women’s Group- I think there is potential for a group of women to organize and do various fun and money making activities. This would build community cooperation as well as empower women and teach business skills, and would be a good setting to discuss women’s issues and the problems with the male dominated culture here. I am admittedly intimidated to start this one, usually female volunteers do it and I don’t know how well they would respond to me starting it (or their husbands for that matter)
6. Giving Environmental lectures in the school-fairly easy and straight forward, I have received a book of lectures and a calendar of when to do them. I will probably do one or two a week. Time to tap my inner professor.
7. Coaching the youth soccer team- the team was already formed when I got here, I just ref while they scrimmage. Hopefully I can find some funding to take them on some trips to play other teams. I have some trouble keeping the little bastards in line sometimes, but overall its fun and easy.
8. Economic development- my site has a good number of tourists coming every weekend to hang out by the lagoon. Now we sell them some food and drinks, but I think we could expand to souvenirs, jewelry, more snacks, and maybe even rent canoes or kayaks. This is kind of a massive project that I’m not sure will work, so I probably won’t start for some time until I get a better sense of things.
These are my main ideas. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and go catatonic thinking of all the things I need to do. The main problem now is that I don’t really understand the community enough to start, and I still only understand about 50% of what people say. Only time will tell what actually ends up happening. Let me know your questions or comments, I welcome advise and suggestions.
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