I suck at blogging

Apparently, some people do this everyday. And they’re good at it. I can’t imagine how. I mean, there are actually people out there who sit down everyday to type up crap that others, supposedly, will read and care about. Everyday. Man, that sounds tough. I’m having a hard time writing once a month. But no, they sit down, write something up, hit enter, and get like a million hits or whatever. Wow.

I think in the end, I don’t want to be good at something as ugly sounding as blogging. It just sounds lame and techy. So that’s my rationale; there are better things to do in life than type up what I ate for breakfast (incidentally, choco flakes, coffee, and pb&j on toast) and how many times my weak little stomach has gotten sick (246 if anyone’s keeping count). Anyway, here’s a giant entry that I’ve been meaning to type up for a long time. Sit back and relax. It’s gonna be a long one.

San V

So as some of you may know, I just got back from two weeks of "technical" training. Supposedly, now I’m equipped to literally fix every problem that might ever come up in my community. Basically, I’m awesome. I achieved this awesome status by going on a field trip, sitting through an impressive amount of charlas on environmental topics, community gardening, dental hygiene, and sex education, to name a few. And that's kinda it. Hmm, trying to stay positive about technical training is proving harder than I thought. Let’s just say it was great to see all my buddies again, and also to enjoy every outlet of fun and diversion San V has to offer. Like this for example.





But I don’t want to sound entirely negative. There were some good points to the two weeks. And here they are, in no particular order:

Peace Corps + Habitat for Humanity = Super Volunteerism

Somebody that day actually pointed out how funny it was we were doing Habitat as PC volunteers. Kind of like Adam donating blood the same day he had jury duty. (Speaking of which, Uncle Sam salutes you, kid brother.) Anyway, it was only for a day, but it was an awesome experience working on a Habitat house. Very fun and very tiring. Everyone likes to get their hands dirty and we frickin got em dirty. Mixed concrete, laid down cinderblocks, and set up the rebar supports. Good times. I threw on some photos to prove that we didn't just sit on our asses.



Jimbo enjoying this pose entirely too much...



Super efficient stoves. It’s science.

We also visited a few volunteers’ sites to check out their communities' stove projects. Basically, your average salvadoran woman cooks using an open flame in her house. This is bad. Very bad. When I visit houses doing my census, I'm always amazed at the burnt adobe walls and stalagtites of ash coming down from their tile roofs. I make a point of talking with them for a sec about the walls and how they aren't the only things getting turned into jerky. Hint, it's your lungs!

But there's an easy solution. More efficient stoves. The ones we saw and later constructed burn up to 80 percent better than an open flame and don’t give off smoke, so you can use them right in your kitchen during the rainy season and won't fill the whole house with smoke. Pretty cool. Anyway, here's a photo of one of the stoves.



They cost 50 bucks (ouch!), but a rotary club in Oregon pays 30 bucks for each stove so the family only has to pay $20. And if that's too much, they can pay in installments so they only have to raise 5 bucks a month. It's like the definition of a win-win situation.

We also went to a muni volunteer's community to learn how to make similar stoves but out of cheap materials people can find in their communities. They're essentially the same design as the fancy-pants one designed by an oregon professor, but they're made out of woodchips, dirt, tiles, and molasses. Yep, molasses!











Lastly, we found all this work to be extremely tiring. So a few of us took part in some alternative workshops being held at the local beaches. These included surfing, 4 am pool hopping, and my personal favorite, the how many people can you cram in a hotel room workshop. Very educational.











The photos below are from Playa El Espino. A very cool beach. Not really anything to do besides collect seashells and walk endlessly for miles in either direction with a beer in your hand. Wait a sec. That’s the whole point of going to the beach!



Also, beach cows? Okay.



There was something beautiful about a cow enjoying the sunset as much as I was. For a brief moment, I thought about being a vegetarian.