The above and below photos are from a night out in Ataco, one of my favorite small towns in El Salvador. It is located high in the mountains, in the middle of El Salvador's best coffee-growing area, much chillier than most of the country, and full of small art galleries, churches, and great restaurants.
One of the few places in the country where textiles are produced by men, during the day the huge looms seen above are buzzing with action, turning out brightly colored and intricately designed fabrics.
Above, the fountain in the middle of the central park. Below, a display or dream catchers in a local art gallery.
While wandering around the weekend food fair in the nearby town of Juayua, I happened upon the Salvadoran Zorro!
Above and below are photos from a trip into Parque Nacional El Imposible. Beyond having the coolest name possible for a national park, it is full of great waterfalls made to be jumped off of.
Above, Stephanie, my first visitor from the States in about a year, and I. We spent a week traveling around El Salvador, checking out lakes, volcanoes, beaches, and the area around where I live.
Above is a group of women I've been working with for over a month, training them to lead HIV/AIDS education and awareness activities and trainings. We meet every Thursday to discuss common stigmas and myths surrounding life with HIV/AIDS, strategies for stopping the spreading of sexually-transmitted diseases, and useful techniques for imparting this knowledge to others. Below, after one month of training, some of the women are finally repeating the training sessions in their own communities, spreading their knowledge to their family members, neighbors, friends, and in their community's schools.
Below is a shot of Playa El Tunco, one of the most popular beaches in the country. Beyond being one of the best surfing breaks in the country and having a great rock to climb on, dive off of, and watch sunsets from, it is one of the few beaches in El Salvador that also has an exciting nightlife. Above is a shot of a real, live puffer-fish a local kid caught while we were hanging out near him. Too poisonous to touch, we had to get it unhooked with a rock then launch it back into the ocean. I think I'd only previously seen puffer-fish on the National Geographic channel, so it was thrilling to see one in real life.
For the last 3 months I've been helping out another Volunteer near me with English-language classes she designed and led for teachers assigned to teach English who don't actually speak it all that well. A common problem in the Salvadoran Ministry of Education, especially schools in rural areas often just don't have English classes, even when it is a part of the required curriculum, because they don't have a teacher to lead the classes. Above, during the graduation ceremony, a few other Volunteers had to step in and sing the Star Spangled Banner, which the Ministry of Education insisted we include after the Salvadoran national anthem, since we forgot to bring it on tape. I decided to save my own vocal chords (and the ears of all the guests) and not sing, since I had to give a speech shortly after (below).
Below, a photo of all the teachers who attended and graduated the 12-week English-language and teaching methodology course.
This time of year marks the corn harvest, which especially in rural
communities, is arguable the most important time of year in El Salvador,
especially to small farmers. Many communities host festivals in honor
of the corn harvest, and a common part of these festivals are parades
of local girls wearing dresses made from all parts of the corn plant.
Usually each surrounding community, in this case all of the communities
around the town of Corinto (where this festival was held), elect a "queen," who was then prepared a
dress made of corn (the process often taking over a month), then paraded around town
and ultimately judged.
Above, the young girls, along with members of the community, await the announcement of the winning dress design.
Above, Laguna El Jocotal, an important protected wetlands area near the coast in eastern El Salvador. Below, a view from the south of Volcano Chaparristique. I currently live on the northern side of the volcano, but have a nearly identical view. Volcano Chaparristique, also known as Volcano San Miguel, is currently the most active volcano in El Salvador.
On a recent visit to another Volunteer's site to check up on how all of his projects are progressing, we got side-tracked hiking through the forest with some some young girls who live in his community. They led us to a great little waterfall and river tucked away and up a hill.
Salvadoran Independence Day is September 15th (last Saturday), so to celebrate I checked out the parades made up of the marching bands from all the nearby schools. The parades lasted from early in the morning until noon and made doing anything else nearly impossible, as it was hard to think above the din of 10 to 15 different marching bands playing in all corners of my small town.
