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Hello Everyone,
Here comes one of those great long mass e-mails that you only read when you are really bored at work and looking for something to kill time. I've tried to be really cool and address this e-mail to as many people as possible, who sends out a mass e-mail to like 10 people. If you are on this list and were hoping never to hear from me again, reply with REMOVE in the subject line and I will take you off this list and put you on every porn listserv I can find. Some or most of you I have exchanged at least e-mails with but this way I can bring everyone up to the same page. I am not sure yet whether during my time in the peace corps I will send out mass e-mails, do some sort of web journal/blog or maybe just disappear into the jungle. It is most likely that I will have Internet about once a week which is why writing massive e-mails are far easier than individual ones, but if you take the time to respond I will certainly respond as soon as I can.
So as you caught from the first paragraph my next stop in life is the Peace Corps. I am heading to El Salvador at the end of September to begin my 2+ years of service (I'll return old and greying in December 2007). I have been assigned to an Agro-Forestry program, which means that I will be working with farmers on any number of projects to replant forests, control erosion and increase their crop yields. The first couple months will be spent training and more importantly bringing my Spanish up to a workable level. I will than move to a small rural town (I won't know exactly where or what I am doing until during the training during which the Peace Corps also tries to figure out what would fit you best) to live for the next two years. While it is likely I'll have electricity it is a strong possibility I won't and a stronger one that I won't have running water. I am still really excited to be going, so now i just got to maintain that momentum for another 2 years :)
I suppose its best to start any tale at the beginning of the end. The weekend of May 14th was some kind of time. In addition to being graduation it was my last college track meet. I was in Tulsa Thursday and Friday for prelims than flew back to Rice at 6am on Saturday graduated and flew back to Tulsa that afternoon for the finals. It all worked out really well PR on my 4x400 split on the last race of my career with a
48.7 and had an enjoyable if brief time at graduation....the next weekend I was still in Houston this time at the wedding as the best man to Evan Hunt. No better way to signal college being over than one of your friends getting married!
I began my summer with a long graduation gift trip to Europe. I began in Italy flying into Milan, where the wait to see DaVinici's last supper was 2 months, and the next day headed over to Verona. There in addition to numerous Roman sites and churches I saw Juliet's Balcony and Tomb or should I say so-called. My next stop was Venice where I battled with all the other tourists to see all the incredible churches and palaces while crossing innumerable canals. I joined my family four five days in Tuscany and saw some of the hilltop towns that make it famous. In Florence for the next four days I saw more famous art than the rest of my 20 years previously combined, it felt like walking through one of those coffee table Art books. I then made a short hop up to Berlin where I got a free hotel with my dad who was in town for a conference (Europe has these incredible discount airlines, I flew round trip for about $75). Berlin was a beautiful modern city whose monuments where mainly trying to cop with its WWII, Holocaust, Cold War past. It also had some very different but world class museums. (I know this whole section may sound like the most irrational travel plans of all time, but I swear there were reasons) I came back to Italy where I met my sister, who studied abroad in Florence this summer, and we went down to Pompeii and Herculaneum together. Probably my favorite part of the whole trip was walking through these Roman cities frozen 2,000 yrs ago. While many things I saw were things you see once and check off your list, I think I could go back and visit here many times. My last ten days I spent in Spain. Arriving in Sevilla you can immediately see that you are in a whole different world. The Moorish architecture gives the palaces of Spain a completely unique look with the intricate plaster work. I spent on day in Cordoba where I saw the great Mosque and relaxed in an Arab Bath. Granada was an awesome city where if you bought a beer you got a free appetizer, so basically the cheapest way to eat was to drink! The Alhambra is the famous Moorish Palace of that city and is incredible in its size and intricacy. I headed up to Madrid where I was departing and went to the art museums, the royal palace, and saw a bullfight (which was interesting if extremely brutal). Finally I took a day trip to a town called Segovia which has one of the biggest preserved Roman Aqueducts in the world.
