Milking cows in Amando Lopez

A quick shout out to friend and fellow teacher, Alex, who lives and works in the community of Amando Lopez in the Bajo Lempa.   Long before school starts every morning, he and his dad are up to milk their herd of ten cows.  They make it look easy, but this a time consuming and involved process.  

Step 1:  Tie up mama cow's back legs so that she doesn't wander off or kick you.  Tie her calf to the fence off to the side so that it doesn't get in the way.

Step 2:  Have a seat and milk her for a couple minutes.

Step 3:  Untie the calf and let her over to drink for a couple minutes.

Step 4:  Repeat 3-4 times.  You milk, let the calf drink, you milk, let the calf drink... Um, did I mention that they have TEN cows?!

Aside from a lot of time and patience, you also need technique!  Of the approximately ten squirts that I personally handled, maybe two made it into the bucket.  The others went anywhere but the bucket, including onto Alex's shoes.  

By the way, YUM!  

Step 5:  Take the milk down the street to the lecheria and sell it.  

Done!   Thanks for letting us hang out with you, Alex! 

L.A.

Day 4 and 5 by Sheryl

Our first three days in ES were action packed with meetings, discussions, hikes, pupusas, etc. On Thursday morning, we packed up the van, left San Salvador and headed to Morazan, a rural mountainous region in the northeast.  We stopped in the town of San Luis for lunch and passionate discussions with the women of the pastoral community, many of whom had been residents of refugee camps in Honduras during the civil war. This was our first direct interaction with members of a small rural community. This is where I first started to get a more complete picture of the people whom our students leave behind. We started with a song called "Solidaridad."

 It really set the tone and gave me my first real sense of the strength of the people of the community. This is also where I started to realize that when our students leave, communities are affected, not just families. When so many members of the community immigrate it really diminishes both.  However, Maria, one of the leaders of the group, was generous and sincere when she thanked us for the work that we do for those that have left.  She called it a gift.  We were humbled.

We moved on and got settled into the Jocoatique hostel,

 but only for a few minutes and then it was back in the van to go to the Museum of the Revolution in Perkin. We were met by our very capable and knowledgeable guide who provided details of the war. There were many pictures of the guerrillas, weapons and artifacts of the war.  The pics that really impressed me were the ones of the women fighters.  We also saw the helicopter that General Monterrosa was in when the booby trapped radio equipment he had picked up exploded. This is also where we got our first detailed description of the massacre at El Mozote.  It was disturbing but it helped prepare us for our visit to El Mozote the following day.

Special forces combatants, carefully traversing a minefield.

General Monterrosa's helicopter

After the museum we took a hike up to the lookout where the FMLN would broadcast news about the war from their perspective.  (This was a constant source of concern and aggravation to General Monterrosa because, prior to the establishment of this radio operation, called Radio Venceramos, news about the war had only been provided by the Salvadoran government, which of course did not describe an accurate and complete picture to the people.) On our hike we saw the cave where the guerrillas carried out their broadcasts and we even saw trenches that the guerrillas used during combat.

The next day we were up early (as usual) and prepared for a hike in Guacamaya to see a cave with some petroglyphs.  We picked up 3 young teenage boys that are part of a group supported by Voces to help keep youth out of gangs.  They were our guides to the cave and they took their job very seriously. It was a great hike.

 From the cave we went to the river for a little swim.  We were really looking forward to a relaxing break after the hike; however drama followed.  We were all in the water or getting ready to go in.

Rocks in the river, and Frida!

 Oscar, one of our young guides, decided to dive from one of the rocks and ended up diving into another rock just under the surface and cracked his head.  It was clear this was going to take more than first aid.  We wrapped up the gash and he and Ebony jumped on a motorcycle to head for the clinic. Did I mention that we had Ebony's dog, Frida, with us for the day? Well Frida decided to try to follow Ebony on the motorcycle, unsuccessfully. Frida ran off, with Lindsey trying to catch her.  Now we had a seriously injured boy and a lost dog.  It was a tense time for the Traveling Teachers and our entourage.

After about a half hour we heard from Ebony that Oscar was getting stitches and his mother was with him.  And Lindsay retrieved Frida.  Whew!! We all reunited and had lunch, but there was still major concern that Oscar may have  a concussion.  In addition to this concern, we heard from one of Oscar's friends that his grandmother would probably beat him when he got home for what he did.  Several in our group tried to convince Oscar's mother to allow us to take him to the hospital (a half hour away) for further tests to make sure he didn't have a concussion, but she said no.  "God would take care of him." We felt we could only push so far, so we dropped off Oscar and his mom at their house and reluctantly left. It was a clear moment of culture clash that was much more serious than just a difference in taste of food or music. It was a stressful and emotional afternoon.

