Update

Hey guys hope all is going well with you. It hasn’t been too long since I posted my last blog but just thought I would fill you in on what’s going on.

In the past week or so I have been trying to stay busy and am planning out my next couple months of work. The new school year starts today so I will start working in the school and hopefully also in the Instituto (or high school). I haven’t figured out exactly what I’ll be doing but hopefully along the lines of English classes, Youth Development charlas and physical education.

So as I’ve explained in other blogs, the ADESCO, as part of a project, built a type if tourist center with a restaurant and hostels. Well I have been helping out there a lot, having meetings with the committee of the project, trying to help things move along and also working to see if we can get the youth of the community to participate as well. The vision is to finish some minor construction such as the shower and the pavement of the patios in front of the hostels as soon as possible. Also, we are going to buy a boat to give boat tours in the bay and also buy horses to pull a carriage in which tours will be given as well. To get the youth involved we would like to train them in how to run the boat tours and the horse carriage tours but also in how to make artesian crafts such as hammocks, jewelry, purses and paintings. We had a meeting with the youth and they seem interested, so I am really excited about it.

I have personally been learning how to make hammocks by hand. It’s really fun and not too hard. Well at first it is hard and hurts your fingers and your hand until you get the correct rhythm and positioning of the hand down. I have just been practicing but I hope to start my own soon. These puppies sell for $80 and they are so beautiful and soft. So get your orders and color preferences in and don’t worry I won’t charge you that much.

Oh my gosh I almost forgot the most exciting news of all. I finally had a baño built, a covered area where I can bathe without any clothes on. It is so nice. Before I would have to bath in shorts and a tank top, or at night at least in a bra and underwear in the dark. Man I was so excited when it was finished. It’s nothing fancy, just some sheets of lamina put up around the pila so I can scoop out water. But trust me this is a big development.

Yesterday a delegation of 14 grad students from the Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California came to visit my community. They are here in El Salvador for three weeks doing a sort of practicum. Their affiliate in the country is Asociacion Mangle, which is an NGO that works in the region. A woman from my community works with this organization so she always brings delegations to visit Mendez. At the restaurant we prepared lunch for them and in the afternoon we went to the beach. They are all really nice people, and one of them was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia so I was talking to him a bit. It was a lot of fun. They might come back on Saturday to liberate some turtles so hopefully I’ll be able to join them for that as well.

Ok so I want to tell you about a guy in my community who is a really great guy, intelligent and he helps out a ton with the ADESCO and in all the projects. He has a lot of experience and is a good resource point. Well, his only problem is that about once every six weeks he gets drunk for an entire week. He is what he call a bolo here. So it’s pretty much routine that when he’s not drunk he’s all over the place getting tons of great work done and then he falls off the face of the earth for about a week. Its’s pretty weird but we all appreciate his great work so we put up with it. Well, with this new project (the tourist center) he has been really dedicated and doing a lot of work. I especially like working with him because he motivates the rest who aren’t always that motivated. But the problem is that he fell in love with the manager of the projects here in the community. She has been here for three years and is a good friend of mine. Well apparently before I got here they used to date, but I think due to his drinking problem they kind of stopped. Well, she hasn’t been here in a month, so he has been drunk for an entire month. He was drunk when I left for the states and still drunk when I got back. He was okay for like three days, but then he started drinking again. It’s really sad. He sits in the restaurant crying telling me that his heart has been broken and he really loved her and she doesn’t even come back. He even put on her necklace, bracelet, watch and underwear. YES underwear. And all day long he listens to hilariously sappy romantic songs. I feel so bad for him and wish I could help but I just don’t know what to do other than tell him to stop drinking but he doesn’t listen to anyone. It’s frustrating for many reasons: not as much work gets done when he’s all drunk; he comes around the restaurant and scares away customers which is really bad; and he’s killing himself by drinking so much. Any advice?