Sites and sights

I get really anxious everytime I sit down in the internet cafe to check e-mail and maybe post something or reply back to people. Lately, we've only had an hour of time between orientation activities to rest (aka pretend you're in the US and check e-mails)

That being said, dinner is in 20 minutes. But yet I feel that forever wouldn't even be long enough to tell you about El Salvador. It's something that you just have to see.

The past week we've been becoming oriented with all of the 9 praxis sites in order to see and understand each other when we talk about the one that we call "home". It's all quite exhausting, but who am I to talk about exhaustion?

Everyone here has a different outlook on the poverty here and what each praxis site offers. Some look with pity and - worse - compare the people and pueblos and structures here to those in the US. There is no comparison. It leaves us in a constant struggle of sorrow if we look at it this way. I feel that you cannot truly feel the esperanza (hope) of the Salvadoran people here if you look at it from a US perspective. For me, I look at it like this: these people have nothing, absolutely nothing. Everything that they have been given materially is a gift form God, as is their fe (faith) and hope. When we go to the schools of the children, we cannot look to them and think of what their education is missing, or how small the classrooms are or how many will never see beyond 9th grade. It is best to see the development of the school, the constant hope and creation of new classrooms, new grades, the desire of the children to stay in school all year long, even through the summer.

The state offers many schools between $13 and $45 dollars a year for each student. That breaks down to 4 cents a day. Many public schools in Boston offer students between 13 and 20 THOUSAND a year, which is still low in comparison to other schools; say in Weston perhaps.

But still, there is hope. There is always hope. Always a smile, always a "buenas" (Short for good morning, good afternoon, good night in spanish), always a hug. There is patience. Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Peace Accords. But there is no peace here. The Arena party still controls the government (the right) while the FMLN (the left) is slowly gaining seats in the legislature. There is much corruption, and much division among the people politically, which is something I am anxious to learn about.

We have visited many churches, pastoral communities that are often the resources of education. Yesterday we went to San Ramon, where there is a new Christian community that holds its bases in the beginnings of the church, what Jesus really wanted. They believe in community more than anything, in solidarity too. The new Catholic church in El Salvador came under the strict guidelines of a Spanish priest who was assigned to San Ramon after returning for Rome to receive some kind of rehabilitation after raping a young child in the community. He came to San Ramon and thought of himself as Jesus, and began imposing on the religious ideas and participation of women. Sadly, this reality is much alive in El Salvador, and many people stay with this type of "traditional" Catholic church due to the need for tradition, and for fear of the consequences of leaving the church.

In the school in La Chacra that we visited today, we heard a story of a boy who is 9 years old and in the third grade. When he was 8, his mother took a bullet for him in the shoulder after the boy had a gun held to his forehead with his assailant asking himself aloud if he should kill the boy or not. After, his mom needed rehabilitation. He went to his father and his mistress, who eventually left him to travel to the United States, after abusing him. He went to live with his mother again, and one day she left him with an aunt to watch after him and he took a knife to his chest and threatened to kill himself. Now, he is doing well in the school but there obviously lies severe emotional trauma.

There are many cases such as these. Julio, a friend of mine who is one of the coordinators of the Romero Program which gives scholarships to the becari@s, also had his life threatened. His father ran a security business in one of the Mercados in San Salvador, and a competitor felt that he was misspoken to and killed Julio's father. His mother was spared because the pistol malfunctioned. And when I say spared I mean that he was brutally beaten twice. Julio's life was in danger for quite a long time, and Kevin and Trena took him in for a while. His sister left for the US by paying a coyote $7000 for three tries and now lives in Chelsea, MA. She got to the US by taking a pill not allowing her to urinate or have bowl movements for 48 hours and she was put in the bottom luggage compartment of a bus for 2 days with others. Now the situation has cooled. Julio has one of the greatest, warmest smiles I have ever seen and an unbelievable sense of humor to match.

There are so many more stories to share, I hope that these so far have given you a glimpse of the reality of El Salvador. But know that those stories of the people I named have not stopped their lives short of being hopeful and successful. These people are learning how to have community and solidarity. Its quite beautiful, as you will soon see.

Sorry if this is long. Orientation is packed with information, they'll get shorter.