My Estanzuelas experience was something that I will always remember!
CIS has a scholarship program that works with students from Estanzuelas. Education in El Salvador is only free until the 9th grade, and students/families must pay for secondary school and university. The scholarship program helps students with these costs, but does not cover them completely. Not enough money exists to help everyone they wish to help, so the process is rather rigorous for receiving the scholarship. A student must have good grades and show commitment to education. In addition, only one child from each family can receive the scholarship.
When we got to the community Friday evening, we met some of the scholarship students and went around in a circle introducing ourselves. We (the Somos Hermanos group) paired up and then picked numbers out of a hat. The university students did the same, and then we matched the numbers to see who would be staying with whom.
I was partnered with Kati, and we stayed with Oscar Alfredo Aviles Alfaro. Oscar is 23 years old. He is on scholarship for a university program where he is studying English. His goal is to become an English teacher in El Salvador. He currently goes to school Monday through Thursday, works at a school teaching English on Fridays (he has to get 500 hours of practical experience before he can graduate), and on Saturdays spends time at Church. On Sunday, he spends time with his family, helping around the house and enjoying their company.
Oscar’s dad is 59. As a result of working long hours in the fields with little water, he now suffers from kidney failure. He travels around 2 hours every 8 days to get to a clinic so he can receive dialysis. Unfortunately, his condition is worsening and he doesn’t have much more time to live. Although it was difficult to understand him, Oscar’s dad loved to talk. He told us stories about anything and everything. His facial expressions when he talked told their own story, even when I couldn’t understand his words. He told us about his experience in the war, his family, his work, El Salvador, etc.
Oscar’s mom is 61. She has birthed 9 children in her lifetime. Oscar is the youngest. She was fairly quiet, but extremely nice, giving us hugs every time we entered and left the house. She prepared our meals for us and made sure we were always comfortable.
Two of Oscar’s cousins live with Oscar’s family. Their names were Flor and Jessica. They didn’t talk much either, but I do know that Flor really loves soccer and plays on a team. Both were in the 6th level of school, although were much older (14 and 16) than what I would consider to be 6th grade.
We were warned that the families would give us their very best, that they would feed us a lot and sacrifice their own comforts for our comfort. This was true. Our dinner that night was a huge plate full of 1/3 beans, 1/3 a HUGE hunk of cheese, and 1/3 crema (which is basically a sweet sour cream/mayo mix). We were also served tortillas. Then, Kati and I made the mistake of mentioning pupusas and how much we like them, so we were also served pupusas. Out of respect, we had to eat it all. I have to admit, eating all of that crema was really difficult. It was also a little weird because Kati and I ate with Oscar, but we never saw the other family members eat.
That night, Kati and I each got our own bed while Flor and Jessica shared one, and Oscar and his mom and dad slept on hammocks. Kati and I tried to convince them we didn’t need that much space, that we could share a bed, but they refused.
The next morning, Oscar took Kati and I on a walk. As we walked, Oscar told us about the trees and plants that we were seeing. It was a beautiful morning and interesting to learn about the plants and places Oscar knew so much about.
When we got back to the house, a HUGE breakfast was waiting for us. My plate was full of eggs, potatoes, a whole fried plantain, beans, and tortillas. Then, Oscar asked us if we liked French bread. We said yes, so he brought us each a huge piece of French bread. Then, his mom insisted that we needed more beans with the bread, so she put more beans on our plates. Then, he asked us if we liked El Salvador sweet bread. We said we had never tried it, so he brought each of us a huge piece of sweet bread too. It was good, but so much food! Out of respect, I did my best to eat it all, but I did end up giving some plantains to Oscar for him to finish.
To get from the center of town to Oscar’s house, we used a pickup truck. The truck was owned by Mercedes’ family, another one of the students. She lived the furthest, so picked us all up along the way, and we piled into the back of the pickup. Riding in the back of a pickup is actually really refreshing.
When we got to the town office, many other scholarship students who weren’t hosting students were there to greet us. We all piled into a covered area in the backyard of the office and participated in a gender workshop. After creating 4 different groups, each of which included a mixture of Somos Hermanos students and scholarship students, we were assigned topics.
The workshop was about gender roles in society and how they are created and how they perpetuate. The four topics we covered were family, religion, school and media. Each group was to talk about the ways these factors influence the roles that men and women take on, and the consequences that result. Then, we had to make skits that depicted each factor.
I was in the family group, and we talked about how traditions are passed down from generation to generation and how children are taught ways to act in the house, ways to treat wives, etc. Our skit involved a father that practically worshiped his sons, while ignoring his daughter. The sons were given money and freedom, and the girl was forced to stay in the house and learn how to cook, clean, etc.
During the workshop, I realized how cool it was that 14 American students who 4 months ago knew very little Spanish, were now talking about gender roles with Spanish speaking students in El Salvador. Granted, I am nowhere near fluent, but the fact that I was able to understand and communicate was so cool!
It was also cool to be talking to a group of students who were so aware of gender roles in their country. Yes, there are still gender roles in the US, but in general, women in the US have more opportunity. In most of Latin America, the culture is still very machismo. Men dominate over women. Slowly, this is changing. I was excited to work with a group of students who were so open to sharing the traditions of their society and not afraid to challenge them.
After the workshop, we had lunch in a group. That afternoon, we walked around the community visiting the houses of students who will be graduating at the end of the year. For them, we brought frames for their diplomas and a bag of rice, sugar, etc. for their families. At each house we visited, we were warmly welcomed into the home. We asked questions and they literally told us everything … hardships, what inspires them, stories about family, etc. I was surprised by how welcoming they were, and how willing they were to talk so openly about their lives.
That evening, after a day of walking around in the hot sun and sweating a lot (plus layers of sunscreen and bugspray), I decided I really should take a bath, or at least try to clean up a little. Each house does not have running water (although there are multiple locations within the community where you collect water) so in order to take a bath you use a bucket and a pila (basically a huge bucket that stores water) to take a bath. It is a little challenging, and the water was freezinggg cold (so much that every time I poured it over my body, I couldn’t help but gasp), but I managed.
Sunday morning we went on another walk. We saw the national bird of El Salvador, which flew away before I could get a picture, and met one of Oscar’s friends on his way to work in the fields. We came home to another enormous breakfast.
At 8:45 we met everyone at the school to play a soccer tournament. We split into teams, girls against boys. Some got really competitive, others pranced around the concrete field. I did my best to play, but we all know my hand/foot/eye coordination is far from stellar. The teams that weren’t playing hung out on the sidewalk, cheering, listening to music, talking. It was a really fun morning!
After lunch, we drove around to other parts of Estanzuelas to deliver more bags and frames. Again, everyone was welcome and although we were hot, sweaty and tired, the experience was great. At around 3, we headed back to San Salvador. We visited Logan in the hospital, and happily learned we could take him home with us.
Back at Happy House, we were all really excited to take real showers. But as I was showering (with wonderfully hot water), I had a weird feeling. There I was, so happy to be back with running water and air conditioning and a new set of clean clothes. But all of the amazing, hard working and inspiring people we got to know in Estanzuelas will never have this option. It was yet another experience that, out of the many I have had these past 5 months, made me realize how much I have and how grateful I will always be for what I have. And as always, motivation to use everything I do have to make a difference as a doctor.
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