Sunday, March 30, 2008

Day at the Beach


Kristin and I have our best friends, Jordan & Elaine, and our niece & nephew, Nathan & CeCe in town for a week. We went with CeCe & Elaine to the Avila pier to buy some fish for Cioppino, and when we were there ran across these sea lions...

I only had my cell phone to take a photo with; it doesn't look all that impressive, but these guys were HUGE and amazing to see close up! We also saw a sea otter, chomping on a rock crab, but the pic didn't turn out at all, unfortunately.

CeCe was really impressed, and loved them all - "I want to pet it," she said about the sea otter.

Habitat for Humanity, El Salvador - the Charlotte Model Community








So far, I have not outlined clearly just WHAT it was that took Kristin and I to El Salvador last month. I'll attempt to do that over a few day's time.

Kristin has been volunteering her time the past few years with Habitat for Humanity's overseas arm, known as 'Global Village,' taking her to Tanzania and India to build homes for families that don't have a decent place to live. When some of the people whom she had met on past trips started to plan a short, spring-break trip for early in 2008, I decided to go with her - my first HfH trip! As the planning fleshed out, we discovered that we were going to go to El Salvador, and that there would be 18 people on our team, from such diverse places as Manhattan (both Kansas, and NYC!) Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Calgary, Pennsylvania, Chico CA, Ann Arbor MI, and Ontario Canada.

As the date of departure drew nearer, we found out that we would be part of a 'Blitz-Build' with several other teams with members from around the U.S, Canada, and Spain. The total number of international volunteers was around 100, with about the same number of Salvadorean volunteers from several universities throughout the country, as well as 10-20 military volunteers. In addition, the homeowners are required to put a certain number of hours in every week, as 'sweat equity' in their homes - though since this was Holy Week, many of them were busy observing religious responsibilities within their churches - (particularly on Good Friday, the homeowners seemed scarce.) We were excited about the prospect of so much manpower, and anticipated seeing a lot of work accomplished over the week of workdays.

We were based in the Santa Ana department of the country, in the northwest along the Guatemala border. This is a beautiful, very active volcanic region with very large volcanic mountains, crater lakes, and rich agriculture. Much of the shade-grown coffee farming in the country is centered in this region, and several of El Salvador's largest National Parks are also located in the region, such as Volcanoes National Park. We stayed in a hotel in Santa Ana, a city of nearly 200,000 people, which was about 20 miles away from the jobsite, and were ferried to and from the worksite on some of the colorful busses that you can see pictured in one of my earlier posts.

The project itself was very interesting: where most Habitat builds focus on one building within a mixed neighborhood of other homes, this project is an ambitious build - a planned development with housing for 54 individual families in either single-family or duplex homes, complete with a community center, a community day-care center (to allow the mothers to leave their children safely while they sought work,) and clean, potable water, electricity, and waste water treatment. This community was named "Charlotte" after the Charlotte, North Carolina Habitat affiliate whom has been really active in building housing in El Salvador, contributing large numbers of teams and contributions to make this a reality. The Charlotte community is to serve as a model for further developments of a similar nature throughout each of the departments, or states, within El Salvador.

Some of the information that we were given in our briefing on the first evening; the housing deficit in El Salvador is about 600,000 homes - this is in a country of just 7 million people, meaning that nearly 20% of the citizens are living in substandard housing that is hazardous to health and safety. 11% of El Salvador's economy is dependent upon remittances from family members who are living and working within the United States, sending money home when they can.

Being such a geologically active country has also shaped this need for housing. With frequent powerful earthquakes (2001 brought two earthquakes of devastating power -7.7 on the Richter scale within one month, killing over 1100 people, and damaging 20% of the nation's housing,) volcanic eruptions which interrupt agriculture and destroy crops, and susceptibility to Caribbean hurricanes, El Salvador has been a difficult place for people to find the stability needed to bring their country to prosperity.

The turbulent political history of the country, particularly the civil war between 1979 and 1991, means that although people may have land that they live on and even farm, it can be difficult and expensive for them to legalize their ownership of that land; this is one area that Habitat is also helping to provide legal fees and expertise. This is another reason for the format of the Charlotte community - ordinarily Habitat requires that the family being helped can show clear title to the land before a home is built - this precludes a lot of Salvadoreans. By providing both land and homes, the Charlotte community solves these two problems at once.

