Life continues to get crazier...

I think it´s time I explain better what´s happening in my community. It´s a very long and complicated story, but I´ll do my best.
First of all, I need to explain what I mean by ¨local government.¨It´s more local than the mayor - he´s doing just fine in my municipality. It´s my community´s government. It´s called an ADESCO, an acronym for Association for Community Development. It´s not a given that all communities have one; they have to want one, and it often takes years to get enough community members involved and to apply for legal standing. Mine is actually one of the oldest ones around and for years was respected for being well-organized.
As it happens, my ADESCO is in charge of the water project, which was completed only a year or two ago. Before that, all the women had to go to the river to wash and bring back water. Now they have clorinated water piped into their homes. Like my places in El Salvador where water comes to the houses, it´s not available all day. Instead, it comes for a little while and people fill their barrels or pilas during that time. Clearly it´s a wonderful thing to have the water project, but the management of it has created a lot of tensions in San Juan, in addition to the normal political squabbles. Upon receiving the water, everyone in the community agreed to a set of rules, but of course that doesn´t always hold up. That´s why the rebel government was formed. Well, actually there are a number of reasons, but water is the big thing. Both sides have points in their favor. Understandably people need water for everything, but if they don´t pay for 3 months, their water gets cut off, which is also reasonable. Then they say they´re paying too much or not getting enough. It´s hard because it´s such a basic necessity.
I tell you all of this because things got even crazier last week when the rebel government broke into the water system and put their own locks on it, placing themselves in charge of the water project. The mayor tried to send one of his men, the social promotor, to the community, but they put up road blocks. Supposedly the major himself is coming for a meeting later this week and bringing the police and church leaders with him. We´ll see.
This whole situation breaks my heart on a lot of levels, but what most gets to me is the break down of families here. Everyone in my community is related somehow, and this mess is dividing them. It´s even infiltrated the Seventh Day Adventist Church in my village, and probably would the Catholic if there were a priest here regularly.
All that being said, the people here are still really good to me. Right now I feel frustrated but content.
Mom asked if other volunteers have these same problems here. Certainly all ADESCOs have issues, but mine is unique. I can´t really point to one reason why my community is the way it is, and in what ways the people are different from other Salvadorans, but it is what it is.
I hope I explained this somewhat. Like I said, it´s a crazy, complicated mess. I know y´all are inclined to worry, but don´t! I don´t tell you this to scare you but because you said you wanted to know.

me again

Hey everyone back home,
I hope you are well. I am content, but could be better. My counterpart and community president definitely exaggerated the degree to which tempers had cooled in San Juan. Cross your fingers that everybody can put their politics and pride aside to get this clinic project running! If it goes down the drain, there is a good chance also that the next project will be a goner as well. The next one involves latrines, chicken houses, and new ovens that divert the smoke (they cook often over fires, especially when they´re making tortillas).
I´ve resigned myself at this point to the fact that I will probably work almost entirely in the school if the turmoil persists. I don´t mind, there´s a lot to do there, but the school year ends in two weeks and doesn´t pick up again until February. In the mean time, I´ll be traveling a little bit for different events. Other than that, you´ll find me playing with the kids and making tamales until February!

Back in the big San Juan

I flew back to El Salvador last Monday, spent two nights in the capital visiting everybody there, and got back to site on Wednesday! It was hard to leave home, but I´m glad to be back in my community. My house was a crazy mess, but it´s under control now, and I picked up my puppy on Saturday, so everything is returning to normal.
Tempers have cooled somewhat since I left, so the whole political mess is also coming under control. So now my community president is anxious to get working again, and so am I!
So yeah, things on my end are good. I miss everybody at home, now more than ever. Love yall!

messing around in GA

I'm still in the US for a little while longer. I was messing around on the internet today and found a photo I want to share with y'all. I haven't been able to get a good photo of a torogoz, the national bird of El Salvador, but I found a great one. It's such a pretty bird! Follow the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrivasphotography/873390883/
While we're at it, here's the izote, the national flower. I'm told you can eat them, but I've never tried one.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Izote_Flor_Nacional.jpg
And Happy (belated) Independence Day to El Salvador and its neighbors! They celebrate Independence on September 15 (ES, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras declared independence as one united country).

photos

I'm still at home, so I took advantage of having internet to post some more photos.
http://elmundoesunpanuelophotos.shutterfly.com/
The new ones include my host family during my first two months at site, a big 15th birthday party, my new house, Dulce (my puppy), patron saint festival activities, and the medical clinic project.

home

I am back in the US. I came back really suddenly on emergency leave to be with the family. Dad's taken a turn for the worse. I have no idea how long I'll be back. I hope to talk to yall soon. The house phone is 770-985-2422 and my mom's cell is 770-823-1829. I might get a pre-paid cell for while I'm here, but I'll let you know.

Alex?

So this new storm is called Alex, right? All I know is that it finally stopped raining. PC had us on standfast in our sites, meaning we weren´t allowed to leave. There´s really no risk of flooding where I am, but I´ve heard they evacuated people in other parts of ES. I just got another good soaking, and lots of time to go through my pile of books. My poor puppy´s so bored she´s about to destroy everything in my house.
I´m putting up photos on facebook as we speak. I´m also uploading some full quality ones to shutterfly.com so that everyone can see them, but obviously that takes longer. I´ll try to get some more up soon.
http://elmundoesunpanuelophotos.shutterfly.com/
Hope that link works.

Yes, I´m in my house!

Ok, so life is crazy. I was thinking this whole government mess would be over by now, but the meeting with the mayor this week didn´t solve anything. It turned into such a shouting match that my counterpart and I just left, and we learned later that they hadn´t reached an agreement anyway. We´re still hanging, but we´ve got to keep going as best we can given the circumstances and the information we have (and by we, I mean my counterpart and I).
Good news, though! I´m in my new house with my new puppy! She´s a gift from one of the women in the community, and her name is Dulce (pronounced Dool-say - it means "sweet"). While her owner gave her tortillas occasionally, she was pretty much a street dog, but now that I have her, feed her, and spoil her, she doesn´t want to leave my side! She´s like Winston, if you remember when we got him, Mom; at first she was shy, but now that her belly´s full, her personality is shining through! Such a cutie, too. She´s a mutt, but she looks Border collie-ish, except brown and white instead of black. She´s about three months old. My house is great too, and I´m surrounded by little boys who come to visit me all the time.
Cross your fingers I get photos up next week. It´s going to be another crazy one, but then next weekend my friends and I are going to the 4th of July party at the embassy in San Sal!

home!

Hey everybody, I´m back home in San Juan! I get to move into my new house today! Cross your fingers that I get a dog tomorrow.
I came back to a community in an uproar over some local government issues, so I´m on hold as far as projects go. To make a long story short, some community members formed a rebel government, but it´s not violent or anything. The whole thing will be sorted out next week, for better or for worse. Then I can get to work (when I know who I´ll be working with!) I´m trying to imagine how this sounds to yall back home. Maybe scary? It´s not really, but it does sort of feel like I´m in a movie at the moment, like I should have a soundtrack to capture the emotions of the moment.
Hope things are well at home and you´re enjoying the summer! Happy Father´s Day!

safe!

Just a quick post to say we're all clear! I'm back with the host family, but going to San Salvador this weekend.
My response to the question about the dryer is, "What dryer?" I guess I forget that yall don't really know what life looks like here. Microwaves, while not in every house like back home, are not uncommon here, though. I may start microwaving my clothes to dry them faster during rainy season. It can't hurt to try, right?