el tiempo está volando!
ooohhh, it´s march already. whaaaaat? anyway, i don´t have any recent pictures to put up, so i decided to go through some random pictures that i have taken over the last part of last year. as far as work and what not, things are moving along quite nicely in the school, while things are a little more confusing the community. but what can one expect? i´ve been teaching a lot more this year....well, as a volunteer supposedly i´m teaching the teachers. actually, i think it is working though. sometimes the teachers will make comments about activities or ways they present things in their own teaching and they say that i influenced them on this. i´m not trying to pat myself on the back or anything, because getting a few simple comments is certainly not achievement by any means. but it´s something. so through my teaching, i guess i am, albeit very little, giving them something to think about.
we got our two boxes of books donated from the u.s. embassy, so we´re slowly but surely starting our school library. it´s a process though, just like everything else.
as for the community work, ugh! people can be so difficult. nobody wants to do anything voluntary. we are trying to fix the main road in san jorge, and all we need is help in the form of labor. nothing too backbreaking. hell, i am out there almost every sunday lifting rocks and hauling dirt and mixing cement. so if i can do it, it´s gotta be a piece of cake for the men of san jorge. but it´s like pulling teeth to get a handful of guys (and women) to come out and help. some men even said ¨are you gonna pay us and give us lunch?¨ a lot of people don´t get the whole ¨volunteer¨ thing. they think any work deserves payment, which i suppose in theory, it does. but then i look at what i´m doing and i´m like - why the hell should i be out here volunteering to do this if none of the members of the community want to do it? i´m there to help, not to do ALL the work. who´s paying me? people think i have all this money stored away....gringa moneybags. i don´t! on a positive note, there are a handful of people who are willing to sacrifice their sunday mornings and come out and try and finish the road. and they work their asses off! it´s nice to see people willing to do something even though tier not receiving a dime from anyone. they realize that by improving the road they are improving the community and in turn, their own lives. but most people are content sitting in their houses and watching telenovelas or whatever else. it´s not like this tactic is foreign to united states citizens, though. you find this kind of behavior everywhere. so i guess what i´m saying is there are both positives and negatives to this project, which is normal. what´s really funny is that those that are willing to help out need a formal invitation in order to come. i´m not kidding. whenever we write up invitations, we get a nice group of people. when we just invite people word of mouth, nobody comes. i want to be like ¨folks, it´s not a wedding or a birthday party!¨ but then again, i´m not salvadoran and salvadorans want and absolutely need formal, written invitations to do anything. so frustrating. but like all things, in time it will get finished. so here´s to that.
well, like i said, here are some random photos for you to laugh at, scratch your heads in confusion or simply enjoy. adios for now.....
this is the mayor of apaneca. i found this picture on one of the computers at the ciber. it totally makes me laugh, because right there in the corner is the tiger that the mayor sat on when he conducted a meeting with our comité...the meeting where everyone else sat there taking him seriously, as i thought in my head, for the millionth time since being here in el salvador ¨where the hell am i?¨
some of the storm damage to our school roof, which still hasn´t been fixed. apparently the ministerio de educación is ¨working on the problem.¨
this huge tree fell over the road and created this cool tree arch. although, every time i walk beneath it, i have a sudden sence of urgency to get to the other side as it´s only being held up by some weak looking trees on the other side of the road.
reapairing the road.
this herd (is that what a group of horses is called?) of horses comes by my house every night n the middle of the night to chomp on the grass that grows on the street. sometimes it scares the hell out of me because one or a couple of them will whinny really loud all of a sudden. anyway, they have a little baby foal that trails the mom and kind of just takes a siesta while the rest of the horses eat.
the sky above apaneca one evening.
i know, what the f%$! is this? i really don´t know. one day niña domy busts this out and shows it to me, asking me what it says. it´s a talking troll or something. i turned it on and after fumbling with the buttons on the front, it started telling a story, in a british accent, about a boy and a magic fish. the troll moves it´s eyes around and hands and whatever. it´s sooo bizarre. it reminds me of a cross between an ewok and the keebler elf.
this is my dog friend. she lives across the street from my house and has become my faithful guardian. she´s really mean and vicious to strangers and whatever, but when she sees me come down the street she runs up and rolls over and then follows me to my house. i give her scraps and chicken bones and stuff like that, but a lot of the time she doesn´t care if i don´t have that stuff. she just likes the attention - i usually talk to her, you know how we americans are, talking in that ridiculous voice that we think animals can understand better. but i play with her and stuff and i´m sure everyone thinks i´m nuts, but you know, i bet if someone tries to accost me outside my house or something, she´d rip their heads off.
this is the post they painted outside my house....i think i mentioned a few entries back that they have painted all the posts in apaneca to make it a little prettier.
oooh, these are the infamous pictures of courtney´s fiesta de patronales. here we are at her friend veronica´s house before we went to se orquestra san vicente play.
huh? veronica´s kids had some halloween masks (no doubt for the desfile de viejos), so we decided to give them a try.
