still alive

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well, let's see, lots to get caught up on:

i had my 21st birthday party! we all went out to dinner and then had a little dance party, but as a result i broke my laptop screen, so that's basically why i've gone so long without word, but after countless hours on the phone arguing with dhl in spanish, i was able to take the screen from the customs office. basically each time i had spoken to them they kept on adding new things that they said i needed, which was kind of ridiculous. and it wasn't just something lost in translation, because at one point i got too exhausted with them and asked our country coordinator to call for me, but that didn't work out well either. all in all, it was a horrible experience with dhl, but it all worked out.

we spend the weekends with rural communities in the country. so the first weekend, me and two other students went to nueva grenada to experience liberation theology in the country. we slept at a radio station that broadcasts socially counscious programs, like programs that are critical of the government or historical recovery programs, that is helped by the church. then we went and celebrated with the community their anniversary of returning from honduras after they fled from the war, which was pretty cool. then we met with a cooperative of farmers in a community so they could discuss and vote on how to spend municipal money. it was great to watch that sort of grassroots organizing in action.

the next weekend we went to a community called nueve esperanza which had former after the community returned from nicaragua after being displaced by the war, but their struggle to return was extremely hard. the government wouldn't meet with them, so the protested outside the salvadoran embassy in nicaragua to the point where other embassies called the salvadoran one to complain about the protests. eventually the community was allowed admittance back into the country. as hard as it was to return, the struggle to leave was also terrifying. the community lived in a church basement for over a year with one working toilet. diseases were rampant and the death toll was high. despite those memories, it was so important for the community to return, and when they did, the named it nueva esperanza: new hope. in nueva esperanza we had classes and were there for international women's day, which apparently is a pretty big day here. there was pretty much a community wide celebration, but 10 out of the 13 people in my group got extremely sick, again i seemed to have beaten it out.

next we chose series of different themes to have interviews. the themes were current issues, women's issues, ecological issues, and neoliberal issues. so i chose to have the interviews with people from women's issues with two other students. we met with a woman from a women's advocacy group here called Las Dignas. they do a lot of work with schools in terms of teaching programs of gender equality to students. they also give counselling and support for different women's issues and lobbying for equality laws. then we met with a woman from the 700 club here in el salvador. while the 700 club in the u.s. usually means jerry falwell or pat robinson, the 700 club here is nowhere near as far to the right or conservative as them. they offer pastoral counseling, but aren't nearly judgemental. next we met with a feminist theology professor at the uca, she was a little hard to understand. she was saying how she teaches a theology class with the idea of taking it back to the primitive church? it's not the catholic church, but the christian church. i'm not really sure, it was really hard to understand in spanish. then we met with a congresswoman with the fmln, the political party formed out of the guerilla movement.

last friday we met with the u.s. ambassador here in guatemala, and wow, was that an experience. the guy really didn't know that about the country at all. he doesn't speak a word of spanish. he's business man as oppose to any kind of career diplomat, and it really showed. more or less, he gave money to the bush administration and got el salvador as a prize. he was basically saying everything he was supposed to say "cafta is great, el salvador is in a tough place right now, but only with the help of free capitalism will jobs be created for people to stop leaving the country" he mentioned how he's been meeting with dell to have a call center in el salvador because the american people have to deal with the spanish accent more and they are too impatient with the indian accent because it's harder to understand. that's what he said. there was one question about immigration and the first thing he said was "i had to give a speech on that, let me see if i can remember what i said..." it just made it seem like he had a speech writer tell him what to say, and he was going to try to remember what was on the paper rather than what he knew. it was just a little aggrivating meeting with him, but the man representing USAID seemed pretty nice.

for the last week in El Salvador, we're in Suchitoto, a place that was pretty rocked by the war. monday and tuesday we spent the days and night in a community where a massacre had taken place. it was really emotionally draining to hear people's stories. we heard the testimony of one man who was the only survivor of a group of 60 prisoners who had escaped the massacre, he was 9 years old at the time. the details are gorey and disturbing.

i was staying in the home of a man who was 8 at the time of the massacre. he jumped in the river and floated for 33 days until he reached the shore. he had to crawl ashore because of the atrophy in his leg muscles, then he walked back to the community. he would have to sleep in trees so the soldiers wouldn't see him, otherwise they would have shot him. now he's married and a father of 3 boys and a girl

there were so many people who we've met who afterwards we would learn that they're children were killed, or they watched as their houses burned. it's given new meaning to the word survival.

we met with dean brackley last week, he the jesuit president of the UCA. he spoke at le moyne two years ago, so he and i had met before, but it was great to hear him again. his usual quote to end his presentations is something along the lines of this: "come to el salvador to meet the people and hear their stories. come to have to your heart broken, fall in love, and go back home ruined for life". well, i'm not sure about the ruined for life bit, so i can say that everything else has come true.

we're in suchitoto until friday, then we return to san salvador where we begin our spring break. i'm staying in san salvador until monday to see the anniversary march of oscar romero who was assasinated. oscar romero, for those who don't know, was the archbishop of el salvador in 1980 who was assasinated while saying mass for his criticism of the government. then early early early tuesday morning i leave for nicaragua with some other folks for spring break! then we're in nicaragua for 5 weeks, and then that's it! i come home.

2 countries down, 1 to go.

crazy

hope everybody else is doing well and had a great st. patty's day!

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Comments

[Bethany]

YOU'RE ALIVE!
Glad to hear you're still alive! I meant to wish you a happy birthday way back in the beginning of the month; sorry about that. Yay for being 21 now! I'll miss Spencer though. Happy Easter coming up as well. Take care. And I miss you! Definitely not the same here without you! -Bethany