Stop and Wonder

I arrived in Houston yesterday around 11am. My trip was significantly less hassle filled than the time I brought my cat, Mr. Pink, back with me. However it still had its little quirks. For instance, I had my corkscrew wine opener confiscated passing through security in El Salvador. I could tell the El Salvadoran guys saw something unusual in my bags as it went through the x-ray machine. They all gathered around the monitor and were making jokes. I can only imagine what they thought it was.

On the flight I was seated next to an extremely old woman who was clearly very Salvadoran. She was even wearing the typical aprons that I rarely saw women over 25 not wearing. I had to help her put her seat belt on and put her tray table down etc. The people sitting across the aisle from me also decided that they needed to take two giant boxes of Pollo Campero fried chicken. It's Central America's answer to KFC, only nastier and more processed. So I got to enjoy the sickening smell of deep fried chicken on the entire flight.

The most interesting thing that happened was that at one point the stewardess got on the PA system and asked if anyone had any Benadryll. They asked a second time and then started asking if there was a doctor on-board. Everyone was looking around to see what was going on, but I happened to be at the first row of coach so I could see into first class. The person having the allergic reaction was our pilot.

This would have made me nervous but I knew there's always two pilots. Plus I could see that his reaction wasn't very bad. He was just red and his eyes were a little puffy. You'd think he'd know if he were allergic to the airplane food. I mean how big can that menu be. I was also surprised that they didn't have Benadryll in a medical kit somewhere.

I've actually felt more of a culture shock this time even though I was in the states only 6 months ago as compared with a year last time. I never knew I could walk around a quickie mart or a grocery store so engrossed in looking at the products. The packaging on certain things are different, there are new flavors of things. By the way, what is up with all the beers having a new "chelada" mix. I've seen it for Budweiser, Bud Light, and Miller so far. I think the Bud ones have some kind of tomato cocktail mixed in. Sounds gimmicky to me, but I always like to put lime or lemon in just about any kind of beer when it's around. It makes them all better, not just Corona.

I took my first hot shower in a long time yesterday and I thought I would just sit in there and soak it up but I found myself washing quickly and getting out. I think it's just a habit from trying to get in and out of so many cold showers. I was feeling the cleanest I'd felt in a long time, with no small thanks to having some Dr. Bronner's soap. If you don't know what it is, its magic soap. Get some, try it, and I guarantee you'll be a fan for life. Anyway, upon getting out of the shower I grabbed the towel my mom gave me and dried my face only to have it covered it animal hair, most likely dog hair. That put an abrupt end to my super clean feeling to say the least.

I spent all day packing and digging through all my boxes of crap in the garage here. I managed to either throw away, pack, or set aside for a garage sale just about all of my stuff. Everything I wanted to take also seemed to miraculously fit in my newly tuned Honda Civic. I had my doubts since I'll be taking both cats and my Mom got me an enormous carrier so I could take a litter box inside the car. Smelly.

So tomorrow I leave following my Mom and Gary to Mississippi and then on to Orange Beach, Florida for the Weill family gathering. I'm going to leave the cats at my lovingly generous Aunt Kathy's basement room for a couple days. Then I'll pick them up on the way to Jackson and then on to Baltimore.

I have one last sort of etymological (<- big fancy word) observation to make. It came to me while my friend Alejandro was driving me to the airport the other day. I never really studied grammar very hard in my English classes I had a pretty good sense of whether or not something sounded right or not. I just knew what proper English sounded like, from hearing people speak properly and from reading.

I realized that I've slowly developed an ear of sorts for Spanish. I don't always know the best way to say something but I can just feel when it's wrong and when it's right. A lot of times I don't even know why it should be said that way but it just sounds right. Of course I'm only guessing that it was right, because no one El Salvadoran ever correct my Spanish even though I asked them to, but my ear seemed to have developed mainly from listening to them speak.

I guess that's really just how people learn a language. They develop an ear for it by hearing it so much. I'm sure it's far easier for babies, but it's good to know that I can still develop it at my age.

