I made 1000 cupcakes. I have to write this down, for none other then myself, so that when I am old and grey telling stories to whoever will listen, I have proof that I am not exaggerating again but I really did make 1000 cupcakes in a day and a half. I will include also that I only received about 8 hours of help from a friend Edison who has never made cupcakes before; 8 hours out of 18. The next most important part of this story is why, well we can boil that down to my overwhelmingly persistent or as some say stubborn manner. I wanted to clean up San Pablo, at least a little, really even if I got people to notice there is trash all around them I would have been happy. There are 8000 citizens of San Pablo I was hoping for 1000. I could find no financial help from anyone, so I raffled off a one hundred pound bag of rice and a DVD player which earned me about 70 net profit. That $70 plus another $100 I had saved from an earlier money maker were my only funds. I originally wanted to give everyone a sandwich and a glass of soda but 170 meager dollars did not come to close to that. I had to think fast, having one week left till trash day. So if you cant give them sandwiches go with something sweet, and cupcakes were just the thing, being on average 12 cents a piece (this is without frosting) coming in a variety of flavors, chocolate, banana, peanut butter, and good ol’ vanilla. I went and bought an insane amount of ingredients and started the baking bonanza. They all said it couldn’t be done.
Trash day had more participation than anyone had seen before. Children and parents alike were riding up carts full of trash* from all corners of the town looking for a sweet treat in return. They fucking loved my god damn cupcakes.
*NOTE: “Trash” is an objective term, for some it means waste made by humans including paper, plastics, cans, bottles etc. for others it means all things unwanted. In the case of San Pablo it is the latter, so Trash Day was more like home lawn care day. They pruned their bushes, cut the trees, sweaped the dirty top layer of dirt to leave the more clean shiny dirt underneath exposed, bringing all of this “Trash” to get their cupcakes. It ended up being about 80% organic material collected…. But at least they participated. And then we collected it all and threw it into an uninhabited part of Ecuador without any sanitation facilities in sight. Conclusions: contamination of Ecuador is the same, trash amount in San Pablo is the same, amount of people that think I help, exponentially grown J
Then I went to Costa Rica with my family, and here is what I think about that. Its silly beautiful; they have tons of animals; they have really comfortable places to stay, they have lots of things to do, they take safety measures, they have great looking men, they have really good tasting food from all over the world, they have drinkable water from the tap, they have volcanoes, they have cloud forest, they have beaches, they have a great bar scene with amazing happy hours, they speak English (including the taxi drivers), they have one of the best economies in Latin America, they also have crazy overly expensive everything that by the time you leave your week vacation you not only cleaned out you vacation account but also dipped into your retirement savings without really knowing cause the people are just so nice. So what do I think about Costa Rica, I think you should come to Ecuador instead. We have lots of things to do and many more places to see. Saftey measures are overrated and who travels to latin America to speak English, its much more interesting to not have any idea what they are saying. Along that line, when you travel you should experience local culture including the food, and I sure bet you cant get out of Ecuador without trying the local food, that may or may not be served with a side of Gyardia or helicobacter pylori, but it’s a hard catch to even find Costa Rican gastronomy. To put it more simply, you have a really good chance to lose weight on an Ecuadorian vacation than on a Costa Rican. Also who needs happy hour when at all hours drinks max out at $2.50 and a bottle of rum will set you back a whole $5. So yeah Costa Rica has their shit together, while Ecuador is still hovering in the outhouse but you will have a great time floating in the unknown and get home with enough left in savings that you can come back next year.
Que mas… I am now working for the Defensoria Comunitaria which would be the San Pablo social work and I help out on Saturdays at a new HIV clinic… put shortly I am the epicenter of all ugly rumors and head of knowledge of all the shit you never wanted to know about a town. Like everywhere else in the world, San Pablo has problems of all types… I am thinking about resigning, I just don’t want to know anymore; though because of my new found work I have decided that I either want to be a lawyer or a doctor. It’s a toss up, one that I need to decide pronto.
I painted Van Gogh The Starry Night on my wall, the whole wall, next to my bed, its really big, it looks great but not as settling as I had hoped. I lay there in bed and from far away its looks real nice but up close you can see every brush stroke and I just cant stop looking, its driving me mad, last night I contemplated cutting my ear off and sending it to Kleber in an envelope. Van Gogh was not crazy he just could not stop looking I totally understand.
Remind me for next time to tell you the story about the gay birthday party I recently attended.
