a quick hello

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I’m back in the city again!! It’s crazy… I have been here 3 times already. Yesterday I decided to treat my family (especially my mother) to a meal at any restaurant they wanted. They had only been to a restaurant together once, and that was 5 years ago. Who would have thought that the delicacy they chose was pizza. They were then introduced to the second best food in the states… cold pizza for breakfast. Max didn’t agree with the breakfast and promptly threw his piece across the room and demanded beans and rice.

I’ve been trying to help out the family as much as possible when I have free time. Cuyo is working so much that he never has time to do things around the house. I have been chopping firewood like one of those big burly guys on the outdoors games which is really just an excuse for West Virginians to feel athletic. It’s quite a task though since the wood is just tree trunks laying in a pile. I have to first cut them in to short pieces with a dull handsaw that couldn’t bring down a healthy Christmas tree. Then I have to chop them into tiny pieces with an ax that is attached to a tree branch for a handle. It takes a lot of time because the pieces have to be very small to fit in the wood stove and since everything is cooked over the fire, there is a constant need for firewood. I also started building a floor for the goat’s new cage. The cage is just sitting in the back yard and it is starting to smell up the entire house. My mom asked if I could build something to keep it off the mud and hopefully make it smell a little better. I started building a wooden floor and ran out of the rusty used nails that I was pulling out of some rotting board, so I had to come to the city to go to the hardware store to buy some more.

Cuyo got home this morning at 6 and promptly left at 6:30 to go to the farm and pick coffee. One of these days, I am probably gonna go out with him and help. Tonight, we’re going down the hill to Rivas so that some old men can school me in soccer once again. I always look forward to that!

On Saturday, I went to the school to take some pictures so I can show everyone how things are looking. After Ariel and I left, Global Routes decided to send in a group of 15 teenagers and 2 leaders to build something for the community. What the community wanted and needed more than anything was a Salon Multi-uso. A salon is a caged in basketball court sized slab of concrete where the community plays soccer, plays bingo, hold’s meeting, and parties all the time. The government had already said they were going to start building a school and that they would donate materials for the Americans to build the Salon. Well… the Americans came with different ideas. They wanted to build a classroom and apparently it was more important what they wanted to build as opposed to what the community wanted. They built a new classroom for the kindergarten class. When I first saw the new classroom, I immediately had the same sentiments as the community. Who the hell designed that? While it’s a pretty building, it is obvious that there wasn’t too much thought about it being practical. Apparently the group came with their plans and weren’t going to change a thing. There are a few things with the building that make me wonder if they ever even thought about where it was located. The first thing that is ridiculous is that the wall of the building facing the beautiful mountains is completely closed in. Not a single window… Let’s be honest though, who wants to see a beautiful landscape of mountains and valleys when they could look at the piss-poor paint job of some 16 year old girl who didn’t speak a lick of Spanish? Don’t get me wrong though, there are windows… they are just facing the comedor and the other side. Thus providing absolutely no natural sunlight in the room. And when you put windows in a building in a tropical climate, the last thing you would want to do is put in windows that open up and let in a little breeze right? When Ariel and I started the comedor as a secondary project on top of teaching, we made it a point to keep the building very open, breezy, and practical. We also made a point of getting to know the community and finding out what they wanted and needed. My family told me that of this group of teenagers that came, only 2 spoke Spanish and none of them spent any time with the families. To that extent, much of the community and I believe that the group came on an ego-boosting vacation and not to come and help a community with what they needed. Many people in Linda Vista aren’t sure they want Americans from Global Routes to come anymore. The government is now true to their word and are starting to build the new school. Soon there will be an extra classroom but no salon like the community wants. Geez… I have spent so much time in this community that I sound like one of the hot-tempered Hispanic ladies on the PTA. Enough bitching for now!

I have to get going to make sure I don’t miss the bus. Don’t get used to these frequent updates… I’m only spoiling you.

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