Just when I thought

that I had a few free days to devote myself entirely to the care and maintenance of our school vegetable garden, I caught a monster cold and spent the past few days curled up in bed, alternately sweating and shivering.

To be fair, I probably got this cold from working in the garden during a tropical storm, heedless of the rain.

But it's hard to stay healthy when even your blankets and sheets are constantly damp from all the moisture in the air and mold is even growing on the walls of your house and it NEVER STOPS RAINING.

This rainy season has been one of the wettest in recent years, even according to the Salvies. And my site is one of the rainiest in all of El Salvador.

It turns out there will be a new volunteer in my site but he/she (probably she) will not be able to live in my house because the host family wants to open a store in that house. So now I have to find a new house for this person. I have a few leads. Hopefully these houses don't also turn into small ponds every time it rains.

So now I only have a couple of afternoons to work on this garden project, and then Wednesday I go to Nicaragua. I feel guilty for not getting more work done, but what could I do? I was sick.

Maybe the next volunteer will be more productive. I can practically hear the villagers thinking that every time they ask when "the new one" is going to arrive. Maybe she will be nicer, maybe she will give things away for free and not expect us to do so much work. Well, maybe.

I can't believe how little time we have left...

Paz y amor.

So that's were all our old hand grenades went...

... to Mexico.

After the 4th of July, I realized something: I've only got about 3 months left in country. I had been pushing happily along, not realizing my departure was nearing, until a bunch of newer volunteers at our 4th-of-July party kept coming up to me with comments like, "Wow, you're going home soon!"

"No I'm not!" I kept saying, before pausing to think. "Holy shit, I am!"

It's true. In 11 days I leave for a 11-day Nicaragua vacation, then a week after I get back is our Close of Service conference, and after that I spend two months not working much and planning to come home. (Hard core job search!) So even though I don't leave until October, I'm wrapping up projects now. It's a strange feeling.

Earlier this month, we finally got around to planting cucumber and radish seeds with the school. If everything goes right, they should be ready for harvest in a few weeks. But thanks to heavy rains and foraging goats, their chances of survival are low.
Planting cucumbersPlanting radishes

Paz y amor.

Happy 3rd of July!

Even in El Salvador, the 4th of July is a big deal...for Peace Corps Volunteers, that is. We celebrated on Saturday, though, so we could have a soccer tournament between each volunteer program...Rural Health, as always, won, and my program, Sustainable Agriculture/Environmental Education, tied for 2nd place with Youth Development. Sound dorky enough for you?

Quote of the game, after a YD volunteer was bowled over: "And Carl's up! He will live to develop youth another day!"

After the game, there was a party at the Sheraton (which is a really ritzy hotel here) hosted by a society of American expats, and then another much less expensive one at the San Sal hostel that is basically the Peace Corps hangout. There were hamburgers, hot dogs and even a chocolate cake (very rare here!) with an American flag on it, which said "Happy Birthday America," and to which we sang the national anthem before we ate.

All in all, of course, a very good weekend.AG/EE 2008-2010 girls!
The guys. Except Will, who managed to be excluded from every picture.

Pepinos y rábanos

It looks like my school is finally pulling through and I might be a successful volunteer after all! My school principal and some people from CENTA, the government agency for agricultural technology, finally agreed to teach a bunch of my kids how to plant radishes and cucumbers. Thank God. This is something my principal has been expecting me to handle, but of course I know nothing about planting vegetables, although as an environmental education volunteer I supposedly should. The activity is on Wednesday and if all goes well we will have a successful project! And if not, at least I did everything I could do to start a school garden and cannot be accused of shirking my duties as an environmental educator.

Two hurricanes, Alex and some other one, just finished dumping a ton of rain on El Salvador and I am officially sick of the rainy season. Yes, two hurricanes AT THE SAME TIME. The storms ruined Pineapplefest, which I had been looking forward to all year. Water doesn't leak onto my bed, but even my sheets and blankets are damp from so much moisture in the air.
At least this is panning out to be a fun month. Tomorrow we have an Independence Day soccer tournament and several parties in San Salvador. Then at the end of the month I head to Nicaragua with a friend. Then my brother might come visit in August (maybe?) and a few days after he leaves we have our Close of Service conference and I will officially stop all major work and prepare to come home, probably in October.
I definitely have enough work to keep me busy until then, as we're still building stoves and trying to finish this project with the health dispensary.
In other news, the kid I wrote about, Luis, who was studying dentistry and lost his scholarship, went illegally to the United States last week. We had actually given him another chance with the scholarship, so he could have stayed here and studied, but the opportunity came to go mojado and he took it. It's sad to think he could have been a dentist here but instead will probably work construction or something there. I hope everything works out for him and that maybe I can meet him up in the States.

Here's a pic of the feria I went to with the interim ambassador...guess which one he is...


This is the biggest pineapple ever, at our Feria de la Piña one week later.
Paz y amor.