Tragedy

This man from the Green Cross is fumigating our house. On this night, they fumigated the whole neighborhood to fight dengue. We wore masks to avoid breathing the fumes, but Bruce still woke up feeling less than stellar the next day.

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica celebrate their independence on September 15. Part of the celebration is a torch that passes through all these countries. We live close to the Panamerican Highway that goes through Central America. Students and community leaders went to the highway to receive the torch in a formal ceremony. Had Bruce not been ill, we would have been there ourselves.

Right before the ceremony was set to start, while most of the students were on the side of the road, a tractor-trailer was unable to stop in time and ran over several people. Two beloved educators from our pueblo were killed, as well as a driver from the Ministry of Education. Several more people were injured. President Funes gave an Independence Day speech, calling the teachers heroes for protecting the students.

The normal Independence Day festivities were cancelled. However, at the end of the month, a parade was held during which the town honored the memory of the teachers.

The Hike to El Cocal

unique fruit

Our August hike was to a place called El Cocal. There were about 40 students from three different schools. ¡Que chivo! Chivo means cool, but also means baby cow.

caminando

In yet another afternoon that would never happen in the States, we—without permission--used the porch and lawn of a stranger’s empty vacation home for our lunch and our lecture series. The house was previously touted as a casa de vidrio (glass house), but ended up being just a house with somewhat large windows. Kelly led an investigative comparison of different habitats. Our main man Gerardo gave a lecture on soil erosion.

Bruce, during his Say No to Drugs charla (chat). It involved a time machine! This young man was a police officer in the future, but then, in the drug-influenced alternative future, he was but a lowly, unemployed drogadicto (drug addict).

Bruce with a future police officer

Future drogadicto? He asked us to take a picture of just him. We figured he would just smile.

A great view of the pueblo taken from the glass house

This picture was taken at the hot springs on the way down. We drank our liquid yogurt, brand name “YES”. We asked our friend if he knew what the word “yes” meant. He gave us a thumbs-up and said, “Yes!”

Last Friday

People here have a hard time with the name Bruce. They spell it Brush, Bruuz, Brooke. Some folks know Bruce Lee, that’s my best bet. A few have mentioned Springsteen or Willis. Sadly, Batman’s Bruce Wayne is Bruno is Spanish, so that doesn’t help. However, the Jim Carrey film Bruce Almighty (Spanish title Todo Poderoso, which means All Powerful) is quite popular. We work with a man named Gerardo (the bearded fellow in many of our blog pics). Every time he sees me, Gerardo yells, “Bruce Nolan! Todo Poderoso!”… sometimes even “Todo Poderosísimo!” (Very All Powerful). I saw the movie with my fraternity when it first came out, but tragically, Kelly had never seen it. So we were sure to aprovechar (take advantage) when we saw it on the street for a dollar.


new ceiling, same lovable geckos


during Kelly’s charla on endangered animals


With five-cent milk popsicles (or small plastic bags filled with frozen Coke), it’s possible to bribe your eco club into yet another tree planting. Note the small black dog on the lap of the boy with the green shirt. It is a ten-day old puppy of the girl standing behind him.


hackey sack


No one is safe from bunny ears.


Look out!


He urinated in my Phillies hat.


the dirtiest Phillies hat since that of John Kruk


After planting about forty trees (Palm and Nim) outside the new polideportivo (multi-sport facility), we played some soccer.

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NOTES

There are five new posts with some swell pictures, so be sure to keep scrolling down.

Michael Jackson’s death was huge here. The little neighbor kids have taken to MJ dance parties. We Are the World seems to follow us everywhere we go.

Bruce met the national soccer team at the airport food court in San Salvador.

We recently visited the States. We had a really enjoyable ten days with the family. It was nice to be there for the 4th of July. It was far too brief a visit, but well worth it. Thanks to y’all for making our trip home awesome.

Honduras had a coup d’etat that, among other negative consequences, impedes our planned travels to Nicaragua.

Classes were cancelled for three weeks on account of gripe porcina, swine flu. Schools are now extending the normal schedule to recuperate lost time.

El Salvador, sadly, will not be in the World Cup next year, in spite of a promising start.

Some of the pupuserías seem to be using less queso.

Bruce got a nasty blood blister playing in an ultimate frisbee tournament with other Volunteers at a local beach.

Our host mother turned 85 on our two year anniversary. We shared a belated, but special, dinner.

School marching bands are prepping for the Independence Day parade on 15 de septiembre. Interestingly enough, these practices often take place during precious, swine-shortened class hours.

Thoughts and prayers go out to Bruce’s grandmother and Kelly’s grandfather who are both recuperating from major medical problems.

Festival Cultural

the park fountain


returning from a tree planting at the local springs


Poetry is big in El Salvador. La Casa de la Cultura regularly holds poetry nights. With a local NGO, we helped plan a Festival Cultural during the fiestas. Community members came to declamar—-recite poetry, often memorized and always delivered in a sweeping, dramatic manner.


