May is the month of abundant mangoes. They come in different shapes, colors, etc. and you can eat them ripe, ripe, ripe or green and crunchy with lime, salt and chili. I like them any way they come, as long as they are mangoes.
May is also the month in which we celebrate the mother and women internationally. The past few Tuesdays have been spent with the women’s committee getting prepared for our mother’s day celebration which will take place tomorrow in the youth center. We have continued our basket weaving, learned to make paper flowers and created a big mural with chalk to honor the Salvadoran campesina woman. It says…
“Mujer, campesina, trabajadora, y valiente luchando por un futuro mas justa.”
This translates to … “courageous, working woman from the campo fighting for a more just (presented femininely) future.”
Unfortunately my camera broke last week so I was not able to take digital photos, but I took some pics on my friend Kenny’s manual camera and when I get them developed I’ll try to see about scanning them in.
Speaking of my young friend Kenny Arsenia, I should also mention that the youth have also been very busy preparing artistic numbers which they will present tomorrow in the afternoon. The girls from the dance troop and one other youth, who I’m hoping will get incorporated into the group more permanently, have been teaching me how to dance cumbia and have asked me to perform with them for the celebration. We’ll see how that goes. Hah! Regardless of how silly I might look, I’ve had fun learning, and the culture exchange has been rich, although they continue to ask me to translate Britney Spears songs for them.
Life in the campo continues to challenge, delight and teach me. Yet again, we are with very little water. The rainy season has begun to tease us by pouring at night and spitting in the day and then disappearing all together like it has done all week.
Regardless, “la lucha sigue” as they often say here, “the fight continues.” When I have the chance, I bath by the river, (which is actually more like a stream,) and enjoy the fresh breeze, shade and the huge butterflies that pass by as I wash away the daily dust.
Dust seems to collect on just about everything around here, the leaves, the pila, the dishes. This past blog entry has been sitting unpublished collecting dust as well. So finally, a week later I’m getting my blog up about Mother’s day. The celebration went remarkably well. The teens performed dramatizations of songs they had chosen and in a humorous way presented gender themes and challenges in relationships between the two genders. We raffled off the baskets made by the women’s committee and pinned home made rose buds to every mother who came in. More than 100 people showed up to our celebration and throughout the week, we have continued to hear people rave about the successes of the youth center in Buena Vista. Overall, it felt a huge accomplishment for those in my community as they have often been looked at as outsiders and conspirers by others in the area. But this day, we all forgot our preconceptions and enjoyed ourselves while celebrating the mother, woman and the connection of family and community.
A few pictures from the past week




bili outlining the area of las naranjeras to lay the foundation of our maps of risk.

These little girls give me so much love and affection and keep me very active and happy!


"el treno guineo"