But the day was not over yet!  We went back to our hostel for 10 minutes to regroup before we got back in the van to go to El Mozote. This is the town where General Monterrosa ordered a massacre during the war and over a 1000 people, including 100s of children, were murdered.  We had the privilege of speaking to someone who had been there.  She had left the town at around 5pm to do some shopping, and the killing began around 6. She hid in the mountains for 3 days without any food or water. It is amazing that she is willing to relive the events regularly by being a guide. It is understandable that she wants to make sure the story stays alive, but still, I have to admire people who are willing to put themselves through it time after time.   WHAT A DAY!!

Site where the children were massacred.

The next day we loaded into the van and made a quick stop to a small museum that displayed pictures of the refugee camps in Honduras.

Then it was off to the beach, El Espino, for a  much needed break and some down time. We spent the afternoon at La Tortuga Verde. It was lovely. It was at this point in the trip that we all realized we were absolutely exhausted: physically, mentally and emotionally. We had seen, heard and processed a lot of really heavy information in five days.

We so wanted to stay longer, because we felt we just didn't have it in us to be at the top of our game as "diplomats" or representatives of Voces, Carlos Rosario or the U.S.  But we were due to have dinner with the community leaders in Amando Lopez that evening. Many plans, including our homestays, were already in place and couldn't be changed.  Soooooo, what did we do?? WE GOT IN THE VAN and headed down the road to our next adventure.

Getting the bigger picture: Those who stay vs those who go (by Sheryl)

One of the biggest take-aways for me was getting a better sense of the people who stay behind. Up until this trip, of course, my understanding came only from what my students had told me. I imagined a country virtually populated only with children, abuelas and tias.  This is not the case. A more realistic  picture began to emerge after we left San Salvador and headed into Morozon.  Our students, the ones who leave, are not the leaders, so it was somewhat surprising to see that there are many strong leaders in the small villages. Our first encounter was a lovely gathering with members of a pastoral community. We gathered in the church, formed a circle and sang the song "Solidaridad." Among many topics, Maria, the primary spokesperson for the group, talked about how the communities are left fractured and diminished when someone leaves, not just families.

This same concern was echoed by the community leaders of Amando Lopez and Monte Cristo. However, unlike our students, who see the solution to a better life in the U.S., these people have made a conscious decision to stay and do the best they can to provide a better future for their children in El Salvador. It was very helpful to have the opportunity to talk to the leaders of  San Luis, Amando Lopez and Monte Cristo and to know that there are people remaining in the country who struggle against great odds every day to build opportunities for their families right there.

San Luis

San Luis

Amando Lopez

Monte Cristo

Monte Cristo

Another significant experience of the trip, that added to the big picture, was staying with families. I have to admit that this was the part of the trip I was most anxious about.  It's very demanding to be a guest in a stranger's home under "normal" circumstances, but being a guest in a stranger's home in another country, speaking another language is a whole different ballgame. Again, my vision of a typical Salvadoran home came from descriptions from my students, so I had a little idea of what to expect, but "living" it, even for just 2 days, gave me a more realistic picture of what their daily lives had been like: cooking over an open fire, bathing at a concrete sink with a basin, washing dishes at the concrete sink, sleeping in a hammock, washing clothes in the river, and going to the bathroom in an outhouse. It was important to experience this first hand, if only for a short period of time.

Jeanne Rikkers also added some insight into the dynamics of leaving vs staying. We see our students as making a huge sacrifice by leaving their children behind to find jobs in the U.S. so they can provide for these children.  But she sees children who feel abandoned by their parents; children who don't care about the material things their parents provide by sending back money, they just want their mother or father with them.

Jeanne Rikkers

Parents who leave also tend to paint a rosy picture of their new life in the U.S. (even though the reality is that their new life is really hard) because they don't want their families to worry about them. Rather than alleviating the worry, it has the effect of causing resentment in the family left behind. Jeanne feels it would be better if the parents would be more honest about how difficult their life in the U.S. really is.

Jeanne also suggested that often times young mothers are secretly relieved to leave their children behind and start a new life in the U.S. although it is never spoken.  Of course they love their children, but they see an opportunity to leave an oppressive country where the primary objective of women is to simply bear children.

So I now have a more complete notion of the immigration picture and it's effects here at home and in El Salvador. It's not pretty.  I only hope it helps me, helps us all, be more aware, sympathetic, and ultimately more effective as teachers and counselors. 

.