Above, I attached several photos of the Charlotte Community, including an overview map and some photos of the work underway. There are TONS more photos on our flickr.com account - if you see cinder blocks or a dirty face in a photo, there is a good chance that the picture was from the Charlotte community!

(My statistics are just reported as I remember them told to me. There is a pretty good chance that I am at least somewhat inaccurate. If you have some corrections - please send them to my comments link! I don't understand very much about the subtleties of El Salvadorean history and politics even now, but want to learn more. To read more about El Salvador, check out the Wikipedia entry - it has a bunch of references as well.)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Lost in Translation


This is the warning sign near the pool at our hotel in San Salvador (Hotel Miramonte.) It is helpfully lettered in both Espanol and English for the convenience of their guests. We happened upon it as we were setting out for our first day as a group in El Salvador.

This sign provides a good lesson to anyone who has a need to make signs in a language other than the one that they were born to; don't let your sister's kid, who has had one year of foreign language in High School convince you that he can handle the translation part of the job, (particularly if the main object of the sign is NOT to amuse snarky groups of tourists who might happen upon it!)

While everyone was smirking and snapping photos of the sign, I had to ask aloud, "yeah, well just how good is YOUR Spanish?" That made us all laugh a bit. And consider that for the next ten days, we were going to be communicating as best as we could in the little snippets of Spanish that we COULD understand, and inventively cobbling together phrases and hand signs and pantomime where we had no clue! It is a really good experience to be the minority, the out of place, the foreigner sometimes, to give a sense of what it is like for those who are living and working among us here back at home.

This and more photos are online at our flickr.com account

Friday, March 28, 2008

The funky busses of El Salvador









While we were visiting, someone joked that "El Salvador is where old school busses go to die..."

It was funny, but it seems that perhaps they travel there to take on a new life!

Each bus is brightly and very individually painted and carefully maintained by the driver, and they seem to travel everywhere in the country. Apparently, the fare is as little as $2 US for a 2-hour trip across the country, and they seem to be heavily used.

Also, the rear of most of the busses, (what I would remember as the "Emergency Exit" from grade school,) is actually used as a valid and often used entrance and exit!

Here are a few of my favorite bus photos - note the shark fins on one of them!

We rode these busses to the worksite pretty much every day - as you can imagine, they were quite dusty and sweaty on the way back to the hotel at night!

(These and more photos are available at full-size, and in their full glory on my flickr account.)

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Back from El Salvador


Well, we have returned from El Salvador. We actually came home about three days early - after being sick for a couple days, and dealing with what is NOT an easy country to travel and exist in, we were pretty much ready to spend a couple quiet days at home. We basically told no-one that we were back in town, and stayed at home to work on the house even more, (we had only spent 2 nights in our new house before we flew to El Salvador...)

I just now got around to loading our photos onto the computer - between KLC and I, there are around 380 photos, and that doesn't even include all the pics from the rest of our team! I will post links to our complete collection of photos on Flickr.com and snapfish.com if you have an hour or so to kill, it may be interesting! We tried to delete the duplicate / blurry photos, but some survived.

I will try to post a photo or two every day for the next couple weeks, with some sort of contextual information, so that it is more clear just what was going on in the pic. Stay tuned, and check back daily! There was so much to take in, and so much to still digest, that this will be a more clear way to approach things.

Comments are welcome!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

From El Salvador

We have finished our build week, it was good and tough at the same time. My telephone lost power, otherwise I would have been able to post more pics from it while here... a big bummer, but I didn´t bring the charger. Kristin and I both got pretty sick, 38C fever for me and a day and a half off work, being miserable. Feeling okay now, we are heading to the beach with the rest of the team, most of them will fly home tomorrow. We are staying a few more days, and trying to hook up with a local guide to visit a coffee plantation and a few other interesting sites, maybe some Mayan ruins, etc...

