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
