Nervous energy...

I can't wait. Only a few days from now I'll once again be standing on Red Sox nation soil. Pretty exciting.

I was trying to explain this to Amy yesterday, how I haven't been able to shake this swirly mix of anxiety and nervous energy. I guess it's no surprise that it's been pretty damn tough to balance my life down here for the past month - community projects, organizing trainings and volunteer workshops all over the country - with the details and plans for the upcoming month up north - passport/Guatemalan visa bullshit, Fourth of July, Chuck's wedding weekend in Connecticut, the Doyle's fundraiser on the 16th, training for the ALS ride the 23rd to the 25th, and trying to spend quality time with everyone near and dear to me without overbooking or giving them a half-ass experience. My biggest fear.

Unfortunately, with every email home and every conversation about tentative plans to do this or that, I feel the cumulative weight of life's pressures increase by one pebble, and then another, until I realize I'm carrying a 150 lb. sack across my shoulders, slowing me to a snail's pace from exhaustion. Ben's been helping a ton, organizing things back home and acting as my social coordinator for the first couple days. Exactly what I needed, without even having to ask for it. So, if you're reading this, Mr. Bean... thanks. Seriously. And Kate has been sweet about checking in on me, mentally. (No, but are you really okay?) Thanks chica.

I'm sure once I touch down at Logan, put my bags into the trunk of Ben and Jamie's car, and eventually relax on their couch alongside Addie, I'll feel like a million bucks. Or maybe I should just get used to living in two simultaneous worlds, two lives which will never overlap, as much as I try.

Speaking of Addie, Ellie recently sent out some photos she took on Castle Island. I couldn't resist posting a few...







Grab a dictionary and look up the definition of "adorable" and you'll see this little one staring up at you.

Man that stings

Well, Boston mourns again. The Celtics arguably had their 18th title in the bag, but before we had a chance to do anything about it, it slipped away from us. Arg.

I caught the game in my community, sick of organizing afterdark transport into my nearby pueblo only to watch the game, most likely be disappointed, and then fall asleep watching The Devil Wears Prada on HBO at my counterpart Salvador's house. Trust me, it's not a consolation.

And yes, I did say I watched the final game in my community. My buddy Carlos recently got a satellite dish. Amazing how two-thirds of the community drinks river water, half don't have constant electricity or latrines, yet if families have 12 bucks a month, they're watching street luge on ESPN2 and wondering who actually likes street luge? like the rest of us up north. Something's wrong there.

Anyway, watching the series and emailing back and forth with Adam and Dad was great. Not to mention the experience of watching the games with my Salvadoran friends, most of whom have never actually watched a full game. (Basketball down here is like soccer up there. Have you ever actually watched a soccer game from start to finish? Exactly.)

To Salvadorans, basketball is a mess of complicated, arbitrary rules and physical movements they could only dream of duplicating. I especially liked trying to explain the shot clock to a kid in my community (You mean if they don't shoot, they get in trouble? Yes, yes that's right), as well as all the other rules the league's introduced over the years to keep us ADD shoe-buying consumers interested in those guys running back and forth chasing the bouncy ball (five seconds to inbound the ball, eight to get it across halfcourt, 24 to shoot, three-second defensive penalties, three-second offensive penalties...). It really is ridiculous when you think about it.

And then there's soccer. Pure, simple, corrupt soccer, where a referee usually does more harm than good and you can count the number of rules on both hands. Ah soccer. Essentially confined anarchy separated by sporadic moments of law and order. Over my two years here, I've really come to respect and love it. Never thought I would.

Basketball also requires a whole different mentality, I've realized. I mean, what other sport in the world can you watch the first and last quarters and pretty much say you saw the game? In soccer, if you blink, there's a pretty damn good chance that's gonna be the moment either team scores the goal of the game.

Ah well. As losers are oft heard saying: wait until next year... or at least until October. Go sox.

Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce Realize They're Wearing Same Headband

Man, I love the onion.

So the Celts kicked ass last night, continuing to demonstrate that championship basketball is about teamwork and ball movement and not ball-hogging superstars, even though I'll be the first to admit that Kobe's hands down the best player on the court. What he's doing out there is insane. I think he could literally hit half-court fadeaways for a whole quarter if he wanted to (all the while ignoring his four other teammates wide-open underneath the basket).

