Verano en El Salvador

“Fear and loathing in El Salvador”

This article/video offers small glimpse into the current situation of the escalation of violence en El Salvador and the reinstitution of military in the streets as a result of this escalation. It also asks the question, almost 20 years after the signing of the peace accords, is the new escalation of violence turning into a low level war? Are the consequences of this resonant of the civil war? Are they worst? Something I have been reflecting about a lot lately, and am having a very difficult time trying to wrap my head around. 

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2011/08/14/fear-and-loathing-el-salvador

Movement (Honduras +bus times!)

One of the many perks of this particular internship in El Salvador is that we get a week off for vacation! The first week of August is the “Festival de San Salvador”, meaning that most work places are closed for the week, or people atleast get a couple of extra days off, and luckily this applied to us too! Obviously we jumped at the opportunity to take a vacation on our vacation and myself and 3 other friends decided to head to Honduras. All we knew is that we wanted to go to Copan to see the Mayan ruins and head to the Caribbean coast. I have to admit that other than buying our bus tickets to Tegucigalpa a couple of days ahead of time, this was about the extent of our planning. We tried calling a few hostels without much luck, but in the end I think we all had the (foolish) attitude that we were leaving the “dangerous” streets of San Salvador and that things would be just easier in general once we crossed the boarder. Luckily this proved to be mostly true, but here is a day-by-day break down of the adventure.

Day 1: Off to Honduras’ capital of Tegucigalpa in order to be able to catch another bus to Copan Ruinas. We weren’t really sure what to expect about this bus adventure from San Salvador, as it only costs $15 but we knew it was going to be good when they started playing a marathon of “The Rock” movies in Spanish. However halfway through the second movie when we were about to cross the boarder we stopped at a gas station for what we thought was going to be a quick endeavour. After sitting for about an hour the bus driver finally communicated to us (I might add this was first done with interpreted dance, until he realized we spoke some Spanish…), that the bus was broken and we’d have to wait for a new one from San Salvador. This meant that “Marcado Tigre” was our home for 5 and half hours. The photo below pretty much sums up the experience.

Eventually another bus came and after a brief tiff with immigration at the boarder where the 4 of us had to exit the bus  (I think all this time here has made us a little too scrappy for our own good..) we made it to our hilarious hotel in Tegu at about  midnight. When I say hilarious I really mean bleak, but because we were in such a crazed mood the lack of natural light or curtains was only funny at this point.

Day 2:

After a couple hours of sleep we were woken up at 4:15 by our dear friend the “vigelante”, he really didn’t want us to miss our bus at 6. What service! So this was another 6 or 7 hours to Copan, and since we unknowingly splurged for a bit of a luxury bus, we were treated by an enthralling Pierce Brosnan movie….Once we arrived in Copan a women who owned one the hotels that was definitely out of our price range, offered us a ride into town (bless her soul, we looked SKETCHY at this point because of our lack of sleep, food other than oreos and basic hygiene..) We ended up finding this awesome little hostel with HOT WATER!!!! I have honestly gotten used to the cold showers, this was still a pretty big deal! After a few hours of lounging and making ourselves look a little more human we started exploring the town- absolutely beautiful! Here is a photo of some of the hilarious rules posted at a our hostel and a view of the town square.

Day 3:

After a few hours of sleep/battle with an enemy backpacker and some much needed caffeine it was time to explore the Mayan ruins! These ruins were the main reason we visited Copan and we were definitely not disappointed! We spent almost 5 hours exploring the grounds and felt pretty lucky, as we really didn’t see too many other tourists. Here are a few photos to help my somewhat lacking and inadequate description.

After the ruins we went on the hunt for a comedor that served “tipico” Honduran food which turned out to be these awesome tortillas called “baleadas” filled with beans, cheese and veggies and although I’m still pretty loyal to pupusas, it was a nice change! That evening we met up with a few other travellers at our hostel and after a couple of hours made the classic decision that it was better to just stay up until it was time to catch our bus to the coast…so wise.

