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.