In addition, I'd like to officially award my coveted Golden Jock Strap Award for heart and hustle to Rajon Rondo, who proved he's not afraid to poke an angry bear, shoving Ron Artest after a hard foul on Garnett in the 2nd quarter. Reminded me of Varitek offering a mitt sandwich to A-Rod in 2004 to turn the season around for the Red Sox.


Mmmm, delicious.

Jock Strap runners-up were, in no particular order:

- Glen "Droolio" Davis
- Tony "Did you see that block on Gasol?!!!" Allen, (video), and
- Kendrick "Don't ever let me go coast to coast" Perkins

Here's a good article on Rondo's impact on the momentum of the game and Artest's recent struggle with the game of basketball.

Also, if you haven't seen the excerpts from Nate Robinson's and Big Baby's Game 4 post-game interview, it's worth a look. Fingers crossed for Tuesday's game...

Dengue, it's all the rage

Something I didn't want to formally announce until it was officially ancient history was my health, which is good (relax!). But a few weeks ago, it definitely wasn't.

For those who haven't heard, I was fortunate enough to pick up a minor case of... drumroll please... dengue! Yep, dengue. And I say minor because it never developed beyond a bad fever, nausea, and some achiness. One morning I woke up and my eyes kind of hurt, but my platelets never dropped low enough to scare PC Med and it was nothing a few nights in the capital recovering couldn't fix, which in the end worked out well since I was able to watch the Celts smoke the Magic.

Now a group of us is getting ready to watch the Celts take down LA in Game 1 at the Country Director's house. Oh yeah, flat screen tv!

Getting used to the taste of victory

Just as the Celtics advance towards the finals (fingers crossed for a closeout tonight), we got an early taste of victory when my home team, Metapán, won the national championship last Sunday, claiming their fourth title in seven seasons. Kind of insane. Just ask Motorcycle Carlos, above.

I was lucky enough to be at Sunday's game, which was wild, by the way. About a thousand degrees and packed. As in past years, the mayor sent 30 free buses from Meta, trying to fill the stadium with some sort of a Meta fan base, knowing full well that we couldn't compete with the other team's ridiculous numbers. They're a departmental team from San Miguel, which means they totally outnumbered the fans from our tiny pueblito up in the mountains. See? Check out all that ugly orange.


But we showed them what's up and silenced them early with a nasty goal in the 24th minute. After a few close calls, we somehow managed to stay alive, even scoring two more times. And when time expired, we went nuts.


Final score: 3-1. My boys and I screamed until we lost our voices. We were such underdogs, we never thought we'd win again. Another little bonus was that I was there with a few of the new Meta volunteers who definitely got into the action.

Here's Greg, one of the new health volunteers. He's also a fellow Mass-hole and a pretty damn cool guy.


Now look at this photo from after the game...


Notice anything different about Greg? Yep, the shirt. After the game, some drunk guys started bugging us. But before I could tell them to piss off, one of them notices Greg's not wearing a jersey, whips out an extra, and demands that he put it on. Pretty amazing. You know that thing they say about not judging a book by it's cover? So true. Thanks drunk guys! Sorry I gave you a fake number!

Now if only the Celts can wake up, pull things together and do the same...

A new roof. A new job.

A recent email/letter exchange with Sam inspired me to give more of a "what am I up to these days" post. So with that in mind...

What I am up to these days

Well, life down here is really coming together. Two years has been a blur, but I’m amazed at how if I think hard, I can actually remember every single day. Seriously. So I guess it's a vivid blur. Strange. It was never like that for me in the states.

Work is great, rewarding, and surprisingly stressful. Although I have to admit, it’s self-imposed stress. Peace Corps is definitely what you make of it. We’re all here for different reasons. In my case, I’m motivated by my toothless, illiterate community members who are in the slow process of creating toothless, illiterate offspring. That sounds harsh but it's true. If I can throw a wrench in their passive-aggressive plan to create clones of themselves, I will die a happy man. My tools: scholarships, dental health campaigns in the school, computer classes. They all help, but I often wonder if I’m making a dent. We’ll know when I come back in 10 years and my neighbors' kids are eating corn on the cob, or bowls of mush.

Family gardens

I’m continuing with my organic, no chemicals, no fertilizers, no vegetables garden. Just like last year, I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, beans and corn. But this time it’s actually producing for a change. Figuring out why would be as easy as solving a rubik's cube for me, although I have my theories.

1. My salty tears of failure have actually stimulated plant growth.
2. Bugs have gotten bored of eating my sad little tomatoes and radishes.