Day 4:

Although I wasn’t particularly feeling the wisdom of our late night adventure halfway through our chicken bus ride winding through the twisted mountain roads- I don’t want to say I regretted this decision but more sleep may have made our bad bus luck a little more bearable. After the 4 hour chicken bus ride we were once again in San Pedro Sula were we caught another bus to take us to the coast. Now this is where our bad bus luck kicked in a little as we broke down about an hour outside La Ceiba. Eventually more busses came by and we looked pathetic enough on the side of the road that we were able to squeeze in and make it to our city destination! Unfortunately this was our city destination but not our ultimate destination-which meant more bus time!! We had decided to spend a couple of days in Sambo Creek, a Garifuna fisherman village off the Caribbean coast.

 After about an hour on the town bus we finally made it to the ocean after a quick look at our hilarious room (complete with telescope and a moth the size of a bird), we obviously went swimming and enjoyed feeling clean for the first time in what felt like days and watched the beautiful sun set! The rest of the night was pretty much defined by eating sleeping but the most exciting part was definitely eating fresh fish and NOT getting sick! (We were told to avoid all seafood in El Salvador, and after a few pretty brutal cases of getting bacterial illnesses we took the warnings really seriously, however at this point in the trip non of us had been sick so we were feeling a little rebellious and have yet to pay for it…Sambo Creek victory!)

Day 5:

After a glorious 9 hours of sleep we woke up early the next morning to head out to Cayos Cochinos (The Hog Islands), about a half hour boat ride from the coast, for a day of snorkelling. Now I will admit I was a little sceptical about this vaguely atheletic activity in the ocean. Mostly because as many of you now I have a logical and normal fear of sea creatures, mainly whales. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I had made it this far without dying in El Sal and that I may as well just face my ultimate enemigo (I also learnt on the way to the islands that there are no whales in the Caribean sea- score!!!).

On the way to the first island, there are a total of 15, we snapped pictures like crazy of the blue water and even had dolphin follow our boat for a while! The first stop was to show us a video about Coral Reefs of Cayos Cochinos, where we learnt they are protected by the Honduran Government, making them some of the most sought out by researchers and snorkelers/scuba divers alike. After getting “suited up” and stopping to pick grape type things off another island (yes I ate those too, shh don’t tell El Sal..), it was time to start exploring the reef! For about 3 hours we went to a few different locations around the islands and it was absolutely amazing and totally worth the sunburn that I am still feeling now, two weeks later. The next stop was to yet another island for lunch! Nothing like pan de coco and fish with the head still on! (Here I’ll admit that whenever my host mom makes us fish for dinner, she cuts mine up in small pieces because she saw the look on my face the first time she served it with the head still present…I’m better now I swear!) Proof!

After we got back from the islands we went straight back into the water, where we had the chance to talk to a few kids, and got to witness the madness of the fish that hang out near the coast. They kept hitting our legs and then occasionally flying up out of the water (my friend was hit twice in the face, at which point the little girl that was hanging out with us said they were just trying to kiss her-BEST).

That night we had a delicious yet slightly bizarre dinning experience at a another hotel near ours. I won’t go into too much detail but let’s just say the owners were a little well, drunk, and a little, let’s call it “patriotic” which didn’t turn out to be the most charming combination. That being said they grew their own vegetables so we were able to eat salad!! My first salad in almost 3 months!  So other than the kind of uncomfortable atmosphere a couple of the locals that took us snorkelling earlier that day, offered to walk around with us, so in the end the food and their company totally made the venture out worth it.  Once we got home there was another brief altercation with bird/moth who’s room we were staying in, but we were so tired and sunburnt that peace was quickly made and passed out pretty quickly.

Day 6:

This is the day that we had to start out epic trek back to Tegucigalpa in order to catch our bus back to San Salvador the next day. After seriously weighing the consequences of missing work on Monday and contemplating staying an extra day, we sadly packed up out things, enjoyed one last street baleada and headed towards the bus stop. The rest of the day was spent on a variety of different busses, and not even one of them broke down! We readjusted our bodies to the bus diet of gatarode and oreos and enjoyed many, many naps as well as watching the same harry potter movie 1 and half times through…obviously I wasn’t complaining. We finally arrived in Tegu at about 10 that night and were greeted once again by our slightly bleak, yet familiar hotel.