Know I am not sure if you cared to read the details of my trip but too bad! Europe was incredible and there are so many places to see that one would have to travel full time to make much of a dent. Some thoughts from my trip: It was pretty expensive for everything there except wine in Italy and beer in Germany and Spain. (It often cost as much to have water with dinner as wine!!). Staying at hostels was a lot of fun, relatively cheap and a good way to meet people if you wanted to, even for shy ole me. While attractive and fashionable I have two major problems with these Euros, they smoke a ton and they consider mullets to be a good looking WTF!
Since I have been back in AZ I've mainly been relaxing, getting my life together, exercising, reading, and going out drinking as often as possible. I did make two short trips with a couple friends of mine. We went up to the White Mountains in eastern Arizona for three days of backpacking up the Black River. It was awesome. Besides being tranquil, wild and beautiful we saw all sorts of wildlife including bighorn sheep, wild turkeys, bald eagles and osprey nesting right next to our campsite. Just to balance things out we also went to Vegas for a couple days and had a great time gambling, enjoying the free alcohol and otherwise carousing around.
But the fun of this summer does not quite stop yet. My dad has another conference this summer this time in Beijing and he is bringing along the family. So in two days I am leaving for China until Mid-August. I have managed to space out my travel nicely this summer to avoid doing anything real with my time before the PC. I am also planning on going out to LA, Aug. 24th or so and coming back to Houston to visit from September 7-12 (If you are a Rice person I hope you'll be in town so I can bum floor/couch space from you.)
I am working on setting up a website at
www.aaronredman.com that I can update with pictures and info while I am down in El Salvador. Right now I have pictures from Europe and Camping up on it to check out. (If you are interested in full blown pictures let me know I can send them when I get back) I also am attaching a satellite picture of El Salvador for those of you not familiar with your central american geography. I got it from GoogleEarth which if you haven't downloaded yet, do it now and precede to waste the rest of your day flying over your home and all over the globe. ( earth.google.com )
I would always love to hear from any of you of course so write back soon and often (if I don't keep in contact by e-mail I figure I'll come back and only my family will remember me, if them!)
~Aaron
Wow, less than a month to go before I am out of here for the next 800 days or so, crazy. I don't have a lot more exciting news about the future other than exact plans for my departure. I will be departing for Washington DC on September 18th and then leaving for El Salvador on the 21 (passing through houston if any of you want to come out to the airport). Then I start my ten weeks of training in San Vicente, El Salvador which consists of four to six hours of spanish classes in addition to other classes. Probably if my mind still refuses to absorb spanish they will move on to electro-shock treatments or beating me on the head with spanish books hoping I'll absorb it faster than sleeping with them under my pillow.
I just returned last week from my last foray abroad until i take the deep plunge into Central America. China was an incredibly interesting place and far different than anywhere I have ever been. I started off by myself visiting some family friends who invited me out for graduation. Besides their two incredibly cute kids (see pictures), I saw the world's tallest skyscraper, markets which included live snakes being drained of their blood and bile for drinks and numerous active temples with gods ranging from Buddhas to one for students to pray to before exams (and packed full of people, some of the temples generated revenues greater than $100 million, thats a frickin' lot of incense!). I met my parents in Shanghai (mainland china), where one can best see the "new" china, Dozens of skyscrapers where ten years ago their were rice fields and peasant farmers. In china when they want something done they just command it, none of this emmint domain crap and waiting for the Supreme Court to decide if it is "constitutional". We headed inland to some "smaller" cities of around 3 or 4 million people where there were cliff walls carved with thousands of Buddha statues including some more than fifty feet tall. We also visited the buddhist monastary were Kung-fu was begun and then spawned the many styles and crappy action movies we see today. The demonstration was pretty crazy (see pics) besides spining on a spear pt and balancing on a spear in their throats, they threw a needle through a pane of glass to pop a balloon, broke sticks on each other and otherwise just kicked ass. Near Xi'an we visited the tomb of an emperor who buried over 7,000 life size individualized terra-cotta warriors, horses and even real weapons and chariots. In Beijing we visited the Forbidden city, which to give you an idea of what it is like to tour china gets about 50,000 tourists on a normal day and 100-130,000 on peak days!! (and
99.9% are Chinese tourists, not many white people around). While in Beijing I didn't miss picking up some knock off sunglasses, a watch and some dollar DVDs. After visiting several other escape palaces of the emperors (thousands of acres in size) we ended our trip with a visit to the great wall which is built on terrain as likely to be used by an invading army as Canada is to attack the US to take over North Dakota.
