Cuscatlan

Before El Salvador was called El Salvador, it was called Cuzhcatl (in spanish: Cuscatlan) - which means 'land of precious things'. To me this seems both beautifully truthful and tragic in light of many of the country's current realities.

I've been in El Salvador for a few days now and we have certainly been busy. I have been attempting to do my job well, keep up with the assigned readings for the class on liberation theology and still stay connected to the students, with whom I now live. The house dynamic has been good and I actually love getting to be part of the class. It's pretty amazing that we get to read about this stuff (the war, development of liberation theology, etc...) and then go out and meet people who were there, who were influential, who can speak to us about it first hand.

I'll attempt in some of my posts to tell bits of their stories, but I thought that first off, I'd share some context. This truly is a fascinating place that is undoubtedly connected to the United States and our reality in more ways than most of us realize. When I learn some of this stuff I'm just embarrassed that I didn't know it before...and as I learn it, it just makes me want to know more about here, and so many other places that go shamefully unmentioned in our media and our formal education.

If you've got a few minutes read the facts below and welcome to my second leg of the journey.

- El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. (approx population: 6.7 million people).

The War:
- El Salvador experienced an internal conflict/civil war for 12 years officially (from '81-'92)
- Approx 76,000 people died in the war.
- Truth commissions after the war reported that approximately 85% of the killings and disappearances were committed by the military and 10% by the guerrillas (the rest unknown).
- During the civil war the military of El Salvador received an average of 1.5 million dollars in aid from the United States per day.

Economy:
- El Salvador has used the American dollar as its currency since 2001.
- The average minimum wage is $183/month and the cost of living for a family of 5 is approx: $740/month.
- An estimated 1,000 Salvadorans immigrate to the United States each day.
- many predict this number will increase dramatically (even double) if the left political party loses the upcoming election in March 2009

la escuela de la montana...

so my week in the mountains is done and it was an excellent time. i've been stressing about how to write about it all...i'll write a bit now and if more comes to me later i'll post and backdate it (hope this isn't too confusing)

time there (my verse wasn't all that entertaining, but the song in after our evening at the coffee cooperative i headed to 'the mountain school' with a smaller group of students (just 6 of the 18). we spent a week studying spanish (the little hut in the picture there was my classroom), eating meals with a local family, participating in the school's scheduled activities and general community livin'. it was really fun to get to know the students better and a late night beetle incident with one of the students made me laugh so hard i cried - first time that's happened since i left home. it's incredible how rejuvenating laughter can be. we finished the week off with a rap that students wrote about their its entirety cracked me up) and a really great graduation evening with the teachers.


it rained every day and everything was wet and chilly for the whole week, but if they send me back in February i'll be more than happy to return.

peace harmony love coffee...

so, my little brother danny enjoys giving me a hard time about just about anything - and makes no exception for my somewhat idealized thoughts about the fair trade 'peace harmony love' process. i think that deep down he believes in it as well, but it certainly does present a prime opportunity to get a rise out of me.

anyway, i digress - last weekend we got the chance to visit a place that actually sells their coffee through the peace coffee company. i want to write all about the experience, but for safety reasons i'm hesitant to disclose details and without having visited it's difficult to imagine - but i'll describe a little...and attach a few photos.

to begin: the sign at the entrance says of the community says, "together, we build a true democracy, with our hearts to the left". the community itself is a settlement of former guerrillas (people fighting against the government during the war) who had nothing after the signing of the peace accords. through a loan, they acquired their coffee growing land and began to build the type of community in which they desired to live.

they took us on a walking tour of their property. it's gorgeous country, and for me even more so knowing that it's collectively owned and people are benefiting, are being given the chance to better their community due to their 'profits'. it certainly hasn't been an easy path - the leader with whom we met talked extensively of the paradigm shift they all had to undergo in order to change from 'campesinos trabajadores' (farmhands) to 'campesinos productores' (producers/business owners) and how that shift demanded that they organized themselves in a new way.

they work extensively to meet the organic and fair trade requirements, they pay the necessary fees to sell in fair trade ($1,200/yr) and organic (approx: $3,000/yr) markets...and their profits aren't huge. their living standards are very basic - but they are grateful to have electricity, a school, and running water. above all - they spoke of gratitude to have opportunity.

in the mountains...

well - we're headed out to the mountains for a week of 'rural experience'. this week has finished up well. should be good but i'll be without internet and phone. i'll let you know how it went once i'm back.

hallowness...

It's hard to hear about difficulties at home when one is so far away. We never really get taught how to grieve losses or how to comfort those experiencing loss but we certainly all develop our own methods. Yesterday - in the face of some heavy emails and a personal loss I was driven to my own coping methods: a chat with Tory, an ice cream cone...and then I still needed something more.

I'm very much a 'words person' and so I took to reading old emails (yes - I'm fairly obsessive about archiving all emails I receive). Above all, words from people with whom I've lost touch. I found comfort in the fact that although we no longer write, I can continue learning from them and continue feeling their love and care. A dear friend wrote a few years back while we were both embarking on new and somewhat overwhelming ventures in our respective careers. He spoke to the emptiness we can feel and the opportunity that it creates in us. I just loved this chunk when I reread it last night:

"I feel called to what i do and my hollowness is only creating more room for God to work in and shape my life. I can't wait for that mighty rushing wind to come through, cause it feels like i'm running out of my own, and i'm going to need a lot to get through the next few weeks. I don't doubt that it will happen, I'm just intimidated by what it will do and feel like in me."

What a beautiful and humble expression of faith. Thank you all for your words as I continue learning on this newest of journeys (and now you know you're being archived!) - I'm beyond blessed with deep friendships and incredible family.

extremes...