Posted by Tao at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3920) | TrackBacks (0)

In just under 3 weeks I'll be back state side. I'm starting to feel the sense of excitement that I've come to associate with moving. Pulling up roots and moving is similar to riding a roller coaster. If you've never ridden one it might freak you out. Who knows if it's safe? How does everything work? After a few rides though those worries fall away and the thrill of something new and different is all you look for.

UPDATE: This was on the frontpage of CNN this morning: Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags. I hope that's not a bad omen for our move.

I figure I ought to update you on the different projects and things that have been going on here before I forget or I get caught up in moving. Christine is really the one still involved in the humanitarian work. I sit in the house all day working on web pages trying to save up for the move. Moving to a 3rd world country is easy, but going from a $75/rent to something 10 times that much takes some saving up.

One of the things Christine really wanted to do was get the schools we had been working at some sets of the same book. The kids here never practice reading and the only way to do it as a class is if everyone has their own copy. It's pretty sad when you see these kids that are 15 and 16 having to sound out each syllable before they recognize what word it is.

Using her new connections at the Casa Pastoral she was able to find people in the U.S. with the ways and means. I'm not sure how many sets are coming, but I know that there's going to be so many they're going to both the boys' and girls' schools as well as one of the villages. The kids aren't going to be allowed to take the books home, which is really for the best. I'd like to think they'd take care of them, but I've seen where they live and one good rainstorm or bad older brother and it's gone.

The girls' school is getting the first sets and Christine put the girls to work making pop-up thank you cards. Arts and crafts have really been the only way I've seen to truly get the kids involved and excited. Anything to stimulate their creativity and imagination is worth its weight in gold here. Sometimes its pretty hard to keep them from copying each others personalizing of stuff. If you show them an example and yours happens to have a blue circle on it, no matter how many times you tell them not to copy you, half of the projects will have blue circles if not more.

The Casa Pastoral also does this thing where they give out fertilizer to farmers. It's a very unsustainable form of aid and the farmers are now totally dependent on it. Nothing is happening so that these farmers won't not need more next season. The main reason they need the fertilizer is because all they grow is corn and beans and corn is one of the hardest crops there is on soil. They also don't compost or do any of the things that responsible sustainable farming involves. Darren tried to teach them how to compost but when the Casa Pastoral is just handing out bags of fertilizer no one cares to learn about composting or growing anything different.

Thats really just a microcosm of the whole problem of international aid. I'd like to believe that the IMF, World Bank, and WTO were really trying to help these people but nothing I've seen leads me to that conclusion. Aid is given but the poor are taught to rely on the aid and so their situation never improves. If anything they're hurt by this, just like animals in zoos never learn how to hunt or take care of themselves, if they're released into the wild without training they die. Its the training side thats completely lacking here. Give them fertilizer but show them how to do the other things and then only give them less and less each year.

I also wanted to include this video of a guy working a loom here in El Salvador. Weaving has always amazed me, i just don't understand how it works. It's hard to imagine coming up with such a crazy contraption. It almost seems like he's playing some weird instrument.

On a completely unrelated note we helped one of the people at the Casa Pastoral get a cheap plane ticket to the states. I think we saved him $300-400 on what he'd previously been told by the airlines. Anyway, he was so happy he invited us to his father's day celebration in one of the villages called Las Delicias. His father-in-law is one of the few farmers who actually grows all kinds of different things like yucca, tomatoes, some grains I'd never heard of, etc. He apparently got a lot of land after the war, apparently he was playing both sides.

It's difficult to ask people here about the war without feeling like intrusive. The main thing is that the U.S. was the main reason it drug on for so long and was so deadly. If they hadn't been supporting the military and its hold on the government they would have quickly fallen to the rebels. So especially if they were rebels they're wary telling a gringo about the part they played. Alejandro's father-in-law was pretty forthright though and even showed us his radio from the war. He was obviously a rebel but said he didn't use a gun, he was an "arbiter", which in my mind means he was playing both sides. That would also explain all the land he got after the war.