Last night was very cool here, as the culmination of ´Semana Santa´or holy week, people decorated the streets with elaborate tableaus, made from sawdust, flowers, and sand. When Good Friday Mass finished at the Cathedral, a procession carrying a crucified Christ on a huge litter emerged into the streets, followed by several saints statues. They were all carried by 20 to 40 people, and there were thousands thronging the streets. They slowly proceeded through the streets, walking over the tableaus laid in their paths, destroying them as they went. The procession continued around the city until late in the night, and it seemed each church was doing it´s own procession, in its own route very interesting! One group came right below our hotel, and we watched them from the rooftop as they slowly moved in their candlelit procession.

Will be home soon, hopefully we will make some more good memories by then.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Multimedia message

Kristin in the Mexico city aereoport, waiting to board the flight to San Salvador.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Telenovella - '?Que Hora Es?'

This is a funny that was sent to me by my Spanish tutor, Christina.

It may give you an idea of the level of Spanish understanding with which I am embarking for El Salvador - we may all be in for big trouble! And I should say that my limited skills are in no way a reflection on Christina - she has been hugely patient and helpful, it is just that she doens't have a lot of language ability to work with in me, but Muchas Gracias, Christina anyway!

Just burning through the last few details here, then I am ready to head out to El Salvador!

http://atinfante.multiply.com/video/item/4

Don't miss part II - The Wedding!

http://atinfante.multiply.com/video/item/5

Welcome to A-Town!

The early ‘80s vintage Chevy Silverado idling in front of me is spewing thick black smoke from where the tailpipe probably used to be. My little Japanese truck vibrates right along with the throbbing of eight cylinders of its Detroit-built, gas-guzzling motive power. The truck is lifted several inches to accommodate extra-large off-road tires and aftermarket shocks – but this is no coddled, weekend plaything; the grey paint is blistered from heat and time, and worn through to the bare metal in several patches. A large American flag sticker graces the rear of the tailgate, ironically grimed with the clouds of oily petroleum smoke drifting up from somewhere in the nether-regions beneath the chassis. A peeling NRA sticker in the rear window shares space with a bumper sticker that reads, “I’m not Mean; You’re just a Sissy.” The license plate frame plainly states; “Jesus Loves You; (but the rest of us think that you’re an asshole…)”

Welcome to A-Town!

This is the second morning that I have woken up in Atascadero, and I feel a little bit like I am back in rural Oregon. Kristin and I have been enduring the jabs from our friends who tease us with “Oh, you’re moving to A-trash-cadero?” We’ve heard it all, I suppose – Meth-Cadero, White-Trash-Cadero, etc... Obispeans always seem to think they are s-oooo cool!

I am going to have to champion the good things about 'A-Town!'

I comfort myself with the excellent blueberry scone in my hand from Hush Harbor bakery – the only place that I know of in the county that makes a decent baguette, right here in A-town.

We are off to El Salvador tonight, so probably have a lot to put here in a couple weeks when we return! Thanks to everyone who helped with donations and moral support. Check back for photos from our trip in April!

-NRC

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Concrete Floor - Before & After




Brian, our concrete contractor, sent us these photos of before & after. Let us know what you think!

Concrete Floor - nearly ready




We are almost there with the floors! These pics are after the stain has been sealed twice - all that remains is to apply a layer of protective wax over the floor and then we should be able to move in!

Things have been VERY hectic for us this week. We are leaving for El Salvador on Thursday, and we still need to move from SLO to the new house in that time, meanwhile I have been busy all week with a huge wine festival that was partially hosted at the winery, Kristin is teaching her class, and their company had a big open house yesterday to prep for, I have to finish the last month of a UC Davis class in the next 4 days, and I am bottling wine on Monday and Tuesday! In addition, Clint the Kitty was recently diagnosed with inoperable, and probably fatal cancer, which is breaking our hearts; though she doesn't seem to be very concerned with it. On the upside, we don't have to feed her special anti-kidney stone diet anymore, and she is loving the regular kitty food! Things are rarely boring around here.

I guess I should try to get some sleep now...

Concrete Floor - Stain day!



Here are photos from after the stain went down. Tough to tell how it looks from here, and the stain is not totally done reacting anyway - Too late to turn back now!

