Big, Big Things

Rotary Club of Hudson, Massachusetts turned me down when I asked her to marry me and I do not know why. If anyone sees her around town, please put in the good word. Tell her I know we don't know each other too well but we have plenty of time. Tell her I'll never forget about what she did for me and how much she means to me.

Nora arrived here on the 8th of September during a capital-wide bus strike due to bus burnings. Let me tell you right now...bus strikes are the most debilitating thing in the world to a man who cannot afford to take taxi's and I found myself swearing at old ladies who told me for the 25th time that the #44 wasn't coming. I want to let you knowright now that I hate the capital. I hate it more than I hate people who have lived in Massachusetts their whole lives and say they love the Lakers, Yankees, Cowboys, and Twinkies. All those people and the city of San Salvador can go play in traffic.

Back to Norena...All the falling on her ass considered (and then put aside), she's acclimatizing well. She speaks better Spanish than I do (she talks shit about me behind my back) and gets along great with the women of town. The men of town won't even look the poor girl in the eye. It's a change for sure, but I think she really is looking forward to not having even one male friend over the age of 12, washing a lot of dirty clothes by hand, and socializing over the sound of slapping hands forming perfect tortillas. That said' the lives of women here in El Salvador (for the thirteenth time) is not even remotely similar to those of the women of central Massachusetts.

No, but seriously, La Peña gets a little freaked out by our very gringo relationship. Someone looked on in horror after I picked her up and pretended to put her into a bucket of water when she challenged me to a fight in front of everyone. They think its weird when we tell them that I cooked food and not her, and she looks like a god damn alien in a head band, shorts, sneakers, and carrying a yoga mat running up to the top of the mountain to get herself some alone time from me.

She's been a fantastic addition to the life. Just last week we taught women about menopause and she valiently stood up in front of about 15 strange women and proceeded to touch herself in extraordinarily inappropriate ways in an effort to teach them how to self breast exam.

What a gal, huh?

The Women's Group is great, too. We have started a micro business making Shampoo from scratch and selling it at a dollar a piece in order to do other small projects for the women's group. We've sold about 120 bottles so far leaving us with about 80 dollars profit and we are going to put that toward a cooking class next week. Any suggestions of something extraordinarily tasty that can be cooked over an open flame? Something that does not involve corn, beans, or coffee? Text me at 503 7675-8283 They are really such a phenomenal bag of laughs, these ladies.

I just bought ten tiny Hy-Line chickens. Give me a few months and I am gonna be eating so many eggs. I have named them all Fabricio.

With the help of Rotary Club Hudson I finally completed a project to bring more energy efficient stoves to La Peña. 26 Eco friendly stoves to use less wood to burn and less smoke emitted to cut down on deforestation and cost of wood, as well as better the work environment of the women of La Peña. This is a project that a lot of Peace Corps volunteers do, so its far from anything special, but I need to stress the importance of my good friend Rotary Club Hudson.

Stove Team International (stoveteam.org) provides this 'ecocina' for $52. The government of El Salvador provides a $10 subsidy making it $42. In the past Rotary Clubs from the West Coast have provided a $10 subsidy as well to help with the cost of stoves because most are being sold to poorer communities. Well, that subsidy stopped and put a serious strangle hold on my community's ability to buy these stoves. Long story short I asked Rotary Club Hudson to help with the project and they very generously, graciously, and brilliantly provided myself and La Peña with half of the $1092 bill making each stove in the community only $21. They altruistically helped a relative stranger help a group of complete strangers with an incredible donation of $546 dollars.

So like I said, if you see her around, please tell her I said thanks and that she means a lot to me. If she is thinking about changing her mind and marrying me, make sure she knows she's still going to have to take my last name. I love her so much and I think her new name has a serious ring to it...Rotary Club of Cormier.