Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I will be celebrating by heading to the closest Muni volunteers place and making a huge vat of chili. Turkey doesn't seem that easy to come by and we don't have an oven, so we went for the most American thing we could think of I am looking forward to it. Then on Friday I am off to the monthly PC soccer game, so pray I don't make a fool of myself out there. Should be a relaxing and fun weekend.

Oh, and side note, just after my father sent me a new flash drive I managed to get mine working. Albeit I lost all my info on the drive, it works now.

Edible Silverware and Grape Soda

I haven't really spoken much about the food, and that is for good reason, its not really something to write home about without some other context. As a general rule it isn't as exotic as I was wont to believe before I left home. I was imagining Mexican food with a more native flair, so as you can imagine I was way off the mark. I'd say food here resembles mexican in that they eat beans, rice and things called tortillas, but that is about as far as one can legitimately compare the two. I find food here to usually be on the bland side and the menu is pretty limited; generally carne asada, pollo encebollado, rice, beans or some sort of simple soup.

The tortilla is something I wish to explore a little more. As americans we are too used to the Mexican idea of a tortilla. That is to say, a large, thin flat thing that is generally a part of other foods, but not generally a food on it own. It can be used as a wrap as in a burrito, a holder as in a taco or quesadilla or fried as in a tostada shell or chips. That isn't what a tortilla is here. Oh sure, its made from the same ingredients, but it isn't used in the same way, nor could you use one for the Mexican purpose if you wanted to. To imagine a tortilla here you need to think in terms of a silver dollar pancake of solid flour that has been grilled. It is small, thick and, if your luck is bad, sorta mealy. I couldn't eat more than one a day at first. I can tell I am becoming well culturally adapted because the amount of tortillas I consume daily is on the rise. Part of the problem is to change the way you think of a tortilla, it isn't really the meal enhancer I wanted it to be. I have also ceased to think of it as a side dish. Currently I like to think of tortillas as edible silverware. That is right, silverware. I am rarely given more than a fork to eat with, and forks are lousy for eating beans, rice or just about anything but salad on their own. So that is where the tortilla comes in, I use it to scoop things onto my fork, mop up errant sauce or bean juice, hold my chicken in place while I tear at it with my fork and whatnot. The beauty of it is that when it becomes soggy, limp or just otherwise broken, a quick bite restores its former glory by revealing a fresher part. When I eat lunch out I average about 3 tortillas now. I call that a win and in my mind I am now at least 3 times more Salvo than I was in training when I could barely stomach a whole tortilla.

Now for the Grape Soda. I hadn't tried it here until today. I had been trying to consume fruit flavored sodas prior to leaving the United States knowing what I was in for. Well I didn't know. Sunday morning I went to a large meeting with members from 6 of the communities in my municipality where there was a training and a zonal committee being formed. It is regular here to be given a random refreshment during the course of a meeting and I was given a grape soda. My first grape soda in El Salvador. I figured I didn't know what it tasted like so I went for it. I wasn't impressed. In fact I'd say I was rather dismayed and repulsed. I found it to taste rather similar to the way my spray fixative for my drawings (or the glue I used to use on plastic models) smells. It gave me an instant headache and I wouldn't be at all surprised if I made a rather horrendous face. I tried to play it off cool, like I just wasn't thirsty since I didn't want to ruin the meeting or dismay all the others happily downing their grape sodas. For a full 45 minutes of the meeting i couldn't focus and I just kept getting grape soda aftertaste in my mouth and trying to hold back those whole body shivers you get when you think of something disgusting or hear nails on a chalkboard. I can't remember a large portion of the training because I couldn't concentrate on anything. With my luck they like to put the Gringo in front to show off that they have an American here to help out. Generally I try not to grimace at the food and find a better, more sensitive way of explaining my distaste. In this case I had to try very hard not only to hide my distaste, but my lack of focus that it caused. Needless to say I will not be drinking any more of the grape soda here.

A Very Uncomfortable Place

Ok, not that uncomfortable, the title just seemed funny if you get reference...

