It has been quite awhile since I’ve posted anything but pictures, so I’ll try to catch ya’ll up on some of the more newsworthy events of the past month in El Salvador.
- This past Tuesday my life was very literally rocked by what was certainly my first large earthquake experience. While I wish I could say I handled it bravely and astutely, that very much was not the case. Although I’d previously felt multiple small tremors—they are pretty standard here—they’d never lasted more than a second or two and or had been much more than just a petty rumble. However, the earthquake last week registered at 4.8, but what really made it a doozy was the fact that it lasted at least 6 seconds and the epicenter was only a few kilometers from my community. I was sitting at my desk at around 8:30 pm when all the dogs of the community started barking, and then moments later, the earth started rocking. And I’m talking really rocking—I certainly never thought I’d see my 12-inch-thick mud walls shaking, waving, and bending like I did that night. However, contrary to all advice, I made no effort to get outside to the safety of open skies—I just sat shocked in my chair, watching the roof beams in my house rocking and wondering if anyone in the States would ever even know what had happened to me when they came tumbling down onto me. I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but my first real earthquake experience certainly shook me up—my heart was racing for at least 30 minutes after and absolutely refused to slow down. The earthquake certainly was a popular theme of conversation for the following few days as well, as at least 20 houses in San Luis basically cracked in half (none actually fell over, walls just split from roof to the ground), yet we did emerge lucky, as not a single person was harmed.
- Sunday afternoon I went on a trip with a group of other Volunteers, a few of their Salvadoran plus-ones, and 3 or 4 Salvadoran staff members of Peace Corps to summit Volcano Santa Ana, which is both El Salvador’s tallest volcano and its most recent to erupt (early 2005). It was certainly one of coolest things I’ve done since arriving here and will undoubtedly be including it in the itineraries of any future visitors I get. Although definitely not an easy hike, especially since I was trying to take a bus there, complete the whole hike in one day, then bus back to my community, forcing me to set a torrid pace, the 40 minutes relaxing and eating a lunch on the rim of the crater were well worth the sweat and sunburn it cost me. Volcano Santa Ana, Cerro Verde (Green Hill in English), and Volcano Izalco make up a chain of 3 neighboring peaks surrounding Lago Coatepeque, a gorgeous lake often sited as the most beautiful part of the country. While Volcano Izalco certainly appears in the more traditional volcano shape, with a sharp cone and distinct crater, Volcano Santa Ana has a more untraditional shape, with numerous ridges and a complete lack of substantial plant growth due to its more recent eruption. The highlight of the hike is certainly making it to the top, where you can walk along the skinny ridge of the volcano, takking in the views of almost half of El Salvador, from the major western cities of Santa Ana and Sonsonate, to the two neighboring peaks, to the Pacific Coast, to Lago Coatepeque. Additionally, the view inside of the crater is ever more unforgettable—far below the literally vertical cliff interior is a quite unnaturally green laguna featuring an unforgettably strong sulphur scent. It is so sulphuric, in fact, that the water can actually be classified as sulphuric acid itself, and submerging your hand for even a few seconds would leave you with some seriously serious burn wounds. Between the eerily green water, emerging steaming vapor, and overwhelming stench, it proves to be a drastic counterpart to the breathtaking views in the other direction. I posted a few pictures from the Volcano Santa Ana hike on the blog yesterday.
- Although a bit morbid and sad, I figured I should also include the other bit of hot gossip swooping through the community (besides, of course, the earthquake). Late one night, about two weeks ago, a man (from just a few communities over from mine) wandered into the sugar cane of the local cooperative, managed to stumble into one of their bee boxes (they also have a small honeybee program), and was found dead, killed by the bees, the next day. However, in typical, rural, El Salvador fashion, that was far from the end of high drama and gossip. While initial general public sentiment (meaning the opinions of the community’s women as they washed their clothes in the river or made tortillas and gossiped) fell against the cooperative, despite the fact that their bees are located at least over 500 meters from any homes, well more than required or suggested. Women were consistently citing the fact that just a few months before, the cooperative’s bees had also been found as the guilty party in the gruesome murder of a family’s goat. However, just a few days later, it was revealed that the man had been very drunk and had, earlier in his night’s drunken wanderings, stolen water and some tortillas from the kitchen of a nearby family. While this certainly did something to change public opinion, it did very little to quell the rumor mill. Next came the revelation that the family was demanding a $2,000 payment from the cooperative as retribution. While the flames of chambre, as it is known in Salvadoran slang, have recently settled down a little in anticipation of the response of the cooperative, I am certain we haven’t heard the last of this tragedy.
- Next, I’ll include my traditional section detailing the most recent gastronomic events of my time in El Salvador. While I have, in just the last month or two, eaten stewed cow intestines, a 5:15 a.m. breakfast (this one as recently as earlier today) of a very complete fish (literally, they just catch it then slap the who thing on the grill, leaving all the dirty work to you), grilled frog, cow ankle stew, and cookies made from flour ground from dried fish (despite being disguised as a cookie, the hardest to stomach due to its very un-cookie like odor…yet closely followed by the horribly unforgettable chewy texture of cow intestine), I have to admit that I finally broke my vow to at least try a few bites, with honestly open mind, of every food presented to me in El Salvador. The offending morsel of food which repulsed me enough to forget all about my vow to approach the Salvadoran diet with an open-mind was raw cow testicles. It all started off innocently enough with me helping three of my close friends who had decided the time had come to de-man their young cattle, thus causing them to grow much faster and to a larger adult size. After completing the procedure, thinking I was almost free to return to my hammock and call it a day, they invited me back to one of their houses. Thinking it would only be for a quick chat, I obliged. Once there, one had his wife fix up a nice cocktail-like mix of raw (yes, raw) cow intestine and thinly sliced onion, pepper, and tomato. While I remain ashamed I broke my oath to try any and all foods presented to me, I do still comfort myself with the fact that I’m pretty sure I’d at least have taken a bite if they’d only cooked it, at least at little, and the conviction that there is certainly some sort of horrendous disease easily contractible through the act of eating raw cow testicles.
- In another update about the projects that have been keeping me busy recently, I’ve coordinated a project through the Office of Social Service with the National Agricultural University, in which I and a group of 2nd-year students are going to come out to the school in my community every two weeks and organize, plant, and cultivate a school garden with the 5th and 6th graders. I also am researching and organizing a solar food dryer and dehydrator project, which led me to a recent, very interesting, and stomach-satisfying, day-trip to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Laboratory of Food Production. While I think I have finally gotten very close to completing my prototype solar food dryer, I’m still working on figuring out exactly how I’m going to turn it into a project and get the proper funding. I’ve also been kept busy teaching my women’s group how to make bar soap, expanding and further developing our shampoo sales, and teaching them more about the economics of a small business. Next week I’m planning on teaching them how to make hair gel, an almost universally popular product among young Salvadorans. Lastly, I’m wrapping up a project to subsidize the sale of highly-efficient wood stoves which limit deforestation through their lesser demand for firewood, emit no smoke (immediately increasing women’s health), and limit the possibility of accidental burns to young children.
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