Aug. 6

Breakfast today consisted of eggs with peppers (way too many for me), beans, and bread. We left for about a one hour drive to Cojutepeque to Monte San Juan. We visited a family farm engaged in sustainale farming practices. Berta and Miguel have 11 children - 2 are adults with their own children, so they have grandchildren as well. Peg, our guide, works in the area of sustainable agricultural production. This family grows corn, rice, raises worms to make their own fertilizer, and have a fish pond where they raise tilapia. They also raise chickens, turkeys, ducks, a goat that is soon to give birth, two pigs, and have just started raising rabbits. Berta inherited the land from her mother and she and her husband just farm to sustain themselves. Her husband does referee - he has a licence/certificate for this - and makes about 12-15 dollars per game in the community and at other fields. The soccer field is down a steep hill from their house. It is always used daily around 4-5p.m. and on Saturdays for girls and Sundays for boys. The field is all but dirt and some rock, and it is a long trek up and down a steep hill for all players and fans to get there. It's really the only organized activity that kids have in the area. We ate lunch, which the family provided. We helped to make the tortillas by hand. We learned how the corn is dried on a clothesline for about 3 months and then shucked. The corn is then soaked in water and iime (not the fruit - the fertilizer) to soften the outter shell. The rinsing process takes a lot of rubbing and scrubbing the kernals to get all the lime off. Then we walked the wakal (large bowl) of corn to the mill about 1/4 of a mile down the road. A man has a small motor running which is hooked up to a grinder. Little by little, Berta added water to the grinder and a dough type mixture spit out. Berta then paid the miller and we walked the wakal of masa (dough) back to her house. When we arrived, her daughter lit the comal - a huge, flat iron skillet-like disc to ready it for putting on the corn tortillas to cook. We all pitched in to roll the masa in a small ball in our hands and then flatten it by patting it between our hands until we made about a 1/2 inch thick disk. Then we put it on the comal to cook, flipped it once, and removed it. It's kind of like making pancakes, only using much thicker batter. We made about 50-60 tortillas. It was a great hands-on experience. We were then taken on a tour of the farm ground where we learned how corn and rice were planted and harvested. Most of their property is on a hill, which means that it would seem to an American a treacherous and tedious job to do this. When we passed the corn fields, we saw how the nephews were fertilizing each corn stalk one by one by digging a small hole at the base of the stalk and dropping in small pellets of fertilizer. It seemed like a job that would take hours and hours. We couldn't believe how much work was involved with planting and harvesting by hand and hauling everything on their backs to their home. Basically, the farm is what sustains them. It is almost their only source of food. This is what they do - plant, harvest, eat, and sleep. After leaving Monte San Juan, we went to Rick's (our guide) house to see how he lives. He has a very nice little place in Cojutepeque with one bedroom and a bathroom with a flushing toilet and shower that is a small room on his back porch. We used the bathroom and then headed to his base community. This community is a squatter community along El Salvador's discontinued railroad. During the civil war, many people in the San Vicente region fled their homes and basically squatted on the tracks. This might be equivalent of our shanty towns. This is an extremely poor area with no plumbing. When you enter the community you can smell the stench from the homes. We met with community members in a small building that they use for a church. Children trickled in one by one to visit as well. We learned a little about how they are trying to make the community building a place for gathering, worship, discussion and support. After learning a little about the base community, we played games with the children. They are learning English, so we were instructed to be sure to make them practice as we played Uno and Go Fish. I introduced Max to a 16 year old girl name Yamey (Jamie), and he tried to practice his Spanish as she tried to practice her English. They decided that they might become pen pals through Rick since Jamie does not have access to computers or mail. It was a great learning experience for Max and one that profoundly impacted him because he saw first hand how kids his age had to live in such terrible conditions, yet they are always smiling and joking with you. We all left there with such a heavy heart because we know that many of the children face terrible odds of ever graduating or getting a good education and proper nutrition. They just wake up each day to survive.