An important part of the traditional Salvadoran diet is beans (frijoles). They are eaten in every household across the country. Occasionally I have found myself eating a meal at home, in a restaurant or, in this particular case, in a comedor in Santa Marta and wondering how the food got from where it was grown or produced to my plate. I think that many people, including myself, take food for granted when there is a lot of starvation going on in the world.
On the fifth of November, in celebration of both national and international cultures here in Nuevo Gualcho, we hosted a “Gran Fogata”, combining British bonfire with and a night of Salvadorean storytelling.
In collaboration with our partner organisation El Movimiento Salvadoreño de Mujeres (MSM) our group from Nuevo Gualcho were given the opportunity to participate in a turtle liberation as part of a conservation project. MSM has been involved in the project since February 2009 in an attempt to reduce the number of turtle eggs attacked by wild animals or stolen and sold illegally to be consumed as restaurant delicacies. At a social level, the encouraged participation of local women has promoted the importance of gender equality through their enhanced responsibilities in communal projects.
On Wednesday 15th October, the real work began. Our first objective is the construction of a bus stop in the main square. On that Wednesday the team started collecting rocks for the structure of the bus stop from a river and gathered more as we snaked our way uphill towards the hayfields. Armed with nothing but machetes and a strong will to work, we chopped down the hay and organized it into neat bundles ready for distribution. However, during the late morning it rained, which made it difficult for trucks to come and collect the materials we had collected.
It´s difficult to know how to describe our first week here and settling into Nueva Gualcho – there have been so many activities, stories and emotions – yet I think it´s fair to say that for all of us here, we already feel at home. For us, orientation week began with name badges and a lot of awkward hugging, but it is uplifting to see how quickly we´ve all adapted to chickens laying eggs in our beds, frijoles (refried beans) for breakfast, and having friendships which stretch far beyond the limitations of language barriers.
The first few days in Santa Marta have been very exciting. Starting on Thursday 9th October and ending on Wednesday 15th there has been a festival that commemorates the return of the people of Santa Marta following their forced evacuation from the town during the civil war. Due to the violence that penetrated Santa Marta, the townspeople were forced to flee the violence and seek refuge over the border in Honduras. After 7 years of exile, the first of them eventually returned to Santa Marta on 10th October 1987.
In the year 1990, the UN finally began peace negotiations concluding a civil war that had claimed the lives of 70,000 Salvadoreans and had torn a nation in two. This proved to be a momentous moment for many exiled Salvadoreans as it resulted in repatriations back to their homeland. 500 families were involved in this movement from places such as San Antonio, Intibucá and Honduras, who all came together to discover the unknown province of Gualcho in the department of Usulután.
This week, week number 3 of being in Santa Marta, has been pretty awesome. Week 1 and 2 were hard. I didn't realise how hard until I experienced this week. We have gone through a lot of difficulties. Not all of them have been solved but the fact that we have been aware of them makes a big difference. Every Friday afternoon we have a little honesty session where we exchange thoughts and points of interest from the week between the whole group of national and international volunteers. This makes a big difference. Brownie points to whoever thought of that one.
During our 4th week of work, we went to visit one of the routes that were part of La Ruta del Guerrillero in Chalatenango, Cinquera. This visit was carried out on Thursday the 31st July.
Along the path we visited places that were important during the time of the Civil War and still exist today as part of La Ruta del Guerrilero. Places like the Cascabela - a secret hospital where guerrillas would go if they were injured during the fighting. We also visited El Mirador (a view point) and La Posa (called The Witch).
