A wine purchase and a stress test...

Because I continue to receive questions from people like, "What do you actually do from day to day down there?", I have decided that from now on, each update will contain 2 sections: (1) Project Updates and (2) Things That Have Cracked Me Up Recently. I think both are important: describing just what it is I'm working on with the community and still including all the crazy things that happen. So...here we go...


PROJECT UPDATES
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Internet/Technology: Yeah. So after a couple of months of going around to every group I could think of in my community, spouting off about how important internet is, I finally was able to hold the 1st Comité de Tecnología de San Isidro meeting in my house. WOOOO-HOOO!! (Go ahead and yell it out; I know you want to!) :) March 14th, 7:00 P.M. I expected about 5 people to show up (1 from the city council, 1 youth, 1 teacher, 1 parent, 1 person from the association of farmers). 10 people showed up! Like, all of the city council plus those other people! And now even more people are showing interest! So, we've created a vision, mission statement, goals, and objectives for the committee and are in the process of developing sites for a CyberCafe in town. I know you're all dying to know what we're all about, so I'm going to include the info below (it's hard to make it sound good in English...direct translations don't always work):

Vision:
- To be the technology leader in the community, to provide access to and knowledge of technology to San Isidro.

Mission:
- To begin and to continue technological projects, to develop solutions with community service providers to improve community services, and to fortify the community through an improved knowledge of technology and the world.

Goals:
- Provide access to technology to the San Isidro population.
- Expand the career opportunities for community members (youth and adults) through education in software and hardware.
- Facilitate access to communication tools to encourage a cultural interchange between the people of San Isidro with people in other cities and countries around the world.
- Present and implement new software for service providers in the community (health, education, etc.) in order to improve community services.
- Obtain and maintain technology equipment and software within San Isidro and to provide support to institutions providing technology services.

Objectives:
- Develop and implement a plan to install Internet in San Isidro.
- Implement a computer lab in the elementary school.
- Present/display and obtain potential software packages to teachers to use in their classes.
- Provide technology classes to the community.
- Develop a constitution.

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English Classes: This is a crowd-pleaser. We have 4 classes per week now, with 2 groups. The adults meet Monday and Wednesday nights and the kids on Saturday and Sunday. There are a couple of things that are really exciting with this project:

(1) every volunteer that talks about English classes talks about how depressing it is to teach English...the first class has 50 people, the next class has 40, the next class has 30, etc. and by the end you're left with like 10. The classes in San Isidro have been exactly opposite...each class is gaining more and more people!

(2) During class #5 with the adults, we gave out evaluation forms asking people specifically how things can be better in class, what they don't like, etc. We didn't get ANY negative comments! People are LOVING the class!!

(3) People are actually learning. It's definitely fun to watch. Each class, students can speak more and more!

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Student Government
This one, I'm sad to say, is non-existent at the moment. It's IMPOSSIBLE to get these students to meet because of conflicting schedules, therefore, they NEVER meet. So...after 6 attempts at getting a meeting going to decide on a CONSISTENT meeting time with NO ONE showing up to the meetings, I decided I'm done with this project until they come ask me for help. There is more important stuff to do!



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Band/Music Classes
SUPER EXCITING!! Yesterday, I met with the band members and introduced them to NOTES and rhythms....READING music. And they LOVED it!! I had my trusty little metronome/tuner that my awesome aunts/uncles/cousins gave to me for xmas so they could hear that tempo actually DOES exist! And I had some lines of music for us to practice with...we started clapping together, but then moved to individuals trying out different lines. Man. When someone clapped the line correctly and I said, "Yep! Good job!", all the other kids would hoot and yell in congrats. It was a fun class!! They have a homework assignment due tomorrow: everyone has to bring in 4 measures (4 counts per measure) worth of music and we're going to clap it out loud.



THINGS THAT HAVE CRACKED ME UP RECENTLY
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The wine purchase:
So Adolfo was coming over to my house to cook dinner with me and among other things, decided to purchase some wine. Now, when you're working on a budget like us here in El Sal, you always go for the boxed wine when purchasing wine. It's cheap and SUPER enjoyable. Yes, that's what excites us here, boxed wine.

Anyway, when he got to my house, we started drinking this wine that I already had in the refrigerator, so I had one glass down when we opened the wine he bought. And then I actually took a look at it. The first thing I saw: the HUGE brand name across the front that read "GROSSO" (pronounced "gross-o" in Spanish).

And, due to the combination of my bluntness and one glass of wine already in me, I said, "GROSSO?? What brand manager would name a wine GROSSO?? I would FIRE someone if he/she named my product something like Grosso!" And, of course without thinking much about what I was actually saying at this point, I said, "And furthermore, what kind of IDIOT actually BUYS a wine named Grosso??!"

