Alright... I know I usually start off every blog apologizing for not having written for a good while. Well this time, it has been a really long time since my last entry so I really apologise to everybody for not having written, but life has been busy and crazy and unpredictable and fun and just a trip in general. So I will attempt to summarize some of what has happened since my last entry, because this could definitely be a book if I so chose, enjoy... Where to start? Ill start on a sad note and build from there. About a month ago, a friend of mine from my community was watching a soccer game because our game had been cancelled. He had been drinking and while at the game he got into a fight with another guy that I know and as they were fighting, a third guy who I also know, pulled out a gun and shot my friend Daniel once in the back and once in the back of the head. He died in the back of a pick-up truck on the way to the hospital. He was a good friend of mine, as well as his whole family. They are all good people and his brothers and sisters and parents are all also good friends, so this was very hard to swallow. He was shot on a Sunday, so the next day his body was delivered to the house by the mortuary in coffin. This event is called a "Vela" which would be kind of like a wake in the states. So the whole community and all friends and family goto the house of the family to support them the first time they see the body and throughout the night. This was a very intense experience, seeing him for the first time was very hard. Especially remembering his face so full of life just days before. And I can't imagine the pain that the family was feeling. As I said, both the mother and father were also friends and as I went to comfort the mother, I took her hand as she sat there with a look of sheer disbelief, her face stained with the tears from the night before. She had always had a smile on her face, always a look of quiet contentment, but that joy had left her. After I sat there for a few minutes, she looks up at me, stares me in the eye and starts crying "Roberto, now he wont be able to play soccer with you guys. He loved playing soccer, you were such a good friend..." Three days later we had a procession, mass and we buried him in the cemetary in Apastepeque. The hole was dug by members of the community and all the young men grabbed shovels and pick axes and in turn we buried him... The family has since recovered as much as can be expected with the loss of a loved one. The guy that killed him was arrested and he is and will be in prison for the rest of his life. Life goes on...
My women´s softball team is in the midst of a very tough tournament being put on by INDES, which is the most respected organized sports organization in the country. They have something like 3 stadiums country wide and they are a very big organization. So this tournament is the toughest challenge that my girls have faced. Most of my coaching involves mental toughness, perserverance, self-confidence building, motivation and defense. The teams that we are playing against are full of young girls who practice every day. Half of our team consists of 40+ women, and the other half are young women without playing experience or competitive experience for that matter. So it is interesting and is taking a lot of my energy, but I am enjoying it none the less. We are currently 0-3, we havn´t won yet but we´re due...
We are in midst of a huge sala futbol tournament (soccer on a basketball court), we worked with a public relations branch of the government called El Ministerio de Sequridad Ciudadana ( Ministry of Citizen´s Safety/Well Being) to have a one night lightning tournament. (Oh yeah, you guys dont know yet, we finally got the lights for the basketball court.) So the one night tournament went well, we had 22 teams show up and over 300 people came to watch the festivities. I was on the table of honor with the mayor, the director of the ministerio and the school director. I gave a speech that night, and I think it came out well, everybody told me I did a good job. And yes, the speech was in spanish. So now we are in the midst of the continuation of this tournament, it is being organized by our community´s Sports Committee of which I am the president. We have games three nights a week, three games a night. We have a 20 and under league as well as a women´s league that are in action. We just finished our first week of games and it all went well. We on the committee have to ref the games, and if any of you have seen a Soccer game in Latin America then you have an idea of what I have to deal with at these games being an "arbitro"(referee). So this tournament is going to last til December 30th and requires the members of the committee to be at the school until 9:00pm on game nights. It keeps us pretty occupied. But its going well so far, hopefully we can