So I figured the best thing to do now, after my ramble-a-thon about my first few days, is to give everyone some background info about where I am!
But first --> a funny story from yesterday:
1. Yesterday I rode in theback of a pickup with a local. Instead of saying como estas (how are you) I accidently said donde estas (where are you). It was halirious. We laughed for about 5 whole minutes.
Also, for those worriers out there, where we are staying is completely safe. It is a vary tight knit network of communities. While there is violence in this country for sure, it is not present here. Their main concerns, which I will address in a different blog as well, are mainly how to preserve their culture, protect their environment, increase education, and provide oppotunities. Violence isn't an issue here.
Now for the main event -->
A Brief History of El Salvador, The Bajo Lempa, and some of the Super Stars of our Trip.
The following account is peaced together from internet searches, talks with locals including Oswaldo, Mario, and Ramone, as well as my host family and several other community members.
So, as some of you might rememeber, El Salvador was in a bitter civil war from the early 80s until 1992. Essentially, the rebels, the FMLN, were upset about human rights violations and a lack of equitable land distribution. The tipping point was the assassination of arch bishop Oscar Romero in 1980. Romero had called upon the US to stop military aid to the El Salvadorian army, who in the lead up to the conflict, were comiting atrocious killings. The US refused. In fact, more people died in 1980 in El Salvador than in the rest of Latin America combined. Romero is one of 3 significant figures to many of the citizens of El Salvador. The other 2 are Che Guevara and Schafik Handal, a Plestinian El Salvadorian who was a guerilla leader and politician. (More about these key figures, and the role of the church, to come in later blogs).
With that background complete, on to how this fits into where we are now. When the war broke out, many people fled El Salvador as refugees, to Hondouras, Nicaragua, or Panama. However, these refugees were mainly young children and women with infants or young children. My 22 year old host brother was actually born as a refugee in Hondouras. The conditions in these camps were not great. One of the teachers at the day care centers told of how the Hondouran army once blocked food for 2 weeks. However, a positive of this was that a leadership hierarchy developed in the camps to protect the interests of the people, and this structure and spirit was brought back after the war. So, what about everyone else? Men, women, and children over the age of 10 were expected to stay and fight. Ramone, the only english speaker we have met, told us jokingly about how he used to get made fun of because he was too small for the M16!!! Mario, the director of ACUDESBAL, started fighting at 11, was a platoon leader at 16, and led the capture of San Miguel for the FMLN at 19, a victory that was significant in bringing about the peace accords. Most people in this country have been effected dramatically by the war, be it through actual fighting, losing loved ones, or the psychological scars that seem to last today (drug use, alcoholism, deviant behavior).
Essentially, the area we are currently in, the Bajo Lempa, was owned by only one land owner. When the war was winding down and ending, many refugees came back to El Salvador and returned to their provinces. However, many of these areas were dry and not good for agriculture, so they made their way to the Bajo Lempa, which had been abandoned by its landowner, and usurped the land. This was the case for the community where we are staying, Amando Ortiz, which at 19, is one of the oldest communities in this region. Eventually, as a part of the peace accords, the government purchased this land and redistributed it to the occupants. There is also now a limit to how much land a single person can own. This is how the communities of the Bajo Lempa evolved, holding on to the ideals of leadership and community that they had learned during the war and that had been preached by FMLN leaders. Each community really does work together to improve the well being of everyone. There is also a distinct leadership structure. One of the intresting things about Amando Lopez is that they encourage youth leadership as well, fighting ageist ideas.
However, post-war Bajo Lempa has not been a proverbial garden of eden. A lot of the technlogy used to protect the land from flooding before the war was lost, and the new, poorer landowners have become victems of flooding over the years. In fact, ACUDESBAL was first founded in response to Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which caused massive flooding, damage, loss of life, and ill health. ACUDESBAL originally worked to gain government awareness and support for this region, and is largely responsible for the slow but steady improvements in the region in terms of flood prevention and environmental protection. Recently, this past fall, major storms brought flooding once again. The effects of this can still be seen in broken roads and fallen trees. At my host families, water reached over 6 feet high, and my family had to stay on top of their roof to stay dry. A lot of families lost a lot of valuable property, such a livestalk, in the flooding as well. Also, such flooding brings the communities into contact with dangerous chemical overflows, which has lead to a high concentration of kidney failure in the region. Luckily though, people are tied to their communities here. A lot of men and women who go to university from this region come back as teachers, doctors, and engineers to serve their communities in this region.
There is obviously a lot of work to still be done here. I am so happy that GlobeMed can play a role in the journey of these communities. ACUDESBAL and the people of the Bajo Lempa truely exemplify the human spirit of preserverence. They have been through so much yet still remain hardworking, dedicated, and principled. It is really so inspiring. This is truely a text book example of the possibilities that exist with community centered development and strategic partneship.
