San Vicente

Last weekend I ventured outside Suchitoto.  I was mindful to stick around here on the weekends my first four months but now I'm ready to explore other parts of El Salvador.  My friend Rachel invited me to crash her weekend with the Fulbrighters (and Brazilian UN workers).  We visited Luke in San Vicente who spends most his time researching volcanoes and organizing communities in landslide areas.  

We celebrated the weekend with Luke's Brazilian friends who work for the UN organizing groups, activities, and education for youth in San Vicente communities.  This is an important movement as gangs are very attractive networks for youth in this country.  The UN sponsored organizations encourage purposeful action and support networks.

We attended a sugarcane festival, where they kicked off one of the new youth groups.

 
Below the Brazilians are dancing to the drum beat in celebration of the new youth group!  Our weekend was full of dancing, singing, eating, and drinking.  We had a blast together!

Above is a traditional sugarcane harvesting dance.

This is the machine used to squish the sugar out of the sugarcane plants.  The juice is then boiled in a huge vat where the water evaporates and the liquid turns to syrup.  Then it's poured into a wooden form to dry in blocks.

These women are packaging the blocks in the dried sugarcane stalks.

Brent, Rachel, and Julia rocking the Pupusas.  We eat pupusas for dinner two to three times a week.  A pupusa is traditional here and is similar to a thick, heavy corn tortilla with cheese and/or beans inside.  The ingredients are not wrapped inside, like a burrito, but cooked inside the thick corn tortilla.  Pupusas are on every corner in El Salvador.  Yum!

Fire kites are a common way to celebrate festivals.  Our day at the sugarcane festival concluded with a wildfire.  One of the fire kites landed in the field of dry, cut sugarcane.  The field caught fire.  People ran with buckets of water.  Others stomped the ground.  After ten minutes or so, everyone just stood back and watched the fire claim acres of land then spread into the unharvested crops.  It was devastating to watch.  When the firemen arrived a half hour later, they also stood and watched.  The fire was bigger than they could handle.  Winds guided the fire in all directions.  After an hour, we hitched a ride back to the town of San Vicente.  I'm unsure of the final outcome...

Flavio (Brazilian friend) and San Vicente's Governor trying to coordinate ways to persuade food vendors to move their propane tanks away from the fire.  Isn't it crazy?  Could you imagine the Ice Cream Man ignoring Jerry Brown, Governor of California, when he tells him to move his ice cream truck because there is a wildfire ten feet away?  Their food stands were full of smoke from the fire but they still wouldn't move.  Logic is often missing here as is governmental power.

Luke and Flavia on the way home.

Rachel, Etel, and me.

First Two Computer Classes

I was hesitant when Peggy asked if I would start a computer class here at the center as we just received twelve "new" computers.  I told her that I could but that my current knowledge of computers is very limited.  She told me not to worry.

Twelve students (ages 14 - 50) arrived the first day sharing that they had never touched a computer.  After learning to turn them on, we began practicing using the mouse.  A few were quite surprised when they figured out they were controlling the moving cursor on the monitor.  The expressions on their faces were like that of children at a magic show. 

The double-click is quite a challenge as they are pressing the clicker too hard to complete two clicks quickly.  By the time they finish pushing the button, the cursor moves off the icon and the second click is elsewhere.  In this way, two single clicks doesn't equal a double-click.  Last class we stood up and practiced saying and motioning "click-click" quickly in hopes that they could begin merely touching the button twice in the allotted time period and perfecting the double-click.

Our next battle is typing using the home row.

Peggy was right,  I have content knowledge to teach this class for at least a few months.

First Yoga Class with Women in El Sitio

Wednesday, I hopped in the back of a pickup as the sun was rising.  When I arrived at the lake, I climbed into the a boat to cross to the far-off bank of El Sitio.  This is one of the communities in Suchitoto.  I hiked up the dirt path that weaves through homes and arrived at Mercedes' house, where I spent Christmas.  She guided me to the highest point in the community, the Clinic.  I climbed the hill via her yard.

Looking back at our boat from the path.

El Sitio's Clinic/Yoga Studio

The Clinic's Bathroom.  Good aim is needed but privacy isn't...

The clinic is a vacant, four-room facility with a wide, tile, outdoor hallway.  It is the only building in the community with a level floor, beside the chapel and school.  I borrowed a broom and mop from Mercedes and transformed the dusty hallway into a yoga studio with a view of the lake and surrounding mountains.  At 8:30am, class was supposed to begin, but no one was there.  I rushed down the hill to ask Mercedes where the main entrance to the Clinic was, thinking there had to be a main pathway.  She proved me wrong.

I stood in the "yoga studio" a bit bummed for a few minutes, then I heard rustling in the bushes.  A little, old woman appeared in her faded skirt and apron.  We chatted for a bit, then a woman missing most her teeth appeared from another patch of brush.  We greeted each other, then I heard a loud speaker announcing the yoga class.  More and more women appeared from all directions.  It reminded me of the movie Field of Dreams.

Waiting...

Throughout the class we laughed at ourselves and with each other.  It was a unique grace-filled space.  There was something extremely special about the inter-generational group of women moving our bodies in new ways and meditating together.  I also cherish the conversations we shared before and after class.

Part of our group...

Also, thanks to Damian Cohen and Patrick Tornes (Priory Student) for donating money to buy mats for each of the women!  Thanks to John Guiliano (Tamarindo Foundation) for sharing his Salvadorian athletic connections and providing transportation for the purchase.

You Better Belize It!

After flying into Belize City, we headed to little Orange Walk Town.

 

 

 

The next morning we took a two hour boat ride through the jungle to Lamani (Mayan Ruins).  Here's Kell with the monkey who hopped on our boat.

 We then took a bus to Corozal and spent the night in a hut on the water.

We water taxied to San Pedro, La Isla Bonita (Ambergris Caye).

We explored Caye Caulker on bikes!

Both day and night

Kell and I rode to the airport like this!  She balanced well with a sister and backpack!  That is the whole airport behind us.  No need for shoes or security...

Mom and Kell in the water right after we SWAM WITH THE SHARKS!!!

Jerry Jeff Walker's venue on San Pedro!  We had a blast at his concert!

Mom and I stayed a couple extra days to relax together.