Sunday, April 6, 2008
- Went to mass (took communion), lunch (including “chao ming”), long nap in hammock, baby shower for Elena (Bible study, silly games, gifts, giant sandwich, cake), shower, Gilma gave me a shirt (too big for her, a little on the tight side for me), read some Reservation Blues, short phone call from Mom and Dad, short journal, bed.
New Words:
alabar = to praise (alabarse = to boast)
taburete = footstool
gozo = joy
colador = colander/strainer
colar = to strain/filter
colarse = to sneak in, to gate-crash, to slip up/make a mistake
“pupupear” = to poop
“pompas” = booty
gatear = to crawl
jacinto = hyacinth?
tamal pisce = made from corn flour and filled with beans
socado = tight (clothing)
Cast of Characters:
eScooby = Gabi’s dog, white with brown spots
Monday, April 7, 2008
- Relatively boring day. Computer, took inventory in S.N., computer. Armando did come in but spent most of the day in a meeting (and even though I wrote in my application that I’d be willing to do menial jobs I must admit I’d like to be important enough to be included in a meeting once in a while). Read a bit of Padre Angel’s book of interviews with people in the area (“Lands Bought with Blood?”) while I ate lunch by myself, then a brief stop at Sandra’s ‘despensa’ in El Mono, where she told us that a lot of the nearby stores have lower prices on larger quantities and that her beans had bugs in them. Would ask Armando who sets the prices and how, except I’m pretty sure I’d get one of his 20-min. replies that never answers the question. Will have to figure that one out little by little.
- Then to Nueva Esperanza, where I got to take inventory (yay!) while Armando collected the money. Loli had come with us to buy some “semilla de marañon” so we went to the fruit co-op to weigh that and ate some weird watermelon. It was just about sunset and I didn’t want to ride by bike home in the dark by myself so got dropped off at my house, where I did my exercises, showered, ate dinner, talked to Gilma for a bit, read Reservation Blues, and went to bed.
New Words:
gorgojos = bugs in beans (weevils)
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
- Another fairly boring day. Morning on the computer looking at a start-from-scratch Excel tutorial (in Spanish) and getting aggravated b/c I couldn’t figure out a formula for the inventory control form (by individual product). Should probably just ask Nathan or Chepe, but I want the satisfaction of figuring it out myself.
- Went to lunch with Estela, Nathan, Nohé, and David and was there not understanding any of Nohé’s stories and thinking about how tired I was when Armando walked by. Isn’t it great when your boss lets you know he’ll be coming in? Except I don’t think he keeps me in the dark to be an asshole – he just really doesn’t know what he’s going to be doing the next day.
- I helped Balbino package up some (non-weevily) beans and then perked up a bit when I learned I would be making my first unsupervised trip. Armando stayed put to supposedly do some work (I think he was just schmoozing with the ‘agrónomos’) while Balbino and I headed out to the Texaco, then El Mono and Las Mesas. All this in the blue Kia truck, which looks pretty big from the outside (esp. considering how huge the church minivan felt in DC) but wasn’t as hard to manage as I’d feared. It’s not exactly the smoothest ride, but it still had more pick-up than Mom’s Volvo station wagon…
- María Pilar hadn’t known we were coming (because, duh, no one thought to call her) so she was on her way out as we pulled into Las Mesas. Her two teenage-y sons helped as I took inventory and Balbino (and then me too) reviewed her daily sales sheets. These had improved in that she had all her numbers written in the correct decimal format, but she still had a lot of quantities written in the “price” column and had lots of prices that were a few cents off.
- I gave a ride to a woman with a baby and narrowly missed some pigs that ran in front of the truck on the way back to San Nicolás, where there were a few people around to witness my triumphal entry. Except I’d been sweating almost non-stop since about 8am and had been tired all day, so I was happy to just park and go home.
- Took a shower (first one before dark in a while), ate dinner, talked with Gilma, journal during the news (it’s weird to see scenes of DC when I could literally walk past the Capitol and White House a few months ago. Also the weather maps never really zoom in on El Salvador but just sort of show all of the Western Hemisphere and then Central America.), the lights went out for a few minutes and then came back on (phew – I will need the fan tonight), read book, Bible, B-E-D.