China is a very dynamic place with an enormous population which is mainly poor but aspiring to wealth and a government intent on modernizing at a pace unprecedented in history. When things happen in China they will have a big impact...e.g. China has more people learning English than there are native speakers. The food was very similar to the dishes that one saw in the US but each region was very different (within the same style though). Eating out there would be an Atkin's paradise as we rarely got rice with meals and all the dishes were just meat and vegetables, you could probably eat three meals out and consume about 5g of carbs.
I have continued building my website at www.aaronredman.com and now have real site layout and stuff, content has not yet completely arrived yet (but it will be coming consistently at least until I leave). Photos have been updated from Europe and I now have pictures from China up, which by traveling with my family means there are many more of my ugly mug. You may notice I got some good pics for the Before advertisements for Rogaine, if Evan's hairline encroaching on his eyebrows is "manifest destiny" I think you could call my hairline the space race...
I am heading of to LA this weekend to visit the Hunts and see the King Tut exhibit (and hopefully a little beach time). I will be in Flagstaff for Labor Day weekend and then am coming to Houston september 7-11 if you are around, say hi.
Enjoying my last weeks in America,
Aaron
Wow, it has arrived at last! I am really leaving to live in some mud hut for the next two years. So perhaps this will be the last time you hear from me except for maybe some scratchings on bark that I manage to send back to the states.... Well here is what I actually know: on Sunday (September 18th) I am leaving AZ to head to Washington DC for a couple days where they bring our training group together for the first time, probably stick us full of vaccine needles and then make us sign our life away a dozen times in triplicate. On Wednesday we leave the hotel at 3:30am (who needs sleep!) and fly through Houston on the way to San Salvador, El Salvador. I then begin ten weeks of intensive Spanish and technical training in a town called San Vicente. I will be staying with a family and training 5 full days a week plus half days on Saturday. At some point along the way, week 8 or 9 the PC will decide what town I'll be assigned to. It will most likely be a rural/farming community of anywhere from 200 to 2,000 people. The general project is called Agroforestry and the mission includes soil conservation, soil fertility improvements, integrated pest management, sustainable forestry, environmental education etc. I will be working with local government agencies, groups of farmers and individuals on these and I am sure other projects. It also sounds as though volunteers often take up a whole slew of other activities in their community from teaching computer classes to helping build a school.
You may be wondering what I have been up to in the last month...if you could care less go ahead and skip this paragraph. At the end of August I made a trip out to Los Angeles to visit my token married friends. While out there I went to the King Tut exhibit which was quite spectacular and definitely worth the money and the long lines. More importantly I played a whole bunch of Halo 2 for what is probably the last time in years :( I made a trip up to visit some friends at NAU in flagstaff which included such fun activities as keg stands and 2am hot dog stands, so declicous! Finally took one last trip to Rice, got a glimpse of med school which I ruled out of my future, got my ass handed to me by the runners, and felt out of place at a college party...overall a most excellent trip!
My stuff is piling up and my suitcases are calling my name so I should get back to them. The website ( www.aaronredman.com ) continues to add new features :) The message board is up and active, if you haven't already, register and post away. I am also going to post these e-mails in the journal section in case you delete one but still want access to my pearls of wisdom, as well as hopefully start the web journal in the next couple weeks depending on my access to internet.
To El Salvador and beyond!
Aaron
PS If you have forgotten who I am and never want to hear from me again (except for all the porn sites I'll sign you up for) then let me know....also if you have a new/prefered e-mail address for me to use.
