The CFS trip to La Isla is off to a great start. We have worked the past 6 days and are in Metapan as a group tonight to watch a big soccer game. Should be great. Here are some thoughts from a few of the students...
I know we have only been gone a little more than a week but in that short amount of time I have already made strong relationships with people that I would never have met if I had not gone on this trip. Although it is sometimes very difficult to understand one another because of the language barrier, I still feel like I have made valuable connections with the family I stay with and it is because despite our language difference we still have so many things in common. We play basketball and soccer nearly every afternoon. We play card games every chance we get. Today, my little sister Jaquelin sat down next to me with a bottle of nail polish and started painting my finger nails. I do not think we are always aware of just how alike people can be. In a sense the U.S. is a world apart from La Isla but at the same time we are so similar and that is what I love about this trip... We make connections to people we would not have met otherwise which is invaluabe.
HOLLAND
So far im really enjoying my stay in La Isla. The people are really nice and welcoming. The food is great, the kids are cool and always want to play. Eventhough I am having fun now i didnt always like it here, at first i really just wanted to go home the moment I got here, but these three ladies (Holland, Allison, and Eliza) took me under “their wings”. Eliza and Allison act like mi madres y Holland like a big hermana. We even have a cool name “H.E.A.T.” Eventhough im having alot of fun here there is still a part of me that wants to come home. I already know what i want to do when i come home (have an Cookout Oreo milkshake…oh yeah)
Tony Durham
This is the end of my first week here in El Salvador. I do not know exactly what is was, that I was expecting when I first signed up for this adventure but heres one thing I can promise I didn't expect to see; a herd of vaca (cows) walking down the street every morning when I get up. Being in El Salvador is the biggest culture shock I have ever received. Before this trip I thought of El Salvador as being a "third-world, developing nation", where I thought they would have minimal electricity, no clean water, and basically live sort of prehistorically in the electronics department. I couldn't have been more wrong. My host family, a group that consist of a mother, and her four children have a TV with a DVD player and two cellphones, a nice shower, toilet, and for the most part clean water. (But I definitely appreciate the bottles Rob gives us.) The people of La Isla are perfectly content living the way that they do, they have a tienda (store), church, community center, soccer fields, basketball courts, and houses for all (There is one homeless man, and our first project was to work on building a house for him.) When I'm here I don't think of them as "third-world", and I know they don't think of themselves that way. I think the phrase "third-world" or "developing nation" is used in the wrong context so often. Yes La Isla is constantly developing, with their plans for the future but I think most Americans (and yes, I'm generalizing here) do not realize the extent of the advancements that La Isla has made, and where its going. So while I am really excited to be here and I love waking up to see what the day will bring, I think realizing that we are not here to fix things, or be the gringos (white folks) that change La Isla, is really important. And once I step back and realize that, I feel like we turn more into part of the La Isla community, instead of being some Americans that come for a few weeks to help.
Allison Nalley
Didnt expect to make it to a computer today so didnt bring the group journal with me but wanted to let everyone know that the group has arrived safely in La Isla. All are fine and enjoying their host families.
The CFS group arrived safe and sound - and on time - in El Salvador yesterday around noon. From there, we took a hired micro bus to Metapan. We had some time to explore the town before dinner, after which our group crashed hard. This morning, Dave and Rob got up and got everyone breakfast. Now, it is a few hours of free time in Metapan followed by lunch at a local restaurant and then it is off to La Isla around 3:00. All on both ends seem to be looking forward to it!
I will ask everyone on the trip to write a short journal entry, once each, relating whatever we did that day and whatever is on the writer´s mind. Then, I will type and post it here so that you all can stay updated and feel in touch. I will update the website 1 to 3 times a week. As I have been here just a couple of days, I have been keeping the group´s journal and writing short bits about what I have been doing and some of my thoughts. Hopefully, they will offer you all some sense of La Isla and at least get this site going.
Tuesday 5-13-08
It feels great to be back in La Isla. I arrived late last night after a few guys came into Metapan for a futbol game and Cesar gave me a ride back. All asked me how various CFS students that they remembered from the past were doing. All, or almost all, asked me if I had seen the casa comunal (community center that CFS helped with the groundbreaking of). I still havent seen it but with all the hype I have been hearing, it sounds like a point of pride in La Isla. Seeing it will be exciting.
Today is the Dia de La Virgen, a time to appreciate and honor the virgin mother. The exact details are not clear to me but because, as part of it all, La Isla is also celebrating their community saint, there will be mass today with a priest from Metapan coming. Most of the community awoke to fireworks at 0400hrs (I went back to sleep) to sing to the town saint before sun-up. There will be a procession starting at the far end of La Isla (Llano border) where the last house is (our friend Henaro the mason lives there) and ending at the church. It will be nice to see everyone and confirm host families.
The economy is way down here right now. Lupe, my host mother (the aunt of my friend Yesenia), told me that they have had to change their diet. Gas is over $4.00 a gallon now and everyone seems to be paying. Cesar was concerned host families would be hard to find but I asked him to reasssure families that we would contribute financially - and more so than in the past. I will tell families the same. It is hard, sad really, for me to see the economy tanking like this. In Metapan yesterday, when I was arranging a shuttle from the airport, the line at the remittances (remesas) window of the banks was nearly two blocks long. This suggests that the economy here is increasingly dependent on exterior funds, suggesting little self reliance and decreasing potental for it - at least on a national scale.
Education really seems the only systemic way out of this cycle and La Isla - in all its progressive wisdom (in no small part thanks to Cesar) - is ready to increase efforts in that way. They are looking into bringing internet here, the school will be teaching English, a ride has been arranged for students wishing to take computer classes on Friday in Metapan, and there is talk of raising money to buy computers. Night classes are being offered to adults. Very impressive.