The last day of the trip was spent like many others, in a bus! Fortunately it was a really smooth trip and we were back in El Salvador by 2PM. All in all it was a beyond fantastic vacation! Even though in the end we spent over 2 days in some form of bus , I loved every bit of it. Although we didn’t get to spend much time in each place, I would definitely recommend both Copan and Sambo Creek as really fantastic tourist destinations, and was amazing to get to know the diversity of cultures in Honduras a little bit more. One of the best parts of the trip was being able to walk around after 8PM, and although still taking safety precautions, feeling more or less safe, which has definitely been one of the biggest challenges living here in San Salvador. 

That being said it was definitely a vacation from my vacation because now I’m back in San Salvador and I love it deeply here. While in Honduras we met another young traveller who spent 6 weeks here in San Sal, and I thought he put it well when he said San Salvador was a hard city to love, but when it happens it happens big.

Mucho love y hasta luego!!!

Kim

How turning 21 in El Salvador, turned into “Something that touched my heart…”

I feel obligated to point out that I know I haven’t posted anything on this blog in over 6 weeks and to all 3 of my avid readers, apologies! Several times over the last few weeks I have sat down to try and write something semi meaningful about the things that I am experiencing here but every time I did, I couldn’t seem to find the words. I think this is partly because I have been trying to write about some of the heavier things I’ve been learning about but also, less romantically, I’m often just really tired making these blog posts that much more intimidating.

That being said I decided to look over the guide lines given to us by YIIP for these blogs and decided to lighten up a little bit and write about “Something that touched my heart..” A couple of weeks ago I turned 21 and since I may or may not be a BIT of an attention junky, I’m going to talk about how awesome it was to celebrate my birth here in El Salvador. Now I know it’s birthday, but this year mine definitely lasted more than 24 hours.

 To begin with the day before my birthday I was treated to breakfast and flowers being delivered to my Spanish class from my dear friends back in Canada, which was so beyond appreciated. I still don’t know quite how they communicated with the Salvadoran breakfast providers, but I was not about to question it.  That night I also lucky enough to go to a friends house for dinner and the evening ended up he and his dad played and a few Latino “birthday” songs on their guitars. I think this might be one of my favourite things about birthdays here in El Sal. People sing to you..alot!

On the day of my actual birthday I got a knock on my door at 6AM and it was my mom telling me someone was at the door looking for me. As it turns out this was just a clever ruse to get me into the kitchen an hour and half earlier than usual because her, the rest of the family and my lovely roommates were waiting for me in a decked out birthday kitchen, cake and all. There was more singing of course and it was really great to have birthday festivities with the kids I lived with, mainly because watching them claw at the cake at 6 in the morning was way entertaining.

 I then made my way to Spanish class/work and was greeted with a birthday poster hanging in my office signed by all my fellow students/co-workers. I was then of course, sung to a few more times and received the most beautiful jungle of flowers ever from my fellow York Interns. After work I went home to find my host family had decorated around my room and told me that each balloon was filled happiness and good wishes…I swear it sounded slightly more poetic in Spanish.

I decided to categorize this under the suggested York title “Something that touched my heart..” because as corny as it sounds it really was quite an unbelievable feeling to receive so much kind words and love in a new environment that I’ve only known for 3 months. And the best part is this extended from my friends, host family, co-workers, and also my favourite taxi driver and the lady who works at my favourite tienda. These overwhelming sentiments of well wishing and happiness in a country where there still many wounds that have yet to heal post civil war, I am reminded again just how much being here as taught and inspired me. Okay so a little sentimental, but I am down to my last 3 weeks here so give me a break!! Also so I have been neglecting my blog so much here are some photos of my 21. 

Turning point, Jesuits and a Canadian mining company

As part of the York International Internship Program we were asked to reflect on a few different topics. One of the things that was suggested to us to write about was a “turning point” during our time away.  After being here for just over a month now I have had the opportunity to see and discuss many different aspects of El Salvador. Some things I had previously researched and had some knowledge of, however I find myself relating to a “turning point” because for the first time since I’ve been here, in addition to seeing and discussing I’ve started feeling something. I don’t want to sound like after being here for month I now “get” things, because I absolutely do not, but last week the social and historical realities of the country hit me in a way that I just wasn’t feeling from simply doing research.