Also, I'm pleased to report that I'm up to $4.84 from the google ads on the site. Although I have to say it would probably be more if I talked more about plastic surgery, laser hair removal, and gold bricks. Ads for humanitarian organizations and causes only seem to be paying out the minimum. I don't really mind, plastic surgery ads would creep me out, better to advertise something I agree with. By the way, I only get money when you click on the ads, so find something nice and help me out ;-).

Posted by Tao at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3421) | TrackBacks (0)

Our neighbors love to come by and drop off random fruits and foods with us. This morning I woke up to find a shelled coconut on our food table. I don't ask questions and being too lethargic to actually cook something I ate it for breakfast. It was surprisingly satisfying. Our typical breakfast is usually oatmeal or fried plantains, but sometimes I get crazy and make plantain oatmeal. I have yet to get tired of oatmeal, the only reason I don't eat it more is the small hassle of actually cooking it and then washing the pot.

I've got a lot to do today. I recently finished building the city of Berlin a web page. It's not up yet and they haven't written all of the content yet, but I'm going to meet with my friend Oscar who was the one has been pushing for it. He told me this morning that he thought the mayor had lost interest in doing it. Seeing as how I spent most of last week working on it, that's not going to happen. Period.

The other thing is that I just got a new web job for an event planner in Seattle. The site is www.pink-shoelaces.com if you're interested. I didn't design it or anything, I'm just doing the back-end programming. She wants to be able to make custom on-line surveys for each event and then see the results. It's a somewhat complex job, but I like the challenge.

I was late for a phone appointment with her a couple days ago. Last Tuesday was my friend Darren's birthday. He's the peace corps volunteer that lives in one of the villages around Berlin. It was quite the spectacle. I would guess there were 120-150 people there at one point, almost the whole village. The preacher came and gave a sermon, which I thought was a little strange. Not that they had a sermon, but the content was a little harsh for a birthday party. At several points he called everyone sinners and went on and on about sex and drugs. Then he ended by asking all the children to come and hug Darren. It was so funny seeing all 6'4" of Darren towering over this group of kids hugging him.

Anyway, after that Darren and his host family handed out sandwiches and drinks to everyone and then set up the pinatas. I doubt the kids down there get to do that very often so it was a nice treat. After that people began to clear out somewhat until there weren't too many to bring out the cake. I was amazed that everyone of the 60+ people still there got a piece.

As they were taking down the decorations and cleaning up the kids once again surrounded Darren. This time because he was taking down the balloons and they all wanted one. There weren't enough to go around so Darren took his time deciding who was going to get one. Meanwhile the kids yelled and jumped for them.

On our way back from returning some borrowed chairs we ran across the village's ADESCO, an organization of local people in charge of developing the community. I could tell some of them had already been drinking, but I'm sure they would have been just as friendly without the booze. Since they were already celebrating we decided to share the bottom of rum of we brought down from Berlin with them. We had a good time sitting around drinking into the evening. They're quite the characters once they get going.

The next morning I was supposed to take the daily 6am truck up to Berlin. Unfortunately, it happened to be the one day of the year that the truck doesn't go to Berlin, instead it goes to a small pueblo so everyone can visit a statue of the Virgin Dolores. That was alright because the school teachers could give me a lift at noon and I could still make my 1pm phone appointment. However, the truck was 30 minutes late and as soon as I got in the back of the pick-up the first serious rain of the rainy season started. At first it felt kind of nice and washed a lot of the sweat and dirt off of me, but then it stopped raining and as we got closer to Berlin it obviously hadn't rained there. That meant the rain hadn't knocked all the dust down on the road so it quickly stuck to me since I was wet. I ended up looking like these piglets I found in Darren's village. To top it off I had to go find Christine who had the cell phone, only to find out that she'd used all of our minutes. Then I find out that you crazy Americans are on daylight savings time so I'm actually already an hour late on top of it all. Ugh.

In the end it didn't really matter since I got the job. Actually I should really get back to it. Enjoy your weekend everyone. Bye.

