Adventures in My Backyard

So this post isn't for everyone, but I am gonna put it out therelike it is or was. First I'll start off by mentioning all that has recently happened before launching into the anecdote the title refers to.

Well in the last week or so I have managed to finally meet all the other volunteers that currently live in my Municipio, all five of them. For quite some time I wasn't really sure exactly how many other volunteers lived near me or where exactly they lived, but now I know, and knowing is half the battle. All five of them are girls, none of them is n my program and they have all been here longer than I have. So I feel a bit like an outsider for now, but I am sure that will change with time and the realization that all five of them speak english and are accustomed to the same sorts of food as me. Already I joined them for a charla at a school about recycling and I will be joining them again on monday to give the same charla to several other schools. In this exciting charla I get to play either an empty can or a discarded shoe.

As far as monday goes, it is also Yom Kippur, so we will see how the fast goes while walking around in the heat carrying props for our charla. I have promised myself to try, but have resigned myself to the realization that forgoing water would be a horrible mistake, so I will be drinking throughout the day. It just isn't feasible for me to return to San Salvador to celebrate this holiday as much as I'd like to. I have been spending lots of time out of my site recently and I have to get some stuff done, mainly my quarterly report and some work on ADESCO training curriculums, not to forget the trash charla on Monday as well. But that comes with the realization that I am no longer just an idle spectator here in my site, I am beginning to take on responsibilities and get some work done.

Ok, time for my fun story...

It has been drying out lately, meaning it hasn't been raining a whole lot, but it rained with a vengeance yesterday. I have been bugging my landlord to come by and fix a few problems with my house, but he has been putting that off and being otherwise very Salvo about it. Thats ok, I am growing accustomed to the life here and realize he isn't doing anything out of the ordinary. Well yesterday it rained rather hard in the evening and I my first troublesome experience in my new house. First you should all know that my shower and bathroom are in my backyard, both are covered of course, but I still need to walk across my uncovered backyard to get to them. Furthermore, I haven't managed to buy lights for either yet, so at night it can be rather dark in there with the door closed, which I tend to avoid if possible. Additionally my toilet itself has issues, it has no seat, only a lid that fell off and it needs to be bucket flushed. Well yesterday I had the runs, so I was presented with the not so fun situation of using my sorry excuse for a bathroom in the pitch black rain. Well since I don't want you to use your magination I will describe how this works, bring the headlamp the find the bathroom, hover over the toilet, aim, shoot and hope for the best. That works fine and all in the daytime, or when you aren't in urgent need of the facilities. Last night my aim was a little off and I wound up splashing a bit on the back of the toilet and on my board shorts, which I was wearing because my other clothes were soaked. And the bucket flushing caused a little more splash, so all around last night wasn't so great. I got up early today to mop and clean and this afternoon I plan to do some laundry. (By hand of course)