Before arriving in El Salvador I knew this was a country that had suffered one of Central America’s most violent wars and knew this was a big reason for the current state of the social welfare of the nation. What I didn’t know was just how deep the scars from the war ran. A few things lately have allowed to think about the war and it’s aftermath a little bit more in depth. Right now in El Salvador the big news is that the current President Mauricio Funes (FMLN) recently passed a new decree that has been highly criticized by both members of “right” and “left” leaning political parties. The decree at it’s simplest basically makes it so that the Supreme Court here has to vote unanimously, whereas before it was based on the majority. This has been viewed as a direct attack on democracy and there has been a lot of speculation surrounding the decision. One of the challenges for me has been that there is very little English media coverage on El Salvador in general, so everything I’ve picked up about the new decree has been from my speaking to locals and attempting to understand the news.

My understanding is that the FMLN knew that if they were ever to win an election here, they would need to choose a presidential candidate that was slightly more centrist. However this recent decision to change the Supreme Court represents Funes’ break from the FMLN and their democratic values. When the FMLN came into power in 2009 people really did trust that change would happen. They knew it couldn’t be done over night, but there was some expectation that when Funes said he was here for the people, the people would be heard, unfortunately the majority of these voices are still being ignored. The FMLN was a party that was formed during the Civil War as way means to defend democracy and today with decree 743, they are attacking it. This is why it’s been particularly interesting to observe the backlash of Funes’ decision. Young people from all across the political spectrum have been organizing protests and demonstrations, together, which had previously been unheard of in El Salvador.

There has also been a lot of speculation as to why Funes made this decision and what had resonated with me I think the most, is the speculation surrounding the Amnesty Law that was granted here after the Civil War. In an earlier blog post I spoke a little bit about the recent judicial decision in Spain to prosecute the military officers that were in charge of the assassinations of the 6 Jesuits in the 1980’s. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the University of Central America, where the 6 Jesuits were killed. Today, there is a museum at the university, which includes a series of graphic photos that were taken immediately after the assassinations. Walking through the museum I was able to learn a little bit more about the lives of the Jesuits as well as their ideas of peace and equality that were seen as “extreme” by the Salvadoran Government at the time.

Another part of the museum had a display that showed a variety of different massacres that happened throughout the war. These were mainly areas where death squads were sent in to kill men, women and children who were thought to be guerrilla “sympathizers”. After seeing all of this I started to feel really angry. After the peace accords were signed in 1993, the extreme right wing government was still in power, so they granted Amnesty to everyone that had been implicated in the war. Meaning that no one good be punished. Shortly after the war the UN investigated the human rights violations that occurred in El Salvador and compiled a list of names of people that were directly implicated. These are people that killed civilians, tortured the young, the old in Ancient Roman style. These are people who will never be punished, unless the Amnesty Law is revoked. My understanding is that the Supreme Court, as an independent body has this power.

This is why there is a lot of speculation as to the timing of Funes’ decision with Decree 743. It came shortly after Spain decision to internationally prosecute the military commanders in charge of the Assassinations of the Jesuits. Some people are seeing he wanted to revoke the Supreme Courts power, because he feared they would allow for the Amnesty law to be breached. This is interesting because Funes is the leader of a party that was formerly the guerrilla resistance during the war and who the UN found guilty of 10% of the human rights violations. Whereas the government who was in power at the time, ARENA, was found guilty of 90% of the human rights violations. This is making people question Funes motives even further, and has people wondering just how deep he is in with ARENA, a party the FMLN is supposed to oppose.

I speak of all this from the perspective of a turning point because since I’ve started to learn more about the assassinations and massacres that happened during the war, I can’t help but feel a continuing since of anger for the lack of justice here. Furthermore something that has had me in an increasingly reflective place is the impact of a Canadian mining company “Pacific Rim” that is currently in El Salvador. This is another extremely complex issue, so forgive me for only scratching the surface in my thoughts and explanation. Over a year a go Pacific Rim received an exploration license to be able to come into El Salvador in the district of Cabanas and see what was profitable. During this time it was brought to local and national activists attention that should these mines go forward there would be huge environmental damages that would not only destroy the land, but also poison water source of thousands of people in the surrounding communities. So last year when the government of El Salvador did not give permission for Pacific Rim to continue their plans, under CAFTA Pacific Rim is currently in the middle of suing the government. 

