p.s.

Daniel and I walked up to the pueblo to find where to pay our electric bill 
turns out its at one of the many corner stores. We go up to the gated door. 
HOOOOLLLAAAAAA! 
out pops a little girl of around 8 years. 
She very politely asks how she may help us. 
we hand over the bill
she inspects it
reads us the total
we pay
she stamps and gives us back the stub
Completely Legitimate businesses transaction. 


Ejemplo of awesomeness numero dos: 


I have a handful of letters to mail out 
walk into the mayor's office where the mailman Mario can be found. 
they inform me that he is on vacation until the 3rd.
I walk out a little bummed and decided to go check out the artesian stand next to the mayor's office. 
purchase a candle and earrings made of wood and what do you know Mario walks by. 
He is on vacation. 
But once I tell him I was looking for him to send out some letters he asks for them and says he can do it.
Um AWESOME. thanks Mario! 


I just wanted to share these two examples of why I love El Salvador. I truly believe that neither would have ever happened in the states. Its a Christmas Miracle! 


love and peace

the holiday skinny

The holidays have been busy and this is shown through my lack of blogging. 
But Daniel was good enough to upload some photos and share them with me so that I may share them with you. I'll have the stories and updates once my adventure and work slows down just a wee bit.  (thinking around Jan 4th-ish maybe)


Enjoy the following photos of our Navidad at Playa Salinitas:

Daniel y Yo as Santa's Reindeer

embo, yo, erica y daniel in santa's centroamericano sleigh

 riding turtles...what?

Ansiar

[an-se-ar’]

transitive verb

also:

• ansiar algo -> to long for something
• ansiar hacer algo -> to long to do something

article & verb transitive

1. To desire anxiously, to long, to hanker.

• Ansiar por uno -> to be madly in love with somebody

MOWING THE LAWN… SALVO STYLE!

This post from Daniel is awesome. Hence my re-posting of it. :

My friend Prudi, who is the gardener at the Lenca and harvests and sells his own coffee, fruits and veggies and pollos (chickens) around the region, came over to help me cut our out of control lawn.  Our lawn had been the topic of some serious colonia (neighborhood) chambre (gossip) as of late, with many a neighbor and passerby seriously judging the lazy gringos, whose back and front yard, at some points, reached neck level.  People also told us we should start expecting corral snakes in the yard if we kept the grass!  Enough said… It was time to regain our gringo dignity.  Prudi came over with two machetes, we put on some ranchero music and got to work.  As you will see in the above video, the man is a machine.  He could mow down a section with one swing, while it took me four or five.  We got quite a bit of street cred as neighbors walked by watching the gringos and their hired profesional do work!  I hacked and sweated, Tiggies raked and laughed and Prudi swept through the yard like a tornado.  I also impressed the neighborhood with my sexy yard work outfit.  A good day and a great sense of accomplishment after mowing our lawn Salvo style for the first time.  We even had that freshly mowed (chopped) smell afterwards!

Much love,

Daniel

original post HERE. 

The latest.

Yesterday was a major work day. 
phone calls, emails, 
printed invites, distributed invites for Wed and Thurs Prep class for Eng 4 Tourism Course that starts in January. 
I will be meeting a group of students in Gotera (the capital of Morazan) on Wednesday 
then on Thurs the other group of students who live around Perquin. 
*fingers crossed* for a good turnout. 


I'll sign up all the students
give them entrance exams to track growth and better understand who we are reaching
give basic tourism and english 4 tourism info. 


OH yeah... and I got stung by a bee IN. THE. FACE! 
Thank goodness I had Nurse Daniel to make a pink paste out of benadryl. 
lucky for me I'm not too alergic. 


so now I have during my tenure obtained: 
A scorpion sting (knuckle)
yellow jacket sting (heel)
& bee sting (FACE just below my right eye)
along with attacks by fire ants (all over my lower right leg)
& a small albino frog attack (leapt onto my head) which resulted in a broken camera lens


Also, last week I skinned my other knee trying the kill a bat/moth. (the first skinned knee was during a volleyball game against the local cops) anywho, last week in the middle of the night I awoke to the sound of this huge bat like moth on the wall above the door. I had to do a Michael Jordan leap up to kill it with a sandal. It didn't die right away so I did a push off the wall with my foot to get away quick and in the process fell. hard. 

Said frog.
only moments before he got pissed at me for photographing him.

**No photographic evidence exists of the moth/bat. But trust me when I say it was HUGE. The body the size of a hummingbird and wings of a moth. odd little beast. **



Current Status: not exactly feeling "one with nature"

beach house con amigos

Our first stop during the livingston's visit (Daniel's VERY strong energetic grandparents)

 was the beautiful beach house at Playa San Diego

This is now my favorite beach in El Salvador

using the coffee table in the pool

logging some hammock time

Daniel's abuelos, Los Livingstons

the lovely Jessica (fellow PCV) workin on noodles for dinner

stunning painting
click on photo to enlarge

seaside dinner

seaside brunch.
yes, all we did was eat play and drink

 

my new sarong, gift from Candy. Gracias I love it. 

our rad friend Jeni Rae coaxing Pax into the baby pool 

there ya go Pax

success!