keep it going... We just got done fixing the roof of one of the classrooms at the school with money I solicited from the San Diego Peace Corps Association. I also worked to install the new roof, it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. The old roofing was horribly decrepit, as we were removing the large slabs to replace them, the things were literally coming apart in our hands. So obviously we couldn´t walk on the panels themselves. So we basically had to guesstimate were the underlying beams were, one slight error and we would have fallen 14 feet below to the hard tile floor. Regretably we did have one person fall through the roof. Guess who? Yours truly. I was walking up the side of the wall that divides the classroom and I took one bad step and boom fell through the roof. Thank god for my cat-like reflexes (haha..) I was able to grab a beam before falling all the way and I was able to climb up and out before any further damage could be done. So we worked two long days, from 6 am to around 4pm to finish the roof before the students returned to school on Monday. It was hot, nasty and dangerous work, but we got it done and the school is better off for it and thats what its all about... Right now I am in the process of trying to solicit funds from our wonderful American Ambassador here in El Salvador to help us out with a project that is vital to cross cultural learning and the sharing of the American Culture with the Salvadorian people. We would like to re-furbish our soccer field and put lights in also. However, I have had problems with the engineer who is doing the budget and the work plans. He either lies a lot, doesn´t structure his time very well, isn´t taking this project seriously, or the victim of a series of unfortunate events in which he is punished for the errors and lies of his counterparts. Which ever one it is, I am rather pissed off. He told me he would have the project turned in two weeks ago. And upto literally right now, I am waiting around in the pueblo for this guy to send me the finaly report and work plan. He is a real pain in my @$$, forgive my language. But I also had a deadline to turn it into the the Embassy and it is late. So it looks like we might not get the funds, by no fault of the community nor myself. That makes me mad, because as a community we paid this guy $150 dollars to do this thing. And if it doesn´t work out only because of him, Rrrr... We´ll see how it goes... So my wood burning stove project with "Stove Team International" is going pretty well, we have 100 stoves in households throughout my caserio as we speak and I am already working on another list that is closing in on another 100 stoves really fast. These things burn 75% less wood and work great, I am really psyched about this project and so is the community... My two scholarship girls are looking to extend their scholarships and I am helping them with that... I am in early plans to try to raise the funds to build a Computer Lab/Library for the school, I am really going to need all of your help on that one. I will be sending out an e-mail in the near future talking about the school and the project and we will be relying on the generosity of all you aweseom folks back in the states to help us raise the money. So keep a weather eye out for that... Alright, this blog is getting really long so Ill try to wrap things up. My health has been Ok, Ive had a few colds here and there but it seems my stomach has gotten used to the amoebas and other parasites that now call my stomach home... Yes I am still with the same girl, her birthday is coming up and I am always broke so Im gonna have to be creative... As for the rest of the happenings, here is one of my famous summation lists: 1 year anniversary celebration at lakehouse, psyched about elections, I love Salvadorean women, my community is cool, Women´s sewing and tailoring workshop project near future, school getting out finally, school garden ok, mouse in my house is getting bigger, really cold right now, and I want a bud light...
LOVE, PEACE, and PUPUSA GREASE
My women´s softball team is in the midst of a very tough tournament being put on by INDES, which is the most respected organized sports organization in the country. They have something like 3 stadiums country wide and they are a very big organization. So this tournament is the toughest challenge that my girls have faced. Most of my coaching involves mental toughness, perserverance, self-confidence building, motivation and defense. The teams that we are playing against are full of young girls who practice every day. Half of our team consists of 40+ women, and the other half are young women without playing experience or competitive experience for that matter. So it is interesting and is taking a lot of my energy, but I am enjoying it none the less. We are currently 0-3, we havn´t won yet but we´re due...