Whatever your opinion might be on what rights a Canadian Mining company might have under CAFTA is one thing, however what has been weighing very heavily with me over this issue is the continuing disappearances of activists who are opposing Pacific Rim. There have been 4 activist killed in total to date, with the most recent one being discovered earlier this month. I encourage you to read the press release http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=844&Itemid=1&lang=en .

Also this video speaks of the events in Cabanas with Pacific Rim. http://www.vimeo.com/16122713

These murders bring out the other overwhelming problem with the justice system in El Salvador. In 2009 the UN found there was a 96% national impunity rate. No one is being held accountable for these murders. At this point in my time here, I am finding it increasingly difficult to wrap my head around the lack of justice here. I am finding myself baffled by the propaganda in the newspapers and unable to comprehend why the solutions that seem so simple and in reach are so difficult to come by.

Once again this turned into something way bigger than I wanted it to be, but I thought it was important to convey a little bit of the emotional side of this internship. Soon I will be posting a slightly more upbeat blogpost with San Salvador Gay Pride stories, dancing and a small case of salmonella.

Oh also watch this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTSi0pKjC5g

Besos!!!

A lesson learned: The rain means business here

I really need to work on posting more frequent shorter blog posts because I can already tell this is going to be a long one.

If I was an organized person by nature and had made a list of things I wanted to do while here in El Salvador amongst all my research before I left I feel like anything I could have come up with would not be able to compare the things I have actually been doing. For instance yesterday I want to this huge arcade with my family, sensory overload yes, but totally worth it because I taught my little ninos the art of Dance Dance Revolution. After attempting to dance Salsa, Meringue and Cumbia on Friday night, it was definitely nice to be back in my element, well as much as DDR can ever be considered my element…

This weekend was the first weekend that me and my fellow York students experienced the night life here in San Salvador. We went to a bar that had been highly recommended from a bunch of different people for it’s dancing and overall atmosphere. By 11PM the bar was packed and everyday was dancing at which point I learned that every single Salvadoran is a born dancer, which really emphasis how white and awkward I am. The best part was though that everyone there really went out of their way to teach us how to dance. Obviously there were a few men eager to show of their moves to all the “gringas”, but we also found this really great group of ladies that showed us some steps as well. A pretty “unreal” night as some of you in Canada would say. I also saw this hilarious Classic Rock cover band on Saturday night, but that night deserves an entire blogpost to itself. Pronto…

Anyways other than my recent trip to the arcade all of my “bailando” I have had the chance to visit a few different places both in and out of the city. Two weekends ago I was able to visit San Luis Rancho to learn about a Women’s Cooperative with whom the CIS works with, that produces indigo for textile purposes. To get to the cooperative we had to drive about an hour and a half in the mountains, which was a adventure in itself. Once we arrived the women spoke to us about the importance these cooperatives in the communities. It was explained to us that here it is common that women are expected to stay at home and that employment through these cooperatives offers a type of empowerment and alternate lifestyle for these ladies. It was really great to spend time with the workers and helped me get a better idea of what role the CIS plays with these cooperatives and artisans. After we had a bit of a discussion we were able to dye or own scarfs. I’ve uploaded a few photos below of the process and promise to post some of the final product soon! Oh this is also the day I experienced a little bit of the Salvadoran bluntness I had heard about. One of the ladies asked me how old I was and after I responded with 20, she said “Oh no, what if you get taller?”. So here is hoping 5’8 is my cap!

That same weekend I had a bit of another adventure. Myself and my two amigas from CIS decided to go to the beach, which isn’t terribly complicated in theory, but we did run into a couple minor problems. First of all, we knew we needed to catch one bus that would take us to the coast, which was pretty simple, except that when we got to the bus station we asked about 8 different people where to catch the bus and every single person told us something different. So after several minutes of us making quite the spectacle we finally settled on a spot and eventually caught the right bus and ended up having a really good relaxing day (obviously my SPF 55 did nothing and I spent the next day looking even redder than usual..). On the way home we were feeling pretty confident after flagging down the right bus except that we ended up getting dropped off at a completely different location, it was almost dark out and we had no idea where we were. Not our finest move, but luckily we had met this amazing cab driver who spoke English, and when we called and described our location he was able to find us! Until then we huddle near a hot dog vendor and attempted to blend in to the industrial auto shop district we somehow ended up in…

