Below are the 5 most recent journal entries recorded in sipgabby's LiveJournal:

Sunday, August 8th, 2004
11:17 am	The Last Week So I have one more week here in Berlin and then its off to my retreat and then finally, on the 19th- home! Tuesday is my evaluation period, where the CRISPAZ members come down and evaluate my work here in Berlin. Monday a peace Corp officer is coming to my village and she will be teaching English classes with Don Facho. I wish her luck. I guess thinking about her coming here has gotten me thinking about how I felt when I first came here. Scared and small and foreign and weird. Always being stared at and whistled at and not really knowing the language well enough. Its hard coming to a place like this. Especially for so long and all alone. but I guess thats life. This has been a wonderful experience coming here and has been unlike anything else I have ever done in my life. The things I have learned are so unique that I suppose I cant even begin to describe them. It has been wonderful and something I will always remeber. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 31st, 2004
11:20 am	Real Life She came home early today. With twenty five dollars in her shaking hands she told us that she had been let go. That her boss decided to stay at his other house and decided he didnt need a cleaning woman anymore. That twenty five dollars a week was what kept her family going. What paid the electricity bills, put food on the table, helped pay for her daughters prenatal exams. Now that twenty five dollars wont be coming anymore. She was let go without even a real explanation. Hombre Gordo-the fat man she worked for didnt even tell her to her face. He made another one of his help tell her and after years of service, there wasnt even a tip to help tide her over until she could find another job, cleaning, washing. Not even an Im sorry, I hope this isnt too abrupt, too unexpected. Thanks for the all the years of dedicated service. But he doesnt care. People dont care about people who dont really exist. And thats just what she did in his house for all those years. To him, she was the silent ghost that came in every weekend, while he was away and painstakingly pressed his boxer shorts into neat little bleached white squares and scrubbed his floors till her hands were raw and her 65yr old back ached with pain. All he ever saw were the results of her labors, not her face, not her life, not her pain. Not the daughter she is trying to help through an unwanted pregnany, not the way she opens her house to all the people with problems, not the way she volunteers all her time and energy at her parish, not the way she let me into her life so openly and lovingly. He didnt see any of that, but I have and I did. Shes a beautiful, wonderful person, and he will never know that. But he doesn{t deserve to know that. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 27th, 2004
6:57 am	MIBERLIM So helping out at MIBERLIM has definitely been an experience. I supose when I first arrived I came in with this very American viewpoint of...I have this education and I am going to help you change your business in this way and in some way I actually thought that the models that I learned in business school would still somehow apply to this problem. Well, after the first day, I started to see why it takes so long to help or work through the problems of international groups. You deal with first and foremost a language barrier and secondly so many cultural differences. MIBERLIM has no accounting books for their business. Which although may seem surprising, is actually the norm here in Berlin. People have not been taught to appreciate accounting and many people simply do not record their transactions, nor do they see the importance in being accountable. So my first task was to sit down and basically to explain why accounting is important and why keeping books is helpful to a business and can actually help in the long run. Which was not an easy conversation to have especially when you are having it in Spanish. I suppose the funniest part of the whole experience was when I asked the orgainzation to sit down with me as I tried to organize their books and figure out exactly how much money they had on July first. Well, after looking at their bank books, I was like, oh this won{t be too hard not too many transactions,etc. So I made an entry and kept going, only then I decided to ask the women I work with if this was all the money they had and if any was missing, and then they decided to pull out wads of cash, some of it labelled with what had been bought others just stray bills. Many people here do not keep their moeny in the bank because they dont trust the banks and they dont like the idea of paying for using their money. So I realized that these women had been walking around, for oh..the past year with close to three hundred dollars on their bodies, in their pockets, in their purses, in between the pages of books. Here that is a lot of money and since ladrones, or robbers are frequent, this was obviously not the best method for book keeping and accounting. That was when I realized that this task was going to be a bit more difficult than I had at first thought. Helping out at MIBERLIM has been an extreme learning process. In the sense that it has really tested my patience, my business skills and my ability to persuade and explain my position to others (In spanish mind you). But I think the most rewarding part of that experience has been getting to know the lives and persons of the truely amazing women who came together to form this business. In a country where machismo is the rule of law, it was very refreshing to see a group of women band together to not only work towards a better life for their fmailies and themselves, but to form a business that with its environmental focus would actually work to make the community of Berlin a better place to live. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 26th, 2004
6:36 pm	Teaching So in my community I have not only volunteered to be working with my company, MIBERLIM; but also with the citys public high school here. It has been difficult to get accostomed to the differences in educational systems between the US and El Salvador. First of all, school is not required for children in this country. Which means that many children do not attend school and instead spend their days working. Which is very strange because you see them on the buses and in the streets selling fruit, or candy or peddling for money and the truth is that it is almost as though they are not truley children. They are little grown-up people with jobs and responsibilties and I have been very surprised many times when trying to joke with them or talk to them as you would talk to children in the United States. Its almost like they dont know what to make of your kindness and the softness you show them. The children in the high school I teach at are also very different. Here high school is usually the last place these children will have formal education and many have lost interest and feel that continuing with school is pointless. And some disgruntled students have even posed that question to me during class. What is the point of continuing with high school or even of putting effort forth? And the funny thing is I try and explain the importance of being educated and developing your mind and thoughts and why its important for business, etc. But the truth is that in El Salvador there are not many jobs and even if one does continue with higher education, they will only become a more higher educated bean seller or fruit peddler or pan handler. There is a hopelessness that exists among many of the students at the high school. Although many of the students lack hope in continuing their education there are bright points to this experience, such as the six or seven students I have who really try hard and are always prepared and stay after class to learn more English or to just ask my advice about applying to college. And a lot of times, when I feel sad or frustrated with going to school, I remember those students who are really benefiting from my experience and I try and push through control the class with my limited spanish to teach them something that will hopefully help them get into college or get the job they want. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 15th, 2004
10:23 am	The Bus Trip I wake up early in the morning, about 4am and walk to the bus stop before the sun has risen and the town has woken up. It´s still dark out when the bus pulls away from the stop and the cool mountain air rushes through the open bus windows as the bus accelerates down the winding mountain path. Many of the passengers sleep in the early morning of our trip leaving me alone to my thoughts and the view from the bus. The mountain roads are bordered by thick green foilage and trees that are so tall they must be hundreds of years old. The trees reach down as if almost to greet the buses with their winding vines. Every once in awhile, there is a break in the foilage and my view seems to extend forever, to the other side of the country and beyond. From atop the mountain looking out over the entire valley below and to the mountains and volcanoes in the distance. In the early morning, the mountains and volcanoes are a charcoal black against the blue cobalt sky and this image is veiled in an almost white lace by the morning fog that rests in the valley. The mountains and volcanoes peak out over the top of the fog ...only accentuating their height and grandeur. Many times it seems that the bus driver almost times it so as when our bus begins its descent, the sun begins to rise, cutting through the mountains into the valley with its bright golden rays. As it begins to rise the colors of the countryside change from their dark blues and greys to reveal the lush green valleys and hills of the landscape. The sun reflects off the lakes and rivers in the valley. Travelling alone, this experience is mine undisturbed. (2 Comments |Comment on this)