All around successful three days at the beach house. 

Thanks Abuelo Livingstons for allowing me to share with you 

the great beach rental, the belly laughs, interesting convos, goodies from the U.S. 

and the name game of course! 

playa san diego cows at sunset

The Sun  

Have you ever seen

anything

in your life

more wonderful 

than the way the sun,

every evening,

relaxed and easy,

floats toward the horizon 

and into the clouds or the hills,

or the rumpled sea,

and is gone--

and how it slides again 

out of the blackness,

every morning,

on the other side of the world,

like a red flower 

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,

say, on a morning in early summer,

at its perfect imperial distance--

and have you ever felt for anything

such wild love--

do you think there is anywhere, in any language,

a word billowing enough

for the pleasure 

that fills you,

as the sun

reaches out,

as it warms you 

as you stand there,

empty-handed--

or have you too

turned from this world-- 

or have you too

gone crazy

for power,

for things? 

-Mary Oliver

all purpose

last night while skyping with my dad he asked me how I wash my clothes. He knew by hand but how?

Then I realized I had yet to explain the most important domestic device used here in rural El Salvador. THE PILA.

Let me show you around the above photo and try to explain what we are dealing with here.

First lets start with the huge concrete hunk in the middle of this photo. THIS my friends is my rather hefty and charming PILA. Pronounced: Peel.uh

How does it work?

In the middle is a deep basin where the water is filled up to the top (the stopper doesn’t fit so mine is not filled up) with the pole sticking out of the ground and bends over so the faucet can easily fill the basin.

Then one uses that water to

1. Wash dishes (see blue bowl and coffee mug)

2. Wash Clothes

3. Wash Body

Lets continue our tour shall we?

The middle water basin is flanked by two flat and slightly tilted surfaces. This is where the scrubbing of the clothes and dishes is done.

First, clothes are soaked in detergent in the green bucket on the ground just to the left of the pila.

This bucket is called a Guacal 

Pronounced:  Wa.Kall

Soaking the clothes for 20-30 min is sufficient. Then scrub a dub dub amigo.

Next on our tour is the semi-private and sometimes delicate bathing area, please note broken pieces strewn about. I’ve had to re-hang these plastic barriers more than 3 times. It’s jimmied with a combo of packaging tape, string, a couple of rusty nails, some cursing and a prayer.

This orange turquoise combos is my design so I’ll fight to the death for it or at least until some unsuspecting salvos get a view of my bare bum. It really lets you know you are in the tropics if the banana trees and birds of paradise don’t.

You may not be able to see but behind the turquoise plastic tarp lays a larger black guacal. Fill it with water, then using a smaller guacal to bucket ice-cold water over your head and bam before you know it you’re bathing.

That concludes this episode of washing in the Campo.

Please join next week when I describe how to kill vermin in your house while leaving your abode smelling fresh.  

(what you’ll need: lavender scented Raid)

legacy

I have come to terms with the fact that perhaps my greatest legacy will be that I made really great birthday cakes. As it is requested of me each birthday. What's my secret? I'll never tell. But maybe it includes a box, three eggs, 1/2 cup of Veg. oil and 1.5 cups of water. I'll say no more.

so this month my mission was to bake a cake for Alex.
big month for Alex, graduation AND 15th birthday

The first obsticale
the banana trees produced big time +
lack of storage = what you see pictured here

made the magic happen once again
whipped icing. nam.

cute lil host brothers

cristian demanding CAKE! aaaahhhh
not really... i think he was getting a chair for someone
nice boy

I will use this as photographic evidence of Success!

Oasis in Salvador

tucked away just outside of San Salvador is this lovely home

Candy and her late husband Don Bryan built

this oasis was carefully crafted piece by peice

from the layout,

to the decorations

collected over decades of travel around the world

i count myself lucky to have met Candy and been invited to this oasis for some R&R

my second visit was this last turkey day weekend

here are some photos

8 yr old turkey named Shakira
the kids in the community had a contest to name her
those hips don't lie

sir pax

love this photo

sous-chef erica

head chef after the indian feast

candy's garden growing yummy veggies



my fav in her vast garden of flowers and plants



Alex graduates

Alex graduated last weekend from 9^th grade

He will be going into High school next January.

I snapped some photos, took a couple videos with eyes welled with pride.

Proud of my host brother and his continuation in school 

when many in the region don’t make it this far

Proud of my strong and inspiring host mother who raised such wonderful children, 

gives to her family members freely and took me in with open arms as a green volunteer

Proud that I now have a tie to such a wonderful family 

the ceremony is super long

procession of graduates with their names along with their "date" 

which was his sister Yanery

others take their mothers, fathers, cousins, and the ever mysterious "friend" 

Then after all 85 students and their dates comes

a catholic mass

followed by long speeches by the different table of honor people 

finally the diplomas, handshakes, and photos