I just spent a few minutes looking through pictures from this weekend and smiling. We had today (Monday) off because it’s independence day here today – a long weekend for students and staff included. The students headed to the lake (Lago Atitlan) and we headed to the capital city for some fun with one of our coworkers Ruth – she’s a Guatemala City native and a sweetheart. The weekend was full of fun conversations and luxuries including (but not limited to) a morning at a lovely salon, a wonderful lunch and a cinnabun for dessert, a massage, a new pair of skinny jeans and a fabulous evening of dancing.

And although all of the previously mentioned things were wonderful, the best part about this weekend was feeling like I have friends down here. Joe (my coworker) and his girlfriend Elliett are wonderful and silly and do a great job at including me in general, and Ruth is just as great. Perhaps not what most people imagine my life down here to look like, but hey, Central America is certainly a place of extremes. This weekend – extremely good.

la claridad...

“Si en la casa hay oscuridad – nunca va a lograr claridad en la comunidad. La claridad tiene que empezar con la familia y luego extender a la comunidad”

“If there is darkness in the home – clarity/light will never be achieved in the community. Clarity must begin in the family and then be extended to the community.”

– a female ex-guerrilla combatant, and her thoughts on achieving peace/clarity

weekends away...

Although our primary operations are happening here in Xela (Spanish classes and speakers presenting various stories from the war), we also venture out often. Last weekend we headed to Chichicastenango – a smaller city about 2 hours from here. It was a good weekend trip; it’s so much easier to travel with this kind of operation than on the chicken buses, I’m getting spoiled quickly. We all stayed together in a hotel and it was great time for the group to process what they have heard thus far and just be together after a week apart in their homestays.

On Saturday we got to visit a group of women whose husbands died during the war. They have formed a sewing cooperative and sell many of their items to groups like ours and through organizations like Ten Thousand Villages. I’ve been working on moving towards buying fair trade goods, and have talked about it with friends and family at home – but it can be hard sometimes for a ‘thrify’(/cheap) person like me to fork up the extra cash….Needless to say it was very encouraging to meet some of the actual people who benefit from such fair trade systems and will hopefully be something that sticks with me. (Shameless plug for them but…If anyone’s interested you can check out Ten Thousand Villages online at: http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/)or visit their store in St. Paul.

It was also fun to spend most of the day on Sunday in the market – I was battling a cold and a headache, but didn’t let that stop me. I spent the entire morning just wandering, haggling, purchasing, people watching, it was wonderful. And now we’re back here in Xela, with four days to recoup until our next weekend adventure.

observations from the second time through...

It seems like I’ve been on the go since I started this little adventure, but Xela (pronounced ‘Shay-la’) is beginning to feel like home base and I really like it here.

Life is funny, a few years back when my little brother Mark and Dan Marx were in Mexico we decided to take a road trip down to southern Mexico and perhaps see a bit of Guatemala. Due to a number of unexpected turns in the road we actually ended up on a chicken bus that brought us right here to Xela. When I rode back into town two weeks ago, our van turned the corner and we headed toward a hotel across the street from the hostel I stayed in 2.5 years ago. It gave me this sensation that life is much more cyclical than I realize; and I’m not a big believer in ‘fate’, but I was also overcome by the feeling that I’m back here to learn something that I didn’t pick then. We pulled into the hotel and I felt resigned – in the best possible way – to keep myself open to whatever it was I missed the first time around.

So maybe my spirit was ‘pre-warmed’ to this place, but I feel at peace here. It’s the second largest city in Guatemala, but it’s nestled in the mountains and the people are very friendly. We’ve stayed mostly in the center, but around here I feel like I know my way around, I can be independent when I need to get thins done, but we’re all close enough to each other that people are accessible. And the climate is, in my opinion, pretty close to ideal for the time being: chilly (fall chilly, not MN winter chilly) in the mornings and warm/hot in the afternoon with occasional rain.

mi madre nueva

so i finally met my host mom! i was scheduled to move in with a family on sunday, but due to a few unforeseen circumstances it got put off until yesterday afternoon. she's a sweet woman who lives just around the corner from the language school. my room is enormous, my bed is really comfortable and i had a hot shower this morning...so as far as homestays go - excellent. she said she was pleasantly surprised that i already speak spanish and we chatted at length this morning. seems like she's a loner - no kids, no husband, parents are dead, doesn't get along well with her siblings that live in town. hasn't mentioned friends. she has a shop in her home and so works from home...i hope i can offer some good companionship for a few weeks in return for her open door and good food.

Friday’s

So I had this amazing burger at TGI Friday’s. And then I started feeling guilty. I was watching our waiter, with all of his flare, and wondering how much he gets paid hourly. I asked my coworkers and they responded – ‘probably about minimum wage’.

Minimum wage here in Guatemala is about 37 Quetzales a day, which comes out to about 5 dollars a day – not an hour, a day. In Guatemala ‘minimum wage’ is actually more like a maximum wage; it’s what’s written in law but that doesn’t mean it’s what you actually get paid. That being the case, on top of the fact that the cost of operation down here is far less – you’d think I would have gotten a deal. But I definitely paid about 8 dollars for the meal – not including my drink. Eight dollars! And best case scenario, pins-and-buttons-guy (our waiter) takes home five? Something’s wrong – someone’s making a little too much money here.

It’s easy not to think about this stuff, and it’s easy to assume that they get paid 5 dollars a day because that’s about what they need to live in Guatemala – but that’s just not the case. We don’t even pay a livable minimum wage to our own people in the US, let alone the foreigners we outsource to power our American corporations abroad.

I know that I’m ‘getting political’ by bringing this stuff up - and I understand that economics aren’t simple – but why do we think it’s ok to take economic advantage of people just because we can? I'm sure that there will be many other questions I post here along the way. Always feel free to comment, I love a good discussion - even if I'm a few countries away.

All my best to all of you!