Una Actualizacion!

Hello to all! Jimbo here finally sending a solid update!

So, after a lot of waiting and trying to be paciente I just did it... signed on gmail and sent an email to my boss expressing how READY I was to really get going on things and this is what is going down:

Peace Corps has granted me another move. I will now be living 30 minutes from my community, instead of 3 hours away! So I will have amazing access to my site and to the local city where I get work done.

In terms of banking, I no longer have to wait for IDs to be replaced because we are going to place the Disaster Relief Fund in our communities associations bank account. This way, weeks of waiting and frustration are now over. Within a week I will be living close to my community, spending full days there working and have the money available to start working.

Not a better way for me to start this new year!

I hope all is well, THE SECOND that we start working, I promise more updates and photos!

Jimbo

My First Update

Hello to everyone back stateside! I am so sorry that it has been so long, if anything, my lack of contact is an example of how slow things have been here. A small update:

Many of you may know that I was graced with the presence of DaveSquared, that´s right, Dave Anderson and Dave Hannon made a trip out to El Salvador to visit and try to get some work done. Unfortunately, there was not a tone of work done. When I first contacted my boss I was told to take it easy for a few days and wait and see. Being that I had two buddies here with me, I took them around the country and we visited with some friends of mine. I was then passed down a series of work/living restrictions, which are necessary but difficult to work around. I have been placed in our local mayor´s office, literally his office, which is located about two hours from my community when there is transport. The problem with that is that there normally is not any transport at all forcing me to take a bus around the whole volcano to go up the back way. This can take up to 6 hours with all the waiting and leaves me only an hour to do actual work before I am forced to leave for the night.

I have meet with my bosses and sent in a proposal for a new community that is along the road heading towards the volcano so that I can wake up in the morning, get a full day’s work in and then head off the volcano for the night. My bosses have listened and I think everything will turn out well; the only problem is that it is Christmas and things are SLOW!

In terms of the fundraiser, I got back to my site and looked around for important banking information, unfortunately my IDs were lost. This is also adding slowness to everything. I am in the process of replacing local ID and a banking ID so that I can set up my Disaster Relief Account where I will be putting in the money that we collected while I was in Michigan.

I am a little frustrated because I would love things to happen at a faster pace, but this is the way it is, so I am trying to adapt. I will be SO EXCITED to have a house close to my work and the banking set up so we can organize and start reconstructing everything!

I promise that I will keep everything in the loop, as of now, it has been a lot of sitting and waiting and trying to coordinate housing and bus times. Within the next week, things should really pick up. As soon as they do, get ready for a lot more stories, pictures and proof of how the money you have donated is really making a difference!

Thank you to everyone and have a great Christmas!

love,
Jimbo

Tragedy in El Salvador

Friends and family,I am very excited to get to Michigan this coming Tuesday. For those of you that do not know, I will be in town for two weeks. I cannot wait to be around friends and family, I have wanted to visit will all of you for so long now. Obviously, you all know that I have been a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural El Salvador working in a poor, coffee planting community. Very early last Sunday morning tragedy struck in my part of the country. I know that the news has focused a lot on the destruction and pain that Salvadorans are going through right now. I wanted to take some take to inform you on everything that happened to me, my community and the region of Vera Paz, El Salvador.

The events have affected me very much, leaving me very scared and at times quiet in thought. While I am at home, I really would like to focus on other subjects just because it is too hard to talk about it. For that, I thought I would send you exactly what happened, so that when we are all together we can focus more on what we can do to help, rather than focus on what I went through.For those who don´t want to read the whole story, I will say that in one night, do to a large amount of rain, thousands of people have been left without homes, without food and water without clothes. Entire communities have been erased. Entire families have passed away. Crops that Salvadoran farmers use to feed their families are ruined.

The level of poverty is too high for these people to help themselves. They depend on help from outside, and they need this help now more than ever. Many of you have already helped me, and I would not ask again for donations if it were not so important. I have five months left in El Salvador, and I will use working in this part of the country helping however I can. Your donations will literally help people survive these next few months while they start over from scratch.



A picture taken of Chinchontepec, where I live. My community is on the left hand side of the volcano, more than half way up. It is so beautiful, but now very scarred. What looks to be a road formed, is a landslide that devastated a neighboring pueblo, Vera Paz.

The following is my account: Saturday evening at 5pm, I arrived in my community, Santiago de Chile, with a good friend, Diana, to give a Sexual Education Talk with the local teenagers. When we arrived, there was too much rain to have the meeting, so I canceled it, and Diana and I had a normal evening with my family. We drank coffee, talked with the neighbors and enjoyed a typical Salvadoran winter night. After a wonderful evening with rain, we then went to bed.

