Families, real and host



First papusas



At the ruins


6/28/11 Visitors!
I had my first visitors from the states last week, my dad and his girlfriend stayed with me for ten days and had just about the most ideal vacation possible in El Salvador. Here is the breakdown of what we did.
Monday, June 13- arrived at airport. They met some trouble as they had no destination address to tell the immigration desk. Apparently “some village somewhere” is not good enough, but rather than have two angry Americans on their hands, the officials had to let them through. Then we ran into some difficulty renting the car, as they tried to charge us more than we had reserved it for. After some good old American ranting and raving we got a good price and a larger car. Luckily we had air-conditioning since the airport is in one of the hottest areas I have ever been in. After stopping at a roadside coconut stand and then making a few wrong turns, we headed for the beach. We arrived at playa El Tunco (pig beach), the touristy surf-bum beach town. We checked into the hotel and immediately downed some beers and got a chance to relax and catch up. Later I introduced my dad to some local flavor in a hot sauce I call “green napalm”. I think he’s off hot sauce for a while.
Tuesday June 14- Left the beach after an uncomfortable night with no A/C. Spotted what we decided was a ring-tailed lemur (maybe) darting across the road. Went grocery shopping at the mall in the city of Sonsonate. Finally got up in the mountains and out of the heat to my town of Apaneca, where we bought some local gourmet coffee and headed to my village, Laguna Verde. Got them moved into the local guesthouse. (I am really lucky to have this place nearby. It is a full house with 4 bedrooms and a kitchen and everything you need. It is well landscaped with flowers and such, and sits on the lip of a huge crater with awesome views overlooking Ahuachapan city and into Guatemala. It is ridiculously cheap for what it is, only $10 per person.)
Wednesday June 15- Decided to lay low for the day, played some cards in the gorgeous setting of the guesthouse. Walked down to the Laguna, checked out the coffee fields and local flowers. Did a general community tour and introduced them to my host family.
Thursday June 16- I had read about a mega-resort on the beach about two hours away, so we decided to spend a night in luxury. (All you can eat and drink. Case closed.) We headed down there and decide to kill some time exploring a small fishing village that was nearby. It turned out to be a Salvadoran tourist beach with restaurants right on the age of the surf zone. We drank some beers and were serenaded by a mariachi band, which pleased my dad to no end. Then we headed to the resort. This place was ridiculous. It had an endless amount of pools, a saltwater pool that stuck out into the ocean and was covered during high tide, beach chairs everywhere and all the beer and mixed drinks you could handle. Paradise. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly that night, and headed back to the guesthouse the next day.
Friday June 17- We got back from the resort late in the afternoon… I can’t really remember what we did…
Saturday June 18- We started off with a tour of a local coffee processing plant, where they wash, shell, ferment, dry, de-husk, sort, roast and grind coffee that is picked in nearby fields. I think my guests really enjoyed it, and I liked the opportunity to show off my Spanish skills translating what the tour guide said. They picked up some local gourmet and a burlap coffee sack to hang on the wall. We then explored the town of Ataco, an artsy tourist area for picking up souvenirs and seeing art. Next we went to Juyjua (Why-you-uh), where they have a food festival every weekend. We ate some incredible pork ribs, saw some antiques, bought some Mayan artifacts (legal??? Maybe.) and visited a reptile zoo.
Sunday June 19- I wanted to exposed m visitors more to my host family, since they are who I am closest to here in my village. This was tough to do since they had about 5 common words in which to communicate. So we extended an invitation to join us in exploring some local Native American ruins. The two girlfriends of two of the brothers decided to go with us, Soyla age 14 and Rosa, age 22. It is hard to explain how great having a car here is, as a daylong bus adventure turns into a climate controlled joy-ride that takes a third of the time and stress. So we arrived at the ruins and got to check out the large structure that has been excavated. (Search for Tazumal ruins, el Salvador if you are curious) We also checked out some sort of native ceremony that was going on, but we soon left since it felt inappropriate to gawk. They was also a museum to explore, with some amazing pottery and sculptures that had been excavated from the site.
Monday June 20- We had a relaxing day, spent mostly around the guesthouse. We also visited the local hot springs, which a located near the country’s geothermal power plant. After having to walk the last bit because the road deteriorated, we enjoyed a nice soak in the hot pool.
Tuesday June 21-Headed to the big city, San Salvador. First we stopped off for lunch at a restaurant overlooking Lago Coatepeque, a large crater lake that is amazingly beautiful. There we ate the national dish, papusas, which are beans, cheese and meat or vegetables inside a fried tortilla shell. The city proved quite a driving challenge for my dad, but he did a great job. (I had to explain the two main rules of Salvadoran driving: DON’T PANIC and the signs and rules arenot laws, only suggestions.) We parked the car at the hotel and took a cab to the modern art museum, which proved interesting but a bit abstract for the likes of my dad I.
Wednesday June 22- Drove up to the San Salvador volcano, which tours above the city. It has a huge crater from when it last erupted in 1912 or so. At the bottom of the crater is a perfectly formed dirt mini-crater, it is really an amazing sight. We also saw some excellent views of the sprawling city. On our way to the into the city we hit an open manhole in the middle of an intersection, which miraculously did not break any part of the car. This confirmed that driving in San Salvador is at best extremely stressful and at worst borderline-suicidal. Next we went to the national archeology museum, which had exhibits of the history of the country, with exhibits of the all the major crops that have been farmed here of particular interest. Next we went to a tourist market to get some souvenirs, including a hammock, shirts, and aprons.
Thursday June 23- Time to say goodbye. Back to the airport and back to normal life for me.
It was great to finally share this place and my life here with loved ones, it makes me feel less alone since someone knows what I am doing and where I am. I had fun traveling around and being an interpreter and translator too. I don’t feel sad since they left, since they had a great time and the whole trip seemed just about perfect.
I hope this story serves as bait to get some more people to come down here and visit me. There is a lot of fun stuff to do, it is fairly cheap, and you will have your own personal tour guide and translator, not to mention a connection to a beautiful rural community. This is a rare travel opportunity for everyone, so think about buying that ticket; I promise we’ll have a blast.
P.S. I am still looking for donations for the girls camp, if you’ve been financially blessed lately share the love and change the lives of some young girls. Shoot me an email if you are interested.

