So...I guess I leave tomorrow.

This trip has snuck up on me. 

A lot has snuck up. It's been a productive six months since India.
A bit of a whirlwind with some stagnant times and some creative times in there.

And now...I guess I leave to Guatemala tomorrow. 

Purpose of the trip?
Sent to me by the minister that I am travelling with to key principles in the project: Objetivo del viaje es que Tamara llegue a conocer la realidad Salvadoreña, y los proyectos de OTRA FE.

Translation: The objective of this trip is so that Tamara can come to know the Salvadoran reality and the projects of OTRA FE. A faith organization that started based on sentiments such as this:

This faith community knows well that the 65% of the people of El Salvador who are poor have not chosen this life. This percentage of the population of the country has been adversely affected by 500 years of oppression. They are the victims of the “conquests” from the discovery of the Americas right up to the present  (first Spain and now the first world..mostly the USA).  In these present times the government does not slaughter and rape the people as it did during the civil war, but instead has chosen more subtle forms to lay waste to the population. The vast majority of the poor live in conditions of depression, and accustomed poverty, conditions which leave them uneducated and unable to manage in any form the small incomes they may acquire.

Itinerary?

I fly into Guatemala City and stay the night. Then I head to Quetzaltenango for two weeks of language school.

The weekend of June 23 I'm heading to San Salvador (capital of El Salvador) to stay at the Casa Clementina (doesn't that just sound whimsical?) Between there, Metapan and Ahuachapan, I will meet all of the people that I've been getting emails from over the past few months: Otoniel (Agronomist), Felix, Ramon, Angel (soul brothers of Jim's, pastors, and fellow project managers), Deysi (Director of IMU - Women's Rights & Development NGO) and her husband Dagoberto (Former Rebel Comander, Former Deputy, Environmentalist, Lawyer, Philosopher and Theologian).

I will spend a day in Perquin, at the War Museum, and head to El Mozote, a massacre site where Salvadoran armed forces killed between 200 - 1000 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War. Unfortunately, as news of the massacre emerged, the Reagan administration in the U.S. attempted to dismiss it because of its reflection of the human rights abuses of the Salvadoran government, which the U.S. was supporting with large amounts of military aid. In December 2011, the El Salvador government apologized for the massacre. You can read about El Mozote here >>

GAH!

Apparently, there is an area where Canadian's (Harper) have mining interests called Chalatenango...this is not a good thing to be supporting (or so I hear). I want to see this with my own eyes.

And there is the possibility of us paying a visit to the Mothers of the Disappeared: a group of women whose children "disappeared" by the Government. Apparently Bono wrote a song about this after visiting El Salvador and Nicaragua because he was so saddened by it and wanted to reach out to las madres.

Over the following couple of days, I will be visiting Metapan and Ahuachapan to meet and talk with members of the Food Security project and to meet families that will be benefiting from it.

Metapan
Right now in Metapan, 175 children from impoverished neighbourhoods are assisted as best as (the organization I'm going with) can to attend school. This is a very small percentage of the some 1700 who live in these areas.  Slowly, some are making it to graduation so that they may attend high school. One of the biggest obstacles with the children is the circle of poverty in which they live. Parents and grandparents do not believe that education will help their children out of the conditions in which they have lived for generations. These are families of great trauma from the war, people who do not know how to be families. They are torn apart by prostitution and abuses of many kinds.

Ahuachapan
In Ahuachapan, the work started by a faith-based group meeting in 2000 and feeling that they wanted to make a difference in the impoverished lives around them. In 2001, there were two earthquakes in this region and many found themselves homeless. Thus, development and aid projects were started, first for emergency supplies and medical treatment, than homes were built. By 2002, 33 homes were built. Later that year, work began on a medical clinic in the community. There was a massive eyeglass campaign nearby. A women's group started where they received training in feminist theology. In 2004; however, elections began and it became apparent that the political arena had the power to build or destroy any community project. And by the end of the year, that clinic was shut down. However, Felix and his people there did not let this crush their spirit. A few things have happened since 2006 up until now. The church continues to hold literacy workshops taught by some of the young women who are in high school and some of the women have started to grow corn and beans as part of a nutrition project. The work of this poor congregation now includes a Saturday lunch program for the elderly and very young who live in and around the Ahuachapan town market. Beans and rice and corn are collected from friends and family who share from what they have and the older women of the church prepare tortillas and the rice and beans. The younger women and some men help in the distribution of the lunch in the park next to the market. Jim & Brenda (who I am travelling with) visited for a short time about a year after their 5 year move there and watched one Saturday from the side lines as 53 elderly and 21 children received a nutritious lunch thanks to the generosity poured out by this church. It's truly the poor feeding the even more poor. And that's powerful. (Please note when I write 'poor' here, I truly only mean in monetary terms).

In 2006, a children's program started where each Saturday the children learn crafts, hygienics, nutrition, reading and writing. This program still runs today.

But here, sustainable agriculture has become a pressing need. The world food crisis has reached El Salvador. Local wisdom is that traditional seeds and growing methods should be re-introduced to decrease dependence on multi-nationals. The question of land acquisition is also on the table. The planned present Food Security project that I am becoming involved with will supply funds to secure land, seed, and teach traditional methods for participating families. Part of what is reaped will be for community consumption, another part will be for re-sale and a third aspect will be to re-invest in further production.

This is simply a learning trip. There is much to take in, including the fact that I will be working within an arena (based on religion) that I know nothing about. But I do know that whether you're religious, or spiritual, or atheist, or agnostic - we are all linked and humanity is about reaching out to those in need.

I stay one night in Georgia on my way home and will land July 8th to enjoy my last Manitoban summer (for now). It's going to be a whirlwind four weeks. I'm not sure yet what it will hold for me post-trip. If I was to move there next year to intern, it could cost upwards of $12,000 for six months and with me moving west, that will be difficult to foresee; yet not impossible! Nothing's impossible. Or I may go back for a shorter amount of time and help from here. Or I may want to focus what I learn and my skills on another project. I have no idea yet.

All I know right now is that I don't know anything. And I can't wait to learn so much while there.

These photos of El Salvador are courtesy of TripAdvisor
 

La Playa

Mayan Ruins

Bam! Adios Canada. BIG Love!