A picture of the road leading into my community with four feet of mud covering it. People from my community for the first time descovering what had happend.

At 1am, while sleeping I was quickly woken up by very loud noises coming from my side door. The noises we so loud that I thought a group of men were breaking in to rob or do harm to us. I jumped to my feet and hit the light switch – there was no light. I found myself in the dark of the night standing in 3 feet of mud. Within two seconds of the door breaking open, my whole house was filled with it. I grabbed Diana by the arm and pulled her towards the door. While in my house, struggling through the mud, we had to climb over smaller sized boulders. We tried to go through the front door, it would not open. We had to fight the mud pouring in and climb over more boulders to reach the next door. As we reached the door that was opened by the weight of mud and rock, I saw that our latrine and 5 foot wall around our house no longer existed.

From above I could see that the volcano had in fact turned into a landslide and it was passing through the heart of my community, two feet outside of my door. Diana continued tripping, trying to fight the current of the landslide, dragging her with one hand, tracing the edge of the house with the other, we eventually got to the other side where we met the rest of my family. We were in the porch, Diana passed me her cell phone that she grabbed on our way out and I started to call for help. There was no signal. We moved to our neighbors and I started hours of communication with Peace Corps Security.

With all the chaos, men and women cleaning and salvaging items from houses, many kids were running around this very dangerous area as if it was a playground.

From 2am to 6pm, Diana, myself and 15 other community members were in this porch sitting and waiting. No one could see, all we did was sit and wait. Four long hours of our silence, interrupted by the unforgetable sound of boulders sliding towards us - it was a nightmare.At 6pm, the sun finally out, the rain stopped. Everyone left from the porch to access the damage. My house had 4 feet of mud in it and tons of boulders ranging from knee high to almost half my size. The community started cleaning. Peace Corps would not let me leave my site because they were afraid of more landslides along the road. So we stayed, cleaning, distracting ourselves and hoping that it would not rain again. The rain started once again.

Diana, a civil engineer, took a walk around my community accessing the damage. She came back to my house where I was and told me that it was too unsafe to stay. I would around my community to see for myself what had happened. Our football field no longer exists. The road out, completely blocked. By the side of my house, 2 feet from a door – a ravine 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep. This newly formed ravine passes my house, crosses the street and leads to three houses which are now completely buried by rock and dirt.

A picture of the Catholic Church. My house is located directly behind it. Unfortunately, we could not get closer to take a picture. The landslide passed the left side of the church and my house, crossing the road and barrying three houses below.

At 10:30am, Peace Corps determined that it was too dangerous for me to stay in my community. I talked to a large group of people asking them to come with me, telling them that it would be too dangerous during the night, with a chance of rain and loose boulders up above the community. Diana and I said goodbye to everyone, no one came with us. This was very hard to do. I had fished out a par of soccer cleats in my room buried in the mud. Diana was wearing them. A fifteen year old girl from my community ran up to us with a par of tennis shoes and told us, ´I really want to come with you but my mom is staying her so I have to as well´ - she gave Diana the shoes to put on and walked away crying.

Two local girls walking the road to see the damage.

Three hours later, walking down the volcano on the only road, climbing over and around ten landslides, we reached the nearest city where we waited for a Peace Corps car to pick us up. From the city, Zacatecoluca to San Salvador, we witnessed and 90 kilometers of destruction. Bridges destroyed, houses washed away and knocked down of the road and floods that have ruined crops.

Hours before these area was forest. Now covered with feet of mud and boulders, it is very unstable ground.


Not just trees, but parts of the forest were ripped out of the ground and thrown into the river of mud and rock.

What looks to be a uphill road, is actually one of three landslide that passed through Santiago de Chile. At the peak, where it formed, it also turned to the left and passed two feet away from my house, knocking down a retention wall, latrine and barrying my neighbors housesthis is what I woke up to.


On the right hand side you can see the stone road. Here, a quarter of it sunk down while a landslide passed through.
Days later, with Peace Corps El Salvador´s Director, I took a trip to Vera Paz, El Salvador. This is a smaller city that I know very well. My community is on the volcano, I pass through Vera Paz to get to my community. When we arrived, I did not recognize the area. Helicopters flying over head, hundreds of people working, watching, crying - we had to put masks on to block the smell of bodies. Streets were filled with boulders. I walked through the bolder filled streets with my head higher than the level of the roofs of the houses that are still standing. The owners were still trying to dig there way back in to look for bodies and valuable goods. The area closest to the volcano, now a large rock garden, literally no trace of life, houses, nothing… All erased by a few hours of rain and a massive landslide.

