Generosity

A month ago, dad and Vicki joined me in the crazy chaotic beauty that is El Salvador. As always, I couldn't attempt to put the experience into words. Although if I had to choose, the first that comes to mind would be generosity. Man, we lived a good life that week. I could never thank you guys enough!

One of our luxuries was renting a car, which made life easy. Like night and day easy. Without the restrictions of bus schedules, we flew around the country like it was our job. Definitely saw a lot more than we could have without it, crammed onto buses or, more likely, hitching rides left and right. We were able to pull off, explore, and appreciate the journey, instead of just focusing on the destination. Grab coffee and a view at Lago Coetepeque? No problem.


Need to run into the pueblo's health clinic to grab more chlorine for the community? Done.

As with earlier trips, I wanted them to experience life in my community as I live it, maybe with the goal of them understanding why I've chosen to extend. Or maybe with the goal of stretching their comfort zones a bit, so that the hot showers waiting for them back in the states will feel that much hotter.

We did the usual circuit, meeting my friends and introducing my family to, well, my family.

Here's me and Cowboy Carlos, one of my good friends. Buena onda as we say down here. One of us looks a little more at ease in a cowboy hat than the other. Can you guess which?


We also spent a decent amount of time visiting with my neighbors, Melida and Orlando. Orlando got to tell his now famous stories of 105 hour work weeks when he lived in Boston, and Vicki got to meet my favorite person in my community, Melida, as well as trying her hand at making pupusas. Not bad!


And she even got in a little campo gardening. Vicki-ana Jones...


Taking a break at the soccer field


They also lugged with them a ton of stateside booty in dad's infamous LLbean duffel bags. It was like xmas, channukah, kwanza, and festivus all mixed into one. Seeds for my community garden project, beef jerky, bags of great donated clothes from Vicki, pots and pans from Ellie, a surprisingly readable Guns N Roses biography from Ben and Jamie, and sour patch kids, lots of sour patch kids.


Later we grabbed Lauren and Jimbo and headed to the mountains of Alegria. A night at altitude and then we took to the beach, where we spent a few days relaxing, eating seafood, and enjoying the pacific sunsets. After all, everyone knows all work and no play make Jack a dull boy...




All that action eventually wore them down...


But recharged their batteries for later on


Oh you crazy kids




Dinner at the beach


Crazy fire guys


Morning coffee overlooking the ocean


Adios!


All in all a great trip. I'll write more later as soon as I can.

Mark your calendars

Well, after a few tense moments of waiting with bated breath, the PC big-wigs approved my vacation request for the month of July.

That's right, I'm coming home.

July 1 - July 28.

Couldn't be more excited...

Un Techo Para Mi País

A few weeks ago, a group of us went out to Jimbo's site to work with the international relief organization Un Techo Para Mi País.

In total, about 15 of us PC gringos showed up to work alongside 65 San Salvador college students in constructing pre-fab houses for families who lost theirs during the November landslides.

I'll fill in more details later, but check out some pics for now...


The walls and platforms are constructed by carpenters and local professionals, while the laymen like us merely drop in the posts and line everything up. They don't have pressure treated wood down here which means a lot of adjusting needs to take place to fit all the sections together. Here's Brock kickin' it with his team.


Here's a shot of the chaos of the early morning jobsite. In the background, you can see the grey army tents that families have been living out of for the past four months.


At night, one of the women from the community came to the casa comunal where we were staying and spoke with us about life in the community since the landslides. In an emotional speech, she thanked us for the work we were doing, mentioning the theft and ever-increasing levels of violence and machete attacks prevalent in their makeshift tent city. Man that's frustrating. These people have suffered enough.

Here's a photo of Grant, sitting on his ass.


You may be wondering why Grant's sitting on his ass with a look of "what the eff are we doing here?" Well, at times it was all we could do!

It was definitely a challenge working with so many college students who, for the most part, lacked basic carpentry skills. And especially watching our team leader, a 21 year old economics major, micromanage the project and ignore the homeowner's suggestions.

I should mention at this point, I'm no Bob Villa. Far from it. But listening to some punk tell a grown man whose house we were building and who had previously built two of these houses just frustrated the hell out of me. Needless to say, my friends and I took many a coffee break to blow off steam, and eventually the home owner began to assert himself more.

Here's the home owner getting in on the action, shadowed by the scars of the landslide.


Nearby, a farmer burns his fields to prepare for the upcoming corn season.


Alright, time for a little fun. This next section I'm calling "Hot or Not" where you the lucky four readers of my blog get to decide who's hot and who's not. Go ahead, no tengo pene, as Chuck would say. I'll post your comments, and offer myself up to the chopping block first...

Stylin' I know


The wolfman, Karl


J-bo and our buddy Brady. Award winning smiles.


Some of our salvo team members. Almost positive we're in the initial stages of a nipple grab/purple nurple. You be the judge.


Ty guy rockin' the bandana, floppy hat combo. Bold.


Hoop, in all his sweaty, afro glory


And finally, my homeboy out east, Dave. Hey, somebody get this guy a cafe koolattaah cuz he looks hottttt.


Ha. Well, there you go. That was five minutes of fun. Looking forward to your comments. Okay, back to work.

Here are Dave and Brady gettin' it done on Day 2


And clowning around with some locals


One of the bichos from the pueblo helping out


The happy homeowner


Hightower holding things together






At the end of the weekend, our groups assembled a total of 11 houses. A drop in the bucket compared to what needs to take place, but a good start.