Wanderlust

Magnet #1230 - El Salvador native

Another cool magnet from my sister's trip to El Salvador. Pretty cool - can't tell what it's made of, but it took me a sec to see the El Salvador written on at the top.

I've never been south of the American border...generally when I plan trips, it's usually the US or Europe. And, true to form, my next couple of trips are already in planning development.

My next trip to...wait for it...London, sometime at the end of this year, or early next - I'm trying to avoid the Olympics if I'm honest. I mean, I volunteered for the NYC2012 folks, so I was sad when London won it away from us. But, now I'm finding that I really don't want to be anywhere near London in and around the Olympics. Is that wrong? (Yes, I know I just got back from London, but I'm looking forward to a quick solo trip to my second favorite city in the world.)

And, my other next trip I keep thinking about is my trip to Russia. This one's likely going to be 2012 or even 2013 - I keep feeling like at some point in my life I need to see the Hermitage and Alexandra Palace and yes, my Faberge eggs. But, that trip's going to have to be longer than a random few days in London, hence the longer lead time, for both saving up, and for research.

Can't wait! Need to get more magnets of places I've been, rather than from far away places I haven't!

It takes a village...

Magnet #1107 - Salvadoran Village

...or just my sister.

STW Sister brought this magnet back for me from El Salvador, on a work trip. She's moving back down to NC from DC, in favor of working for a non-profit company in Durham, so it looks like the STW title still stands.

It's funny, I consider the non-profit, save-the-world work that she does is basically my carbon offset for the corporate work that I've done for big oil, big pharma, big technology, big energy, big whatever's not saving the world organizations in the past.

Of course, it's not a surprise - after all, she's like eight years younger, which puts her squarely in Gen Y, the folks out there to save the world.

No woman's an island

Magnet #1055 - El Salvador

My sister brought this handpainted magnet back for me from her work trip to El Salvador last year. How cool is this one? It's painted on a tree!

Ok, fine. Painted on wood.

Still! Someone's little fingers painted this one. (Yeah, let's not delve too much into that, otherwise, I'll be forced to recollect all those sad books I had to read in International/Third World Politics at Carolina.)

I love that it's a little village of just two houses...with possibly a parrot over in the corner? (Or is that a shell? I dunno.)

I've been thinking a lot of the notion of home lately. It's funny, because when I'm in New York, I refer to North Carolina as home. And when I'm in North Carolina, I refer to New York as home. Truth is, they both are, really.

Someone FB-statused last week it used to be that once upon a time she couldn't wait to live in the big city, but recently she's realized that she loves living in a small town, because within 20 minutes of something happening, everyone knows, and has called, come over, cried, prayed or laughed with you.

That's kind of like my nightmare. That's the very reason I moved to the anonymous big city, so that I wouldn't have that issue of people knowing my business. (Not that I got called out as the doctor's daughter buying alcohol at Food Lion, or anything. Heh.)

So, for the past 14 years and up to late last year, I've lived in this building, not knowing more than my neighbor's name, the neighbor down the hall's daughter's name, the other neighbor down the hall's name and her dog's name. Annnnd, that's pretty much it.

Part of that was because I was a total workaholic getting home in the wee hours of the night. But the bigger part of that was because I was trying to be the most model tenant, making no waves, flying under the radar, truly embracing the comforting anonymity of a giant 23-story building.

Now that I've joined our tenants alliance (I can hear you laughing from here), in an effort to help us rent stabilized folks keep our homes in light of new owners, it's become the opposite. Last night, we gave candidate statements (shhh, I still hear you laughing), and as I looked around the lobby at our little community, I realized I've been missing out all these years, right in my own home.

Folks who have lived here for 20 and 30 years were friends with each other, were catsitters for each other. Some were joking around, even arguing with each other, but most with shared experiences.

Real neighbors.

People tend to think that in a city of 8 million people, that it's hard to create a circle of friends. I've managed to do it, collecting people from work and other places. I never thought to do it in my building.

It's sad to realize this now, now that we could possibly lose our homes. But it does make me realize that going forward, it probably wouldn't hurt to get to know the neighbors...now, and wherever I might end up next.

eta:
But hopefully it's here, in this building. I always swore I wouldn't leave this apartment (or New York) until they dragged me kicking and screaming. Despite my issues of the last year, I love it too much. It's home. Sigh. Wish us luck.

Holla from San Salvador! - Guest Blogger, Save the World Sister

Magnet #1013 - Las Tortugas Marinas

How exciting! I've got a guest blogger from El Salvador!

Ok, technically she's by way of DC, and by way of my sister being there on a work trip. And technically, the magnet's not quite in my grubby little hands yet, but by way of Christmas, it's coming!

So, yeah, here's STWSis, blogging all the way from El Salvador, where she's off, well, saving the world...

By way of sea turtles!

- joy

____________________________________

Hola desde San Salvador, El Salvador. El clima es soleado y cálido! Estoy aquí para trabajar, pero tienes que venir para la diversíon. (Hi from San Salvador, El Salvador. The weather is sunny and warm. I’m here for work, but you should come for fun.)

That about sums up my Spanish…or I cheated and used Google translate (is there anything Google can’t do for us!?). For reals, though, I’m here in San Salvador for the week to help start the closedown processes for my project. What does that mean? I’m motivating staff and training them in how to pack boxes and organize files. Yes, folks, this is what my job entails. But the upside - I get to work with a great local staff and see a new country.

I’ve been here a few days and I think I like El Salvador. It is my first time in Latin America and I can only compare it to the other foreign countries I’ve been to. It’s a bit like the Philippines, which if you ask Joy or either of her sisters, will give you probably very different opinions. It’s warm when my DC-based mind tells me it should be freezing - though not as disgustingly hot as the PI. It’s traffic-y, though not as jam-y as Kathmandu, Nepal. And it’s nothing like Uzbekistan, though, no other place seems to be like that.

The people are super nice. I love my project staff. They are really patient with me (if you know me, my mom would say this is key) and helpful considering my Espanol consists of whatever Senora Adams taught me in elementary school and the two semesters of elective Spanish I took at Carolina.

This project has done so many great things and everyone on staff is sad to see it close. One of the project’s main activities has been the conservation of sea turtles (explains the magnet, the translation is “I Protect Sea Turtles”). We (I say we, but really, I just push the papers of the people that actually do the stuff) have been changing the people’s thinking on sea turtles.

Before, people would eat sea turtle eggs – it’s what you do at the bar with friends without even thinking about it. Now, we are raising awareness that sea turtles are an important part of the sea and the aquatic life cycle. We offer money to people who collect sea turtle eggs and give them to us rather than putting them on the market for consumption. We take the eggs and keep them safe in hatcheries so that the little baby sea turtles can make it to the ocean to live.

To raise awareness, our project made a documentary about the important role that sea turtles have and why we should protect them. The film just won best Spanish language film at the Blue Ocean Film Festival in Monterey, CA, out of a field of 349 films!

If you’re a Spanish speaker (and everyone these days seems to be except for me and my knowledge of odd languages), you can watch the documentary here:

Part I:

Part II:

While I only have a few days here in San Salvador (just one week!), I’m really glad that I got to come out and work with such great people. Also, I’m going to a turtle release on Friday! So I’ll get to see the kids and adults enjoying the little baby turtles crawling to the sea.

And that, my friends, is why I chose this career.

No comen huevos de tortuga marina! (Don’t eat sea turtle eggs!)

Adios!