Wednesday 5-14-08
Yesterdays celebration was nice. The Virgin Mother has appeared various times throughout history. One such time was in Fatima, Portugal on the 13th of May, hace muchos muchos anos (many many years ago). She is called La Virgen de Fatima and she is the patron saint of La Isla - the manifestation of the virgin mother that this community has chosen to pay collective homage to and to whom they communally pray as their (La Isla´s) mediator to God. The ceremony was nice and very lively with much singing. The inside of La Isla´s church is so much nicer than I had first imagined it could ever be. Seeing it complete was inspiring - a true testimony to the unity and communal efforts of the La Isla community.
In fact, the whole community´s central area is just a wonder. They have done so much - a basketball court, the church, a gorgeous (beyond everyone´s expectations) community center and a rodeo - now with covered bleachers. I am so touched to have been here when it was just getting underway, and so impressed by the progress. Cesar says the Gringos (referring to CFS) really helped to get things moving. I am so glad.
I went to Metapan today. The city was prettier than I remembered it - the mountains surrounding it higeher and greener than I had remembered. I visited Tio Lucio and his family there (Cesar´s brother, Yesenia´s uncle). He is looking forward to the Gringos coming and decided to come to the airport with us.
The rest of my day will be spent solidifying host families. They are all so concerned that the Gringos wont like their food. They all want to go to Metapan to buy Corn Flakes for them. No matter how many times I tell them the about CFS students´ appreciation for, and desire to be, here (in La Isla), it wont be self-evident until the students are here and demonstrate it. But that will be soon enough.
Thursday 5-15-08
I secured host families for everyone. Much harder than in years past - not because of any resistance to having Gringo-guests in their houses, perse, but because of various things happening in their personal lives (family lives, really... as ¨personal¨ is a foreign concept here). While it was tough to find families, it was neat to hear about all that is going on in various host families of the past as I went door-to-door trying to lock in the last couple of families.
Engracia and Carlos (Joel and Kiernan´s host family in 2005) now have more cows than they know what to do with (a good thing) but it takes four hours to milk them all in the mornings - even with hired help so making breakfast and even lunch sometimes would be tough. Lucia and Ortilio Hernandez (where Lia Dykes and Lauren Berry stayed in 2005 and Virginia and Caitlin Connor stayed there in 2006) have a new family member as of Tuesday. Their fifteen year old granddaughter, Isabelle, had a baby so the house is bustling with that and not really ready for guests. There are a lot of new babies in La Isla! Jasmina and Johnny - the unmarried couple my age (Banks Clark and Collin stayed there in 2005) wanted to host this year but Johnny´s dad has fallen very ill - incapacitated and bed ridden and Jasmina is feeding, washing and rotating him these days. It is a full time job. Milton and Gaudy (Joel and Gabe in 2006) just had another baby three months ago and their second room is occupied by four homeless guys. Dora (Liz and Sachi 2005 and Ben and Tyler 2006) and Pedro (Sutton and Aidan 2005), the siblings that I always think of as Friends School people somehow, are having a major problem with their water (they dont have any). And Pedro´s wife Bellermina has been sick lately. But, they have agreed to host. Students staying there will need to shower and do what must be flushed elsewhere. I am, nevertheless, thrilled that they will host. They are just extremely special people. Some of the closest relationships that CFS students have formed with familes have been with Dora and Pedro/Bellermina. And one new family will host this year. They have offered the past two years but as their house is somewhat far from the others, I have been hesitant to have anyone have such a long walk. But the quality of their house and their welcoming spirit should more than make up for the walking.
Family has definitely been on my mind today. Bonny (a young woman my age who has spent a lot of time with CFS groups of the past) seems so elated with her baby, Alessandra Paola (everyone calls her Paola). The baby, like Bonny, is stunningly gorgeous with dark, full eyes and a slighlty lighter skin tone that make the eyes stand out all the more. Bonny seems completely alive in her groundedness and mission - raise Paola. She is always smiling. Bonny´s parents (Alison Kibbe´s host family) look younger than before, energized they say by Paola being in the house and the return of their son Arturo, who, after spending five years painting houses in Durham, has returned to La Isla to join his wife, Mirna, in raising their daughter Corina, who has many special needs. They have a new healthy baby, Inmanuel, so the house is a full one with lots of new life, recharging that of the oldest generation. Tia Chepa (the grandmother/mother of the house) baked me a special kind of bread today. So sweet.
I think returning a third time, with two years in between, shows the families what a special place we consider La Isla. With so much pressure to ¨go north¨, to ïmprove¨life, having us come here and praise their families, their connection to the earth, their honest, pure and simple - although far from easy - life is one of the best things that comes of our time here. I know they feel good when we tell them that we want to learn from them. I must remember to continue to tell everyone how gorgeous their family is and what a great job they are doing. Because it is not easy here and yet they are doing a great job with their families.
I am new to websites and blogs so just want to make sure this works! Anyways, I am off to El Salvador tomorrow afternoon and very much looking forward to warm weather (currently in Minnesota), nice scenery, old friends, hammocks and pupusas. When I get there I'll buy construction supplies, arrange for airport transportation, look into a trip to the cloud forest, purchase drinking water and arrange host families (I've heard reports from over there that we're going to have too many volunteer host families and not enough students!) So, things are falling into place and, for me, it doesn't get much better than spending time in the La Isla community. I look forward to being in touch with an update and important information shortly before the group arrives next Saturday. -Rob