June 3, 2011
Good news! I received my first grant! All thanks and praises be to the Santa Barbara Peace Corps Association, who funded my project to build a small pavilion at the school. Basically, the school director approached me with the idea a few months back about building a pavilion over the old disused school latrines. This will just be a simple floor and roof held up by supports, no walls. This will be a good spot to have class outdoors when the weather is nice and to send kids to do some quiet reading. Although this is not a big project, it will be nice to leave a physical structure at the school and know I have made a lasting impact, albeit a small one. Construction should begin in a week or two.
Last week I helped facilitate a visit of four engineers from Engineers Without Borders in a neighboring volunteer’s site. They wanted to teach a few lessons in the school about volcanoes, so I helped translate and manage the kids. We made model volcanoes with the older ones and just helped the younger ones draw volcanoes. I had such I good time that I am going to help a different group of engineers next week. It is nice to see other places in the country and work with enthusiastic gringos who want to do good put need some linguistic and cultural assistance. (My gringo enthusiasm is not what it once was)
The soccer teams I was coaching have kind of fallen apart, both because of people not showing up and some of the kids not behaving and generally pissing me off. The fact that the rainy season has arrived doesn’t help either. I might just call it a season and try again when the dry season comes.
I am really excited to host my dad and Marietta who are coming down here the 13th for a ten day visit. I haven’t had any visitors yet and it will be great to show someone where I live and what I do. Also, we are going to rent a car, which opens up a new world of possibilities here; we should get to see some of the great sites this country has to offer.
On a sad note, one of the two dogs my host family owns died the other day. The family had three dogs to begin with, Uno, Dos and Tres. Tres was the mother (go figure) but if you remember, was lost for a while and we later found her head in the woods. Well Dos just met his end too. It was really bizarre because I was having a dream that the dog was eating from the table and I kicked it, but harder than I meant to. This broke its neck, and it started stumbling around and yelping. I knew it was dying and could not believe what I had just done. Then I awoke to people yelling outside, and when I got to up and went to look the dog was moaning and twitching, just about to die. I guess the noise it was making seemed into my dream; it was really creepy. One of our neighbors had gotten tired of him barking all night and had fed him poison, which I think also happened to his mother. It was sad since I had made friends with Dos, he was a really sweet and playful dog, one that seemed to almost be human. Now we are down to just Uno.

