Scrutape goes back to Elementary School

The following are clips I shot at the second time we visited the elementary school, I was able to sit in a typical 2nd grade class…que chevre. These kids are great, One clip is for Momma Bao, they’re singing La Chinita. The last one is an interview with a “typical 2nd grader”, this kid is a total character.

My ´Speling´?

¨We don´t need no, education¨
- Pink Floyd


Okay look people, aparently you´re not familiar with the 3rd world...I am, so let me inform you about a little thing called the internet: IT COSTS MONEY. Important, it cost me money and I´m charge per hour. Now, if you´re willing to send me some money, (but I know you wont because you dont even send letters) then I would take the time to spell check.
So until you´ve experienced the 3rd world, and I´m sorry but going back generations doesn´t count...unless you´re validating my Spanish roots, haha, calm down dad, MEX-I-CO, MEX-I-CO. Oh no, wait, AMER-ICA, AMER-ICA!!! Yeah anyhow, just wanted to make that point clear.

Scenic San Salvador

Here’s a very short glimpse at the capital. Unfortunately, due to security reasons, I couldn’t have my camera out. In fact, if you listen closely, you can hear my teacher getting made at me, haha…I’m such a rebel, and what mara? And what? I’m from the streets…and I keep it real!
Stay tuned for my hospital interview…When Keepin’ It Real Goes Wrong (this is a Chappelle plug for you non cool people reading this).

Click on the following image to view a video clip.

Happy Father's Day!

(EDITOR'S NOTE: APPARENTLY RICHARD IS ALSO EITHER NOT VERY GOOD AT MATH OR HAS HIS SUNDIAL CALIBRATED INCORRECTLY. NEVERTHELESS, HAPPY FATHERS DAY.)

The following are some Happy Father’s Day clips I wanted to put up for my dad, but ran out of time. Sorry Dad, I wanted to put this up sooner.

Please click on the below images to watch video clips.

Bicho Limpiando

Bicho Limpiando is fun little series that we unfairly call in the US, “slave labor”. I mean, look how happy he looks cleaning the floor and cleaning my shoes…hmm, I smell a capitalistic opportunity that has yet to be fully exploited…I mean, taken advantage of…I mean, a means to increase family income and self sustainability.





Click on the image for a video clip.

Masks

The “Masks” series depicts a yearly celebration of the feast of a Saint whose name escapes me, I’m sure if you show the picture to one my grandma’s they’ll be able to tell you all who he is…err, was.

Room With a View

The “Room” series are shots taken of my semi-private living quarters; notice the netting that covers my bed in one of the shots, very jungle-esque you say? No? Well I do. So malaria is pretty rare out here, but the big scare is dengai (I think I’m spelling that wrong) which is a mosquito born illness that is very common during this wet season (EDITOR'S NOTE: RICHARD STILL CAN'T SPELL...ITS DENGUE FEVER. YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT IT HERE). I put on so much anti-bug cream/pills/sprays and I still get bit by these damned bugs. I look like a speed freak with all these “speed bumps” I have on my skin…and speaking of skin, the Salvadorians are nice enough to point out every time I have a new pimple…I miss my dermatologist and Edna, my anestatician right now (just thought I’d let everyone know).

My Entourage

¨F*** the Po-lice,
Commin´straight outta compton¨
- NWA

Just kidding. Actually, I like the police here, their great, as you will soon find out:

So as you all may know I moved into my new sight on the 19th of this month. Not 24hrs into my sight I snuck off to the capital to enjoy one last night of 1st world-like wonder. Ahhh, it was great, I love the capital, and the capital love me apparently (long story). I´m going back in to two weeks...to pick up my meds, gawd, calm down...yeah so what if I´m staying the night.

So anyhow, this saturday, along with my police escort, I went shopping in the Eastern region megamall called, Metrocentro, which really is nothing compare to San Salvador´s Metrocentro. Anyhow, so me, along with my counterpart, his wife, and 3 heavily armed Salvadorians walked San Miguel. It was great, I felt like I was with my cousins when I would go to Rosarito. I felt invinsible b/c their (my cousins) all 6 something and 250 plus pounds...¨and what fo´?¨ I guess the only exception is that these guys are tad smaller, and can LEGALLY carry guns, hahahaha, oh that´s funny.

So, was all the security worth it? Well apparently as we got off the car near the bank, which was not near Metrocentro, my counterpart saw a shady guy approach our direction with his hand in his pocket. As the police drove off (to park and wait for us), my counterpart swore he saw that guy carry a knife. OKAY, so what makes this story funny is I don´t find this out until AFTER I left to use the ATM and he stayed to talk to a teller. So I go OUTSIDE the bank to use the ATM, pull out $150, WALK AROUND looking at the vendors (oh and I bought a Mana best of CD, very cool) and walk in and out of the bank waiting for him. It´s not until he finsihes that he tells me what he saw and called the PNC (the National Civil Police) to pick us up. ¨Well shit¨, I thought, thanks for the info 35 minutes later.