Posted by Tao at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

   This last Friday Christine finished up her "Como Planear Mi Vida" class, literally "How to plan my life". She graduated 9 girls out of her original 40-something. She would have graduated a lot more if she hadn't continued the classes during their summer vacations. They learned a wide variety of stuff like how to communicate clearly, how to be firm, how to think through decision, how to improve their self-esteem, basic sex ed, STDs, etc. The girls were impressive when they got up to say a few things about the class after receiving their diplomas. They all seemed confident and happy.

   At the end of the whole ceremony they all gave Christine a Christmas present. It was a nice handmade purse and doll made by a local women's group that makes everything out of plants and things they find around. They also make pinatas and other stuff they from recycled things.

   I've really just been the support system behind Christine. I designed the diplomas, drew pictures for posters, formatting documents, etc. My biggest contribution though has been their graduation slideshow/movie. I spent probably 2 solid days of work on it and I think it's pretty impressive given what I had to work with and what they could possibly expect. When they heard I'd made a video of them they all looked confused as if I'd been secretly video-taping them or something. They all loved it when they watched it, they made us watch it twice and then the parents wanted to buy copies from me. I told them if they brought me blank DVDs I'd burn them copies. Hope you like it, they did.

   Another thing Christine did was solicit her family and friends for scholarship for needy kids. The kids don't have to pay to go to public school but they have to have a uniform to attend and it also helps to have pencils and paper. Most of the quotes people had been giving us were in the upper 80's of dollars. Not very much, but in the end it was really only like $50/kid. She ended up giving out 5, the one in the middle looks funny because she's got polio. Her mother believed that vaccinations could give you the disease. Ignorance isn't always bliss. She's looking at trying to get a collection of about 50 copies of the same book for a 6th grade class to read together.

   My project when we get back is to get the library working at the girls' school. I'm going to bring down a donated computer from my dad when we come back down and get it set up with a database for the books. Then I hope to do a reading once or twice a week with some younger kids and teach the library girls, who don't do anything right now, how to work the database, organize books, and hopefully do readings with the younger kids so that it continues once we leave.

   Anyway, that's all for this year. I'm sure I'll have some good pictures and stories when we get back from vacation in Honduras and Costa Rica in mid-January. Stay tuned.

Posted by Tao at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

   First of all, Merry Christmas! It doesn't feel much like Christmas here what with it being in the mid-70's every day. I think it was actually colder when we first got here in May. You may notice a underwater theme for our tree: yellow submarines, sea horses, and pineapples...they make good underwater housing I hear. We'll be spending Christmas here in Berlin and I thought I might feel homesick, but it just hasn't happened. It might be that my family is coming to down to see me right after Christmas that makes it so easily bareable. In fact, we'll be going scuba diving for new year's, which is one of the reasons for the tree decoration. That said, this will probably be my last real post before we leave on the 26th. I do plan on posting a neat video slideshow I made for Christine's life skills class before then though.

   So every morning I wake up and the first thing I do is sit down at the computer and go to www.thehungersite.com and click on all of the tabs to donate food, books, child healthcare, animal food, several square feet of rainforest, and even mammograms from the money the sites generate off of advertising. I often stop and think about that bowl of food or wonder what book it is that I've managed to donate to some child somewhere. It's a ritual, a habit, but a good one. Where rituals go wrong is when those participating have forgotten why they are doing them.

   I've never been a religious person. I find things awe-inspiring and beautiful, and I don't need or want someone to explain it to me. I believe that morals are not something that has to be carved into stone and taught. People know how they feel and also have the ability to empathize and know how they would feel in another person's place. I believe thats all that is required for natural morality.

   It seems the reason most people are religious is out of an inherent desire to do good, because simply put, doing good things, making others happy, relieving suffering, those things make us feel good. It's a win/win situation. Religion is just an organized way of doing that, because teamwork allows us to accomplish greater things than could ever be done individually. Of course there are other reasons for being religious, simply the need to be accepted by a group of people, but I like to think that inherent desire is at the root.