May 25, 2011
As you may remember, I live in the coffee growing mountains of Western El Salvador. Most of the land around here is coffee fields, all of which export coffee to the major coffee corporations around the world, including Starbucks. Therefore you would expect the coffee that my host family makes by shelling, drying and roasting the coffee the old fashion way to be absolutely delicious. You would be wrong. The coffee they serve is watery and ranges in taste from smoky to kind of like caramel on good days. Nothing like you want and expect coffee to taste like. I had assumed that this was either because they use only the leftovers from the coffee they export or the cowboy style they use to prepare it. Nonetheless, I drank it with three meals a day and got used to it. The other day I finally learned what is going on with this stuff. My host family let it slip that they use half coffee and half corn to make it. That’s right. CORN. I was outraged, to say the least. It was like a cruel joke. They said it was too bitter without corn. “Are you all insane?!?” I demanded. I have since calmed down a bit but have decided to make get a coffee pot and make my own. I still can’t believe they took the thing they do best, producing world class coffee, and completely ruin it with corn. Unbelievable!
Yesterday I had some gringo visitors here in my site. Matt and Liz were working for an NGO trying to quantify carbon emission reduction from using the fuel efficient stoves that I sold a few months ago. They came out with the bosses of the stove company to ask people questions about their stoves and take pictures. I found a house we could visit that said they used the stove everyday. When it came time for the woman to demonstrate how she makes tortillas on it, we could not get the fire to light for about 15 minutes, all the while the stove billowed smoke everywhere. So much for efficiency. Apparently we were using pieces of wood that were to big. Finally got it going, and we cooked some delicious tortillas and ate them with cheese. All the while Matt and Liz snapped pictures with what must have been thousand dollar cameras. It is always strange to see stone age methods juxtaposed with modern technology. I see this kind of thing daily, such as women pausing their daily grinding of corn on a rock slab to answer their Blackberry. What a crazy world we live in.

Also, I am still looking for donations for the women´ empowerment camp, check out the last post if you missed it.

May 10
I’ve been busy lately, although my standard of busy has fallen drastically. I attended a training session that lasted four days last week. This was my last mandatory Peace Corps training session, and it took place at the national agricultural university. The focus was on helping local people to start small businesses. These are important since most Peace Corps projects have a tendency to fall apart after the volunteer leaves, unless people are making money, in which case there is a good chance of it being sustained. We were taught how to make soap, shampoo, hair gel, disinfectant, marmalade, and dried fruits. These are relatively simple group activities which can bring a small income. However, some of the profit margins seem razor thin, demand for some of the products is doubtful, and some ingredients are only available in the San Salvador, (three hours away) adding transport costs that can further diminish profit margins. That being said, some volunteers have been successful in forming a reliable small business group and making profits, especially with shampoo. I am interested in doing this, as it sounds like a good way to interact and connect with people and teach them about business. My challenge is that no community group exists, and starting one is a rather intimidating task, in that one must have the right amount of people who will actually show up regularly, and not making the whole community bitter if we make a profit and they aren’t included. I am going to try marmalade, hair gel and shampoo first, and see what happens. It’s funny how a big part of my job is taking things I know almost nothing about (business, making products like these) and showing enough confidence to lead other in doing them. We will see what happens.
Another project I am really excited about and need YOUR help with is a women’s empowerment camp that me and a few other volunteers are putting on in July. We are each bringing three girls between 13 and 18 years old to a three day camp where we will do fun activities and workshops on themes aimed to keep girls in school, help them find jobs, and generally inspire them to follow their dreams and aim high in life. This is especially important in Latin culture since women are much less encouraged to pursue careers and a lot of them end up having kids and leaving school early and becoming housewives. The lessons we will focus on include self defense, self esteem, how to pursue careers, sex education, empowerment, and interaction with successful Salvadoran women like policewomen, lawyers, doctors, nurses mayors, ect.
Here is where everyone who is reading this can help. We need money for transport, lodging, food, supplies, and all other costs. We are each raising $350, and our primary source is friends and family back home. I believe this is one of the most direct and intimate donation opportunities you will encounter, as I will be able to provide a personal connection from these girls to you via text, pictures, and storytelling, whereas aid agencies can distance the donor from the beneficiaries. So if you have been blessed financially and want to help inspire these girls to rise above cultural barriers and follow their dreams, now is your chance. Please let me know in a comment here or an email to forest.carter@gmail.com if you would like to donate and how much, and I will let you know soon how to send it. (We are still working that part out). I will gladly email pictures, answer questions, and take suggestions from everyone involved.
Thank you, and please pass the message on to anyone you know who may be interested.

