My work here!

I miss home, so whoever reads this I need some updates from home! I think as long as I get updates, I resist the urge to come home!

So I am sure a lot of you all are wondering, what the heck is she doing down there in El Salvador? Not looking at direct flights to Dallas, that’s for sure! Ok maybe sometimes, but that is mostly to help those people who want to visit me. If you aren’t one of those people, maybe you should think twice about that! So in all seriousness, I will give you all an idea of what I will be doing for the next year, or at least the next like 6 months. It’s hard to constantly think about the 2 year time frame, so I break it up into increments. It also is very effective for goal setting and mostly not to drive me crazy.

So projects that I will be working and some I want to be working on
-The computer project. This project I have inherited from the previous volunteer, kind of. The local school in my community is recently the proud owner of four computers with an impressive operating system of Windows 95! But heck, they were bought for an extremely LOW used price from a computer donation company in the states. For future reference, never toss out that old computer, there is always a place for it in the developing world. And that’s word. I bet you can even get a tax write-off for it, for all you elephants out there! Just kidding the dems like that too. Ok so back to the computers. Of the technology generation, I was always around computers, so it seems as second nature to operate one and use one efficiently. But than for those of you, like my grandma (love you) and people in the developing world; unless you were one of the few that was able to go to school, you probably have never seen a computer, let alone knows how to use one. True story. So being able to operate a computer, opens a lot of doors. Like typing, creating a flier and or invitation, surfing the internet, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

-I already mentioned the girls' soccer team, but that is a work in progress.
-I already mentioned the Latrine project, but that's a work in progress as well.

-I have started a home garden, which has proven to be quite successful. Who knew I had a green thumb!? I am growing corn, zucchini, cucumber, green bell pepper and tomatoes. It is the rainy season right now here in El Salvador, where it rains every day, so its ideal for planting and growing vegetables. Along with the vegetables, I have two mango trees, two papaya trees, a lime tree, and a chile bush. This is all in my backyard at the moment. The hope for this project will be to re-create my garden in other communal parts of the community. This is a project that will touch on nutrition and proper diet. Because the diet here is BAD! full of grease and salt, with little nutrition to boot. A lot of people dont even realize there are other ways to cook, other than in a pot of oil. I also hope to start cooking classes. Simple ingredients and simple techniques that hopefully will catch on! Like they can't even cook an egg, without it being in an oil soup! And maybe this cooking class turns into a womens' group, and then we get into some health topics. Little successes!