Picking Up....?

Nine and a half months… Chelsea could have had the first of her vengeful babies by now. Nine and a half months and I still feel like a newbie. As far as projects I’ve done… heh, if they can even qualify as being called projects. They’ve not been many and aren’t making much of a splash. I taught a group of women how to make shampoo using aloe leaves for a new source of income, but none of them wanted to continue making it afterward. I had a gigantic recycling collection/competition that really was very successful (the kids gathered 1000s of bottles), but within 2 weeks of the competition being over the streets were filled again with bottles and cans. I’ve done quite a few charlas (health talks) to groups of mainly women, the effects of which are hard to measure and paltry (I gave one to women about cervical cancer and the pap-smear that went seemingly well to probably 45 women, 2 of whom have actually done there pap-smear since). I’ve taught English to kids who still don’t know what “to be” means. The point being… the starter projects aren’t much, are slow, and their success is questionable.
But I don’t want you to think that I’m just despondently complaining (is my tone whiny?). I knew the pace of things would be slow and was expecting this. Truth is, I wanted to try a few different things to see what would work and what wouldn’t and to see if it would shed light on where I want to put greater focus. I want to feel secure in how things work before I try something big. And this implies… another part of this process: a lot of waiting. Waiting for the right time, the right project, the right opportunity; and when this is said and done: waiting for the project to actually happen. I’ve applied to NGOs and other organizations to fund some projects, but of course the response is slow and you just have to keep on waiting.
I’m getting really good at waiting though. Cockiness aside, I really am an excellent waiter. I think my living situation has a lot to do with that. For instance the other day, I had to go down to Gotera to run some errands. There’s no transport from my site on Saturdays, so I had to hike out to the next caserio (rural community) over in hope of catching the pick –up truck down that leaves at 5:30 in the morning (this means pre-dawn hiking). When I got there, the pick-up never came… so I waited. A couple trucks drove by… but they either weren’t going all the way down the mountain or were already packed to the nines with passengers. So I waited some more. Some people waited with me, patient Salvadorans as they are, but even a few of them gave up and went home. At 7:30 I thought my luck was gone (few people go down the mountain past this hour to run their errands), and I started to walk home. But just as I was about to turn the corner an empty truck came by. Yay! So I got a ride down (which of course is more waiting…. it takes well over an hour to get down the treacherous road). Ran my errands fast, and then waited for a pick-up truck to go back up the mountain. If you’re lucky you only wait a half an hour, but I’ve waited four. This time it was two. And then a two hour pick-up ride back up the mountain, followed by an hour long hike. It took me over twelve hours to buy some tomatoes and a flashlight, and to check my-email.
It surprises me when I talk to you guys and you say things like “you must be so busy” and “I’m not nearly working as hard as you.” I think my reality is a little different than what you flatterers have in mind. I have quite a bit of free time (waiting time) and definitely am not working a nine-to-five.
So, it is with much excitement that I approach two projects. One is stoves. There’s an NGO called Stove Team International that makes these fabulous stoves out of cement. Few families have gas stoves here, and most do all there cooking over an open fire. All the kitchens here are covered in soot. Well, the Stove Team stoves boast a perfect combustion, so there are virtually smokeless. They also use 60% less wood, so there’s an environmental bonus, not to mention less of a brutal chore for the Salvos out here who lug wood up crazy steep hills. A lot of women suffer respiratory and eye problems from cooking, and these stoves can greatly help them. This past Tuesday I held an assembly and invited Stove Team to do a presentation for the gente here. I was nervous, because I passed out invitations before that I realize now were too ambiguous. People thought that this NGO was coming to give away the stoves to everyone for free. Yikes. I had a premonition that when I’d start to talk about payment, people would lose interest. They cost 30$, which might not seem like much, but that’s as much as some families out here make in a month. They can pay in installments, but it’s still a challenge. However, when I started making the list for interested people, I was surprised by how many wanted them. Well over half the people who came wanted one. I’m psyched… and anxious. I’m happy that so many people want these wonderful stoves, but actually getting the money together will be where the real challenge lies. I know not everyone who signed up will be able to pay, but meh, I know at least some will, and any difference is still a difference.
The other project for which I’m eager is a mural. Just a mural, nothing more. We just had graduation for our school, which is ninth grade, pre high-school down here. There were only 8 graduating, but those 8 wanted to paint a mural at the school as their relic. They asked for my help. So we’re doing a world map. Which, my friends, seems like a dinky little nothing of a project, but it’s actually much more complicated and slower than you might think. It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster, this project. I was surprised at how well the kids raised money for the supplies with a raffle they held, but when it came time to start working, the hurdles emerged. It is a slooooooooow process. We had to cement the wall where we wanted to paint, measure out an exact graph, copy grid for grid the map, pencil, marker, then paint and on and on. It’s intricate and delicate and slow, and one small error can have huge effects. So when the kids would show up and then realize how much more complicated it is that they thought, they weren’t so thrilled to continue. Many days it’s been just me, and one other guy, his awesomeness Arnoldo, who’s loyal and hardworking. Slowly but surely we’re getting there.
Two things I want to share about this. One, is that I was shocked at the lack of geographical and spatial knowledge I witnessed. It’s as if they’ve never seen the world entire on a map before. Many think that Central America is the whole world. I asked one chico to find El Salvador, and he could, and then I asked him to find the United States, and he pointed to Africa. So this has also put a bit of a hamper in our progression; explaining directions and which country is which are much more challenging when people have no idea what the world looks like. But, two, this makes me hopeful and excited that we’re doing this little project. We’re doing it a little differently. We put numbers not names on each country that correspond to a list we’ve made on the side with all the names. This way, the teachers can test the kids, covering up the names on the list and asking them to identify from memory. It’s small, but I hope it can make a little difference. And if not, at least it’s something visible. This is a project I can see and touch; a remnant of me that will stay after I go. And after nine and half months, it’s a little something that says “Laura was here.”
And in a final note. There was a horrible storm that hit about two weeks ago. It rained here for about 50 hours straight. But I´m okay. No landslides here. The area where it badly affected was San Vicente, where I had training. My Training host family is alright, we lived high up on a hill opposite the San Vicente volcano. But two training host communities, Verapaz and Tepetitan, sit at the base of the volcano, and were nearly destroyed. It´s devastating. And I know of one volunteer who´s site is on the other side of the volcano. He only has a few months left, and his site is now in ruins. It´s awful, I feel terrible for him and those who lost their homes. But incredibly lucky that nothing happened here. Thanks for the concern, folks.

I haven´t taken a picture yet of the mural, but will soon. But here are some from the stove meeting:

Me introducing the presenters to the gente.

Dina, the health promoter and one of my counterparts, explicaring the effects that smoke has on ya. She´s a great collaborater.

Mercedes, one of my favs, is putting her hand in the mouth, and not getting burned. The heat stays in the center.