yep

The volcano always looks pretty awesome. It's the first thing I see when I walk out my door in the morning. However, some days, it looks extra awesome. This was yesterday afternoon.

picture of home

here's a view of my town. we're pretty much built on a mountain.

the motherload

made some "pineapple chicken". not exactly what it tastes like at your local chinese buffet, but there's pineapple in it, and there's chicken, therefore, it is pineapple chicken
here's what i do when the power goes out. found that sweet returnable coke bottle (it's a 2 liter one) in my back yard when i first moved in.

this is the suit i wear when we travel by motorcycle. i not so fondly refer to my helmet as my captain america helmet. when wearing all this stuff, it's one of the only moments that i can't be identified as a gringo (which would really be nice), but then i got this american flag wrapped around my head.

took this picture from my kitchen window

Here's a newly built stove, they are fantastic, saves a lot of wood and doesn't spread smoke all over your house
Here's how they were cooking before that stove was built. this is inside their house.
I don't know how this ends up here, i didn't do it (like i could spraypaint a heart that well). it is next to a house where the kids always yell goodbye to me though, they may be the culprits
Here's my bridge. built a few months ago because the old bridge was wiped out by stan, nice work dad, ha.
this is a newly built adobe house. just about everyone in the country lives in these. the walls are mud, the roof is tin, the floor is dirt.
here's my poster i made for a training. that thing in the middle is a chicken. the title is "what do chickens give us". and clockwise from top left it says "manure, money, eggs, and meat". notice the stink lines above the manure...that's art.

this blew my mind. went to this lady's house to vaccinate her chickens, and here's this kid with a minnesota gophers shirt on. i was pretty excited, they were confused by my excitement, probably thought i was a little weird.

today´s training

today and tomorrow i´m doing a training on how to raise chickens for a fellow volunteer close to where i live. where she´s at, is a much more indigenous area. What this means, is that they don't so much speak spanish, nor can they read. so this makes giving a traing a bit of a challenge. they can't read what i write if i make posters, and they don't understand what i´m saying. so, what i have to do is have a translator. generally the women don´t speak spanish, but the men do. so there´s a man that translates for me. I do make posters, but they are all pictures more or less. you should see my chicken drawings. my chickens look like potatoes with beaks, but we all get the idea. i think some of my jokes were even translated and still funny for them. in conclusion, i´m hilarious in 3 languages. ha.

more like...

what CAN'T you do with a machete?!

not often thought about uses for machetes that i have witnessed:

1. Cutting block. you know, the block you use to build a wall. you masons and your chop saws, silly.

2. Chipping paint. yes, it's true. how much more fun must that be with a machete?

and my favorite...

3. Mounting a tire. This is the best. know why? because you get to use TWO machetes at once. have you ever held two machetes at a time? No? well i have. it was pretty much the coolest feeling i have ever had.

chompipe day

Happy Thanksgiving! I don't have any turkey, but i do have the day off.

La playa

Went to the beach a few weekends ago. It was warm. Here are some pictures!

i'm sorry

it's been over a month or something. i just don't always get on the internet so much. i don't even know who is the governor of MN at this moment. so here's what has happened. i went to the beach this weekend. it was hot and fun. My friend locked the key in our room and the night hotel man said there was no copy. He unknowingly LIED!!! we slept on tile. i'll get some pictures up here of the beach.

there was a bus crash outside of town. 6 people died. there's bus crashes here rather frequently. it happens for a variety of reasons. sometimes the driver was going REALLY insanely fast. sometimes the driver was drunk. sometimes the driver was doing both of those things. sometimes brakes don't work. sometimes it was an accident.

work is going well. chickens are happier and happier with every day that i spend here. i am propagating worms all over the place. the people laugh a lot at worms. first it's funny because i'm white. second it's funny because i'm telling them how these worms (but seriously, they're amazing) will change their life. third it's funny because in spanish the worm is called "coqueta roja" which means "red flirt".

there are other things that have happened that were probably blog worthy. i will try to remember them (but if someone bets you whether i will or not, tell them that you don't gamble).

