Last Day in El Sitio

My last day in the rural community of El Sitio was packed with mixed emotions.  I photographed the whole day to give a sense of a "Day in the life."  Enjoy!

Our truck rollin' through town, picking up people on the way to the lake.

Lakeside Arrival

Boat-full of people coming to town from El Sitio

Landing in El Sitio

Looking back at the lake from the path in El Sitio

One of the homes that lines the main path through El Sitio

Pig wandering up the path

Another home, but this one has coconut trees!

Part of the mural in front of the Chapel.  It remembers the 142 civilians killed in the Copapayo Massacre (attacked by US trained Atlacatl Battalion).   The six families who originally settled in this community witnessed this massacre in 1983 and strive to remember their family members.

More of the Mural

Walking to School

Watching friends walk to school

Community's Drinking Water Source

Mercedes helping her granddaughter Andrea prepare for school.

Mercedes frying a fish, from the lake, for breakfast.  Ewww...the lake is full of sewage from San Salvador and lots of garbage.

Part of our yoga group

We laugh more than anything else...

Then I head to school to teach short classes to kindergarden through sixth grade.

The students go home for lunch and one brings a bucket of homemade food for us to eat at school.

There are only four full-time workers at the school.  Two are my good friends Eva and Rosa.  I lived with Rosa.

People often walk home from the fields for lunch.  Here is a señor making his way past the school to comida.

I primarily taught grades seven through nine.  They organized a surprise party for me!  Here is Leonedes and Josifina decorating the dining area with streamers (long strips of paper they cut themselves).

The nineth graders wrote a big, endearing, thank you card.

Me and Lucia

Students pulled their money together to buy corn, beans, and cheese to make pupusas!

Goodbye

On our lucky days after school, the truck of Evangelical Christians comes to the community to take people to Suchitoto for worship.  We hopped a ride to town!

We drive through two other communities before reaching the main road.

The fields are beautiful!

Naiveté or Ambition?

Similar to all of you, I’ve generated grandiose and world-changing ideas.  Many people find them ridiculous and unfeasible.  The more years that pass, the more I listen to the many.  I’ve begun to pay attention to difficult practicalities standing between me and my dreams.  It is disheartening. 

As we grow older, we aren't as naive but we should continue envisioning ideals and realistically molding them.  We are more equipped to productively create this reality and push through challenges. 

Obstacles call for ambition.

Today, our lives are more experienced than yesterday.  We are better equipped to inspire change.  We have lived through more, heard more stories, and networked with more people.  We have seen organizations succeed and fail.  Now, we are prepared to nurture our dreams and to follow through in an informed, structured manner. 

In doing so, we are less naive and more ambitious, motivated, diligent, devoted, and faithful.