We are in midst of a huge sala futbol tournament (soccer on a basketball court), we worked with a public relations branch of the government called El Ministerio de Sequridad Ciudadana ( Ministry of Citizen´s Safety/Well Being) to have a one night lightning tournament. (Oh yeah, you guys dont know yet, we finally got the lights for the basketball court.) So the one night tournament went well, we had 22 teams show up and over 300 people came to watch the festivities. I was on the table of honor with the mayor, the director of the ministerio and the school director. I gave a speech that night, and I think it came out well, everybody told me I did a good job. And yes, the speech was in spanish. So now we are in the midst of the continuation of this tournament, it is being organized by our community´s Sports Committee of which I am the president. We have games three nights a week, three games a night. We have a 20 and under league as well as a women´s league that are in action. We just finished our first week of games and it all went well. We on the committee have to ref the games, and if any of you have seen a Soccer game in Latin America then you have an idea of what I have to deal with at these games being an "arbitro"(referee). So this tournament is going to last til December 30th and requires the members of the committee to be at the school until 9:00pm on game nights. It keeps us pretty occupied. But its going well so far, hopefully we can keep it going... We just got done fixing the roof of one of the classrooms at the school with money I solicited from the San Diego Peace Corps Association. I also worked to install the new roof, it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination. The old roofing was horribly decrepit, as we were removing the large slabs to replace them, the things were literally coming apart in our hands. So obviously we couldn´t walk on the panels themselves. So we basically had to guesstimate were the underlying beams were, one slight error and we would have fallen 14 feet below to the hard tile floor. Regretably we did have one person fall through the roof. Guess who? Yours truly. I was walking up the side of the wall that divides the classroom and I took one bad step and boom fell through the roof. Thank god for my cat-like reflexes (haha..) I was able to grab a beam before falling all the way and I was able to climb up and out before any further damage could be done. So we worked two long days, from 6 am to around 4pm to finish the roof before the students returned to school on Monday. It was hot, nasty and dangerous work, but we got it done and the school is better off for it and thats what its all about... Right now I am in the process of trying to solicit funds from our wonderful American Ambassador here in El Salvador to help us out with a project that is vital to cross cultural learning and the sharing of the American Culture with the Salvadorian people. We would like to re-furbish our soccer field and put lights in also. However, I have had problems with the engineer who is doing the budget and the work plans. He either lies a lot, doesn´t structure his time very well, isn´t taking this project seriously, or the victim of a series of unfortunate events in which he is punished for the errors and lies of his counterparts. Which ever one it is, I am rather pissed off. He told me he would have the project turned in two weeks ago. And upto literally right now, I am waiting around in the pueblo for this guy to send me the finaly report and work plan. He is a real pain in my @$$, forgive my language. But I also had a deadline to turn it into the the Embassy and it is late. So it looks like we might not get the funds, by no fault of the community nor myself. That makes me mad, because as a community we paid this guy $150 dollars to do this thing. And if it doesn´t work out only because of him, Rrrr... We´ll see how it goes... So my wood burning stove project with "Stove Team International" is going pretty well, we have 100 stoves in households throughout my caserio as we speak and I am already working on another list that is closing in on another 100 stoves really fast. These things burn 75% less wood and work great, I am really psyched about this project and so is the community... My two scholarship girls are looking to extend their scholarships and I am helping them with that... I am in early plans to try to raise the funds to build a Computer Lab/Library for the school, I am really going to need all of your help on that one. I will be sending out an e-mail in the near future talking about the school and the project and we will be relying on the generosity of all you aweseom folks back in the states to help us raise the money. So keep a weather eye out for that... Alright, this blog is getting really long so Ill try to wrap things up. My health has been Ok, Ive had a few colds here and there but it seems my stomach has gotten used to the amoebas and other parasites that now call my stomach home... Yes I am still with the same girl, her birthday is coming up and I am always broke so Im gonna have to be creative... As for the rest of the happenings, here is one of my famous summation lists: 1 year anniversary celebration at lakehouse, psyched about elections, I love Salvadorean women, my community is cool, Women´s sewing and tailoring workshop project near future, school getting out finally, school garden ok, mouse in my house is getting bigger, really cold right now, and I want a bud light...
LOVE, PEACE, and PUPUSA GREASE
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