November 2nd was Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) across all of Latin America and to celebrate everyone goes to the cemetery to decorate the graves of their deceased family members amid a quite festive atmosphere—bands, food vendors, church choirs, and clowns. It is one of my favorite Salvadoran customs as it is a day meant for family members to return to the graves of their loved ones amid cheerful surroundings and treasure the happy memories of the dead, in comparison with the States, where returning to a cemetery is usually considered a somber, sad experience.
In a nearby community, El Milagro, I have been working with a women’s group who was already well-organized and had been selling bread they baked every Saturday for a few years. I have been teaching them to make shampoo and hair gel and they have been selling it in conjunction with the bread they already sell every weekend, meaning with little to no extra work, they can bring in more profits.
This past Friday, a non-profit organization I often work with named ASAPROSAR held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a newly-completed washing facility in a nearby community called El Jute. ASAPROSAR is responsible for the environmentally-protected area near my community, where I have spent much time hiking, camping, and exploring, and helping with numerous projects. This washing facility was built by a river just outside of the protected area to give women an alternative to washing their clothes in the river, where their soap contaminates the water, killing animal species and plant life and contaminating drinking water for downstream communities. The washing facility is fed by the river water, but has a natural filtering system, meaning that before the water returns to the river, it is completely decontaminated.
The next few photos are just a few I shot while hanging out with a family in another nearby community named Casa Blanca. I got to know this family really well while working with them a lot in the past to improve the efficiency and health of their stoves. I have since become good friends with them and often stop by just to hang out. The young boy in the picture immediately below is among my favorites, not just because he is real cute and refuses to wear pants (makes for a pretty cool kid in my book) but has also been taught a lot by some of his older cousins. He lives near a school, so every afternoon all the teenage girls walk by his house. He has learned to yell “Hola mamacita” to the teenage girls when they pass every day, and if they don’t respond to him, he quickly adds, “Salud, puta!” (in an effort to keep this blog family-friendly with a PG-rating, I won’ translate that, but I’m sure there are a few websites that can get across the basic premise). Cute, pantless, a quick learner, and packs an attitude—quite the 2-year-old!