Hello Everyone,
Just this last week we crossed the midpoint of training. Only five more weeks until the fun really begins. Training has been a strange mix of excitement (any of a hundred novel things and experiences) and boredom (such as during long medical talks about the symptoms of diarrhea). By everyone's account it is an introduction to; but hardly an accurate picture of the volunteer lifestyle. I am still several weeks away from knowing where I will be for the next two years. Although looking from the US, everywhere in El Salvador seems insignificantly close together, from here it matters: I could be in the mountains or on the beach, have electricity and running water or have a dirt floor and have to haul my water a couple miles everyday. My Spanish is progressing well. I begin able to communicate and move around in the language without putting myself in danger by saying the wrong words, and now I can mostly understand everyone the first or second time and can have conversations beyond pure logistics like; "no, I don't want to eat roasted monkey." (The PC rated me coming in at the level of competency desired when training ends and it will be interesting to see my progress by training's end). I am definitely not yet thinking in Spanish and am still doing a lot of translating in my head.
I am not going to fill this e-mail with a whole bunch of interesting and mind expanding stories as I have been posting the least boring ones I can make up on the internet ( www.aaronredman.com ). I am enjoying training but can't wait to start at my site. It is a bit scary to imagine that you can really make a permanent difference in the face of all the difficulties volunteers confront here. It will also be great to get out on my own. I really have a wonderful host family, but it will be nice to decide that today I don't want to eat any beans and tortillas and I can wash my clothes without beating the crap out of them on a wash board.
If anyone is interested in receiving a postcard or letter drop me your address, even if you have given it to me a dozen times before, as I am sure I have thrown it away by now. Keep sending me e-mails. As cheesy as it sounds; hearing/reading a voice from home really does make my week. Happy Halloween!
Que La Vaya Bien,
Aaron
My future awaits me La Comunidad, San Pedro Nonualco, La Paz, El Salvador,
and it begins this Friday. I at long last begin my two years of service
(yea all this time hasn't counted for anything). I am going to be living
and working in what is known as the Fruit Capital of El Salvador. The only
thing I have to fear, (besides fear of course) is the runs from eating too
much fruit everyday rather than taking a stab at cooking. I have got a nice
little place lined up, only missing the heated pool (oh and electricity and
water but those are supposedly on the way). I am really super pumped to get
started on this whole gig, though God only knows (if even she does) what I
am going to actual do. Its pretty intimidating for your goal for two years
to be improving the lives of a whole community of strangers. I am going to
have a permanent address now and even am outfitted with a cellphone, *shiiit
*.
Address:
Aaron Redman
Oficina de CENTA en La Alcaldía
San Pedro Nonualco, La Paz
El Salvador, Central America.
Phone Number: 503 (country code) 7751-0606
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and the rest of this
Holiday Season kicks just as much ass.
Happy Holidays,
Aaron
Hmm well I guess it has been a little while since I have written. In case you have forgotten I am that nutcase to whom you accidentally revealed your e-mail address and disappeared into the Central American jungle. I have crossed the three month mark in my site, well really it is nothing more than a number (1/8 of my service), but in the Peace Corps it marks the end of your “grace” period of “getting to know” your community. The focus of your work should be shifting from meeting people, learning about the local crops and culture and getting yourself settled and comfortable to actually beginning to plan and work on projects (there is more of a point to this whole things than speaking Spanish and making a couple friends in El Salvador).
So what do I have going on then? Along with a large group of other volunteers I am working to help the local elementary school purchase 10 computers and start a computer lab. Once the physical part of the job is done (that is of course by no means assured-we are going to need to build a small and secure room as the computers can't just sit outside) comes the longer challenge of educating the teachers and integrating it into their curriculum. I am looking forward to that part and hope to also expand classes to the general community who aren't still attending elementary school. Currently I am meeting with the teachers twice a week to teach them a bit of English with the idea that they will be able in a couple months to begin with their kids. I am working with the officially recognized community group called an ADESCO to firstly organize itself and its priorities and hopefully get started on some projects eventually. You don't know the meaning of the word slow, until you have worked with an ADESCO, but heck I got two years. What does any of this have to do with Agroforestry you ask? Absolutely nothing so hopefully my counterpart and I can begin on some projects but so far we haven't done much communicating. There always seems to be innumerable other small projects and events that come up and keep me busy and if I am sure when I write in 3 months I'll my ideas and work will have radically changed to fit the first thing a PCV learns-the most important project characteristic is…whatever the fuck you can do that will get done.