Then I bought a bunch stuff at Metrocentro with people with guns waiting in the parking lot (the police of course), it was great. Oh El Salvdor, petty crime is so rampant here. Oh the stories I could share, but then my mom would personally bring me back home, and I´m not ready yet to return to the 1st world, though I miss it so.

Smiles!!!

Oh yeah, my BBB: pupusa = vagina. I love machismo, I don´t know my my female companions are having such a hard time, HAHAHAHA.

But seriously, it´s rough for American women out here, my heart goes out to my family to who left the 3rd world, cause seriously, it sucks being a woman out here.
I am definately going to do some gender education out here, luckily Peace Corps has assistance is doing education seminars on the matter.

New Mailing Address

I'm staring at the asphalt wondering what's buried underneath
Where I am
Where I am
-The Postal Service



Alcaldia Municipal de Sesori
Barrio El Centro
Sesori, San Miguel
El Salvador, C.A.


Please send all mail to this new address...of course, this is really only going out to Cheryl and my Mom since they´re the only ones that care enough about me to actually send me something. But if you do decide to send something, remember that you DO NOT add any extra service, just sent it and do the sign of the cross or something.

Damn people, not even a postcard from the states. Whatever, I can deal with it, I mean, if things get lonely I can always accompany the guy who walks his pig on a leash or hang out with the town Bolos (drunks) and their seems to be quite a few in my town. At the very least I can hang out with the two old fat guys who smoke pot in the cancha. That´s right people, it a lack of a strong support network that leads people to Dark Side. Or I just wanna do it just to spite people...BECAUSE I CAN...and because I get bored easily.

So I´m in my new site if you haven´t heard, me all by myself...no other American in sight...crazy huh? So far I haven´t gone completely crazy, I mean, I swept and mopped my floor today, and I did my laundary part II, but of course, as I´m typing this, it´s beinging to pour, so, that means I´m out white close...mierda.

The people here are really nice, but also really noisy, they like to stare, which I feel is a latino biological defect, or because they can´t afford glasses, or just a cultural thing. I dunno, either way they still do it and I don´t like it. But on another point my Mayor is taking me to the capital of my department to buy some things for my room (which is another story all together and I wanna keep this positive).

Also, sorry my webmaster hasn´t updated the site. I dunno what he´s up to, why don´t you bug him, my mom has his number...or I can just post it up here, which is what I´ll do if he doesn´t put something up by the end of the week.

Blue Ball Baboon:
Brought you by machismo: ¨I work hard, but you have to work harder¨

pupusa= vagina

They Say Jump

¨They Say...Jump!¨
- David Bowie¨

Just thought you´d like to hear another story. Before I begin, I should let you all know that this happened on Monday morning. The day I went to my site for the first time. For those of you that are interested, and are near a map of El Salvador, my site is in the department of San Miguel. Look for the capital, which is San Miguel, and go up. You´ll see a blip called Sesori...thats me.

So to be brief, I jumped out of a moving bus.

Now, for some time (be it 48 hrs) I´ve contemplated the motives behind The Leap of Faith. At times I´d like to argue that it was because I NEEDED to get off in that specific instant, and a few hundred feet just could be acceptable. My solitary cry of ¨a visa¨, which, by the way I think was actually heard, but it was very likey that the crunch of my feet as I stepped on the contents of a burlap bag that some person laid before the footsteps may have muffled my voice.

In what could only be described as a moment of seer bliss, where, in a cathartic destruction of something salvadorian (the contents beneath my feet) I felt the need, an almost existential feeling, to leap off the bus. And so I did, from the moving bus, my metalic slavemaster who insists I hear the same song everday at full blast, whose interior is the vomit of a maelstrom infused by God and the Looney Tunes, this symbol, the metallic drone, of a culture where at times has made me reached my wits end...and because of the trying nature of these two months...I jumped. At the time, I wanted to do something completely different from the monotony of these two/three months, something Other, something outside my very nature.

I landed, rather, I planted my knees and palms in the rocky asphalt. Like a spring, I quickly leaped to my feet and walked to the desvio and talked to the closet Salvadorian about when the next bus past, acting as if nothing happened. It was at this time I noticed the small traces of blood on my left palm, and it wasn´t until I got to my site that I noticed the blood on my right knee.

There was a rush in that leap, that Leap of Faith, that I hope I conveyed.

And it was fun.