4/22/2011
I admit it, I’m losing steam on this blog. I do want to keep it going though, as I believe a have a fairly large audience and is a good way to promote the Peace Corps third goal of promoting understanding among Americans of other cultures. It does get harder to write since everyday things seem more routine and less new, and weeks go by without much happening that is really newsworthy.
However, I did have my first major illness in my time here. The fact that it took this long is a small miracle that I was very much appreciating, but illness is inevitable, especially in a foreign land. I had a low fever for a couple days and took fever reduces to keep it down, but then one night I woke up and was completely out of it. I took my temperature twice and it showed 104. That being the highest the thermometer goes, I decided I needed some help. I called the Peace Corps office who sent a car for me, and headed to the doctor in San Salvador, who examined me and told me to stay in the city for a couple of days and take medical tests. His guess was that I had Dengue fever. I waited around in a hotel for two days, took more tests, and was diagnosed with stomach amoebas, a type of parasite transmitted in contaminated food or water. After an antibiotic regime, I am thankfully feeling back to normal. It is scary how out of my mind I got when feverish, I was incapable of logical thought.
In other news, it is Holy Week, which is a major celebration here, most people get off work and travel around the country to beaches and other touristy spots. We have been getting lots of tourists here to enjoy the lagoon, most of them are Salvadoran from the cities. School is out this week, so there is not much work to be done for your friendly neighborhood gringo. Our school recently had a projector donated, so now we are trying to find a way to buy a laptop so presentations can be made to classes, which would go a long way in our fledgling computer education department.

March 26
Earthquakes! I can’t remember ever feeling any earthquakes in my 10 years in California, but here they having been averaging about one a month. Yesterday was the biggest yet, a series of five medium size tremors in the morning and a sixth in the afternoon. In the morning I was helping run P.E. classes with the younger kids when the field started shaking. It was interesting to actually hear them coming and be able to tell what direction they came from. I realized that we were in the safest place in the community, as nothing could fall on us and a landslide was unlikely. The soccer games stopped and everyone gathered together as four more tremors arrived. Some of the kids started crying and the school director explained to them that the quakes were caused by the “moon changing”. I tried to explain the tectonic plates theory, but no one really understood. School was dismissed early and everyone went home. I don’t think where I live is too dangerous in regard to earthquakes since the roof is tin and the walls are brick, which I think can withstand most earthquakes. The whole community is built on the side of a mountain, so a landslide may be possible. I wonder if there will be any bigger ones while I am here.
March 27 update: Channel four news came up here to interview people about the quakes, since the epicenter was here in the community. I showed my smiling gringo face and was interviewed, I think I managed to state that I felt them and that earthquakes can be dangers (thanks for that valuable information). I’m going to try to catch myself on the news tomorrow. TV interviews in Spanish are not easy.
Lately I have gotten back into coaching kids soccer after a few of the kids begged me to do it again. I had gotten mad at the last practice back in November since the kids were disrespecting me and being lazy about playing and generally being little punks. It is going better now since I made it clear that is they don’t respect me then we won’t practice. We have a girls team and two boys teams, 4-6 grade and 6-9th grade. They basically just scrimmage while I referee. Hopefully in a few weeks I can organize some away games against neighboring schools.