I haven't been into the capital (read: anything civilization as you know it) in over a month and a half now and am feeling comfortably submerged in the PC life. My Spanish has improved radically. I understand people most all the time and can express 75% of what I want to say. There is still plenty of work to go and I can only imagine that talking to me is like talking to a 2 nd grader with food in their mouth. I have finished building, fixing up and moving into my house (read: LOTR poster is up) and I feel really at home here, which combined with the hammock sometimes makes it hard to get out and do “work”.
I hope that this e-mail finds all of you well, happy and cheering the Suns as they begin their championship run.
Con Mucho Amistad y Amor,
Aaron
PS: If you were hoping for funny or interesting stories, well too bad I am boring. If you just want to read stories from El Salvador-check out the webpage, I am not repeating myself :)
PPS: Discovered!! Investigative reporters at the Onion have revealed the true motivation behind Peace Corps Volunteers. Follow the link for the full article or just enjoy these select quotes:
I'm Totally Gonna Get Laid On This Humanitarian Mission To Uganda
"Ugandan girls love Americans. Supposedly, the minute an American relief truck rolls into a refugee camp, they just start swarming all over it, like the friggin' Beatles just pulled into Shea Stadium."
"There'll be plenty of hot volunteers to choose from. I can see it now: me, shirtless and sweating as I unload sacks of grain from the back of a truck. All of a sudden, there she is: dressed in a white tank top, jungle shorts, and boots—like Angelina Jolie in those Lara Croft movies. Her face aching with sympathy for the starving masses, she looks at my chest, gleaming in the brilliant Ugandan sun"
"I spent my junior year abroad in France and I got laid three times. Pretty sweet...But that was in a European city with a stable government and high standard of living. Imagine how much hotter the passions will burn in a land where young children are forced to flee their rural villages at night and seek refuge in towns in order to avoid being kidnapped by commandos."
"The best part is, these ladies don't expect commitment. They know that this brief sojourn into a nightmarish hellhole will soon be nothing more than a romantic memory, a passionate encounter set against the backdrop of a U.N. Food Programme truck ambushed and set aflame in the middle of the night. In the morning, they'll take up their rucksacks and proceed to the next good-samaritan adventure."
Hola muchachos,
I wonder how people remembered birthdays before thefacebook.com?? Anyways, thank you for all the greetings (whew that saved me a bunch of thank you e-mails:). I enjoyed my birthday like I haven't in well…ever. For the first time in eight years I wasn't at the height of track season as I turned over another year. And since I didn't drink very heavily at 13, I have missed out on the more “typical” b-day celebrations. By a stroke of good fortunate the newest group of volunteers (yea we are no longer the rookies!!!) were sworn in the day before mine which set-up the after-party perfectly. No I didn't black out or end up in a stranger's hotel room but after four+ months on a dry- campo it was just that much sweeter.
I have been keeping busy more or less. My parents visited for a week and we each caught a glimpse of what it is like on the other side (ahh those hot showers at the hotels were sooo nice!). Besides that brief glimpse of paradise, I have carried boulders on my back, proposed for a church, took some kids to the lions, sacrificed my time to raise money by going to beaches, climbed in a volcano (or on), and was baptized by a holy week. More recently though I have been battling frogs and fly ants who have taken it upon themselves to invade my living quarters (I literally shooed out seven or eight frogs last night alone). I guess they are out because the rains have started, enter mud stage left. I have at long last launched my search for a rubber boot that actually fits my “giant” size 12 feet-a difficult task here in ES. Here this time of year is known as the winter, although really all that means is that it rains all the time. I know that summer is just rolling around for ya'll and many of you are still going to be enjoying that luxurious wonder known as “summer break”. Enjoy yourselves and ignore GW; Buy El Salvadorian!
