Day 4

Day 4:
Moving hostels:
Our first activity of the day was to move from the San Jose hostel in San Salvador to the Agape hotel/hostel in Sonsonate. Here's my new room, which I share only with Lacey (and an anthill):

Las Trincheras, Sonsonate

Today, we were told to prepare to find out what real poverty is. Alvaro told us that the people who live up past Caluco live below the poverty line, but will welcome us with open arms. We were told to prepare ourselves to be hugged, touched, and to laugh and cry with the people. He wasn’t kidding.

Our first stop of the day was to a daycare/elementary school. It was nothing more than a tiny, one-room brick building with two windows and a door and a small concrete church on a patch of dusty dirt. The CCLP group I had traveled with had brought bubbles, small bouncy balls, big playground balls, and candy for the kids. Since I wasn’t part of the group, I of course had nothing to offer, but Ryan kindly gave me some candies to give to the kids. As soon as we arrived, the kids all gathered around the fence and made two rows for us to walk through as they greeted us with “Buenas dias, amigos!” I gave away the candies to some little girls, and as we walked to the school house, a little girl took my hand. “Como te llamas?” (what is your name?) I asked. “Gabriela,” she said. She couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old! She was so cute: big brown eyes, brown curls pulled back into a ponytail, and she was wearing a pink and white dress. The teachers of the school introduced themselves to us once we were all crammed inside the school house. The kids had prepared two songs to sing for us, too! It was adorable. They were so excited to sing these songs, but I think we all enjoyed the second song more: it involved hand motions! I liked the second song better just because I understood all the words. J

Then, we were invited to play with the kids. Only about 5 of us in our group of 13 speak much Spanish, but playing, thankfully, doesn’t have to require many words. I have a hard time understanding little-kid-speak in English, let alone in Spanish! I could talk to the kids, but I had a hard time understanding some of them. I wound up playing ball with a little boy: We passed a small bouncy ball back and forth. Then, a little girl joined the game. Somehow I eventually wound up with a bigger playground ball, throwing it around with three little boys and a little girl. It was so funny! The little girl kept jumping and grabbing the ball from a little boy I was trying to throw the ball to. I laughed as I called her a “ladrona,” meaning “thief.” It was VERY hot in the little schoolhouse, so Ryan asked if I wanted to invite some of the kids to play outside, so I asked them, “Quieren jugar alli?”(do you guys want to play there?)  I pointed outside. “afuera?”  (outside). Some of them nodded so we all went outside where the kiddos could kick the ball to their hearts’ content. Ryan asked me to explain the rules of Kickball to them, but my knowledge of sports vocabulary is incredibly limited. I don’t even know how to say “kick” in Spanish, so I have no idea how to explain “kickball!” It was almost lunchtime, so it worked out okay. We helped line the kids up and wash their hands with soap and water. To wash one’s hands in this neighborhood, one scrubs with a bar of soap while someone else pours a pan of pila water or tap water over your hands.

While the kids were eating, we left to go eat lunch ourselves. We went up the road to the home of a woman (whose name I’ve forgotten), who works with ISNA, which is a program for helping kids. She has four kids, I think, the eldest of which she was able to send to University for IT, though the majority of kids in Las Trincheras don’t go to school beyond 6^th grade. There were a lot of people at her home, which was a concrete, brick, and sheet metal building that is smaller than most U.S. homes but larger than most of the homes in the community. The kitchen and laundry room are outdoors. Ah, yes, laundry. Laundry is done in a river or with pila water in a bucket, by hand, then hung up to dry. I myself have been washing my own laundry in the sinks of hostels with Tide packets and hanging it up on makeshift clotheslines in the bedroom, but I digress.

 We ate a lunch of a Salvadoran version of Spagetti, cooked vegetables, corn tortillas, and papaya. To drink, we had a fresh-squeezed tamarind juice. 

All the food we've eaten here so far is fresh, unlike most foods in the U.S. It's amazing, but oh-so-filling. I thought I would have some trouble adjusting from my stress-eating habits of four small meals and a couple snacks down to 2-3 meals a day, but I have not been hungry the entire trip. It may be from drinking and sweating so much, but I'm not sure. I think it's a good thing! 

Next, we spent several hours working at a construction site of what will be the new school in Las Trincheras. It's an absolute dream come true compared to the tiny, run-down old school. The daycare in its current location will lose the land in a month, but the new location will be on their own land so the kids will have a nice, new school to learn and play and grow in. This school has an office, a kitchen, and two classrooms WITH attached bathrooms!!! There's even space between the classrooms and the kitchens to be able to add a new classroom when the community grows more! Right now, there will be room for 60 students at this school, but it can potentially hold up to 100. The CCLP group and I helped out where we could: We were divided into groups to work on a few tasks at a time. I was part of a group who was moving a pile of dirt and rocks to the other side of the enclosure (The school is encompassed by a brick wall with barbed wire on top, for safety). Using pickaxes and shovels, we first chopped away at the dirt pile, then sorted out all the big rocks and threw them into piles. Other groups would cart away the rocks, and other people would help shovel dirt into wheelbarrows to be taken to the hole on the other side of the enclosure. It was hard work, but it was fun, and, thankfully, there was cloudcover and a bit of wind!!!!!!!!!! I would have just died if we'd been out in the direct sunlight doing that work. 

After working with the little kids and at the new school, I was excited to be staying in E.S. for 9 more weeks. The new school should be open in 2-3 weeks, meaning I'll be here to witness it! Although the heat is absolutely killer, and the culture is greatly different than that of the U.S., I do want to stay and work. Yesterday, I just wanted to go home. I felt awful and I felt sick at the thought of spending 10 weeks in this deathly heat, but today was a great day. I had so much fun playing with the kids, and I even had fun working at the construction site (something I never thought I'd say). :) 

These are papaya trees!

These are coffee plants (above & below)

I got really dirty. 

AC units are my best friends. :) 

After dinner, we watched a video on the civil war. Here are some notes: 

Video of the history of El Salvador (notes)

Communism offered people to work long hours for small pay. Propaganda included people carrying pictures of two people struggling under a yoke, like oxen, but sweating blood.

When people held meetings, they talked about taking the land. They began by organizing sessions and they organized the land occupations. They promised them land, then conflicts.

They should have taken the land from the rich, but instead the land was taken from the peasants who were then put to work on the land they used to own.

In the case of one man’s father, he joined a party in which almost no one could read.

1931 peasants involved in movements for religious reasons.
Government oppressed the union (of peasants). It was now a crime to be poor, basically.

The communist party was gaining power as repression & terror spread.

The peasants associated with Socorro Rojo began to organize a rebellion against the communist party.  When strikes began to turn violent, the national guard intervened and killed 30 workers.

The government began rounding up and machine-gunning the rebels. Emilio Sanchez began ordering land to be returned so that he could return it to the Indians.

More than 10,000 men were killed, including Indians.

When the rebels rose up against the Communists, many communists were found hiding in holes dug in the ground, covered with planks of wood.

Ditches were dug by the roads, filled with bodies of the dead. People were taken out of their homes, marched to other towns, and gunned down. The priests, even, would ask people if they had been involved with the communists. Those who had so much as been invited to a party meeting would be rounded up and shot.