It’s learning time! Wanna know what I learned during my
interviews my last week in El Salvador and what I did my last day in El Salvador? Read on friend! There are pictures at the end, but first you must read.
Friday was filled with listening to final group
presentations and personal reflections. Each group shared about information
from their interviews related to their topics. The ecology group talked about
mining, flooding, drought, and biodiversity. The women’s group did a wonderful
presentation on the lack of women’s rights in El Salvador and machismo and
violence against women. The neoliberal group talked about their meetings with
various private business organizations and with the government. In my group we
each presented on one of the four topics (gangs, homosexuals, AIDS, and migration).
((Sorry, I’d give you more detail about
the other groups but my notebook is the bag I left at the center in Managua and
I won’t be there until Sunday night. That being said my notes about my groups
interviews are also in that notebook so I’ll try my best with what I remember.))
I talked about gangs and the organization we met with. Their
aim is violence reduction. Instead of working to take people out of the gangs,
making them ex-gang members, they work within the gangs trying to prevent
violence. The gangs in El Salvador are rooted in Los Angeles and began in 70s
and 80s as Salvadorans migrated to the states to escape repression in their
conflict filled country. The children of these fleeing parents lacked community
and therefore organized themselves in gangs. But with changes in deportation in
90s in the US, many of the members of the gangs were deported back to El
Salvador, for majority of them, an unfamiliar country. They brought back their
gangs, now two of the biggest gangs in the world, Barrio 18 and Mara
Salvatrucha (MS-13). These two gangs have contributed to the high level of
violence in El Salvador, although, as the man we met with pointed out, they are
not the only cause of violence in the country. In February/March of this year
there was a truce between the two gangs, orchestrated by leaders of the Catholic
Church and an ex-FMLN leader. Since the truce, homicides have gone from an
average of 15 a day to 5 a day, and there have even been a few days with no
homicides, something that was unimaginable pre-truce. People are hopeful that
it will last, at least until the next Presidential election in 2014 but in
reality there is much uncertainty, the truce could end any day. The
organization we talked to using psychology, Mayan cosmo-vision, and the
development of the personal self to work with the gangs. Typically the
community is above the self in gangs and so the group works to bring the
community and self to equilibrium. They draw on strengths within the community
and develop the self-identity of the person. Working both in the communities
and in jails, they focus on building relationships with the gang members
through support groups, sports programs, occupational therapy, and basic health
care, among many other programs. I could go on and on and on and tell you more
but I’ll just leave you with that. Feel free to ask if you want more info.
My group also met with the leader of a lesbian circle in San
Salvador. The group of about 30 women meets weekly to talk and have a support
group. Their activities range from going to the beach (one of their favorite
activities), having BBQs, and playing soccer. Along with these fun activities they
always talk about issues such as living with a partner, discrimination, HIV,
and many other topics. The woman we met with shared her story as living as a
lesbian in El Salvador and the discrimination she has to face on a daily basis.
Her family knows that she is a lesbian and has been with the same partner for
13 years! but they have never actually talked about it. She must keep her
identity secret from many in order to avoid discrimination and exclusion. Most
lesbian groups, including this circle, must remain clandestine. However there
are a few discotecas for gays and lesbians that she loves to frequent with her
partner. But overall, El Salvador has a long way to go before she can be more
accepted for the wonderful human/sister/friend/lover she is!
Our meeting with the AIDS organization, CONTRASIDA mostly
focused on their workshops to inform people about HIV. fun fact: In Spanish,
AIDS is SIDA and HIV is VIH. Part of their work is educating the people and
working towards changing the attitude towards HIV and AIDS. (They call AIDS
advanced HIV because AIDS has such a bad stigma.) Most schools here do not
teach sex education, none the less about HIV and often times when they do, the
teachers themselves aren’t properly educated about it and give it quite the
stigma. Like with homosexuals, the Church here also majorly shuns HIV/AIDS,
which is really sad as the Church should be helping and supporting everyone.
CONTRASIDA is a Christian organization with a lot of aspects of liberation
theology strung about. They focus on working with the poor and being loving
towards all. They also run a clinic to deal with illnesses related to having
HIV, because the immune system is so weak. The clinic is only open once a week
and they also serve lunch that day because majority of their patients are very
poor. Due to lack of resources they are only able to give meds to those with
AIDS. There was a lot more we learned, so you can ask me questions if you want.
I’ll answer when I get my notebook back!
Our final meeting, which was actually the first, but
anyways, it was about migration and we met with a woman from Catholic Relief
Services. She has been in El Salvador for years and is most recently working with
youth at risk and has taught some at the UCA. She also has a plethora of
knowledge concerning migration that she shared with us. People having been
migrating from El Salvador to the US for nearly 100 years. In the most recent
years violence and lack of jobs have been the pushing factors. They seek
refugee from violence, from gangs. They seek financial support for their
families, so their children can have a better future. Remittances are a large
portion of the Salvadoran sector. They allow older students to complete high
school (because it’s not completely free) and sometimes even college. However,
after reaching higher education they are left with the same sucky employment
opportunities. Most employment opportunities require fluent English for call centers,
so those that did not attend one of the few American or British schools are
unable to find work. El Salvador has around a 43% underemployment rate and
therefore causing a brain drain to the States.
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| My final project |
After our final group presentations everyone in the group
shared personal reflections about their time in El Salvador and Liberation
Theology. It was moving to hear my peers share about their experiences and how
they have been touched by the people here. Everyone expressed themselves in
various ways: Poetry, dance, drawing, sculpting, photographs, songs, and even
pinterest. Last semester at Olaf, during a vocational workshop/retreat we were
given an outline of our thumb print and told to write down words and phrase,
places and people that shape and define us. So for my project I outlined the
map of El Salvador and wrote words that have defined El Salvador. I did one map
for during the war (1980-1992), one map for the present, and one map for the
liberation theology future. Then, because I didn’t have an outline of my thumb
print, I outlined a heart and wrote words from El Salvador that have touched
and shaped me.
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| Elle, Molly, and me at our last dinner in El Salvador! |
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| Sister Peggy! |
Friday night our group went out for a delicious Chinese
dinner. Then four of us ventured to a Romeo Santos concert!!! Romeo Santos is a bachata singer and used to sing with the group Aventura. It was a great
time and LOTS of fun despite the rain!! It was a wonderful way to a wonderful
trip to a wonderful country with wonderful people!
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| Romeo Santos Concert! The King stays King! |
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| Rain can't stop us! Me and Charlotte! |
Thanks for reading this long thing! We are now in Nicaragua,
at a beach for our fall break for the week. I’ll post more about it soon!
LOVE YOU!
