Well there is no longer any reason for me to stay in El Salvador any longer. In a marathon meeting at work today, it came out that they no longer plan to do the Río Tamulasco watershed study this year. To participate in that study is of course why I went to DGRNR {Dirección General de Recursos Naturales Renovables} in the first place. The stuff I’ve been doing on land tenure and standard of living using census data may get used eventually. I’ll write up the analysis to accompany the graphs & tables, and leave it with Mike {Shank}. What I need to do now is let John Jones {Peace Corps El Salvador Director} know I have no reason to stay at work. He wants me to stay here until December, & then take home leave before going to Costa Rica, so the paperwork will be easy. I am scheduled to leave December 18 (termination date).
Jaime {Olson} thinks I should go on the plane with Ed {Shiffer} and him also. It would be nice, but October 20 is awfully soon.
I think I’ll take my bike down to Costa Rica with me. Ed Archer brought it down on a plane. I hope they’ll let me take it to Costa Rica on one.
Mike and I played basketball after work. As usual the natives were more into arguing & hassling each other & the referee than into playing ball. What a pain! The ref. deserved most of it though. At different times he: (1) gave their team 2 shots for a technical foul and gave them the ball, (2) gave their team 2 shots for a technical and gave us the ball, (3) gave us one shot for a technical and gave them the ball, and (4) gave them one shot for a technical and actually gave them the ball like he was supposed to! When the game ended, the scorekeeper first declared them the winners by a point. Then some fans insisted we had won by a point. On a recount the scorer decided it was a tie, and so after at least 20 minutes of semi-heated discussion, we played 2 five-minute overtimes, and decided the issue. One of our guys fouled out and refused to leave the game, costing us a technical. We then played with 4 guys and fell behind, losing by 5 points. Actually we played good ball, for us. This team had beaten us badly before.
I had supper at Yugo’s Steakhouse with Mary Ann Carr, up from Costa Rica, already an RPCV {Retired(?) Peace Corps Volunteer} and ready to head out through Mexico with Diego Cox and {another} Jaime. Mary Ann hasn’t changed, she’s just sweet, practical & chummy.
We went to a music recital afterwards. Fred Tracy’s woman, Marlene Johnsjoy, played her flute and her cute little roommate Ann played her huge $600 harp. It was a very suave evening, good people being the critical element.
Here’s a thought for the record. I was thinking during the concert of all the things I’ve done with Jaime {Olson} and Diego (Fred too, but he didn’t enter into the original thought.). We’ve gone whoring together a couple times. Willie Wheelwright’s ‘despedida {farewell party}’ being the most vividly remembered! We’ve planted & cut sorghum together, in training. We roughed it at Jacó together, and there we were at a music recital together. Small wonder I’m much closer to them after 2 years than I ever was to, really, anyone outside my family before entering Peace Corps. Well there was Bobby Christofferson. There was Paul Skidmore in college too.
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