Here is what the stoves looks like, complete with Salvadoran tortillas!


Here is me and my buddy Facho loading stoves into his pickup to bring to Laguna Verde

March 4
Alright, its been almost a month so its definitely high time for another post. I have been dabbling in a few different projects lately, here is the round-up-
Trash collection service – So I was getting increasingly fed up with smelling burning plastic and seeing ditches and gullies filled with trash, so I charged into the mayors office (which is in the nearest town, Apaneca, about a 45 minute walk from Laguna Verde, my village). He was surprisingly compliant and understanding, and sat through my speech in particularly bad Spanish (some days my brain and mouth just will not cooperate). Laguna Verde had a trash service in the past, but people filled trash bags with dirt, sand, rocks, dead animals, and other ridiculous things which angered the mayor’s office since they pay by the pound to put the trash in a landfill. This is where I come in, I plan to visit everyone I can with a picture-laden brochures (not everyone can read) and explain why and how to use the trash pick-up service. We are now trying to agree upon a time and day for the truck to come, so hopefully this whole operation will start soon.
Recycling- A freelance pickup has been making the rounds in the community to buy recycling such as metal, plastic and paper from people, haul it to the city and sell it for a profit. Gotta love entrepreneurs! I sold them 53 pounds of plastic that I had inherited from the previous volunteer for a cool $3.75. Not a lot, but a good start. They also let me know that they pay well for paper, so I got motivated to try to start a program in the school. I’m starting small, a box in each room to collect cans, bottles and paper that I store in my house until I can sell it. The money will go to painting a mural of a world map on the side of the school. I briefly explained it to all the classes but output has been slow, a couple of cans and pieces of paper in the first week. I need to go back and do some more motivational speaking to get the kids into it. There is a lot of motivational speaking involved in being a PCV, which is something I previously did not have much experience in. I believed that if what you are talking about is important and compelling enough to warrant enthusiasm, you shouldn’t have to trick people with fancy speeches, it should speak for itself. I now understand the importance of speech and in setting a positive attitude in your audience. Enthusiasm and motivation are critical to start new enterprises, and both are highly contagious.
Outdoor classroom- My school director approached me and proposed building a reading area behind the school over some old latrines. Basically he wants a foundation, floor and roof, but no walls. This would serve as a place for reading, meetings, music practice, and other uses. This would be nice since there are not always classrooms available for these things and would be much nicer to be outside in the beautiful weather. We only need $225 to build this thing, so I will be writing some grants to try to get us the funds.
Environmental Lessons. PCVs have compiled a book of these in Spanish that are to be given to various grade levels in a participatory way that promotes learning through doing. I have been preparing and assisting in giving these lessons. First we made a worm compost bin with the 5th grade and then did an activity to learn about how water cycles through the environment with the 6th grade. The kids really like these and it is nice to have a written plan to follow. I will continue to do a couple of these per month throughout the school year.
Also, Obama is coming to El Salvador! He is visiting a few Latin American counties and is going to stop here for a day to talk to the Salvadoran president. Get ready for broad, positive, nonspecific heart-warming messages like : “The US is determined to fight poverty alongside allies like El Salvador” ect. Although good for general propaganda purposes, nothing much seems to come of visits like these. However, I may journey to the capitol to see the man and hear a speech.
Other than that, I’m just living life in a bizarre parallel universe. Staying healthy and happy are full time jobs here, but I have been blessed with both lately. Please leave a comment with questions or, well, comments. Sometimes I wonder who is out there reading on the other side…