Far Away for Christmas

This was the first time in 24 years that I have been away from St. Joseph, MI for christmas. I was thinking about that the other day, that is a pretty good streak! They celebrate Christmas on the 24th in El Salvador and actual Christmas day is just a day of rest. On Christmas Eve my town had the annual soccer tournament. We had two teams from our town play, my team lost in the first round, the other team won the whole thing! Since there was only one field the games were quite short, 12 minutes followed by penalty kicks. Some tournament, huh? My team lost in penalty kicks 2-1, but I made my penalty kick! There was a lot of pressure too, because all the fans crowded the goal, behind me, and on both sides. If I had shot wide by a foot the ball would have clocked someone in the head!

After the tournament I had dinner at Niña Martas home and went dancing with a couple of the families here. They are having lots of laughs at me dancing cumbia, bachata, and merengue. I am learning, slowly, but still, I think I am doing alright! Oh, Christmas is also a big night for fireworks. Everyone buys them here and sets them off at midnight on Christmas eve. These are not your little firecrackers either, they are big mortars that you would see at a fourth of july show!

As for working, I have made contacts with a local NGO about an efficient stoves project for the community and am looking into starting a womens sewing cooperative as well. The stoves are really important for health and deforestation reasons. All the people here cook over open fires, which emit smoke into the house and cause eye and respiratory problems. And, the women that cook do so three times daily. The efficient stoves emit little smoke and use much less wood than open fires, so I think this will be a good project for the people here.

School will not start for another two weeks and by that time I will be in San Vicente for my next round of training, tech training they are calling it. We will be learning organic gardening methods, composting, classroom management styles, etc. Well, this has been good so far, I will put up some photos soon, sorry I always forget my camera!

Peace out,
Zach