Well, needless to say, Adolfo just stared at me for a second in disbelief at what I had just said. Then he said, "Well, it was from Chile! I thought it would be good!"

And I said, "Wait! I didn't mean YOU were an idiot!!" And then added, "How do you know it's from Chile??"

He said, "Because it's on the box."

You know where it is? It's on the small side of the box, in like 2 point font with the Grosso in like 100 point font EVERYWHERE. I was like, "Oh yeah...that "Chile" really stands out on this box..."

And he was like, "Well, it was only $2.50!"

And I said, "Oh, yeah...I bet you thought it was going to be AWESOME then!"

Of course by this time, we were both laughing HYSTERICALLY. I had tears pouring down my face. And yet, he STILL attempted to defend his purchase of the nasty, oops...I forgot the name...Grosso wine. :)

He said, "Well, read the back! It talks about how good it is!"

So I started reading out loud. Let's just say it was JUST like a Saturday Night Live episode when they're SO making fun of something, or making something TERRIBLE sound SUPER good with all kinds of unneeded adjectives and adverbs...I so wish I had the box in front of me so I could share with you the humor that ensued during this part of our conversation. I started laughing even harder (if you can even imagine; I didn't think it was possible) and he just said, "Well, FINE. Then don't drink it!" And then started laughing with me. Good times, man. Grosso wine. A lifetime memory...

**Note: Adolfo was in between jobs during this purchase. Now that he is working for Dell, he promises to keep on buying the Grosso.

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The Peace Corps Stress Test:
So apparently when you start getting older or have heart problems, the doctors put you on a treadmill and monitor your heart's performance, right?

Well, I have recently decided that I want to start getting out to other parts of the country to see how other volunteers live and work. So, this past week, I visited Mike Comstock, a Rural Health and Sanitation volunteer. He lives about 20-30 miles away from me, which translates into 3 buses from my community. Now, before the visit, he said, "When you get here, we can go swim in the river. I usually go everyday...blah blah blah...oh, and we have to hike about 2 KM outside of the city to my house on some hills, so be ready for that."

I said, "Great! We can get some exercise!"

Fast forward to the actual visit. I arrive in his city (which is smaller than my country town). We have lunch. We go to visit these women that he works with that now make and sell candy (small business development project) when we run into another volunteer in the area, Abby. Mike says, "Abby! You should come to my site with us. We can go swimming together." Abby says, "I'll go if someone takes us in a car. I don't want to get raped and robbed." I'm like, "What?? What are you talking about?" And she says, "There is someone that has been robbing people on the road you need to take to get to his site.

I just looked at Mike and said, "You didn't tell me that!" He said, "Well, you didn't ask." PUCHICA.

So, we started walking and ran into the family that lives next to Mike so we decided to walk together. More security. Ok...2 KM?? No. 2 miles. (Mike CLAIMS that he said miles...he didn't!) :) And there is NO flat surface on this walk. 45 degree+ inclines up or down on unpaved super dusty roads. Ok. I'm totally the girl that would work out for like 4-5 hours a day, swimming, lifting weights, doing dryland training and still DIE if I had to start running - especially if it was in a hilly area!! Mike tells me this 2 mile "walk" (I think it should be referred to as a "trek" myself) takes him about 20 minutes. Me? 1 HOUR. Minimum. I thought I was going to DIE going and coming back. I have the Donald Trump living situation compared to him! I told him on the way out, "Oh my goodness, Mike. If I had your site, I would NEVER leave. 2 years of solitude, man. That would be my life! How do you even look normal in the office??" (Because I, of course, am covered with dirt, mud, and sweat after like 10 minutes of this walking.)

I have to say though, we had a blast. (Oh, and no security incidents.) He's definitely OUT there - NO electricity, water, or bathroom facilities. It's definitely harder for a girl to deal with the no bathroom facilities. You guys can point wherever you want, but we girls must go straight down. It's not fun, but is quite memorable. :) His site is GORGEOUS though! (See photos above.) And we did go swimming in the river. It's where he and people in his community bathe. I seriously don't know how they stay clean.

So. Good experience. Good exercise (for me anyway...Mike was bored out of his mind going at my pace listening to me pant like I was ready to collapse at any moment). Good to do....let's say....once every year (while I'm here...then, never again, until I need to do the doctor-prescribed stress test.) :)

Ok, this has been quite long enough. FYI, I'm going to Columbus and Chicago in late May. Drop me a line if you're interested in hanging out! (I figure if you've made it to the end of this email, you probably are worthy enough to hang out with.) :)