   A little over a week ago El Salvador and many latin countries celebrated the day of the virgin of Guadalupe. I had assumed that all of these virgins I'd seen were all just THE virgin, but I've been wrong this entire time. The virgin of Guadalupe was a virgin that appeared to a boy on a hill in Mexico, how he knew she was a virgin I can't say. This was around the time the spaniards were raping and pilaging and the virgin gave this boy a message, she said that everyone should accept the europeans and accept Catholicism. The virgin by the way was an indigenous woman, although you wouldn't guess it from her pale statues. Anyway, the message was miraculously spread far and wide and helped the spaniards convert much of latin america.

   The 20th of December is not the actual day the virgin appeared, but the day that she stomped the devil back down to hell. The night before everyone lights fires outside and sets of fireworks, which down here are basically small chunks of dynamite and gunpowder. Incidentally, firework production is a booming business for child labor here, who else could fit their tiny little fingers in them to pack down the powder for 40 cents a day. It was pretty enjoyable, although I had to wonder if the virgin would approve of the tire fires in her honor.

   The next day people dress up "indigenously" to honor her. Mainly they just dress up the children because I think the adults are too embarassed for the most part. However, another part of it which I find really sad is that I don't think they even understand what indigenous is to them anymore. I'd seen little boys dressed up with white clothes with patches on them before but I'd basically assumed they were dressing up as clowns. The girls put on way way too much make-up and wear bright spanish-style dresses. I know their hearts are in the right places but I feel like it's just another sad reminder of the successful cultural invasion thats taken place.

   Anyway, I was tricked into attending a mass at the Catholic church in town. I had been told we were just going to the park for a celebration. While we sat there and I tried to understand what was being said through the horribly distorted loudspeakers I got gradually more and more frustrated. I could tell that everyone was simply repeating the same rituals mindlessly. I thought of the hundreds of people spending their time on these rituals that had lost all meaning. I have no doubt that it's like that around the world. The incredible waste of time and energy that could actually be used to resolve the problems that these people were coming to church for.

   So these people mill about day after day, say their prayers, obediently listen and sing along, when all of that time they could be building houses for the poor(themselves) or schools, or teaching each other better ways to farm, or doing any number of things that would take actual steps toward relieving suffering and all of those inherently good things that lie at the root of their religion. I'd have a lot more respect for religion and religious leaders if there was a lot less praying and a lot more action.

   I guess the point I'm making is that it's easy just to do things because you've been doing it that way for so long. We have to be vigilant in asking ourselves why we do the things we do. Curiosity and questioning are the things that keep our eyes open and we have to make that the ritual. Amen.

   I'm done with preaching, it's time for some sacrifices. This wouldn't be any kind of a post if I made a play on ritual killings and didn't produce, so here's some blood-letting for you. The neighbors slaughter a pig every week or two and Christine asked to kill it, don't ask me why. I used to be somewhat squeamish around stuff like this, but that's almost completely faded now. It's obviousy nowhere in the picture for Christine. In a way I feel stronger now that it's gone, but I also don't know that I like being accustomed to it either. Sorry for the sideways video, it's too big of a pain to turn it.

   Christine has also started a new soccer career. A couple of the girls from the ecology youth group asked her to play on their all-girl intramural team and man did she kick butt. It was an all-ages league and apart from her they had youngest team. She only played in the last 3 games and they won 2 of them, but didn't quite make it to the finals. However, she made an impression on some of the other women who invited her to play on the girl's team for the whole city.

   From left to right is Dinora, who needs to learn to pass and guard, Fatima, who needs to quit kicking the ball so hard, Raquel their top notch goalie, her baby, Christine, and Clara bella. You may have noticed that at 15 Raquel is somewhat young to have a 2 year old baby. If you knew her step-father you might also notice that the baby bears a striking resemblance. It's one of the tragic and disgusting things about this country. The repressed sexuality leads to a horribly high rate of child molestation and outright rape. The even more horrible part of the story is that the step-father still lives with them and her mother acts like nothing happened. It's shocking to me how far people will go to avoid conflict in this country. Once again, I imagine it stems from the war, but that's no excuse.

   Anyway, I'd like to leave you on a less depressing note and since no post is complete without the ambiguously gay duo on their favorite perch, here you are.

Posted by Tao at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (0)