I have been living with a toilet that didn't have any water going to it for about two months. That means I have been flushing by filling a guacal and dumping it in the bowl after I was finished with my business. Well finally after bugging my landlord he installed a tap above the tank of the toilet to fill it, which is better than nothing for now, but presented other problems. After the inaugural flush I noticed that there was quite a bit of dirt going down the drain. That in and of itself wasn't shocking, I expected a little dust and debris. What was shocking is that a colony of ants had decided to take up residence in my own personal toilet. They have probably actually been there longer than I have, and have been enjoying the generally secluded, dry tunnels provided by the inner-workings of a busted toilet. However I am making it my personal mission to drive them out. With every flush more and more of the little buggers go swirling to their doom. I underestimated the tenacity of ants though. Every morning they are back and working up a storm in my toilet, and every morning I flush a horde of them to kingdom come. I wonder if or when they ever give up and move on? They had my entire yard to choose from, and they chose the one place I have to actually sit my ass on.

Everyone talks about how there are only two religions here, Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity, and how the subject of religion will inevitably come up rather quickly in conversation. I was rather surprised by how I managed to escape that subject until now. But it caught up with me and three times in the last day I have had to explain that I don't want to go to any of the churches here and that I am in fact Jewish. The problem is that I have to explain what Judaism is as well and thats not the most comfortable thing in the world to people that only understand that Christ is the savior. To them, if you don't believe in the son, you don't believe in the father. I try to concentrate on similarities, and explain that Christ was in fact a Jew, a rebellious one, but a Jew. Still I don't think most people quite get that I believe in the same god, but in a more limited context. I just have to hope that by now I've made enough of an impression that they don't think I'm some monster who hates Christ, and that news doesn't spread like wildfire that I am not a Christian. So far so good, the people that know don't seem offended except for the one lady that keeps trying to drag me to culto and convert me.

On the upside I have been getting along great otherwise. A new volunteer stopped in on Monday to see the Pueblo and she is currently staying in the Park with one of the curators. She has the option of living in the Park or in the Pueblo. This presents me with the option of exploring new housing under the guise of looking for housing for her. Plus I have been meeting more people by doing that. I like my house, but if I can find something cheaper and in better shape I may jump on it for the new year. I'll wait to find out what the new Volunteer wants to do though.

As far as work goes things are settled pretty much now. I work on my computer forming documents to put in a binder that will be used to train community groups for the most part. We are forming zonal committees and at the same time training them. I am working right now on teamwork, but we already pretty much made info for leadership and project planning. The overall plan is to create 9 modules, 8 of which we will make, one of which a team of women from a local university will make. The three I already mentioned are part of the second module, to be used in December. I am still going to lots of random meetings though, which I just chalk up to learning the culture and getting my face out there. I am hoping with time more people will advise me of important things. Right now I rarely get notified of most things and only a few people do the inviting, and usually on the day of.

Another decent drawing

This time a slightly different subject. I tried a bit of perspective and shading.

by cslom

I keep thinking about this particular drawing and what about it I don't like. I really hate the hair, and as such I took up two more pages in my sketchbook sort of exploring the possiblities of quickly, but convincingly drawing curly hair. I went so far as to recreate the drawing in miniature to test the method I devised. I also despise the eye. It is central to the drawing and commands attention, but of everything it looks the least real to me, especially the dark spot in the white that I can't seem to erase. I need to work on drawing convincing eyes. I think it worked out in the self portrait, but not in this one.

I was bored

I was bored and I figured someone out there somewhere might get a kick out of this. Particularly either Albert or Sherwin.

Yesterday Was a Good Day

Yesterday was one of those rare days where everything seemed to be going my way. The day started simply enough, but just kept getting better. I got good news in terms of finding info for projects, I got a call from my PCVC looking to organize a regional meeting and best of all I got a call from the APCD from AgFor looking to place a volunteer in or near my site to work in the national forrest. All good news. And the rest of the day seemed to be going just as well.


by cslom
I have been sort of willing myself back into the habit of drawing and it finally bore something. I would say I am happy about that drawing. I am flopping back and forth between drawing for realism and developing my skill for line weight and such, and going for my older comic style. My hope is to develope some sort of style somewhere in the middle, a style more my own and at the same time not as childish.