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…

Coffee tasting


Drying coffee at the factory, some of which was grown on the volcano in the background.


Murals for development project in the next town over, Ataco.

2/9/11
Hallelujah! The stove project has been financed in full. A generous local donation finally came through; effectively subsidizing the 45 orders I have for stoves. (In case you forgot, these are concrete cooking stoves that use wood and are superior to traditional open fires because they use less wood and produce less smoke. Google Stove Team International for more info) This alleviated much of my worries about having to use a huge chunk of my own savings and/or sending out an embarrassing mass email to friends and family. Thanks to those who offered to donate, your support means a lot. On Saturday we are going to collect the stove from the factory and bring them to the community, and I will try to track down everyone who ordered a stove. Hopefully the ten dollar down payment they paid will bring them to me. Peace Corps project number one nearly complete!
Next? I’m thinking of trying to talk to the mayor about a regular trash pick-up service. This may not be hard, the hard part is to get people to bag up their garbage and bring it to the street at the appointed time. This will probably involve me going door to door with pamphlets and explaining why it’s bad to burn plastic and throw trash down the mountain. Could be a smashing success or a hilarious failure, but there is only one way to find out.
Also, the school environmental club. I can’t decide if I should start it now or wait until I can spend more time in the classroom with the kids to build trust. I’ve been helping out with small tasks in the school (the custodial arts) to build my relationship with the teachers and students. I also taught an improvised math lesson, which went fairly well. Actually making kids learn and knowing for sure that everyone understands is a lot harder than it looks.
Skateboarding did not last long around here. The kids loved it and I was having fun teaching them, but some people got worried about the kids getting hurt. I personally think the soccer kids play here is more dangerous, but people fear the unknown. The boards are now enjoying retirement in my room.
I got to visit two coffee factories recently to see how coffee is washed, shelled, fermented, dried, ground and roasted. One of the tours ended with a coffee tasting, which was fun. It´s amazing how many different tastes coffee can have.

Multicolored chickens. Not sure why.










This is what happens when you bomb hills on a cheap bike when the road is covered with an inch of dust. Dont worry, it will heal.










Skateboarding hits Laguna Verde











1/27/10
I’m back! (in El Salvador) I spent a week back in Arcata with my friends and family. It was the best vacation I could ask for. I got to see my mom and sister, play ultimate and disc golf, hiked in the redwoods, went to the beach, went biking and skating and even sledding, pretty much covering everything I wanted to do. I also got to bring back some goodies, such as energy bars, chocolate, waterproof shoes, a solar shower, my ukulele and three skateboards. The trip back was 26 hours of attempted sleep in terrible seats, so it feels nice to be back here to my second home. I took a nap as soon as I arrived, and opened my eyes to see that a mouse had made a nest in some pants I had left on the bed. I threw the pants on the floor and went right back to sleep. This kind of stuff doesn’t faze me anymore.
I officially introduced skateboarding here; everyone wanted a turn, which resulted in much falling and hilarity. The younger kids learned pretty fast, while the older ones seemed to fall more. I don’t really have a good reason for bringing skateboards, besides giving the kids something new to try and to share one of my passions with them. I’ll keep everyone posted on their progress.
School starts on Monday, and I am going to help the teachers out wherever I can and give some environmental lessons. I hope to start the environmental club within the first month, although I am worried about if I will be able to make it interesting and fun enough to draw interest and continued attendance.