Aug. 5

Today we woke up to a breakfast of pancakes, bread, beans, and fresh orange juice. We took a 1 hour drive to the community of Las Delicias where Maryknoll Lay Missioner Larry works with a small foundation to promote alternative youth activities to try to help young people extend their education and stay away from gangs. This community is in the hills outside of El Salvador and is very poor. The foundation and its funding sources have provided a library and other small buildings like a computer room and art room. Larry has also started a soccer organization for the kids. The foundation provides scholarships to the kids so that they can get the needed money to buy materials for school. It costs about sixty dollars a year to send a child to school. For other students at the high school age it is more because there is no high school in this community of 600-700 families. Students going to high school would need bus transportation money, and this is too expensive on the income of most families in Las Delicias, so the scholarships really help. Larry led us up into the hills to one of the student's homes to meet his mother and see where he lives. This young man was very proud to show off his medals in soccer and school to us. He had earned the highest average in his class, which was a C. School is very difficult for the kids, and many simply don't go because they get such a late start. Many students just hang out in the streets instead of attend school because they don't have the needed support to catch up. Larry tries to provide this needed support. The young man's mother was very proud of her son's achievements, as she had his certificates and medals hanging on the wall of their two-room shack. We then traveled up the same dirt road (very steep) to another student's home. For many kids, it takes them 1-2 hours to walk to school up and down the steep hills. When we arrived at this house, the student's mother offered us some corn (horse corn) which is called elote here. We squeezed lime on it and ate it. It was very tough. This woman supports 4 children, her father, and two aunts on her salary of 30 dollars per week making 3000 tortillas every day in the city. We then walked back down from the hills to the library to have lunch which was like a stew of rice, beans, corn, carrots, and wikil, which is a cross between a potato and a zuchinni. We also had a tortilla. It was really very good, but too hot for a hot day. They served Pepsi because the kids never get that. About 7 or 8 kids drank three 3 liter bottles of Pepsi. We saw the kids do some breakdancing for us to American music and then Max got to pass the soccer ball with a few of the students. After Las Delicias we traveled to the Volcano Boqueron where we walked to the top to see the inside crater. It was a long drive up on a narrow highway and then yet another drive on an even more narrow road. Then we got out to walk the rest of the way on a path. It was an impressive thing to see. I could not believe how many people actually live on the volcano where one can find many fincas of coffee. I can't imagine how they get their resources with such a long and steep walk up and down the volcano. The volcano erupted about 80 years ago and is due for another eruption sometime soon. Hopefully while we are not here! One interesting thing I learned today is that malnutrition plays a huge role in the size of the kids. Max met a boy today who was 22 and he appeared to be about 15. They don't get the proper nutrition for growth physically or cognitively, so this makes them appear delayed in appearance and intelligence. The poor are very, very poor. The people of Las Delicias live without indoor plumbing and hot water. It's amazing how clean and neat people keep their appearance among all the garbage along the roads. I also noticed today a number of soles of shoes on the path up to Las Delicias. They just simply wear out their shoes walking all the time.