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I took a Collectivo from El Tunco direct to San Salvador, a taxi to the correct bus station (Terminal de Oriente), and then the chicken bus to Suchitoto - a small colonial town about an hour and a half North of San Salvador. It looks like any other typical colonial town - attractive central square dominated by a large chuch, a grid based well organised street system, cobbled streets and adobe terraced houses. The people are open, friendly, and relaxed. They say Buenos Dias when entering an establishment, to people passing in the street, and to those indulging in the town's favourite past time - sitting in the street in the evenings talking.
There are hardly any foreign tourists: only a handful of volunteers of several NGOs based in the town. It is a favourite spot for people from San Salvador to come for the weekend. It is a religious place where the main social scene focuses on going to church, either Catholic or Evangelical, partly because many locals are unable to afford to go out. I'm told that the average wage for a 12 hour day is around $6 - the price of a reasonable meal in a restaurant
or four beers.
My purpose of coming to Suchi was to volunteer with the Institute of Permaculture El Salvador, IPES, a organisation that teaches sustainable farming techniques and environmental awareness to local campesino communities. I first became aware of the work of IPES when I attended a talk by the British director, Karen Inwood, at a pemaculture meeting in Leeds about four years ago. I was very inspired by the work and so when I finally had the money to travel I wanted to come and observe the efficacy of permaculture in action.
Most of my time was spent at the demonstration site a 20 minute bus ride from the town, where they are cultivating many different species of plants and trees and demonstrating the techniques taught to the local communities. The site is run purely by local guys trained in permaculture by IPES: Tomas and Miguel with assistance from Antonio and Alex. I spent time helping construct the road, irrigation channels, pruning orange trees, working on the design of "Zone 1" (vegetable growing area near the house), one morning shovelling sand, and a bit of spade watching. It was so incredibly hot that I had to take
Design course
One of the groups presenting their design using a modelling technique conceived by IPESit easier than the other guys and rest a little more: heat exhaustion was a possibility! I enjoyed participating in the practical elements of site maintanence and creation; although would admit that I'm hardly accumstomed to manual work, especially in the heat. However, the guys were respectful of my abilities and limits and I felt comfortable to work to my own pace. The guys were incredibly friendly and welcoming and I enjoyed working with them immensely. My conversational ability in Spanish was hugely improved by necessity as none of them speak any English.
I was fortunate that section three of a permaculture design course was being run the first two days after I arrived. In accordance with IPES's "Farmer to Farmer" methodology, IPES are teaching prominent community members from different communities in the Suchitoto area the principles and techniques of permaculture, how to set up a demonstration site, and to teach it to other members of the community. The course was formerly taught by Karen and has been gradually honed and developed with help from Marco (a Salvadoran working for IPES in various capacities) into a very comprehensive permaculture design course with a strong practical emphasis. This is the
Design course
One of the groups presenting their site design to the rest of the course first course to be taught purely by Salvadoran teachers trained by IPES, Miguel and Conche, thereby taking the next step to being run by the people for the people.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet and chat with many people from the area who, again, were so incredibly welcoming and friendly, and invited me to come and visit their communities. The course atmosphere was buzzing: possibly due to the political consciousness of the people of the Suchitoto area (many were prominent in the Guerrilla movement in the war) the attendees really appeared to the grasping the ideas taught and actively seeking to apply them in their lives.
On day 2 of that section of the design course three guys from a charity funding the design course came to visit. They made a short speech by way of introduction of the work that they were doing and sat for comments by the participants. The participants took turns thanking them for their support and making comments about their feelings. The gist was of emphasising the strong impact the work is having on their lives and their desire for this knowledge. It was so passionate and emphatic that
the funders were pretty much reduced to tears.
Conceived by Marco, I was offered the task of producing signs to label the names and uses of various plants and trees on the site. I worked with Alex, a bright agriculture student working at IPES part time, to catalogue all the different plants on the site, to which I then added English and Latin names and uses - an excellent introduction into the plants used in tropical permaculture.
Alex and I quickly became friends and he generously invited me to stay the night with his family in his small, remote community about an hour and half by bus from Suchitoto. I ate with them that evening; a typical meal of cheese, beans, cream and tortillas. I chatted with his extended family of 10 living in the house - mother, father, brothers and their wives and children, and his sister, and slept early at about 8.00pm - as is custom. Alex's home is relatively comfortable by campesino standards and had electricity, a computer, and sealed concrete floors. An interesting insight I had was how content people here are without much to do in the evenings - they simply eat together
as a family, chat, sit around, and then go to sleep early. It's a far cry from our world of TV, internet, DVDs, games: necessary to keep out the boredom.
Alex also very kindly gave up his Sunday, his only day off, to take me to visit one of the communities who participated in the design course and invited me. We visited the house of a family that operated a small dairy with around 10 cows and took a tour of their land. Again, they were very welcoming and friendly and plied us with food such as fried fish from the lake, fresh cheese, milk, beans, tortillas, and mango juice.
A little later in the morning we visited another friend from the the design course and lived in the same community with his wife and two kids. His whole family lives in the US but he had been deported due to his tattoos, giving him the appearance of being involved in the 'Maras' or street gangs. The US have been deporting anyone who appears to be involved in gang culture; although he claims he wasn't involved. He receives a remittance from his family in the US and is
therefore able to have luxeries out of reach of many campesinos - a truck, TV, fridge, and fan. I am told that 20% of El Salvador's GDP comes from remittances from family members in the US.
My spare time in Suchitoto was spent hanging out with Abi, a volunteer from the UK I originally met in Xela, and loitering in the cafes and bar (yes only one). There are quite a few restaurants in the town, including La Lupita perfectly positioned in the main square and where I often used to sit in the evenings - a good place to socialise with the few locals who could afford to and some of the other foreigners, and the very friendly staff and owner. Abi and I also met various people from San Salvador who often come up for the evening. They were incredibly friendly and often used to just come up to us and invite us to join them.
The owner of my hostel, Robert Broz, with whom I originally couch surfed for free and then rented a room from at a good rate, also part owned the only bar in town - El Necio - a left wing
Event in the central park
commemorating the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Romero and sparking the start of the civil war hangout full of Cuban and other socialist memorabilia. The bar was only opened weekends but I spent many good nights there drinking rum and chatting socialist politics (in Spanish!). Abi and I also spent several good nights in the disco dancing Cumbia, Salsa, Reggaeton, Merengue with a mix of locals and other foreigners.
I also spent quite a bit of spare time with Karen, who was very welcoming and friendly and obviously knows a lot about El Salvador and Suchitoto. She also generously offered me use of her pool and internet. I ate with her and some visiting friends a couple of times and both Abi and I cooked for her and Marco, who lives in San Salvador but spends the week nights staying at Karen's. Marco is also incredibly knowledgeable, speaks excellent English, and introduced me to a lot of great music from Latin America.
I left after three weeks but could have stayed much longer. Volunteering with IPES gave me a way of bridging the gap between traveller and local, and learning about tropical permaculture and the culture, plants and environment of El Salvador. My journey continues but with the resolution to spend more time working
El Necio
Talking politics with leftie in the bar with IPES and fundraising in the future.
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Mate, this is quite amazing! Looks like you're having a cool time. When you get somewhere where valium is legal can you post me some? Cheers :)