I have been wanting to write this since I left, but if I had been writing, I wouldn’t have gotten anything else done. So here it is, two months of recap…
Leaving Home Lander was hard. I rekindled great friendships and made some special new ones, and I couldn’t believe I was leaving such comfort and happiness. I didn’t give myself time to mourn the end of a beautiful moment in Lander, instead I jumped right back into the craziness of Central America.
I spent a week getting my act together and meeting up with my friends and contacts around San Salvador. Mostly I was buying things, not my favorite activity, but I got my ducks in a row to move into the “campo” – rural agricultural zones in Bajo Lempa, Usulutan, an hour south east of San Salvador.
Just when everything was lined up, a couple of adventurous friends proposed a trip to Guatemala. A Salvadoran couple that always takes me on crazy trips suggested Lago Atitlan and Maggie (my best gringa friend here) set up a visit to a Guatemalan friend’s reforestation project near Xela, so we jumped in Melvin’s car and made a road trip of it. Maggie and I stayed on a couple of extra nights at the reforestation project because our friend, Armando, an indigenous Guatemalan who got a grassroots sponsorship through a team of activist friends to come observe the elections in El Salvador, had a lot he wanted to show us… and a lot to ask of us. He and his family are trying to run an English and Quiche school for foreigners in order to keep the reforestation project running and keep the babies fed (www.iximulew.org). It was amazing to see the hard work he was doing and how it brought him such joy to share it. If anyone wants a very humbling and grassroots Spanish and Quiche lesson, I would hook you up with Armando.
So after that whirlwind of a trip, I packed up my ’91 Nissan Sentra and headed to Bajo Lempa to start working with youth in a Christian Base Community. I live in a huge house (8 rooms!) with a giant yard where nuns had lived in the past, but the place has been empty for three years, ever since a couple of the sisters had some ideological conflicts with community leaders and were ultimately asked to leave gracefully. They previously ran the scholarship program that I am currently taking over for one of the nuns that was left behind to pick up their jobs, as well as continue her own. This dear nun, Fran, has worn herself thin with concern for the poor. She participates in almost every community meeting and tries to help each group get their needs met financially, she drives people to the hospital in emergencies, she helps people find medical help for chronic problems, she is responsible for 4 houses, and she had been running this scholarship program for three years. I feel honored to get to work with her and ensure that the program continues because it is a special opportunity for kids to finish high school and go to college.
Even with all the things to show me in the community, she was motivated to come with me on a Human Rights Delegation to Honduras run by Witness for Peace (google them!). This was huge. Honduras is a pivotal factor in international relations and especially hemispheric relations, so it was fascinating to get the view from the base. Things are much different when they are seen from the street, instead of on the level of diplomats and politicians. From the streets I heard of violence and repression coming from the economic elite, while the news covered the meetings between international officials. When President Zelaya returned to Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy, some media covered the blatant Human Rights abuses committed by the interim government, but it is through my new Honduran friends and contacts that I have heard both fear, and determination to return to democracy through restoration of constitutional order.
During my trip in September, I visited a Jesuit radio station in the small town of Progreso that has managed to stay on the air despite consistent threats and repression from the de facto government, military, and police forces (http://www.radioprogresohn.org/). They interview community leaders, human rights defenders, and other civil society members who actively criticize and condemn Micheletti’s military coup. They have asked foreign observation teams to accompany them and help them continue to report during the “elections” (which have been denounced as illegitimate by both the international community and the Honduran resistance) scheduled for November twenty-eighth. Having graduated from a Jesuit University and also standing in solidarity with the resistance because I deem the military coup unjust (in violation of national and international law), I decided to go back and support Radio Progreso during the time they requested.
Even though participating in this struggle has made it difficult for me to settle in to rural life in El Salvador, I think it is worth it. When I talk to the young people here about what is going on in Honduras, we often discuss why it is important for the supporters of the new government here in El Salvador to defend democracy and not allow a similar situation to occur here. It has become a regional issue and I feel I should take advantage of my presence here to build regional solidarity, so my reporting back from Radio Progreso will be important to this community.
Beyond the fact that I have been involved in Honduras, there have been some other obstacles to me getting “settled-in” to the Bajo Lempa, where I currently reside alone in an eight-bedroom house. First, let me just say that I am very persistent and I am not reporting this in order to complain, but for the humor I find in some of the daily happenings in my new life. Ok, so it is consistently 90 degrees from 9am to 5pm and it rains most of the night, sometimes with some crazy lightning and thunder, because it is the end of the rainy season. Right now the roads get washed out and in the lower lands, not far from where I am in the South Eastern department of Usulutan, peoples homes consistently drift away too. But this is the rainy season; stay tuned for what I expect to be dusty, hazy days and nights that require a fan for survival in the coming months.
I live an hour from the San Salvador, where I previously volunteered and resided for 6 months organizing electoral observation and have good connections, so I spend a lot of time in the capital. Its just that living in this rural community can be lonely, and I am not a fan of dealing with tarantulas that appear behind a stack of folders in my office or scuttle across my bedroom floor at night, but it is nice to have quiet space to work. I do have a huge palm tree in my yard and watched a guy climb the tree to cut down the coconut for us to drink and eat on the spot! I also can’t complain that there are beautiful birds that hang out around the house and kids always stop by to see what I am doing, but I could do without the huge cockroaches in my cabinets, the crickets that come in under the doors, the ants that parade from various holes in the walls, and the wood-eating whatever they are that make a mess of the furniture and the doors. Bugs! Ick! I also need to do something about the scuttling in my ceiling, which I presume to be rats. If my determination to make this living situation work continues, I will get a cat and probably some chickens to eat kitchen scraps. I invited a Salvadoran girl friend of mine to come live with me and help me do part of the work with the students, I’m hoping she is also good at pest extermination.
I’m doing my best to get used to things around here and realize that bugs and pests are a part of everyone’s life in this climate and rural setting. I’m also getting used to everyone being home by 6:30 because it is dark, and the blaring of Ranchera music at 6:30am, which I assume is to get everyone motivated for morning chores. A couple of old ladies who live down the street come twice a week to help me maintain this “casota, ” or grand house, but I wash my clothes by hand (I only cheat sometimes to take sheets and jeans to a friend’s house in San Salvador) and keep the patio swept. The hardest part is the plant aspect. When trees touch the house, spiders and rats have easy access to the roof and false ceiling. When the grass is high, frogs have a place to hang out until they can slip under the door during a rainstorm. Unfortunately cutting things with a machete is not my greatest skill and so I pester some of the students to come twice a week to help me keep the jungle at bay. I am hoping that some of the trees give fruit in the next couple of months. The lime tree is in good shape, but it looks like the others got too much cut off to flower. I’ll stay posted on that.
With this update, I would like to invite you to see my blog, where I intend (but do not promise) to frequently report on my adventures and the social movements that motivate me. You can subscribe to have it sent to your inbox or just check it out at your leisure.
Even though I am terrible at keeping in touch, I would love to hear from you! When I get emails or notes on Facebook, I am good about responding – I just don’t initiate! I also love to skype in the evenings, so look me up there too by using my email adelantesoleil@gmail.com.
I send a huge hug to you and yours!
Onelove
asd