This is the first shot of San Vicente. This community is 45 minutes from me in bus. I live in the upper right hand corner of the volcano. What started where I live, built of speed and hit this area of El Salvador at night, without warning. Survivors of this area said that houses exploded.

This is the road from San Vicente to my community. On the side of the road, where there use to be houses, now are only boulders, some bigger than cars.

We passed by the local health clinic where a woman my age was talking with doctors. Her mother´s body was just identified. It was found 25 kilometers away from Vera Paz. She was in the road trying to escape when the landslide hit. There have been many deaths, and many more missing people. The government will not be reconstructing San Vicente because it is too dangerous, no one will ever be able to live there again.

A road through the community, now a river bed. The goverment has said that they will not clean up all the boulders and mud. The river has now found, the path of the landslide, from now on anytime there is rain, an earthquake or another landslide, everything will direct itself here.
My community, Santiago de Chile is very lucky. Diana and I laterally escaped death, if we would have hesitated longer, we would have drowned while trying to escape. During the emergency there was too much adrenaline to be scared, only now am I coming to terms with what has happened. With 7,000 people without homes, food, clothes, the country literally is in crisis. My community has been left behind. There has been no access for trucks and not enough deaths for emergency crews to place enough focus on their needs. As of today, two helicopters have landed dropping off food but it is not enough. This is where all of us can make a difference. There are 500 people in my community waiting for food, water, clothes, anything at all.

A typical house in El Salvador touched destroyed within seconds.

While I am home, I will be trying to make presentations to Rotary Clubs and other groups to raise money. I also will be asking for donations from us. We, as a team, can literally save my community. Without our donations, I truly fear that smaller children and elderly people in my community will not survive the next few months. Any donation can help. I have started in San Salvador. Friends have been collecting clothing, shoes, food and water to give. Stateside, money donations will be used to do the same here. Before arriving in the US, Peace Corps is going to be driving me to my community to take a census of basic needs, and I will use your donations to make sure these people have the basics needed to survive these next few very hard months.

When we arrived, families were trying to enter these houses to look for loved ones who had disappeard.

This was a house where Peace Corps Volunteers stayed during training. The body of the mother was found 25 kilometers away.

Shocking how much earth fell apon this small pueblo.

Many locals at still trying to live in their houses on streets just like this one.

School just ended for the year. Local teenagers taking a break from relief work.

The local school.

There was so much mud that people have to get around the pueblo like this.

It is very hard for me to talk about everything that has happened, I am still very shaken up from the near death experience. I wanted to send the story to all of you so before getting to Michigan so that when we see each other we can begin to try to help. Don´t worry about me, I have so many wonderful friends and family that I will be fine, I am just worried sick about so many families here in El Salvador – let´s try to do as much as we can!

Please look at the photos, read my story again, look up Vera Paz on google. Please try to help me fundraise, talk with family and friends, give whatever you can. I will be spending the next 5 months try to do whatever I can – it will not be enough, but it is a start. Anyone that can help, I promise you that I will make sure your donations go directly to the families that need it.

You can also click on this link to watch a video filmed in Santiago de Chile, my community. A reporter walked in from Zacatecoluca, using the same road that I used to escape. It is in Spanish, for those of you that don´t understand the video, the reporter is saying that my community has been left behind. The community without food, water, clothes and some families without houses, he is asking that people start helping. During the video, when the focus on the white chruch, hit pause, and look behind the church. The house directly behind it is where I live. The door that you can see is where Diana and I escaped.

http://www.esmitv.com/vernoticia.aspx?id=2845

When I have everything completely organized, I will be sending account information so that donations can be sent. I thank you all so much and ask that you add the people of La Paz and Vera Paz to your payers.

I love you all and cannot wait to see you,

Jimbo

Baseball Time!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you "Baseball Day 1"
My church back home and I have been in contact and they organized a great package to send to me to help out with my work. An amazing back of bats, gloves, balls and Detroit Tiger caps; and a large donation of dental supplies. I am still trying to arrange some dentist visits to promote preventative dental health, in the meantime, I am playing some crazy baseball with the kids and trying to teach thoose little lifeskills that all US kids learn as we grow up playing organized sports.
I am prepairing a thank package for the group that did AMAZING WORK and will be visiting them in November. Until I send them the thank you, here is a mini-preview of the joy that their work brought here to El Salvador, on the side of a volcano!

I had to give Chris lead-off on the photos. Looking good with the guys!