On the walls behind this performer are a few of the posters from the photography exhibit component of the festival. The themes for the pictures were traditional life of the pueblo and recent projects of the NGO.


another poetry enthusiast


posing with the queen of the fiestas patronales, who came to the Festival Cultural


The festival continued with music. At first, karaoke. Bruce sang Let It Be and, to woo the crowd, proudly announced all the town facts he has learned thus far: 1) it is the capital of the world, 2) it is a little branch of heaven, 3) it is the only place visible from the moon, 4) it is the only place where the Beatles gave a concert (in the gazebo). Our beloved amigo Gerardo has drilled this into our heads. Then, three bands played. The final group played folkloric music.


The talented group played Salvadoran songs (El Torito Pinto is the most famous), but also enough music from South America to earn the label andino (as in The Andes).


The Savior of the World, from our bedroom


So we have seen our first fiestas patronales. It is probable that the town spent too much money. The queens all paid a good deal in dresses, that much is certain. The town also played hosts to famous musical acts Platinum, Marito Rivera Band, Los Hermanos Flores, and Los Guaraguao (a Venezuelan band that penned the famous revolutionary anthem Casas de Cartón, Houses of Cardboard). And yet, these fiestas lift the spirit of the pueblo. People told us long in advance that se pone alegre during the fiestas. So basically, things get happy.

Perquín and the "Marathon"

Here we are with our host mother at a fiesta rosa (celebration for a quinceañera, 15 year old girl). We are also joined in this picture by Colleen, an excellent trainee who spent three days in our site for her Immersion Days. She spent her nights with one of our favorite families, went to her first fiesta rosa, and joined us on an excursion we took with our community to Perquín, Morazan-—hot spot during the civil war and home to a great museum.


Rocket launchers at el Museo de la Revolución Salvadoreña in Perquín. Ex-guerrilla fighters serve as guides in this museum about the civil war (1980-1992). We saw craters left by bombs. We crawled through war-era tunnels. The experience was heavy. You, the reader, might find it interesting (and disturbing) to read up on the war--including the role of the US.


parts of planes from the war


Atop Cerro de Perquín. That’s Honduras in the background.


Kelly on a bridge at the reconstructed guerrilla camp


After Perquín, we went to a small village called Mozote. In December of 1981, the Salvadoran armed forces massacred all inhabitants: men, women, and children. There was one survivor, a woman who died a few years ago. Behind the silhouetted family in this picture, there are plaques with the names of over a thousand victims.


The Garden of the Innocents is next to these church walls that celebrate the children’s arrival in heaven.


Before returning home, we made a final stop at Río Sapo. We ate, swam, and enjoyed the views.


Our almost-two-mile “marathon.” There were bands playing. There were prizes. It was great. Some people cheated.


A friend of ours won second place in the women’s category.

Fiestas Patronales

Salvadoran communities all have fiestas patronales, a week-or-so to celebrate the patron saint. Our pueblo’s patron is not quite a saint; he is Salvador del Mundo himself (The Savior of the World, Jesus). We share him with the capital. We got here in November; and since that time, we’ve been hearing about the August festivities on a regular basis. It’s the highpoint of the year. Lots of folks come home from San Salvador, the US, Canada, Australia to visit their families. There are rides. There is pizza. There is live music every night, both on the dance floor and in the streets. Each neighborhood has one day and a committee prepares months in advance. There was a picture of us in the fiestas patronales magazine, as well as the new banner in the mayor’s office.


It was all kicked off by a parade. In this picture, Salvadoran folklore myth El Cipitío (pointy hat) walks next to Minnie Mouse.


Yep.


A strange, mystical man scares our little friend Roberto with a Bill Clinton mask. Check out the stilts in the background.


parade spurs


It’s good to be the mayor.


Each neighborhood (and some institutions, the Red Cross, the Green Cross, the market) selects a queen: Vanessa the First, and so on. They compete as candidates to be the queen of the fiestas patronales for the whole town. During the parade, each one rides on top of a truck or van. Throngs of her neighborhood supporters surround her. Some rock t-shirts or carry signs to promote her. Kids bang on drums and blow horns. The queen throws candy, bags of drinking water, etc. She smiles and waves like the royalty that she temporarily is.


Look out!


Supporters from one barrio (neighborhood) support their queen.


It plays out like most beauty pageants. There was formal wear. There were skimpy dresses. There was dancing. We even had near-celebrity status judges, all from out of town to avoid a biased decision. One judge was from Bailando por un Sueño (Dancing for a Dream, a popular Salvadoran reality show). The backdrop on the stage in this picture is a copy of the famous Monument to the Revolution in San Salvador. We would argue that it doesn’t quite fit here. At the bottom of this picture, there is a banner to promote a “marathon” (any race, in this case about 3 kilometers) that we organized with the mayor’s office to raise money for a project to bring used computers to the rural schools.


This picture was taken early in the competition. The candidates are introducing themselves. All the ladies are shaking their hips in unison.