i wish i could call everyone more often. phone minutes do not grow on trees, nor on any other kind of plants including root crops.

i broke my toe

soccer is no good for me. i played football for a while, got injured once. i've played soccer barely, got injured twice now. pretty sure my toe(s) is/are broken. goodness. want to sign it? there's no cast, but anyways, you can sign it. sorry you had to find out like this mom and dad, unless i call you before you see this. it's really not that big of a deal though. ok.

my most surreal moment to date

so i met the president of guatemala. they had a bridge inaugaration, and i went. he came in his helicopter. we talked to one of his staff members, and he agreed to request a photo with the guy. so then we took the picture. now, we get to the surreal part. here's the situation. bridge opening, guatemala, president of guatemala, picture, him talking about chevy chase during the photo, in english. so get that.

a razor to the ears

got a haircut. he trimmed up my ear hair (which isn't THAT long)...with a straight razor. not gonna lie to ya, i was a little nervous at that point.

¡Fotos!

The team, we are called "Los Malos"

This is the equivalent of a county courthouse in my town.


This was a parade on Independence day here on the 15th of September


Another picture from the parade.


Your typical house in the country


Photo taken from one of the windows of my house

attack of the fleas part II

so those fleas that got on me at that one place came home with me. they love to bite you when you're sleeping. it wakes you up. so, today, with any hope, i killed a lot of fleas with this spray i bought. had to take out my mattress and box spring and spray it down and smack them around a little bit with a stick. plus my couch cushions. good times. good thing the motorcycle that was going to take me vaccinating didn't start this morning. julie, you should give those kids some fleas, they´d be too busy itching themselves and too tired from no sleep to stab stuff. just a thought.

by the way, made a carrot cake. they were free range carrots too. walking around and stuff, less fat that way.

have a good day.

attack of the fleas

i got attacked by fleas. i was in a chicken coup, turns out it was infested. they crawled all over me and bit me a lot. how's work for you?

back to my other home

alright, so i got back about a week ago. trip was good. could have had a little bit more time back in minnesota to see more people. sorry to those that i couldn't get to see. things were super busy. it was definitely a good time. josh got all married. maybe i'll find some wedding photos to post.

at home

got to msp on what would be tecnically thursday morning at 12:30 am. i touched american concrete in atlanta. got to dalton to yesterday. i brought machetes as presents for my dad and brother, clearly not in my carry-on. i took my boots and belt off quite a few times throughout the trip. funniest part of the trip was in atlanta when there was a siren that started out and a voice on the intercom saying "there is an emergency in the building". what was funny was the reaction of all these americans in post 9-11 airports. EVERYONE STARTED LAUGHING. i don't get it. in conclusion, i've eaten entirely too much candy.

coming home soon

i'll be home soon. I'll be back home on the 17th of august. hope to see a bunch of people. prepare yourselves.

for the corn aficionados out there

That's some tall corn

newest project

so today i started a series of trainings on chickens. what i'm trying to do with one of my counterpart agencies is develop the "prometoras" in a number of communities. i want them to learn how to be the go-to person in their communities when it comes to peoples chickens. so, what this means is that they need to learn to identify the different sicknesses that plag chickens, how to prevent and or cure them if possible, the kind of shape they need to have their chicken coups in, as well as how to feed their chickens well. today was the first training, i thought it went well. it's also really good spanish practice, and found that a good spanish benchmark was that i was more or less able to wing it. i also made some posters and stuff before hand (i told them that today was my premiere as an artist here, and told them they could make a purchase afterwords, there were no offers). so anyways, i'm pretty excited about the whole thing. it's something that could relatively easily continue after my service here, which is kind of the point, sustainability and whatnot.

and me without a grill

It's friday afternoon, the sun is shining, had a good day at work, and all i really want to do is grill some meat. there's meat, i could get a pound of chicken for myself just down the road. but, alas, there is no grill. i might have to dig a firepit and find a thing. in conclusion, i still win.