En esta foto, saquen los pulgarcitos y sostenganlos en el aire! Thumbs up in this one boys! The best thing about these first two photos was organizing them. We had to open up the equipment, explain what it all was, lay down the rules of how of asking permision to play and, sportsmanship and listening to Jimbo and then we tried to do the photo. I gave the bases to three kids because I thought it would look good. All the other kids complained that they didn't have something to hold, so cute... I passed out everything we had, and when everything was happy we snapped a few shots!

Explaining how to put on a glove....

Oscarittoooooooooo... cutest kid ever, can hit a decent pop-up.

Trying to keep everyone happy while organizing the team photo.

On our way to the field, before the kids saw the equipment... Months ago I taught them thumbs-up and I am telling you... they love it.

Por la callejon hacia la cancha, sigan la bolsa anoranjada por favor... Through the ally towards the field, follow the orange bag!

Another shot of us just getting there!

Teaching kids how to bat... it is so cute with little kids, they always put their hands on the bat crossed so that they can't swing correctly. Note, it is hard to explain baseball in English... in Spanish... ahhhhh.

Rookie Card. Diego, 5 years old, shortstop.

Chris Vraniak, batting coach. Working with Raul, a quick player with real potencial.

Alexis, Samuel y Jeffery... The boys of summer.

This is the only girl that came out to play. Honestly, they best player we have.

What you can't see is that on top of the 20 some on kids playing, there was a bunch of family out watching the game which was great to see. That is until they starting yelling at me telling me to play better - and they were being serious, haha. I need to get Billy Leddy out here so that these kids can learn from a guy that knows what he is doing!

I think it is obvious how amazing these kids are, and how happy they are to be playing baseball with this amazing equipment...

Vraniak vino aqui para saludar a los cuates

Hey guys... I know that I have really sucked at the communication lately but my world has been slowed down by gravity and the lack of a laptop. However, I am here, I am writing and hopefully, you are reading!
Chris Vraniak decided to come into town for a few days, big mistake.
Chris rolled in like any other good patriot - 4th of July.
Quick Summary:
San Salvador dancing all night - Chris may not have the salsa moves that I have picked up but I say him picking it up quickly. Right, Chris?
Beach for two days. We hit up some surf lessons... Chris lasted longer than I did, but then again he walked out of the water concussed and I was only complaining of how hard surfing is.
My community! That is right, Chris rocked out in my community for a few days and realized how amazing my life here is in El Salv! We hung around the house, we to the camponario so that Chris could experience a bucket bath on a volcanoe and played some seriously baseball with my kids!

That is me on the right with the baby blues... Chris looking his best, no shirt, weird smile (smelled at the time of the photo).

Chris reading to some of my neighbors!

Chris and my neighbor who is in LOVE with him... (Look at the hang on leg... just look at it).

My main man from my community, Diego, and my main man from the states... life is good!

Chris and Nene.

It was great to have Chris here in county. Made me think about home... I will be there November 17th - December 2nd.

OH YEA!

A Tribute

I remember yanking on his chain, his 100 and something out-of-shape body clenched to the grass in our front yard.
'Jimbo, you love to run so much, it is your job to get Norman running'.
For a dog that would do anything to take a walk around our block I was both disappointed and relieved that on 2 day of 'Norman's new life' he started an exercise program that lasted for years: sprint out the door, dive-bomb onto our lawn and play dead until I gave up (and I gave up every time). I think Norman knew I was trying to change his habits, and I think that is why he rebelled against me. One afternoon, during one of his sit-in protests on the front lawn, me yanking Norman's chain pleading that he does one lap with me, mom pulls into the driveway. The 100 and something lug performs a 360 jump/back flip, dodges me and runs to the side of mom's car waiting for her... I think it was then that I realized that my lazy brother, Norman, wasn't lazy at all, just dedicated to one thing and one thing only.
Mom is out the door for work at 7am, Norman starts his day of pacing and waiting for 415 when she appears again. Only to then spend time with her until he relaxed and then would let himself fall asleep waking up every so often to make sure everyone was ok. He would have done anything for her... I actually remember a few times Norman watching my mom while talking trying to understand exactly what she was saying and becoming frustrated because he couldn't.
Norman saw my high school graduation, my college graduation and was a guest of honor at my Peace Corps going away party. I never thought it would be possible that I would come home from El Salvador and not see him at the door waiting to blow past me to greet my mom first and then come and give me a hug. I am glad he is not suffering anymore but getting the phone call that he had left us was too much.
I always use to complain that my nickname was Jimbo and Norman was the name of a tenured English professor at a community college... but that is OK, I think in many ways he was smarter than me. He always listened, even though he didn't always understand; he was always there, even though I didn't always acknowledge him; and he always forgave because I think he understood that that was all that ever really mattered. Pacing and waiting, falling asleep and waking up again just to make sure that everyone was ok.