Nos Hablamos,
Aaron
Buenas Tardes,
So it has been a while since I last harassed you with a boring but effective way to procrastinate. As I mentioned I passed six months in my site (and seven months too!) and have entered the meat of my service. The first six months are focused on first getting comfortable and knowing your community and secondly building relationships and developing projects ideas. The last six months are going to be spent mainly tying up loose ends, trying desperately to finish as much as you can, and in some cases just counting the days. So what that all means is that now is the time to get things done. In a bizarre coincidence things have sort of started to work out that way. The ADESCO and I have are involved with a flurry of work to try and finish the proposal for a road project with USAID and get it in before the end of the fiscal year in September. I also nearly jumped out of my skin when several ADESCO (local development board) suggested to me that they want to reforest around the springs and creeks in the area!! Things are still in development, but I really believe this project has a lot of promise. Theoretically the computers should be arriving for the school anytime (though we have no place to put them yet!). Several projects on the immediate horizon includes a recycling and composting program at the school and trainings for community members on how to process and sell fruit (like orange marmalade).
It surely hasn't been all work and no play. I have enjoyed some gringo events, like a fourth of July celebration and Peace Corps soccer games. My two amigos , Ryan and Ben, came for a two week visit that kicked ass. We hiked in one of the last wild places in El Salvador , got rocked by the waves at the beach and otherwise had a great time. I am looking forward to my parents coming for another visit in August (I can almost smell the good food, warm showers and soft beds from here).
As of yesterday I have been in the country 10 months and I am more sure of my decision then ever. It is still up in the air whether my time here will really accomplish anything productive for the residents of La Comunidad but the personal benefits have been immeasurable. On an objective scale I am fluent (at least I can talk on and on, and understand the gist of most everyone, except the really old, toothless man who don't really speak Spanish anyway) in a foreign language and have an in depth knowledge of this new country and culture. While I am still searching through the weeds for my path in life, personal development has hardly lagged behind my Spanish. This kind of stuff is hard to put in words, but the challenges of development, language, culture, isolation etc. force one to dig inside and grow or get out.
Scholarship Fund
At the invitation of my boss, and local resident, I have been meeting with a freshly established committee to manage scholarships in SPN. An Ex-PCV working with an NGO called Project El Salvador , recognizing the enormous importance of education and the startling fact that only 30% of the population graduates high school, has begun a program awarding scholarships to High School and some University students in specific localities around the country. The committee begun its task administering scholarships for four High School and One University student in the San Pedro Nonualco area. We are now seeking to expand the opportunities available to youth in SPN by soliciting for help mainly from form San Pedroans living in the capital or the states. But since you have a special connection (me) to this little corner of Central America , I am including you in the net. You are probably thinking, scholarships for high school? What is that? Money is a major impediment for poor rural youth, hoping to have at least a secondary education. This is only amplified when compared with the four or five dollars a day they could be bringing home working in the fields or the factories, minimal though that seems, is a major windfall to a large family struggling just to get everyone fed. We grant scholarships of $150 yearly to students, mainly to cover monthly fees (yea fees even at public schools) and some of the costs of uniforms, supplies and transport. The students are selected on the basis of high grades and a socio-economic analysis (ideally kids who although smart and driven enough to have great success in school would not be able to attend without a scholarship). Probably one of the greatest features of the program is that it has no administrative costs. If you donate $150 you can be positive that 99% of it will go to assuring that not another child will be left behind (much cheaper than its US namesake I'd say). The donations are even tax deductible. For more info read one of our letters attachted (including how to donate) or harass me. If you know anyone else who has some greenbacks burning a whole in their pocket, pass the info on. We will be grateful for whatever support, small or large that you can give.
Cuidense,
Aaron
(pronounced Aahhh-rroan, with a roll on the –r)