Flexibility

Flexibility and patience are virtues and can be difficult ones to practice. My experience in the Peace Corps has definitely already tested my ability to demonstrate both when it comes to language and cultural differences. Right now though I am practicing them both in large quantities regarding this one project.

As I've written before I am working on a stove project - members of my community will be trained to construct more fuel efficient and healthier (human health) stoves. I am still in the initial stages of the project and have finally turned in a Peace Corps funding proposal. However, we were already getting rolling and have the training for the stove construction this Monday and Tuesday in my site. I was in San Salvador this last week for mid-service medical review and therefore contacted the engineer providing the stove tops and the chimney hats that I would be around. He told me it wouldn't be a problem to get three of each to the Peace Corps office while I was in town for me to take back to my site for the training. Well, I returned to my site empty-handed yesterday. I called the engineer some 20 times, emailed him, and even got in contact with his co-worker and I have no idea what happened. All I know is that I don't have the stove tops and chimney hats for our training on Monday.

But maybe this won't be a problem. "But Alicea, you need a stove top to build a stove, right?" Absolutely. Though circumstances have changed and yesterday I got a phone call that all Peace Corps volunteers are in standfast, a stage of the Emergency Action Plan requiring volunteers to stay in their site. This isn't a problem for me, I have what I need here and am fine hanging out for a few days. Hurricane Matthew has decided to go tearing through Honduras and living in the northern-most part of the country we are getting hit by heavy and constant rains. What's new? The only thing this changes is that the training was going to be done by a fellow volunteer. If no one is allowed to leave their site, that includes him. So right now, I am stuck with the idea that I have no stove tops, but I also have no trainer. So I am doing all I can to stay flexible and patient and not get frustrated. It is just another one of those Salvadoran situations.