Here's a pic of my neighbor Melida showing me how it's done. Her garden makes my insides hurt with envy. But then again, I travel for weeks at a time, and guess who I leave in charge of watering my garden... Hmm, something's fishy here.



Raise the roof

Back in February and March, my community's ADESCO (anyone remember what the hell that is? Good!) applied for a USAID SPA grant (Small Project Assistance) to put a new roof on our community’s school. The old one was made of this crumbly, grey cement shit that’s supposed to last five years. 14 years later, you can imagine how well it was holding up.

SPA grants are small, government grants up to $2,500 that allow PCVs to plan workshops, camps, and do small infrastructure projects in their communities. In essence, cash from the US gubment to get stuff done. The community has to contribute at least 25% of the budget, which they usually do by providing labor and transport. My rabbit project was a SPA grant and the community contributed by building their own cages, supports, and providing transport.

Originally I was mentally setting up for a large-scale latrine project for something like 25 families. There are a ton of families who don't have latrines and simply go out to the monte. But the USAID requirements were recently changed and latrine projects are no longer being approved. Then a conversation with our ADESCO president (motorcycle Carlos for those who've visited) motivated me to look into school infrastructure projects.

We pursued it, applied a few weeks later, received $1,557 in USAID funds not long after, and in a little under two months working our culos off before rainy season came, voila! A new roof!




I wish I had taken more photos of what the old, crumbling roof was like. Man, that thing had more holes in it than the Iraq war justification. Hey oooo!

But this new roof is bomb-proof, made from a material called ZincAlúm, which is worth it just for the oohs and aahs that people utter whenever I get the chance to mention it, which is frequently. It’s not unlike saying you just got an electric car. Or your car now runs on a flux capacitor.

It goes without saying, we're pretty damn proud. And it was a great moment for our community's ADESCO.

Soccer soccer soccer soccer soccer!

No surprise, this country is obsessed with futbol. My community is no exception. And for the past two months, every Sunday we've been hosting a soccer tournament that the sports committee organized to raise money to buy a weed whacker.

To be honest, it’s been both great and bad at the same time. Great because I’ve been forced to be in the community every weekend, and bad because I've been forced to be in the community every weekend. I love being here but it’s tough cramming everything into the Monday to Friday work week so I’ll be able to help out on Sunday morning. Not to mention the legwork and glad-handing to get sponsors.

It was tough work, but it's paying off. Each Sunday we're selling out of beer and food, and in just a few more Sundays, we'll have enough to buy what we need and create a rainy-day fund. From the money we raised from past tournaments, we bought soccer nets, community uniforms, and made repairs to the field.

Here are a few pics from some of the past Sundays' games.







It’s Always Sunny in El Salvador

I’d say it's always a good sign when your best bud from first grade and your best bud from El Salvador recommend the same thing the same week.

At nights in the campo there's not a whole lot to do. I generally put on a few podcasts and do laundry, cook, or work on my garden. But I also pour myself a glass of wine, put on a few movies, and just veg out in my hammock. And thanks to Sam, I'm set for a while.

Just as Jimbo was loading up my hard drive with the first couple seasons of a criminally funny show he just discovered, I open up my mailbox to see a surprise package from Sam. A shirt, a solid candy selection, and the first three seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Incredible.

It's full of awkward silences like The Office or Curb, but way more vulgar. Like NC-17 stuff. My neighbor once surprised me when I was watching an episode, before I could open an excel spreadsheet and pretend I was working, and it took me about half an hour just to explain why the main characters trying crack cocaine was funny. It didn't go well.

Anyway, my goal lately has been trying to choose a favorite episode, but to be honest, they’re all so good it hurts. It’s like choosing your favorite flavor of Starburst. You think you’ve got a favorite (the pink, no the red!), but then you remember that they’re all incredible compared to a handful of measly Fig Newtons, loser kids’ sad answer to junk food. So you admit defeat and like a pussy, you refuse to choose a favorite.

So thank you Sam and Jimbo for showing me the way.

New Job

And last but not least, my new job. So yeah, I got one. I guess it's strange to take all this time explaining what I've been up to when it's all going to change. But I was long overdue for an update post and maybe I felt a little sentimental for the good ol' times.

The big news is that I recently accepted a new job with Peace Corps to work for the remaining six months of my extension as a Regional Leader in Chalatenango, a mountainous department up in the northwest region.


I'll still be a volunteer, but I'll be switching gears to work more as a liaison between volunteers and PC staff, conducting site visits and trying to link up PCVs working in the same region. I am focusing on future site development and security so it'll be an interesting transition.

