All The Arms We Need

Yesterday when I came home from Jayaque after my first day I was all psyched to get to write this blog to tell everyone how UTTERLY AMAZING life is. Not just Jayaque or Los Sitios (the next town over), but life...actually love.

Yes, Cara has hit the hippie stage. Head on.

May sound like it, and even look like it (I'm taking a time off from shaving, to which my mom last night laughed with an "Oh gosh Cara" attached to it). Don't judge. You would too if you took cold showers every day...

Ok so now that I've deferred all but maybe one person from reading the rest of this, let me continue for those who wish.

So I was sick, with what ended up being 17 of the 23 other of us. My whole house ended up getting it. Tuesday was my first day "back" and what a day it was. I have Spanish and Sociology of Communication on Tuesday. In Spanish we went to the Anthropology Museum, where Cruz proceeded to give a detailed, quasi-bitter explanation of how the Salvadoran people have no true identity and to be honest I don't remember much else about it besides wishing that I could just explore in there. I feel like a little kid here. There were so many rooms we didn't get to see for that huge entrance fee of $1.50. Oh, also a 6 pack of beer here is $0.86 and a 1.75 liter handle of Bacardi is $13. And a cleaning in the dental clinic in Jayaque is $1.25.

I ate lunch (aka two pupusas, salad, two peach juice drinks) for $1.70.

Ok enough, I just want to talk about Sociology. Antonio Cañas is the professor, although I know he most likely hates to be called that. The whole class is about finding truth. Its more of a philosophy class more than anything.

Random thoughts from Antonio:

• There is an 18% illiteracy rate (officially) in El Salvador. Unofficially, the rate is 60% because it's not just about reading, but about understanding the concepts. They accept what they read as the truth and this is why the newspaper has more power here.
• How many times do you feel your name when you think about the world?
• The origin of all objectivity is contingent. His example: Pluto. Was a planet and now is not? All objectivity is dependent on something. It's something we've created.
  
• The object of discourse is thinking. We have to find what we think based on our reality, out of the context of what other sources tell us is reality. We can't know if the context of a text is true unless we look at the reality.
  

Seriously.

Those are just some of the notes I took. He also talked Tuesday about symbolic power of certain people and how we accept it without question. We don't walk into a building and question the engineering of it, or go to a doctor's office and question the pill or medicine they give us. Same with a periodista (journalist). But they are different. How does a journalist differ from a doctor? A journalist tells us how to interpret the world.

Then he goes into institutions and and systems and how they don't change unless it is a change they create or plan. He gave the example of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who wanted to change "the system" and bring the emphasis to the reality of El Salvador. Even the Pope told him, "you don't have the power to tell the government."

Just makes you think.



So Jayaque...

Started off the morning at 7:30 in the microbus with Samuel and the students who go to Las Delicias, Tepecoyo and Colon. The four of us who journey to Jayaque are the last to be dropped off at 9am. Julio (on the right with Neto) brought us to his house first thing. The whole day, I never questioned the size or the condition or anything about his home, because it felt like home. Its amazing to go for runs here in the nicer neighborhoods here. They seem something out of a So-Cal real estate magazine. When I look, I can see "the states" but not feel the same home. Then I go to Julio's house, a home the size of my parents' master bedroom. And I feel home. His nieces and nephews are beautifully mischievous.

In Julio's house, there are four children. Two belong to his brother and first wife. She still lives here without her ex-husband (who is now re-hitched). The other two belong to Julio's sister - who went to the US and now lives in Chelsea, MA. I told you her story.

We went to the school in Los Sitios, where we introduced ourselves in every classroom. Then, we went on a hike through a river valley surrounded by pure sunlight and surreal beauty. Everyone comes to this river para pensar, disfrutarse, comer, todo (to think, enjoy themselves, eat , everything). Next stop was the cooperative after lunch.

In the cooperative, we just relaxed. The day was just so relaxing and easy. There were no patients in the dental clinic, so William taught us how to make impressions of our teeth, a first step in making dentures. So we tested each others' gag reflexes and made molds.

Then I came home and went for a run with my pre-med partner, Chris, a sophomore at Marquette. We stopped to walk for a bit - to reflect on the conversation a few of us had the night before. This eventually led into a conversation about how we can bring back the message of El Salvador to the US.

This is what I came up with:

I can only start for now to think (I know it's only been two weeks). But I think that to start, we have to - I have to - think about how I was before I came here. Where I came from, what I knew, and what I think changed me. And I think that was the unconditional love and humanity of the people here. The understanding, the simple human touch with a smile or a hand held. This is the basic. Too often some in the US look with a "this is a problem, this is a solution" policy. No. It's deeper.Not only here, but everywhere. Much deeper. There are layers upon layers. Layers of tradition and culture. Of violence and war. Of love and committment. Of machismo. And these layers intertwine. Chris and I compared it to surgery. You have to know everything from the surface in and carefully pull each layer apart to get to the core, then slowly stitch it all back up. There is no band-aid. Human love and understanding is where the foundation lies. Maybe now I'm not a "hippie" - in the stigma of the word - but I don't know. What I do know, however, is where to start with everything in life.

So that was my day, how was yours?