Soo I just got back from El Salvador. It was a long, filled, educational trip. It's nice to be back in Xela and not moving around so much.
I'll just do a run-down of our highlights in El Salvador. We had a guide with this organization called CIS. Which is a really neat group. They help out a lot of rural communities with organizing and lead foreign groups in El Salvador depending on their interest. So we did a lot of health care related stuff. It was all well-planned and really interesting. Our guide Christy was amazing. Our first day there we had a lecture by a non-profit that tries to deter immigration in El Salvador. The numbers are ridiculous...something like 1/3 of the population lives in the United States. It was nice to learn about immigration from a different perspective.
We then went to the US embassy and met with the director of USAID. The US has to be doing really shady stuff in El Salvador. The embassy is at least 3 times the size of El Salvador's own government buildings. It's a little ridiculous. This guy was a huge asshole. We walked in, and he goes "what are you doing here" "what do you know about USAID" and one girl responded with, "I know the US sent lots of money for arms down here during the war." He immediately cut her off and said "we aren't talking about that" and went on an asshole tirade. He then spent the next hour talking about how wonderful CAFTA is and how terrible El Salvador is and how it would be a zillion times worse without the US. He was very paternalistic and I felt like I was witnessing neo-colonialism in action. I just didn't like him at all. At one point he said when talking about educating women, "there was a surprising study done, and if you let women go to school, a country's economy will actually improve." So surprising...if you don't oppress people a country will develop...who knew???? He also seemed to detest the people he was supposed to be helping.
San Salvador is just very strange. It looks like America. Tons of nice buildings, malls everything. Christy made sure to emphasize its a very false economy. Remittances get sent to El Salvador from the US, which then get consumed in stores and malls which basically sends the money right back to the US. Christy also said the government has stopped investing in public parks and started building malls so that when people walk around and hang out its in a place where they can buy things.
After USAID, we went to visit the main public hospital in El Salvador. It was interesting to compare it to the hospitals I've seen in Guatemala. It was huge, but very clearly lacking in funds. The government has kind of just been creating disorder in the public health system so that perhaps someday it will just get privatized.
The next day we went to a very rural community. They don't have water or electricity and the government won't provide it to them cause they don't own the land they live on. They were just granted permission to stay there cause they didn't have any other place to go after the last major earthquake that hit El Salvador. They live in extreme poverty and have nowhere else to go. It was interesting to hear their story.
We then went to Cinquera. This community was strongly effected by the war. Half of its population either left or was killed. This is a good time to say a little about the war. It's very similar to Guatemala's. Rural farmers started organizing for their rights, the rich people freaked out, screamed communism, and with the help of US money killed off anyone who opposed the government's policies. 75,000 people were killed during the war, the majority of killing was done by the military. The US at one point was providing over a million dollars a day to the military just so they could go kill their own people. Not to mention they trained the military in really great torture tactics. We heard one man's war testimony while we were there. He described the events leading up to the first attacks on Cinquera. These people got accused of being communists even though they didn't even know how to read and write and were really just trying to get fair wages and rights for working their land. This guy's testimony was great. He was an amazing story teller, I wish I could have recorded him. He described a lot of really gruesome things. 7 of his 8 children were killed during the war, and the one that did survive later committed suicide. It's really wonderful to just be in a small town, listen to his story, and show him and his town that someone out there gives a shit about what they went through. We spent the night in Cinquera...sleeping in these places is always uncomfortable and kind of shitty, but the people are just so proud to open their homes to us it's always a great experience.
The next day was the anniversary of a shooting at the Jesuit university. So there was a huge vigil there for the 6 priests who were murdered by the military and 2 women who lived and cooked at the school. During the war a lot of Jesuits were targeted because of their belief in liberation theology, which basically just involves being in solidarity with the poor and fighting for every human's right to a dignified life. They, guess what, were accused of being communists too.
We then went the next day to Comasagua. It's another rural community. It was in the mountains with a beautiful view of the ocean. It's a gorgeous community. It is also without electricity and water. These people were also displaced after the earthquake and with the help of CIS and other organizations were able to purchase land to live and work. There, however, is no school in the area and the government won't build one or even send a teacher because they decided there isn't enough of a need. It was a great place to stay. Everyone is just so proud and grateful that a young group of kids from the US would even have interest to come visit their little community. The next day we went to another community that you can only get to by foot. Much of it was killed during the war too. The military assumed that they were part of the guerrilla side because they were so far removed, but really the people had just always lived and worked there.
After all these community visits, we were given a break of serious things and had a night and day at the beach. El Salvador has beautiful black sand beaches. I tried to surf, and failed...but it was great fun!
Our last two days in San Salvador might have been the most interesting two. We met with delegates from both political parties in El Salvador the FMLN and ARENA. ARENA has been in power since the war and was basically put in place and kept in place by US government interference. ARENA is ridiculously right wing...the majority of meeting with ARENA was spent glorifying free-market economics. At one point one of the delegates went on a ridiculously long propaganda rant against communism. Basicly relating the FMLN to Fidel, Cuba, Venezuela and barack obama. The FMLN is not communist. They don't want to be Cuba, they just aren't controlled by the US and don't want to privatize everything. Every time we asked what ARENA was doing to help poor communities like the one's we saw without water, electricity, schools, health centers, we got a stupid response about their program that provides $15 a month to the poorest families. Because that solves everything. There answer to everything was also education. Like those people were poor because they were ignorant. But I sometimes think people say education is the answer just so they can say they did their part and wash their hands of their responsibility to structural problems.
The meeting with FMLN was focused mainly on healthcare and was completely different than the ARENA one. It was not politically charged-it was just them describing their policies and how they wanted to work to improve the living conditions of El Salvador's poor (which is the majority of the people). It was in a simple room with a comfortable setting. Where ARENA's was in this giant fancy room with propaganda all over the walls. And there was lots of FMLN bashing. Very interesting.
We then had my favorite meeting of the trip. We went to the Jesuit university and spoke to a professor there. After so much politics it was nice to just get an uncharged view of things. He was from NY and had been living there for 18 years. He knows a lot about just about everything, but it was the things he said to us about our experiences in Central America that really stuck with me (you could tell he'd be great at giving sermons and making people think about their experiences). But he said that living in Central America and seeing the poverty and knowing the people, first breaks your heart, then you fall in love, then you return to the US and are ruined for life. It's kind of just exactly how I feel. He also warned that we were going to return home and people wouldn't understand the change in us that living here has created. And that we will see everything in the US now through different eyes. I believe its going to be impossible to forget about all the things I've seen and learned here and I don't want to. I hope I find direction and a way to take what I have learned and put it to use in the future.
Well this was a long post. And there is no way to really say everything I experienced in El Salvador. But it was great! I have to go...hope everyone is well and getting ready for the holidays.
