It seems like a lot of the time I buy fruits and veggies "por gusto," just for the pleasure of seeing my fridge filled with colorful items. More than half the time I can't finish them all on time. Because when meal times come around I just grab for the oatmeal, Ramen, Mac n Cheese, or canned tuna. Ok well i do also make eggs a lot and often include veggies... But man... I am so ready for some more variety in my campo diet. Eating can be such a pleasure, not to mention a way to feel great. I need more ideas for bringing variety into my life, and my mouth, out here. Any suggestions? Yo dad, the Spam and sausage were a good call! :) Despite my lack of cookin in the campo creativity... i am learning how to make one mean bowl of tasty Ramen... I have also learned that everything tastes better with garlic, lime and hot sauce. So, if any of you readers out there want to send me a package full of tasty American foods... I will be forever grateful!
In other news, I am on the edge of possibly discovering what will hopefully be a big defining project for my service.... Bringing running water to the parts of my community that go without. There are about 100 homes in my community that don't have water, close to 400 people. Many of them spend hours every day just carrying water up to 2 kilometers from the spring to their house- carrying it on their heads, backs, or horses. There are kids that miss school to bring water, men that can't work as much to bring water and therefore lose the little money they'd earn working in the field that day just to bring water, and too often many of them go well over a week without bathing because they have to ration what little water they can for cooking and drinking. To me, this is extreme poverty... and well if we can get this foundation to help fund and organize this project... no doubt the quality of life for these hundreds of people would improve dramatically.
So what happened what a Peace Corps staffer ran across an ad in the newspaper saying France had donated millions of dollars to El Salvador dedicated to water projects. There were a number of requirements- my community meets all of them. So I jumped on it and within a day had the solicitude letter ready. I talked with the foundation the other day and they said the community leaders need to head into the capital to personally hand in the solicitude and discuss their needs. So Tuesday I have a meeting with the community to explain the opportunity, and that it is not yet a sure thing... and Thursday hopefully we can get in front of these people in San Salvador and plead our case. It's not a for sure thing at all yet... just a glimmer of hope... and you can bet I'm gonna do everything I can to try and make this happen!
What else is going on? Well within the next few weeks we will finally be ready to buy the refrigerator our school needs! That's exciting! Everyday that the students come to school they are guaranteed a meal. They are unable to serve many things because there simply is no place to store the food items and keep them fresh and good. So finally they will be able to have a place for the fruits and vegetables and meats and the kids will get some more nutritious foods into their diets. Healthy kids are happier kids. Since my pinata bust, I'm deciding on what I want my next art project to be with the students at the school. I'm thinking... pet rocks with kindergarteners? Maybe we can do a mural too! But I don't just want to paint a mural for the sake of painting one... I want it to mean something. Any ideas?
My shampoo group is still going strong and we're selling our batches of aloe shampoo quickly. In no time we will have enough money to pay for our community clean up. You might be thinkin... But Amy, it doesn't cost anything to clean up trash... OOoooOh but it DOES! We need trash bags and here's the big expense... paying for the trucks to come in that will haul our trash away. The streets here are covered with trash... whenever anyone finishing a can of coke or a bag of chips, that empty container ends up on the ground. Oh man... you should see our soccer field! It's not like there are any public trash cans around... but even if there were, they dont have anyone coming to this community to pick up trash because it's so far out I guess. Everyone is forced to burn their trash pretty much.... That's pretty unfriendly to our environment ain't it? Man, I gotta say, the culture has penetrated my being enough at this point... I too, at times, have found myself wanting to litter. But NO! it's not cool, and not to mention it's unsightly when you look around the place where you live and just see land filled with garbage. So our shampoo money is helping contribute to the cleanliness of the community. It would be great if the ladies continued to make shampoo on their own even when I'm gone!
I'm planning some charlas, or workshops, for parents and how they can have better communication with their children... Around here I frequently observe that parents have no clue how to handle their children. They call them stupid and annoying, yell, hit, and never tell their kids they do anything right... These mommas need help. Just with Milton alone I have shown his mom that you can get a kid to listen to you by making clear expectations, having proper consequences, and communicating with them in a positive way. I mean I don't even have kids and I know how to handle them so much better than they do. I suppose it was my teaching experience and that I had awesome parents growing up.
Poor Milton though, his arm is messed up for life after that tamale burn 5 months ago. Especially because he doesn't wear the arm glove he is supposed to, to cover it from the sun.
I see him and in front of his mom ask him, "Milton, why aren't you wearing your glove?" and he will lie, like kids do and tell me it's because it got wet.
I look at his mom and she says, "He's a liar. He just doesnt want to wear it."
But Guadalupe, you can make him wear it, you're his mom. You're the boss.
"He just doesn't want to."
Then I look at Milton and talk to him about why he needs to wear the glove in a very friendly way, and ask him if he would rather have problems with his arm and it getting worse, or would he rather just wear the glove that will help it get better faster. This made sense to him... and within minutes we were on our way back to his house and we put the glove on and he wore it for the rest of the day.
Did I tell you guys that our kitten died? A cute little white one. The dogs ate it one day in front of my house. I wonder if it's just because they like to play too rough, like to kill or taste animal blood... or is it because they don't get enough food any other way? Poor Rinso. R.I.P.
I went to church today with Marinita. I don't mind going to mass every once in a while. I found it hilarious that our dog, Rambo, followed us all the way to church and slept underneath our pew for the entire hour and a half. Only in El Salvador do you find tons of dogs on the floor of the church.
Before I go... Some good simple pleasures I had this weekend in my site- Being able to buy a new broom, a thing to toast bread on over the stove, and a big knife on my front porch without having to travel to San Vi an hour and back and having to carry that stuff. Score. Eating 4 pupusas at Nina Alicias. Completing my second week of the p90x exercise program. Talking to my loved ones on the phone for hours because I got tons of bonus saldo.
Well, that's all folks! Hope you are all settling into and enjoying your summers in the Oosa.
All my love from The Savior!
Paz y Amor.
Amy. or in Spanish... Eymi.
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Lucky for you I'm the queen of vegetables! But even I can get burnt out sometiems, like lately I've been perfectly happy eating bowl after bowl of cereal of polishing off pb jars. But I understand the need for balance too. There's pretty simple ways to mix it in to your staples, cook your ramen with whatever vegetables you have, mac and cheese can be mac and trees with some brocolli or I love putting peas and onions in it. I'm sure there's no lack of tortillas, how about baking some veggie enchiladas? Oats are a blank canvas for anything and can be used just like rice or any other grain, like pizza oatmeal with tomato sauce, veggies, and cheese, or any other combo, and it's also great with fruit. I love mashed banana, or strawberries and cream, or even carrot cake using carrot walnuts and other things, or zucchini bread oatmeal. I've also made vegetable pupusas, I'm sure some spinach and cheese or red pepper or whatever you have can easily be stuffed in there. You might totally shock some people in the community with those!
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you've been doing p90! I'm afraid of it lol.
And also I'm still amazed by how much you're accomplishing! You've gotten so much done already and have so much in the works! You should be extra proud :)