My Current Life, The Album

Country is different, but the old lady plays the same.
A look down my volcano.

Out working.

A sunset in the campo.

About twenty reasons I will never want to leave.

One Year and Counting

Over a year has passed. I am so far away from Detroit Metro now. So far away from my old doubts, struggles of packing my bags, saying goodbye, and for the first time in my life, moving away from everyone and everything that I knew. A year truly brings change. At times I have never felt so far away from home, yet, some old relationships have strengthened. Perhaps the struggle to form new relationships emphasizes the importance and uniqueness of the ones that you already have. With others, they are slowly fading; this is disappointing to say the least. Stateside, where there is some distance between me and ‘los del Norte’ I have still felt the changes: deaths, marriages, a falling economy and the frustration caused by having to attempt to explain it all to a young guy who has not been around to see the actual effects. I feel the same way… so much happens here, even when life does not seem to move, but my words don’t serve it justice. It is hard to be stuck between not exactly knowing what is going on stateside and not exactly knowing how to explain everything that happens where I live now. A place I literally call home. With your eyes closed, you wouldn’t recognize me; I listen to different music, speak a different language and without a doubt smell a lot worse (that damn tropical climate).
I don’t want you to confuse what I am saying. This is not a sad entry, just a weird reflection that I find myself writing.

I haven’t drove my beat up, rusted, 91 purple Ford Ranger in 13 months people. What the heck is up with that?!?! I mean, since senior year at Salem High I depended on that thing to help me pick up chicks (and it worked… girls love that thing). I suppose the crazy thing is that in a few years I will be saying “I haven’t road in a chicken bus in a year” or “I haven’t lived on a volcano in a year” or “I haven’t had a combo of amoebas and parasites in months”. The way that people here ask me about my past but never quite understand it, that is how it will be in a little over a year when I land in Michigan again, probably just as weirded out as when I landed in El Salvador, haha.

Current Jimbo Stats:
1) Have not gained weight, but all muscle has turned into tortilla gut… sad, yet funny. Don’t worry – I will get my gym on post-Peace Corps. At least I know that Dave Hannon (friend from the MI and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer) will be hitting the weights… kid is in LOVE with his calf’s.
2) Best friend (that normally hangs out with) – 5 year old named Alexi.
3) Book currently reading: Fidel Castro Biografía a dos voces por Ignacio Ramonet.
4) Music: Mana, Mariposa Traicionera (don’t worry still love me a little John Mayer).
5) Favorite thing to do in site: Hang with two buddies in site, older dudes, and talk politics… It is insane the things that you can learn in the middle of nowhere on a volcano.
6) Coolest thing I have recently done: I am learning to work as an albanil or a mason.

I would love to get some updates like this from all of you... a year flew right by, let´s make sure number 2 doesn´t slip past us without catching up!

with love,
Jimbo

8 Hours of Cribbage!

So while Dave was here, we put on a baseball camp. My buddies Gabe and Wendell came over to help out. More on the camp later... turns out my memory card couldn´t fit all the picks - I promise a good blog on it. However, after the tourny... the gringos locked themselves in my house and we played a complete game of cribbage. If you know what cribbage is, you know that takes like 8 hours - and it did. Tunes, drinky drinks and cards.... fantastic.

My hour 5 Ando was actually histerically laughing/crying... it was amazing

Proof that Ando a) went crazy, b) was cheating... Kimbo - the shades kick butt.

Tortilla gut.... coming home with a lil more jimbo then I packed.

don´t really know what is going on hear.

All in all, Wend and I won. Ando went crazy, and Gabe and I (guy in blue) picked on eachother way too much. Excellente game, better camp and WHAT a weekend!

Baithing on the Volcan

Baithing on the volcan is awesome. Well, maybe it isn´t - but to us, it is AWESOME! End of summer, we go into a lil´bit of a water crisis, but there is always water to baith and wash clothes if you are willing to wait in some rural farming traffic (a line of people with dirty clothes and stinky kids ready to get wet).
Dave and I had some luck, and only had to wait for 45 minutes - and got our wash on.

Four of our buddies... they say that Gringos don´t spend enough time washing themselves. I tell them it isn´t quantity, but quality - they say ¨what?¨

White people point a lot... from my point of view.