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October 20th-November 2nd, 2007: Reverse Senioritis
Today, November 2nd, 2007 is officially my last day as a Peace Corps volunteer. Tomorrow I will just be another one of the 6+ billion people inhabiting this little globe. On Monday I leave for a short vacation in Guatemala before coming back to fly out of El Salvador on the 20th of November. This moment of change in my life has been unlike either of the others I have been through; graduating high school and from college. In those cases things slacked off substantially at the end; I only took 3 classes at Rice my last semester for example. Here things have been more intense in the last two months then any other time in the last two years. I have been going at a furious pace to finish projects, thank people and go to events from inaugurations to goodbyes (known as despedidas from here on out). All this has left me little time to reflect on exactly how big of a change this will be. Not just my life style and living conditions, which will be worlds different, but the fact that I will basically be cut off entirely from a whole community of people with which I shared two years of my life. I knew I had summers to see high school friends, and with the internet and air travel college friends are never really that far away. But most of the residents of La Comunidad do not even know what the internet is, let alone keeping up with me on Facebook, and only a couple more of them have traveled further away then the capital city. Sometime in early December all of this is going to catch up with me and hit me like a 15 foot christmas tree.
Final Hurrah
Jack, threw out the idea that rather then do the traditional despedida of hitting the bars in SS, to invite everyone from our group to a costume party/Oktoberfest at his house. I was there the night before preparing a whole lamb's worth of meat and lots of other food that would be needed to feed 2 years of hunger.
Errrr, don't ask...ok fine, that is a beer I am drinking, you caught me. As far as what I am wearing; I actually borrowed it from a guy in LC. I am supposed to be the Singuanaba, a mythical woman in El Salvador. I don't know the legend all that well but her main role seems to be to seduce men who are out in the countryside at night and then turn out to be real ugly
Some good role models for the kids; ES national athlete and the yellow M&M lighting up.
Sometimes life brings things full circle. My spanish teacher from high school, Senor Cox, who first introduced me to the Peace Corps (he was a volunteer in the 60s in Venezuela), came to visit me on my last days as Peace Corps volunteer.
Zoo Much Fun
As a thank you/goodbye/have fun event, I paid for all the preschoolers to go to the Zoo in SS. I have been spending time reading to them and hanging out there since nearly day one. Nothing lifts a bad day like dropping in and having twenty kids yelling your name and running up to hug your leg. It was the least I could do.
The school in Lazareto invited me to the inauguration of their computer center. The priest was there to bless and sprinkle holy water on the lab, I just hope holy water doesn't ruin computers the same way normal water does.
For the Alcaldia (mayor's office) I brought a cake to share with all the staff and a small gift for the Alcalde for the help they have given me on projects
What even would be complete without a baile?!
ASPS/Health Committee, for whom I failed to get the medicines through customs, invited me to a despedida lunch, where I was thanked far more then any one person could possibly deserve!
The school director and his 5th and 6th grade class invited me to share in their end of the year lunch, to say thanks (I was also invited on their field trip but wasn't able to make it).
On Monday I finally closed out the last of the computer projects, picking up ten more computers for the final school. The computer room is still not ready so they will be stored in the Alcaldia for the mean time.
BEFORE (September 9th)
AFTER (November 1st)
Thanks to You Reader!
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people who donated to make this project possible here in La Comunidad. Everyone has worked liked demons to ge this done, and thanks to your generosity, it has been a smashing success. The last brick was laid just in time for me to burn the midnight oil finishing the final report to submit the next day, when I closed out my service. The improvement is so vast, that already if it weren't for the photos I am wouldn't even remember how bad the set-up was beforehand. Although it cost extra, we bought only the best materials (therefore the most expensive), spent extra time digging deep foundations and in spite of the deadlines made sure everything was done right instead of just done fast. La Comunidad thanks you!!!
COS: Close of Service. On Halloween I went to the Peace Corps office for what may be the last time. There I had many fun things to do, get an HIV test, interviews with Rolando, the country director and medical officer, turn in the spring project report and get a dozen different signatures attesting to my having finished all the necessary procedures (I did work for the government after all)
The preschoolers invited me to have lunch with them which took place in this grand banquet hall
Surveying the Stoves
Although four people have yet to construct their improved stoves the majority have been in use now for several months. In the brief moments of free time that I found I was able to visit nearly all of them to see how it was going and conduct a simple survey. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive with only a couple people having minor complaints.
Day of Souls
Today, Nov. 2nd is besides being my last day as a PC volunteer, the day when Salvadorians head out to clean up and redecorate the graves of their ancestors.
