La Realidad

¡Hola Amigos!
Most of our house visits so far in Mariona have been to homes where the families live simply, but are not incredible poor. Most people we have visited make enough money to meet their basic needs. On Wednesday, though, that changed. We went to San Francisco (a zone in Mariona) to the home of three of our English students- Samuel, Gabby, and Eduardo. Rosa, who worked with us in the cooperative and recently immigrated to Spain also lived in this home. When we entered the home we were greeted by a cloud of black smoke from the huge vat of tortillas hanging over a fire. The house was small, only three tiny bedrooms for about 16 people. Flies were everywhere and the whole house felt like an oven. We sat down to talk with the grandparents. They explained that they are originally from the campo and made a living by farming. Once the war broke out, they became refugees and were forced into the city where they had no land and no money. As farmers, it was hard to find work in a city setting. They couple had 8 children (one died when he was a baby). Rosa and her brother are both in Spain because they couldn’t find any work in El Salvador. Immigrating to Europe is much easier than immigrating to the U.S. It costs between $6,000-$8,000 to just get to the U.S. border from El Salvador. So Rosa didn’t have a husband and she left her two small children with her 21 year old sister when she went to Spain. According to her parents she is still looking for a job in Spain. The father of the three children in our English class was a taxi driver and was killed two years ago. Their mother works two jobs and is a little irresponsible so they kids live with their grandparents. They also have an older sister who has some mental problems and can’t go to school or work. A few other children and grandchildren live in the house who we didn’t meet. The only source of income for the family is the tortilla business. The situation was so sad. We’re trying to convince our casa to buy tortillas from this family to help them out a little.

Thursday in Praxis class, Rick Jones, the director of CRS spoke to our class. He gave us some interesting statistics about El Salvador. El Salvador is the second most deforested country after Haiti. Because of this, clean drinking water is scarce and diarrhea is the biggest killer of children. El Salvador is the second most violent country next to Iraq, and the police force is responsible for many human rights violations. 1.5-2 million Salvadorians have migrated to the U.S. in order to find jobs. A country cannot develop without food security and El Salvador imports 75% of its produce meaning the people cannot sustain themselves without relying on other countries. 48% of the country’s wealth is owned by 6-8 families and 98% of money coming into the country goes back out to pay off loans.

Paz,
Stephanie