¡Feliz navidad!

Merry Christmas! 

It´s Christmas Eve here, but tonight is the big night of celebration so I will be having my big meal about the same time as you in Australia.

Tonight I´m heading to the house of Edy, the woman who manages the place where I´m living. Here´s a photo of her  in the garden of the house next door to mine. Awesome view...they grow corn in front of their million dollar view and have the house facing the street. ???

A few days ago I had lunch with Edy's extended family. Here's a photo; tortillas and steak were on the menu, along with delicious freshly-made watermelon and mandarin juice. 

I made one of those classic language mistakes during the meal, and I´m sure they now think I´m a total jerk. Edy´s family are all from the capital, San Salvador. We were talking about how peaceful Suchitoto (this town) is, and I meant to say, ¨Yes, it is, but I haven´t been to San Salvador yet.¨ Instead, I got my words a bit messed up and said, ¨Yes, it is, and I will NEVER go to Sal Salvador.¨ Oopsy. 

Rule no 1 for making friends in Central America: don´t insult anyone's patria chica (home-town)...even if they are so crime-ridden that police dealing with gang violence have to wear balaclavas all the time in case gang members identify them and target their families. 

Yesterday I felt good for the first time in a couple of weeks, so I and my Spanish conversation teacher, Marvin, went on a walk down to the lake. He is a passionate bird-watcher, so here is the one-and-only photo of me as a twitcher, and a few photos from the walk.

The Christmas festivities have been ramping up here; last week they had a big parade of all the local beauty queens who each had their own extravagent float. Check this one out - there is a fully-functioning concrete ¨water feature¨ on this float!! 

And here´s a photo of me with my lovely Spanish teacher. After an hour with her I feel like my head is going to explode. She already has a degree in English and is now studying public relations, so she´s really interesting to talk to. 

Feliz Navidad! 

Suchitoto - El Salvador

I've been in suchitoto for a week and am really liking it here. It's a small town of about 20,000 people an hour's drive from the capital city. I can't believe there are that many people living here because the town is so quiet - there is hardly any traffic. I think everyone walks everywhere, except when they have weddings, when they all cram into the back of a truck! (The bride gets to ride up front though...)

Maybe they´re going to be sold at market, or maybe they´re going to a wedding reception. Who knows?

Suchitoto is often called the cultural capital of El Salvador. It has the best preserved colonial architecture, lots of cultural events and is also quite left-wing and very organised. (It was one of the left-wing guerrilla centers during the war.) There are almost no tourists here, but there are a handful of US volunteers here working on different kinds of community projects.

This stencil is painted on the outside of almost every house in town. It says, "In this house we want a life free from violence against women.".

The woman who's living in the same house as me is a volunteer who is here for a year running workshops on non-violence. There's also a beautiful ex-convent next door to where I'm staying which is now a centre for arts and peace. There's a nun who runs the centre and has all kinds of classes there - everything from harp lessons to yoga. I just took this photo yesterday at the opening of a photographic exhibition at the centre.

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The old convent

The gang violence that is such a big part of life in other parts of the country seems to be kept at bay here. You can see that the locals are putting a lot of energy into diverting kids from becoming involved in the gangs.

Unfortunately, this isn't the case in the rest of the country. Last week, I did an interview with Gilles, a Belgian guy who lives in the surf town where I stayed for a month. He and his family run the hotel where I stayed. I interviewed him about his experiences being an immigrant to ES for the travel website I write for. 

Playing with Gilles´CUTE son 

He was telling me that tourists are almost never impacted by the gang warfare, but he has had extortion threats and has had plenty of friends who've been caught up in it in some way. He said that because tourists buy drugs, they are fairly protected from any violence. This is because if tourists are harmed then they will stop coming and the customer base will dry up. So, they aren't targeted. (So, a big shout out to all those dope-loving US surfers who are keeping the rest of us tourists so safe.)

But he said that, particularly for young men here, they are lucky if they don't get caught up in it in some way. He has an 17-year-old nephew who is living with him because he comes from an area of the country where there is a lot of gang activity. The gangs often try to recruit from schools, and the boy's father sent him away because he felt like he could get caught up in it. The boy's mum lives in the US and he hasn't seen her for years because she's there as an illegal immigrant and if she leaves she won't be allowed back into the US! 

Even though the war ended twenty years ago in some way it is still continuing because the war led, in different ways, to the big gang culture here.  This is the sign outside the local Internet cafe. 

What? You can't pack heat while surfing the net!? Weird...

Here are a few photos from the house I'm staying in and around town. I don't think I've ever had such a huge bedroom; this photo shows 1/4 of it. (And, I´m only paying $175 a month!!)

This is the view from the garden next door to my house...not too shabby!!