9 de febrero

Kelly, gecko, gecko's tail (shed in moment of fright) in hand.


The tower (foreground) and church (if you have excellent eyesight and squint just the right way) of San Vicente. After seven and a half weeks in our site, we reunited with our training group in San Vicente for two weeks of the second and final stage of training. During this time, we lived with our original host family once again.

Kelly and her Agroforrestry/ Environmental Education cohorts, however, spent the second week at La ENA (the National School of Agriculture) in La Libertad. The campus is full of resources, making it a perfect place for a week of very hands-on training. We practiced vegetable gardening, fruit tree grafting, pest control, tree nursery management, ecological stove building, worm composting, regular composting, hydroponic gardening, etc.

Our rural training community is now quite different. The Cheers-esque 'everybody knows your name' vibe is gone. For this half of the year, there is a massive sugarcane harvest that brings in workers from Honduras and Nicaragua, opens seasonal pupuserias to feed the workers, and generally transforms this otherwise 'tranquilo' land into a nexus of Mack trucks, smoke, and sketchiness. Think the-land-of-the-lifted Lorax. Also, do you remember those adorable kittens from a post in the fall? They're all dead; so is the family dog. The small house in which we slept for our first three months in country is now a 'comedor' that offers pupusas, chicken, fish, etc. This time around we slept in a tiny room next to that of our host family. The curtain that was our door didn't stop our five-year-old host brother. It was nice to see our host family and neighbors again. We played ball, colored, hid, sought, and ate deliciously sour unripened mangos from the tree.


aloe-telecommunications multi-tasking


Kelly cutting up some aloe for shampoo. We visited a Volunteer who works with a women's group that makes and sells their own shampoo.


fun with shampoo!


approximately the Youth Development '08 group


Keychain (one of you lucky readers might get this next Christmas!)


Kelly, coffee


Juayua


A friend's t-shirt ("I don't eat turtle eggs").

9 de febrero, cont'd

We walked down the dustiest road in the world to see the waterfalls of Juayua. Well worth it.


Bruce, jumping at the waterfall.


Bruce and Kelly (shout out to AB, from whose gallery these three photos were stolen!)


"Winnie Pooh" is everywhere.


Kelly milking a cow in our training site.


At 4:30 in the mornin', I'm milkin' cows...


Our training site host brother, post-vote. Note the thumb. January 18 was election day for alcades (mayors) and diputados (congressmen, sort of) in El Salvador. In San Vicente, the left-wing FMLN was replaced by right-wing ARENA. The opposite occurred in our pueblo. The presidential election will take place March 15.


Our friends striking a classic Salvadoran pose (no smile) during the Obama inauguration.

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Back in Site

We've been back in our site for two weeks now. The school year started mid/late January, so this has been our first opportunity to introduce ourselves to the kids in their classrooms. We made a poster with a hand-drawn map of our journey from Pennsylvania/Delaware. We listed and solicited ideas. We made grammatical errors.

Our first order of business was starting up ecological clubs in two schools. The kids suggested and voted on project ideas and group leaders. We played wild dinamicas (games) that included popping balloons and dancing like milkshakes. The kids are in 7th-9th grade and so far it has been a blast. Our journalism club will start up this week.

The second order of business, it turns out, was getting amoebas (Bruce) and bacterial infections (Bruce and Kelly). Last weekend was a very long and dreadful one. But we are back on top and feeling just fine.