la orquestra!
us with some the band. ok, their not pearl jam or led zeppelin or the grateful dead, but they´ll do.
two food vendors outside after the show was over.
there´s nothing like a big plate of meat after drinking more than your fair share of cervezas. mmmmmm. carne a la plancha, chorizos y casamiento!
we got our two boxes of books donated from the u.s. embassy, so we´re slowly but surely starting our school library. it´s a process though, just like everything else.
as for the community work, ugh! people can be so difficult. nobody wants to do anything voluntary. we are trying to fix the main road in san jorge, and all we need is help in the form of labor. nothing too backbreaking. hell, i am out there almost every sunday lifting rocks and hauling dirt and mixing cement. so if i can do it, it´s gotta be a piece of cake for the men of san jorge. but it´s like pulling teeth to get a handful of guys (and women) to come out and help. some men even said ¨are you gonna pay us and give us lunch?¨ a lot of people don´t get the whole ¨volunteer¨ thing. they think any work deserves payment, which i suppose in theory, it does. but then i look at what i´m doing and i´m like - why the hell should i be out here volunteering to do this if none of the members of the community want to do it? i´m there to help, not to do ALL the work. who´s paying me? people think i have all this money stored away....gringa moneybags. i don´t! on a positive note, there are a handful of people who are willing to sacrifice their sunday mornings and come out and try and finish the road. and they work their asses off! it´s nice to see people willing to do something even though tier not receiving a dime from anyone. they realize that by improving the road they are improving the community and in turn, their own lives. but most people are content sitting in their houses and watching telenovelas or whatever else. it´s not like this tactic is foreign to united states citizens, though. you find this kind of behavior everywhere. so i guess what i´m saying is there are both positives and negatives to this project, which is normal. what´s really funny is that those that are willing to help out need a formal invitation in order to come. i´m not kidding. whenever we write up invitations, we get a nice group of people. when we just invite people word of mouth, nobody comes. i want to be like ¨folks, it´s not a wedding or a birthday party!¨ but then again, i´m not salvadoran and salvadorans want and absolutely need formal, written invitations to do anything. so frustrating. but like all things, in time it will get finished. so here´s to that.
well, like i said, here are some random photos for you to laugh at, scratch your heads in confusion or simply enjoy. adios for now.....
this is the mayor of apaneca. i found this picture on one of the computers at the ciber. it totally makes me laugh, because right there in the corner is the tiger that the mayor sat on when he conducted a meeting with our comité...the meeting where everyone else sat there taking him seriously, as i thought in my head, for the millionth time since being here in el salvador ¨where the hell am i?¨
some of the storm damage to our school roof, which still hasn´t been fixed. apparently the ministerio de educación is ¨working on the problem.¨
this huge tree fell over the road and created this cool tree arch. although, every time i walk beneath it, i have a sudden sence of urgency to get to the other side as it´s only being held up by some weak looking trees on the other side of the road.
reapairing the road.
this herd (is that what a group of horses is called?) of horses comes by my house every night n the middle of the night to chomp on the grass that grows on the street. sometimes it scares the hell out of me because one or a couple of them will whinny really loud all of a sudden. anyway, they have a little baby foal that trails the mom and kind of just takes a siesta while the rest of the horses eat. 
the sky above apaneca one evening. 
i know, what the f%$! is this? i really don´t know. one day niña domy busts this out and shows it to me, asking me what it says. it´s a talking troll or something. i turned it on and after fumbling with the buttons on the front, it started telling a story, in a british accent, about a boy and a magic fish. the troll moves it´s eyes around and hands and whatever. it´s sooo bizarre. it reminds me of a cross between an ewok and the keebler elf. 
this is my dog friend. she lives across the street from my house and has become my faithful guardian. she´s really mean and vicious to strangers and whatever, but when she sees me come down the street she runs up and rolls over and then follows me to my house. i give her scraps and chicken bones and stuff like that, but a lot of the time she doesn´t care if i don´t have that stuff. she just likes the attention - i usually talk to her, you know how we americans are, talking in that ridiculous voice that we think animals can understand better. but i play with her and stuff and i´m sure everyone thinks i´m nuts, but you know, i bet if someone tries to accost me outside my house or something, she´d rip their heads off. 
this is the post they painted outside my house....i think i mentioned a few entries back that they have painted all the posts in apaneca to make it a little prettier. 
oooh, these are the infamous pictures of courtney´s fiesta de patronales. here we are at her friend veronica´s house before we went to se orquestra san vicente play. 
huh? veronica´s kids had some halloween masks (no doubt for the desfile de viejos), so we decided to give them a try.
la orquestra!
us with some the band. ok, their not pearl jam or led zeppelin or the grateful dead, but they´ll do. 
two food vendors outside after the show was over.
there´s nothing like a big plate of meat after drinking more than your fair share of cervezas. mmmmmm. carne a la plancha, chorizos y casamiento!
posted by laura v. at 10:43 AM
