El Salvador: The Sequel

Well, we're into week two and honestly things couldn't be going better. As I was just telling one of my former bosses, it is positively kickass being here and not having the usual stress of being a Peace Corps volunteer. Well, it's not stress per se, but more like this constant awareness of Peace Corps' rules that sort of bounce around the back of your head during your service. Those rules, combined with my own personal drive to make good use of my service, definitely kept my nose to the grindstone.

So now that the books are officially closed on my service, it's refreshing to be here, no longer obsessing about my community's health projects or sweating the small stuff. It's like I gave myself to the job, did what I could, and now it's time to turn it over to someone else. I'm also enjoying the other perks of being back in country as a non-PCV, including, but not limited to, riding around on motorcycles, renting cars, chilling for days on end in San Salvador and grabbing drinks with my bosses.

As most of you know, I'll be here for a few months while I'm waiting to hear back from grad schools. I applied in January and was on a flight down here just two days afterwards. Gotta be honest, pretty excited not to be concerned with snowy winter commutes or blowing $100 a week on delicious, delicious micro-brewed beer. That last part actually sucks, along with missing my friends and family, but my consulting gig with a local NGO organizing school recycling programs is providing me with enough cash to treat myself to a nice beer in the capital every so often.

The job should also occupy just enough of my time to keep me from shacking up at a surf hostel for a month in my lifelong quest to master a short board. Sidenote: anything shorter than a 10 footer I like to call short boards. Also, swap the word "master" for "stand up on" and that's probably closer to reality.

Back in the campo

After an epic day of traveling, I'm back in The Savior, and man it feels good.

Apart from the heat, I'm readapting well. Thanks for the emails. But I'm not sure which is worse: sweating uncontrollably from shoveling out your car, or sweating uncontrollably from simply being in El Salvador. At least with the shoveling you can just put down the shovel.

Another year of kicking ALS' ass and taking names

As you may know, last year our fledgling cycling team raised over $20,000 for ALS research in only its fourth year, totally blowing away our goal of raising $14,000. And the Tri-State Trek as a whole brought in a whopping 500,000 bucks for ALS research. Incredible numbers.

To celebrate the two accomplishments, Team America organized a small gathering at the Cambridge Brewing Company, a chill night just to share a few beers, make a few toasts, and motivate the team for this year's fundraising campaign and ride.

About 30 people came, no doubt attracted like moths to the glow of free apps and towers of microbrewed beer. We even had our first sign-ups from people willing to put their money where their mouths were.

A typical reserved Mearns and Z at the registration table.

We also reactivated our fundraising page so anyone who won the lottery recently or is feeling extra generous today should visit our Team America fundraising page.

Thanks in advance!