My week days here have become a bit routine, but I am definitely not complaining. I usually wake up about 5:30 or 6 depending what if I’m woken up but this particularly loud song bird, or a car alarm going off. I don’t live right downtown or anything, but the day here seriously starts at 5:30 and it’s kind of hard to sleep through all the energy on the streets. I’d even like to point out that most houses here do not have hot water, and that it might sound kind of rough to take a cold shower at 5:30 AM, but I have yet to complain about it since my the time I get outside at 7:30 I’m already melting. I kind of love the mornings at my house too, watching my family’s mad dash to get ready in the morning while I ate breakfast and they get ready for school/work has proved to be a solid part of my routine. They just do everything with such energy and humour and I really admire how to no matter how crazy some mornings are, they always seem so stress free! Suave!

I’m out of the house by 7:30 which gives me enough time to walk to school and to start resenting any kind of clothing. Also because I have a notoriously bad sense of direction, I feel I should point out that it’s officially been a week since I’ve gotten lost! I’ve learn to use the volcano as a landmark as it seems to be a little more dependable that the street signs. I then have my Spanish classes from 8 to 12PM, which I’m still really enjoying, despite the fact that I have collected about 30 sad face stamps for my French/English use in class… I’ll try and get a visual of that too one day, my notebook is starting to look pretty arty.

I’ve titled this “A lesson learned” because of the recent experience I’ve had with the rain.  Although it’s supposed to be the rainy season right now over the past 3 weeks it’s mostly only rained at night, until last week when I got caught in my first ever torrential downpour. I was halfway home when it really started to pour, at which point I busted out my foolish Canadian sized umbrella (my host dad totally gave me that universal “I told you so” look for not carrying around the massive dog attacking umbrella he gave me. Needless to say I learnt two things. 1) Keeping my cell phone in my bra  while it’s raining will lead it to its tragic, pre-mature death. 2) People in El Salvador have beef with the rain, and I have yet to figure out whether it’s just a superstition, a valid worry or a combination of both. I was the only person walking in the rain (yeah still trying to learn how to not make a fool of myself on the daily here) and then whenever I told someone I got caught out they asked if I showered after. The truth was I hadn’t until about 3 hours after I got home, but after getting an overall appalling response I started lying and said I hopped right in the baño.

So I just wrote a big political discussion about the recent Supreme Court changes that have been made here, but I’m going to post it in a couple days so I am seem less nerdy.

On that note, adios and I will be posting again very soon!!!

Besos a todos!

Kim

More Photos soon but here I have a photo from El Tunco, a beach we visited and below that is a photo of my having some anil fun!

Update with some thoughts…

Well it’s been almost 2 weeks now since I arrived in San Salvador and I’m hoping that this blog post will find me writing from a slightly more thoughtful perspective as opposed to my previous one which was a little all over the place, even for me!

First off I can somewhat communicate with my host family now! Yesterday they commented that they can understand me now whereas before they pointed out I just kept speaking French, now it’s a nice Quebecois/Spanish mix. Progress! Although I have to say my professor has started bringing in a sad face stamp to class solely for the purpose of stamping my page every time I speak French or English, the perils of “multilingualism” apparently! Stamp count:14. Oh and I have found my enemigo! The gecko who lives in my room! He comes out every night at 3AM and clicks loudly just to get to me. Also the other day I was typing on my computer and he clicked with me the entire way!

Anyways now that I am a couple weeks in I have a better idea of the type of things I’ll be working on over the summer at the CIS. Some of the work includes doing some website maintenance but I’ll also be working on promotion and client outreach for the Artesian material the CIS sells. I’ll definitely give more details on this as the internship progresses.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit two the artisans that the CIS works with. They live about 45 minutes outside of San Salvador in the gang controlled rural community of Distrito Italia. In addition to the artisan works Jose and Evelyn do, they also have opened up a small library in their home for the kids in their neighbourhood to use. The CIS also sends English school volunteers over to help teach the kids English. On Saturday there was a Mother’s Day Event (here Mother’s day lasts all of May), where the kids from the community put together a bunch of songs and skits for their moms. I really wasn’t sure of what to expect since I know this was a community that had a very strong military presence because of all the gang activity and although driving in was definitely a eye opener to the growing poverty in El Salvador, once we got to Jose and Evelyn’s home, a millions kids ran up to me with huge smiles and hugs. Even more impressive, they were so patient with my limited Spanish! They knew I didn’t speak much, but it didn’t stop them from engaging in conversation and trying to make me feel welcome (this includes bringing up front to dance the Cumbia…not my smoothest movement, man these kids can dance but definitely a moment I won’t forgot) Anyways it was a great experience and I’m really looking forward to my next visit! Oh also as a side note to get there we (my Boss/friend Antonia, and her boyfriend who both sang at the event) took a micro bus which I found out is also called a disco bus since the driver blasts house music! And apparently some busses even have a disco ball and lights that drop at night!! However,so far no one has been game to go looking for these night busses hmmmm…