Education in El Salvador & Seeds of Hope (by Laurel)

To better understand our Salvadoran students back in Washington, we wanted to get a better understanding of the education system from which they come.  This has amounted to discussions with students, teachers, community leaders, union representatives and even El Salvador's Vice Minister of Education.  

The meeting with the Vice Minister on our second day in San Salvador was largely uninspired.  His overview of the government's education initiatives (better teacher training, improving infrastructure, increased spending for education in general) lacked substance and detail.  We knew that there would be a disconnect with what we would see and hear as our tour of the country continued.

The following day we met with the leaders of three teachers' unions who filled us in on the flip side of the Vice Minister's story.  The increase in government spending hasn't accounted for the increase in the number of students, so schools are actually making do with less money per pupil.  In cases where funding is there, schools may not receive it in a timely manner.  Significant "processing fees" are deducted from schools' funding.  New materials are provided, but without the support necessary to use them. And how absurd, they pointed out, to provide new computers to schools in areas without electricity!

It's difficult to tease apart how much of the disconnect between the national government and the local communities is the result of incompetence, corruption, or as the community leader of Amando Lopez suggested, a calculated plot to suppress the poor.   Whatever it is, the locals, at least in the communities that we visited, have lost faith in their government and are doing their best to fill in the gaps themselves.

The idea of "solidaridad" was evident in both of the rural villages that we visited.  By working and living in cooperatives,  community members are trying to take matters upon themselves.  Residents of Amando Lopez, for example, have worked together to establish and maintain a small library.  Running the school depends on an active parent/teacher association, and community leaders have figured out how to connect with NGOs to get funding for local projects. Elsewhere, in the village of San Luis in Morazan, one elderly resident spoke of the history of grass roots literacy programs in which residents who can read teach those who can't.  

Despite the inadequacies of the public education system, and along with the realities of poverty and insecurity, there's a lot of hope in these communities.  Hope is particularly evident in the dedicated teachers of Amando Lopez.  The Ministry of Education pays them about $68/month, but not always consistently.  They occasionally go several months without their salary, and when a check arrives, it may or may not account for back pay.  In the face of injustice, these teachers still show up.  They even take in students from outside their community - just because.  They stay focused on their work.

And so we made our rounds, from the fancy air-conditioned office of the Vice Minister to schools without plumbing in remote parts of the country.  We listened.  We asked good questions.  We tried to process the information overload.

As human rights advocate Jeanne Rikkers told us, the trick is to look for the small seeds of hope and find ways to water them so that they'll grow.  For example, Voices on the Border, our host organization, is paying a teacher's salary so that the school in Amando Lopez can offer 7th grade after 6th grade.  They have covered the cost of a substitute teacher so that the regular teacher can receive pay during her maternity leave.  They are also providing a grant to renovate the rundown library in San Luis.  Kudos to them for watering the seeds!

~Laurel

PS. I almost forgot to mention that our group team taught a 45-min English lesson to a group of 6th    graders in Amando Lopez!  Never mind the rudimentary facilities, these kids were smart, engaged and totally entertained by us Gringos!

 Day 2: Meeting with the Vice Minister of Education

Day 3: Meeting the leaders of the teachers' unions

The community library in Amando Lopez

"Welcome to Solidarity," the mural at the community library in Amando Lopez

Recruiting volunteer facilitators for "literacy circles" to help Salvadorans learn to read and write

Home Stays, by Marina

History has never been my strongest subject. While I could memorize vocabulary words, mathematical equations, or the periodic table, I would always struggle to remember dates of important wars or historical events in great detail. The most informative part of this trip for me was having an opportunity to learn from the individuals who lived through a history and are living a current reality that I would only read about in books or newspapers.

Getting the chance to live with a host a family in Bajo Lempa really made the learning experience come to life. Waking up in the early hours of the morning, I found my host mom, Mabel, already at work cleaning corn to take to the "molina" by 5am before it got too busy. By 7am (the time at which I usually wake up to get ready for work), she had already made fresh tortillas and breakfast for the whole family and was taking care of the baby. We were told that everybody is up by 5:30 at the latest...starting your day after 6am is a sign of wealth.

    Marina, Caitlin, and our host family

    Laurel, Sheryl, and their host family

In the U.S., we are saturated with tools of convenience. It was humbling to see that all the material things we are told we need, aren't all that necessary. A baby can sleep in a hammock, you can spend an evening playing cards on the floor, and do laundry in a concrete sink. Believe it or not, sleeping without a mattress isn't that bad. 

    Laundry day

    Delicious  breakfasts come out of this kitchen

    Marina & her host brother

    Lindsey and her host sisters

    Nap time

Thank you to the families that opened their doors and their hearts and welcomed us with open arms!

~ Marina