-NRC

Concrete Floor - Test patches




Here are a couple photos of the test patches that Brian left in the kitchen - in areas where they won't be totally visible later on, ie: where the dishwasher and / or Range will live. It is hard to tell with concrete just exactly what will happen regarding color, so it seemed prudent to find out how things will react with our particular floor. The funny thing is that the color kept changing a little bit, and in different light it looks totally different, which led to a bit of discussion between KLC and I about which option to go with. (I prudently deferred to her judgment eventually...)

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Painting Cabinets



Sustainability includes reusing materials that you already have, rather than disposing of them in favor of replacements. We have adopted this in several cases, including the concrete floors and the kitchen cabinets.

We wanted to change the color of the cabinet doors - so we have been painting them a vivid red. We hope that it will look good with the stainless steel appliances and white cabinet backs. I guess that we will find out!

Kristin has been mostly taking on this project so far - she sanded all the door fronts & backs, and has started to paint them with an oil based paint, for durability. I tried my hand at painting - it seems much more difficult than latex - it is thicker, and yet leaves brush marks easily - in several places the white shines through from under the red paint. After two coats, the drawers are looking pretty good - we may still need a bit of touch up when these coats dry.

Laundry Stairs






Here are some photos of the project I have been working on for a few days - the back stair from the kitchen to the laundry room & garage. While I did not use particularly sustainable materials for this project, I did want something that will be easily cleaned and that will last for a long time. The stair treads and risers are a thick, industrial grade vinyl (I think that the package nearly broke our UPS driver's back when he dropped it off at the winery!) The flooring tiles are the cheap but durable industrial vinyl tiles that you might recognize from schools, hospitals, etc... I finished trimming everything out today, and it all fits snugly and feels good underfoot. I did my first baseboards in conjunction with the project - it is going to be a bit of a learning curve! I wasted about 3 pieces of baseboard making the cuts, but I think I have it figured out now. The 'chop saw' that I bought is going to come in very handy over the next months!

I particularly like how the magnetic door stop works - thanks to Amy for helping me pick it out! It can hold the door open, for when you are carrying in groceries or other tasks, and protects the wall from the doorknob at the same time. (This is important - we have already had to have Jason, the drywall guy, repair that spot a couple times, when appliances were delivered, or when just in the course of the day the door knob gets slammed into the wall.)

Recessed lighting




I started to replace some of the old recessed lighting with new fixtures, complete with more energy efficient halogen bulbs. In the photos above, I replaced a 100w incandescent bulb with a new housing and 50w halogen, which gives off a similar amount of light.

All of the new fixtures that we have put into the rest of the house use compact florescent bulbs, which are the most efficient option - they convert about 11% of the energy used into light, versus 7-8% for a halogen bulb and only 1.5% for a conventional incandescent bulb! (Much of the remaining energy is lost as heat.) However, the spectrum of light given off by a florescent is not always the best for every task, and they take a fraction of a second to turn on, and do not reach their full brightness for almost a minute.

Halogens give off a spectrum that is nearer to natural light, and thus are good for lighting artwork, task lighting and reading. We are using them in the kitchen, will probably put some in the bathrooms eventually, and in the main entry foyer. Florescent bulbs are good for basic use in the bedrooms, etc... but seem more yellow & blue in spectrum.

Concrete flooring






Above are some photos of the progress on the concrete floors. I will describe (as accurately as I can,) the process that Brian, from Los Osos Concrete has been using to prepare the floors for staining. First, they sanded and ground down the slab to remove left over adhesive, tile grout, and other blemishes on the surface of the slab. Next, they went around and ground out all the cracks, and filled them with epoxy and concrete. They did a similar process to fill all the nail holes, where the carpet tack strips had been all around the walls. Then they sanded and thoroughly cleaned the entire slab with a soy gel, removing all the dust and debris. Several new, ultra-thin layers of concrete were added over the top of the slab, progressively with finer and finer grit, until the final layer will be micro-thin and very smooth.

You can see from the photos that the effect is already dramatic. By early this week, they will be adding the acid etching and staining process, followed by a few coats of sealer, and a final layer of protective wax. What a difference already!! We now have to stay off the floor for several days, so not too much additional work can happen, except for in the garage and laundry room.