Independence Day (yes, over a month late...)

Although these last couple of posts are a little late they are nonetheless very important at least when talking about our community celebrations. Independence Day (Sept. 15th) was before AMUDESCO's celebration but Melissa was on the ball and wrote hers before mine. On Independence day a HUGE celebration was put on in Suchitoto with over 8 of the nearby schools walking in the parade and I believe 4 bands (including one from our community) that played with judging done on that day as well. That said this post will be more pictures that writing as we were very proud of our community that day (including many other parents as well) so we took a bunch of pictures.



The whole school was involved and the pictures above show the many many youth (many of whom know me from class) who marched in the event. At first I had thought that the youth were separated by gender based on some of the conservative nature of the school, however all of the schools followed so the tradition seems to be rooted much deeper than that.



Ana and Fatima were also in the parade. Ana danced with the girls up front but I hadn't seen her
practice during the weeks before so many times she was often lost but good for her for trying! Fatima played in the band and was a steel woman of concentration throughout the event. She really did well and kept great form throughout a rather long parade.




At several points in the parade the band split and did marching formations, from 2 rows to 4, weaving a letter S on the street, and of course different rhythms which changed how they played their instruments in sync with each other.



Overall it was a great day that the kids worked really hard for and hopefully take back a lot of pride in the process.

- Posted by Tom

Community Celebration

On Sept 30 AMUDESCO, an organization that works on women’s community development and whom I work with, celebrated their 8 year anniversary. To celebrate it was decided to serve lunch and have a day of activities to all of the associates of AMUDESCO (approximately 50 people). The day before Gloria, Alba, Ariceli and myself went off to San Martin in order to buy what was necessary for the following day. We left with about 200.00 (which was funded by a supporting organization) and a list of A LOT of stuff to buy. We divided the money between the four of us, so one person wouldn’t have to be responsible for that much money. We arrived at San Martin bright and early, deciding to go buy the meat first since the best pick of meat was usually in the am. I don’t especially like meat markets, they way they smell, the fleshy meat just hanging there with swarms of flies buzzing on them, this time I even saw some meat on the tin roof, I imagine it was drying. Aside from the regular beef, pork and chicken, they also had cow’s hearts, chicken feet, cow hooves and a pieces of skin that reminded me of furry carpet. We bought our 39 pounds of beef and continued from there.

Throughout the market we continued to buy carrots, onions, rice, green peppers, tomatoes, 50 plates, 50 cups and many other various items. At some point after buying the beef and starting to buy everything else the other women decided to give me the rest of the money they had and pursued to call me their treasurer. When we walked through the market the others would flock in different directions and then call me over to give them money, it was a little confusing at first but rather comical. After all I was probably the most likely target to get robbed (being a foreigner), I took it as a comfort that they didn’t even think about that. We finished our shopping in about 2.5 hours, then had some lunch, bought a ride back to our community for $8 (we had arrived by bus) with our 100 pounds of goods that we bought.

The following day we all started off early, 8am, some a little earlier, decorated, cooked, and cleaned in order to get ready for the party. People started arriving around 9:30am, Gloria later put up the schedule (which she made me write out), of the activities which were supposed to start at 9, didn’t start until 11:30. Well once again, welcome to El Salvador. So, Gloria´s program that was supposed to last for 3 hours, she did it in about 45 minutes.

About 50 adults and 55 children showed up for the festivities so we all chowed down on the food in celebration of AMUDESCO. And who can really turn down a free meal??

-Posted by Melissa

One of the best parts about being here is having an abundant supply of fruits. There are fruits here that I had no clue existed and ohhh they are delicious. One of my new favorites is a called the lecha fruit. It looks kindof disgusting but it is so sweet inside...yummy!! I haven't found any I can pick off of a tree so I usually buy them in the market. They are somewhat expensive, 7 for .25 or 25 for 1.00. But, to me they are worth it!! However, I am waiting patiently for the mango season to start again.

Saturdays have turned out to be our traditional pupusa night at Arily´s. Every Saturday she sets up to make and sell pupusas to whoever wants to buy them for .25 a piece. This pupusa making night, which she started 2 years ago, starts at 3pm and ends sometime around 7pm. I asked Ari how much money she makes each Saturday, she replied ¨$50 total, but I spend $25 in supplies.¨ Wow! A 25.00 profit in 4 hours, for a Salvadoran woman this is an incredible feat. Tom and I have been faithful, or at least when we are in the community, to show up to have our weekly dose of pupusas. I have recently become a little concerned about how many calories are in a given pupusa, when I ask this question to the native Salvadoran's they say they have no idea, but they imagine there would be alot. Yikes!! So, I have been trying to limit myself to only 2 pupusa's each Saturday, but I could easily pack away 3, possibly even four.

-posted by Melissa