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From: Ben Hasse
Organization: Peace Corps
Date: December 2001
I offer you a belated Happy Thanksgiving, and a slightly
early Happy Beginning of Advent. O Come, O Come Emmanuel!
I have been extremely busy. Internet access, and money
for Internet access, has been tight. So this will be a shorter message.
As Calvin says, "The days are JUST packed!" Today, for
instance, I´ve already sharpened three machetes with a rusty file, eaten
hot vegetable soup for breakfast, shimmied up a coconut palm, failed
to get a coconut, knocked one out with a stick, drank the lovely milk
(didn´t eat the flesh as there was none - not quite ripe), bought a
pocketful of fireworks for only 23 cents, and now I´m e-mailing you.
And it's not even noon. I didn´t mention the bus ride, morning prayer,
or the cold shower out of a bucket. (Notice, that's not QUITE in order.)
I´m really enjoying myself here, especially since they
started letting me play with machetes. Tomorrow I´m going to go help
cut firewood for the third time with a small farmer from Santa Clara.
To clarify, he's a normal-sized guy, but his farm isn't huge. We're
over half way through training. We'll find out our sites where we'll
spend the next two years soon, next week I think. That's both exciting
and scary.
On Thanksgiving they had a big dinner for us, and an
all-volunteer conference. Friday we took a big trip to the beach. That
is called Fun Day, and let me tell you, it is WELL named. Fun Day Activities:
Long bus ride filled with inexplicable periods of waiting on the side
of a narrow road; body surfing and swimming in the very salty Pacific
in decent sized waves; hacky-sack; catch with a Frisbee; machete cutting
competition; masa tossing (masa is the corn dough they use to make tortillas
and lots of other things); a masa fight; water-bucket-carrying competition;
arm-wrestling; eating shrimp, fish, chicken, donuts, pop, and Doritos;
water-sliding individually and in various trains of people; more hacky
sack; meeting lots of new volunteers; ultimate Frisbee on the beach;
sitting atop the van to pack bags; and riding back to San Vicente. The
next day I got up, cut firewood for four hours, and played soccer in
the afternoon, gringos vs. guanacos (slang for Salvadorans). We lost
5-2, but it was spectacular, and we played on a nice field with grass
covering ALL of it. So, by this past Sunday I was exhausted but VERY
happy.
So, That's my life now. I´m getting good at cutting firewood
with a machete, and at sharpening machetes. I´m happy most of the time,
occasionally a little sad, and sometimes pretty hyper. I'd say 70, 5,
25 for percentages.
One of the other trainees has put digital pictures up
on the Web at http://communities.msn.com/MatthewLomeli.
Check them out, they're cool.
So, I hope you are all VERY well. God Bless, Ben Hasse