Originally, they wanted me to move to Chalate, but I felt that moving to another part of the country for my last six months in country (five, I guess, since I'll be in Boston for July) wouldn't be how I wanted to end my service. But we agreed on a split schedule and I'll be commuting back and forth between Chalate and my current host community, trying to continue my projects and relationships despite not living there 24/7.

I actually just got back from my first formal trip to the region, where I met some of the volunteers and went apartment shopping in a little artisan town. It was pretty amazing. I'll post some photos later. The apartment's actually going to be more of a crashpad than a real apartment. A place to keep my things and make the experience a little easier.

It’s a bitter-sweet moment in my service because it naturally means significantly less time in my community. Less time where I feel most comfortable in this country, surrounded by my friends and family. But growth only comes from change and challenge, no?

I'll keep you updated.

It's Always Sunny In El Salvador

Way behind on my blogging so this is merely a place holder entry. An ugly little stain on my blog that'll motivate me to post something intellectual/fun/interesting later this week.

The quick rundown...

Sam, got your package. Incredible.

Chuck and Dana, thank you so much. Because of the size, your package was processed through more rigorous customs and held in the department capital. Literally took me more than a month to bail it out of mail jail.

Roof. Putting one on our school. Hard work.

Community soccer tournament. Every Sunday for two months. Headache.

Women's group gardens. Seeds planted. Yippee.

That's the news from Lake Wobegon. I'll clean this up and post more later this week.

Hope all's well.

Guns N' Fuckin' Roses

My eyes hurt. My throat's killing me. I still can't hear a damn thing. And I'm pretty sure at some point I got punched in the face. But it was worth it. Because last night I got to see my childhood idols (seriously... sadly...) live in concert.


It was unbelievable. Fireworks, covers of Bowie and Floyd. So cool. Definitely the best concert I've been to. Or maybe at least the most anticipated.


It was pretty amazing. In the lead-up to the concert, the country pretty much shifted into some sort of GNR mania. Every day there were articles in the paper about the upcoming show. I mean, it was like the entire country was asking itself: Was this a mistake? Some sort of clerical error that the "little thumb" of central america is benefiting from? We almost didn't care, we were so psyched to finally get a real band. Especially after Metallica blew off El Salvador for Guatemala City when their tour passed through the region last month.

And say what you will about Slash not being there or Axl going off the deep end, but I gotta be honest, that crazy, old tattoed freak's still got it. Brought the house down. Plus, with his cowboy hat and 48 year old gut (yes 48, can you believe that?), he couldn't have looked more salvadoran. Just like one of us. The crowd loved it.

Once in a lifetime...

I’d never played on a field that large. Or with grass as nice.

You could tell we were all a little hesitant the first time we committed to a slide tackle, but after surviving the first one and realizing we weren't playing on our rocky dirt fields back home, everything changed.

Recently, we had the once in a lifetime opportunity of playing a few exhibition games at the national stadium against volunteers from JICA, Japan's version of the Peace Corps.

It was an amazing experience. Estadio Cuscatlán is the largest stadium in Central America, and you definitely felt the size of it once you walked out from under the tunnels. Since we only had the field for the first half of the day, we had little time to soak it all in before we were lined up, standing before the Minister of Sports, listening to the national anthems of El Salvador, the US, and Japan.


Here we are just before the event kicked off. Crouched down in front of me is our Country Director, Jaime, an incredibly cool guy without whom the day could never have been possible.


Everyone was pretty antsy to get going and see what a stadium field felt like. Apart from my buddy Ross and my old roommate Chris, who played on the national level, we were all pretty green.


We played well, with added intensity fueled by the feeling that we were playing in some sort of quasi-olympic atmosphere.


But the JICA volunteers stepped it up as well, and drew first blood.


All in all, we got smoked. The PC women's team put up some amazing numbers, but the guys just couldn't put anything together. We had a great time all the same.


Chris, sending in a corner


Me, totally wiped out playing on a field twice as large as my community's


Our buddy Matt, soon to be Dr. Matt, and his famous cheap mirrored lenses, definitely a must for any PCV.


Chris taking advantage of said famous mirrored lenses


It was a very unique experience communicating with the Japanese volunteers only through Spanish. I’d had Italian and German friends that only knew me through our Spanish personas. But this Japanese/Spanish thing was a first for me. Actually, the JICA volunteers said that learning Spanish was easier for them than English. Something about the vowels. Pretty cool.




What a crazy day

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...