Letter, February 22, 1975

Dear Mom, Dad & all,

Please write! I got your last letter early in Jan. and am wondering what became of my driver’s license and my request for info. On taxes. Since it takes so long to communicate with you and my Peace Corps is the only complicated part I think it would be best if you just send me the Federal & Wis. Forms and my W2s and I’ll send it in.

I figure I should have a W-2 from work at U.W. last spring and the end of the year statement from my savings account in the bank for you to send. In addition to that I believe dad paid me $400 last summer for wages (be sure & let me know if that’s correct). I really only need to file federal to get back what they withheld at U.W. since I’m sure I didn’t make over $2,050. Wis. Tax is different so I don’t know about that. Please send the forms & info. Right away, as I don’t get into town often & the mails are slow & unreliable as you know.

Now that I’ve taken care of business, how are you making it through the winter? Sometimes if I work in the hot sun of the early afternoon, I start wishing for cold & snow! The hottest months – March & April – are yet to come, too, so you can imagine how I’m suffering (ha, ha).

I have been moved to a different town, at least temporarily. Now I live in San Isidro in a room with two “Agronomos” (Salvadorian extension agents). We have electricity all day and water generally part of every day, with indoor toilet & shower, so it is better in general than Atiocoyo. I kind of enjoyed the privacy there though. I am going to do a study of the people who are being relocated onto different lands as a result of the irrigation project. It looks like I’ll be interviewing each family separately, so it should keep me busy for 2-3 months. The food in my new town is both more varied and cheaper, so all in all it’s been a good switch.

They had another volunteer here about 10 years ago, and he went swimming in the ocean & drowned. { Actually he was a religious missionary named Floyd Miller. } His grave is in the local graveyard. A little boy who showed me the grave told me that one of the guy’s pupils (he taught carpentry) killed himself when he learned of the drowning. I guess the whole thing has become quite a legend here. { He was known as Don Pedrito, and local folks continually asked me whether he was my brother. } Makes me a little shivery about the ocean. It has a terrific undertow at some of the beaches here.

How has your luck with heifers been doing lately? You must have gotten a few by now! I showed the picture of Le Roy’s champion cow that Jan sent me to some guys in my town & they wanted to know how many bottles a day she gives. I told them she must average about 50 pounds of milk a day for the year, which really impressed them! I hope she’s about a 17,000 lb. cow so that she doesn’t make a liar out of me!

Well that’s all I can come up with.

Sincerely,

Dean