Being here for almost two weeks now I’ve had the chance to begin to learn with meaning about the brutal civil war that ended in El Salvador in 1992. Prior to my arrival here I definitely knew the basics of the war, but the impact this war has had on this country is only now beginning to sink in. The Spanish classes I’m taking are often focused around the war and it’s aftermath with the teacher himself remembering what it was like living as a kid through this extremely turbulent, violent period. He made a good point when he said that the only people who know war are those who’ve experienced it. I’ve studied all kinds of historical conflicts but after talking to my teacher, host family and any other Salvadoran who lived through this war I’m reminded of how little I know. The aftermath of the war has also been heavily discussed here since I’ve arrived. After a brutal 12 year war between the right wing government and the left wing guerrilla groups with 75 000 people dead, peace was declared in 1992. Now this is absolutely a good thing, but what I’ve been learning here so far is that one of the reasons why El Salvador is in such a tough place socially, economically and politically today is because there was no transition period after the war. This is why it was indeed good news when in 2009 the FMLN (main opposition group in the war) was elected. However this week marks the 2 year point of the victory and what continues to be said by the people I speak to here is that the FMLN who is in power right now, does not maintain the same values and interests as the FMLN during the civil war. What I’ve gathered (and I still have A LOT to learn), so far is that FMLN had to change their platform to a slightly more centrist one in order to get elected, which has translated to a government who is not particularly interested in solving the underlying problem of extreme poverty that plagues this country. The economic realities after the civil war in El Salvador are a big reason why crime and violence is so high here. The reality is 2009 the UN found there was a 96% impunity rate with one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America and a growing gang population. Again this is definitely a topic that is on peoples minds here and I’ve had a couple of really valuable conversations with people expressing their belief that the only way meaningful change will ever occur here is through Social Revolution. I’m quickly learning that El Salvador has an extremely  complicated history with an equally complex political landscape. Speaking of here is an article on the recent news surrounding the recent judicial decision made in Spain in favour of the families of the Jesuits who were killed in El Salvador during the civil war. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/world/americas/31salvador.html

Aside from all that I really do think it’s important to comment on the people here. Salvadorans have truly proven to be genuine, kind patient people! My Spanish is still coming along but everyone here is so patient about making sure I understand the conversation or situation and will take the time to explain things to me as much as they can. I’m finding not only their stories extremely interesting but also their general demeanour really comforting. That being said they’re are only a handful of foreigners here in San Salvador, so no matter how much I try to blend in, I definitely get noticed. For example the other day I was stopped by an older couple so they could comment on my green eyes. It’s most harmless stuff with even the cat calling having a somewhat comical nature to it. I did however run into a small problem earlier this week while walking home, and it was the only time I had felt unsafe while here. It was nothing too dramatic and the situation definitely worked out, but it served as a good reminder that there is good reason why even the locals are always ever so slightly on edge when walking the streets. However, my host Dad recently gave me a big umbrella so I can fend of the wild dogs if needed, so at least that’s one safety issue I have down!

This turned out to be way longer than I wanted and not particularly concise but it’s maybe a good combination of what’s been on my mind and some of the things I’ve been doing. I swear I will be posting pictures soon, because I know I just painted kind of a rough picture of San Salvador, but it really is unbelievably beautiful here and my host brother and sister are quite possibly the best ninos in the world. Also I didn’t talk about food! So expect more of that in the next one. 

Thanks for reading and stay in touch friends!

Adios.

Kim