New Photos

More than anything else I just wanted to draw your attention that there are new photos in my webshots gallery.

Done!

It has been a long time coming but the 3 Day Youth Camp that we were planning is finally over and I took a full day and a half to relax and just sit around in my house and feel tired. I am really glad its over, but mostly because I was getting tired of all the planning and moving of dates. It was exhausting, but worth it. I don't know that I'll being doing anything similar again during my service, but it was very rewarding to see the kids enjoying themselves and to see that they were sad to go home and leave their new friends. In spite of still being exhausted I think the camp was a bit of a pick me up because I have had the 1 year blues so to speak. Things just weren't going my way and I have not been super excited about work, but the camp gave me a bit of a recharge with regards to success and my community members.

After all this I have found a bit of new respect for my camp counselors over the years. Being the nominal "adult" in the boys cabin was a bit of a restless experience. The first night they wouldn't be quiet and I gently tried to quiet them down, but I let them have a little fun knowing that they don't get out much and that this was something special. Needless to say I didn't really sleep at all with the noise and the occasional drip from the roof on my leg or neck. The second night I did some fun hammering though because we needed to get up early and I needed my sleep after a second long day. Fun Hammering is one of the least fun activities I have had the misfortune to be a part of. I just don't enjoy telling others that they can't do what they want to do.

I have tons of photos of all the madness/work that was the Camp, but my new found internet situation means I need to pick and choose what I upload and also that I have to remember to bring it on my USB drive to the internet cafe. Today I did not remember.

That Sound

I meant to post this yesterday as part of my post, and thereby make it a little more upbeat and fun, but I needed to go and do other things. Now today I am waiting around in Sonsonate and figured internet is a good use of my cash. Anyway...

So for while there was this animal in my yard that would make the craziest squakish sound, enough to startle me at first then make me laugh as I got used to it. I'd call it something along the lines of a demented toucan in terms of sound. Well this animal mostly made the sound in response to other loud noises at night, especially if I was calling my dog or coughing.

At first I was simply content to do my best demented nocturnal toucan to try to sucket the little guy into making the sound so I could laugh at it while I brushed my teeth. With time amusement turned into curiosity and I started to wonder where it was hiding and what it was. Of course my first thought was that it was a bird because of the sound it was making. Plus time after time the noise came from the tree behind my pila. However, try as I might to target the little bugger with my headlamp, it always managed to stay hidden while blasted me with high volume screeches.

I had all but given up the game and decided that I would just have to live not knowing what or where the mystery sound maker was. Then just a few nights ago while sick and barely dragging myself out to brush my teeth and blow my nose I saw my pila frog sitting at his usual spot and looking rather content. Then Mr. Pila inflated his neck and did his best crazy toucan impression. At first I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. No frog in the history of me has ever made that sound before, certainly not with me right in front of it. Then I began to feel stupid for never having suspected the pila frog as the noise offender. He always seemed so calm and happy sitting on my pila waiting for a good swim. Slowly those thoughts began to give way to disappointment that I no longer have the mystery to keep me entertained at night. I just have to hope the pila frog sticks around and continues answering my calls.

People want to know what I have been up to and eventhough I try to update whenever something cool happens, it seems not much cool stuff is happening. After working in the capital for that week a while back my work slowed down in my site to almost a grinding halt.

When I got back to my place I went over to talk to my buddy Rudy who is the security guard at the City Hall and I was told that the plan to finally move most of the people in the City Hall to a second location in Cara Sucia was finally going through. I was a bit confused as to what that means for me and my work, but Over the course of working by myself most of the week and only stopping in occasionally I found that the City Hall has been mostly gutted and of the 45 people that were in the building, only about 6 remain there now. They also took out the wireless internet, so I'll be paying for internet from here on out it seems and won't be able to use my computer for it.

Then I hosted a trainee for their Immersion Days activity, which is basically when a trainee stays in a rural community set up by a Volunteer for 2 nights, then stays with the Volunteer to discuss the actity for one night. It went alright and the trainee enjoyed himself, but it didn´t go how I wanted, which nothing here ever does. Basically the lady he was supposed to stay with dished him off to another man to sleep and a different lady altogether to eat and had nothing to do with him. Like I said it was fine, at least she was responsible enough to make other arrangements, which I am thankful for.

After all that I took the trainee back to the Capital for a 4th of July celebration and soccer tournament thrown at the Sheraton. My reservations got all screwed up and I had to call my Mom to get them squared away, but luckily we got things worked out and it turned out to be free (or I hope so, gotta keep an eye on my credit card statement.) My team (Municipal Development) almost won the soccer tournament. It ended in a high stress shoot out and eventhough our goalie blocked two shots, we missed enough to lose after 7 shots. I didn´t spend much time at the actual 4th of July bash for some reason, but we all went out afterwards.

I wound up getting sick though and I have spent the last two days mostly holed up in my house trying not to cough or sneeze on every square inch of tile that my house is made of. I think Kaya believes I am dying.