El Salvador Study Abroad 2010: Santa Marta

Santa Marta, one of the most marginalized communities, is where we all stayed with our respective host families for 2 nights. We ended up hiking from the town of Victoria all the way to Santa Marta. The view down the great mountain was incredible!! We could see the next country's border- Honduras. The pictures do not do the view justice- it was breathtaking!!! We also ended up hiking back up to Victoria at 6am. It was quite a workout!!!

My great friend Julie, my wonderful professor Dr. Guevara and I; both with bamboo sticks in hand.

Hiking down the mountain en route to Santa Marta.

We also met an ex-guerrilla member who now unfortunately is suffering from major health problems, like many others. He told us his story of what it was like during the war and how people were being massacred and had to leave for Honduras because of persecution. He also showed us the entrance to an underground hospital. Those who were wounded were brought there. Lives were saved because others risked their lives. The entrance was behind a hut that no one ever checked. The military never found them. His dream is to build a museum (historic sites around the country) so that the people of El Salvador who are not familiar with the history of the war could go to as well as foreigners like us. One of the sites that needs to be restored is pictured below along with other items.

Entrance to the underground hospital (window looking frame that is now blocked).

The tube sticking out on the left is how they were able to breathe underground.

Incredible.

Items from the war that need to be restored, including weaponry.

HUGE piece of a bomb used during the massacres.

HUGE bullets used on people.

You can just imagine what would happen to the human body once it entered.

Many say that the bullets would explode, like a bomb, inside of the body.

Another piece of weaponry

Exaggerated in size to kill humans.

All of the trash collected from the river

The next day in Santa Marta we partnered with their school and cleaned up their river that was polluted with garbage and laundry detergent among other things. This is their drinking water and many go there and wash their clothes on stones along the river. We picked up many bags of garbage and got it cleaned up as best as we could. We weren't able to get the garbage that has sunk to the bottom, but most of it. Community members were encouraged and some even came and helped us. One older woman got knee deep in the water and helped pull out trash that we could not reach. This service really made me think about how blessed we are to have clean water. Many of our bodies of water are also polluted for different reasons, but this country barely has water at all, and the bit they have is heavily polluted with trash and other toxins. A lot of work needs to be done in this country regarding their infrastructure- it desperately needs to be rebuilt in order to have a water filtering/recycling system so that they can have running, clean water all throughout the country. It is so unjust for the government to just sit back and let the people go without clean water.Clean water is life, but as history demonstrates, life is not considered sacred. I know that it would cost billions of dollars, but the government does not appear to have meeting basic needs as a priority.

This country does not have a landfills or anywhere to put their garbage, trash is a huge issue as well. No trash cans anywhere. If I needed throw out a gum wrapper or anything, I had to keep it in my bag until I found a trash can somewhere, most of the time I had to wait until I got to the hotel. The pollution in the air was horrible. So bad, that I lost my voice and suddenly out of nowhere, developed allergies. I even got a rash due to the pollution. I couldn't believe it. I mean I lived in New York City for 15 years, there's lots of air pollution there as well, but sadly its nothing compared to that of El Salvador's.

An older woman who was encouraged to see us cleaning up the river,

jumped right in to help- knee deep in the murky water!

Washing clothes by hand at the river we were cleaning

Julie and I trying to get as much of the garbage

out of the water as we could without falling in

It was a balancing act,

but when we were done, it looked much, much better :)

Typical houses all throughout El Salvador,

but especially in Santa Marta

My host family, Julia and her family, were absolutely wonderful!! They were so welcoming and hospitable. My roommate, Kayla and I stayed with them for a couple of nights. We played with her granddaughters and gave them toys to play with and gifts for Julia as well. I shared pictures of my family with them and thus bonded with them. It helped that I know Spanish and so I was able to interact with them. Their house, what was named, "el palacio-the palace" because it was so big, was very nice compared to the other houses in the area. It is all because of remittances. Her sons who work in the U.S. send her money and thus she is able to support herself and the extended family. Family remittances are important for El Salvador's economy as well as to the families because they are used to meet their most basic needs. Remittance flows to El Salvador are so large that the country completely dollarized its economy in 2001. Although, Julia's house was nice and big, they had no running water at their house. Kayla and I ended up without showers for 2 days so as to not waste their water. Our first night, we brushed our teeth beneath the stars in the front yard with a gallon of water we brought with us. It was quite an experience. They had no toilets, instead outhouses is where you used the bathroom. Basically, a hole in the ground and you had the rusted metal/aluminum slacks as walls with an aluminum door with a metal wire that you would tie to a nail on the other side to hold it closed. It was an out-of-our-comfort-zone experience, but priceless nonetheless!!