New Words:
carapachudos = crazy beetles that fly around the room at night and stick to curtains and humans
escurrir = to drain
fiscalía = inspectors office/ district attorney
retirar = to withdraw/ take away/ out ($)
Cast of Characters:
Tonio and Israel – María Pilar’s sons
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
- Thunder and rainstorm last night = another night without much sleep = I started the day rather tired and crabby. Then there was no internet and Armando pointed out to me and Balbino that he had added up the lists we had collected from Las Mesas and come out about $3.50 more than we had collected. So we had to go back through every single item and add them up again, and ended up having to pay $1.45 each to make up for the discrepancy. That in itself didn’t upset me very much, but it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back – I went to the bathroom and had a bit of a cry, then spent the rest of the day with my eyes periodically welling up. I asked Estela after lunch if maybe we could have a meeting with her, Arístides, Armando, and me to sort of evaluate my work so far and clarify my job description. She seemed to get the idea (when I’d asked Armando he’d started explaining the importance of the project again) and said we could try for early Friday morning. I was considering going home early but decided to do a little bit of work with the inventory there first. Then Armando ended up coming in and actually spent some time explaining stuff to me (i.e. where the beans come from, why the prices are what they are) and we all spent a while brainstorming how we could improve the inventory sheets. He also told us this morning that we might be going to a new system of only 3 stores selling only 5 basic products, so I have no idea…
- Pretty much left Gilma and Cecy in my dust on the bike ride home, then went straight to the shower to have another cry. I thought that I’d gotten it all out of my system, but apparently needed to cry a bit more as I was getting dressed. Seeing as how I have a curtain instead of a wall, it was pretty easy for Monica to peek in and then go say “Mommy, Liliana’s crying.” Not exactly the privacy I would have liked…
- Washed some shorts and sports bras, at (too much) dinner, journal, book, Bible, bed. Am really hoping to get some good sleep tonight and keep my eyes dry tomorrow.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
- Both of last night’s wishes pretty much came true – I slept fairly soundly and didn’t cry at all today.
- Had a bit of a chat with Nathan in the morning about some of my frustrations and besides it being really nice to get that out (in English), he helped me get a bit more of the big picture. I.e. the whole ‘despensas’ project is a big mess. So I felt a little better in that it seems more understandable for me to feel lost and confused when the whole thing is not going very smoothly, but I also felt a little guilty for really just worrying about myself and what I need instead of thinking in terms of what the project needs (although it’s not like that’s entirely clear).
- Balbino and I went to San Francisco Javier, La Solidaridad, and La Amistad in the afternoon. I called Armando a few times with questions but still ended up having to pay $1 b/c I apparently miscounted some money. Argh. Plus Telma asked if she was every going to get paid (she’d had a sick kid that had cost money) and was not very happy when I called Armando and he explained to her (I do think he had already told her this) that she wouldn’t be getting a regular wage, but some sort of percentage based on volume of sales. As her sales hadn’t been so great, she said she might have to quit… I just want everyone to be happy (myself included)!
- Got back to S.N. without killing anything again (alarm problem at the gas station, though), then met Robyn’s boyfriend, as they had just returned from Costa Rica. Had to wait for Gilma, then said I would help Sulma with her English homework. I was foolishly thinking this would take about 20 mins., but it ended up taking about 2 ½ hours. Luckily, I still had my lunch with me, so I ate that for dinner and generally had a good time with her.
- Shower about 9:30, journal, too late to fire up my computer to try to organize my thoughts about work, book, Bible, bed.
New Words:
culero/ pipián = gay
cerote = “puteando” (?)
maricón = gay
chicote = another word for the annoying beetles
chimar = to knock up against (in Nicaragua = to fuck)
rasparse = to get a scratch
rasguño = scratch (on skin, car, bike, etc.)
chambona = desordenado, fea, etc.
Friday, April 11, 2008
- Feeling like my normal self again, which always feels wonderful after a bout of depression. Slept in about half an hour later than usual (although Tomasa turned the radio on at full blast right at 7am), biked to the office, did some data entry and started working on some (paper) inventory sheets. Balbino was in an unusually hard-working mood, so I helped him move the industrial-sized fridge I’ve started using as my filing cabinet (it’s not plugged in – not sure if it works) and sweep up a bit in our little store area. He even got out a wet rag to wipe stuff down AND borrowed Columba’s mop – wow. This from a guy who gets maybe 3 customers a day and still can’t find time to fill out his damn inventory sheets. But he bought me some yucca and mangoes yesterday, so it’s all good…
- Lunch with Columba and Carmencita (still getting weird vibes from her), then spent a few hours transferring the paper inventory sheets into Excel b/c Chepe and I couldn’t quite come up with a way to simplify the format (at least not until right before I’d finished). Still not sure if this data is helpful at all, but at least that didn’t make me feel like crying today… Internet had come back at some point during the day, so I quickly did some emailing, checked my bank account, and checked my celebrity gossip. Then called Armando – turns out I will not have to drive the truck to San Salvador by myself tomorrow to buy stuff with him (good for me, not so great for the despensas).
- Biked home, then went for another bike ride (which involved looking like an ass going back and forth on the same 2- or 3-mile stretch of road between San Marcos and Mata Piña but felt great nonetheless), exercises, shower, helped make a salad, dinner, spent a while reading through the sizable stack of mail I’d gotten that morning (a “warm fuzzies” poster from my BVS unit, plus a book, Mental_Floss magazine, and plenty of Mark Trail comics and crossword puzzles from Mom. Also a very interesting article about how “green consumerism” is really an oxymoron and another that seemed to imply that solutions to poverty are simple and obvious. Hmmm…), brief visit from the padre, journal, finished Reservation Blues, bed.
New Words:
renta = income (i.e. for tax purposes)
cherenqueco = hooded lizard thing
lagarillo? = small lizards
ocupar = to be using something
impresora (not imprimidor) = printer
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