Still in El Salvador (todavia)

Antes de empezar, tenemos que aclararles (creo que el mono pregunto por eso) que las frutas rojas del blog anterior, no son ni mas ni menos que de castanias de caju. A la fruta la llaman maranion, y que tienen un sabor muy particular. Las castanias se hacen en las brasas y quedan riquisimas! Bueno, es dificil de empezar este, sobre todo porque en la ultima semana pasaron muchas cosas. El jueves fuimos con Guillermo a recibir a Mauricio y a Edgardo al aeropuerto. De ahi fuimos a la playa. Al otro dia, Jose con su madre y sobrino, nos vinieron a visitar y pasamos dos dias todos juntos. El domingo volvimos a Santa Tecla porque los muchachos tenian que votar. Fue muy interesante asistir como "observador" a esta jornada historica. Constantemente le deciamos a los ninios (y a nosotros mismos) que estabamos viviendo un momento inigualable e imperdible. Despues que todos terminaron con su derecho civico, fuimos a almorzar con toda la familia. Eramos unas veinte personas. La espera para conocer los resultados fue larga e interminable, pero a los pocos minutos del conteo supimos que el FMLN triunfaria. Esa tarde fuimos a lo de Neto y familia, y luego volvimos a lo de Guillermo donde nos pegamos por un buen rato a la tele. Mas tarde salimos a los festejos con los ninios (grandes), y vivimos en carne propia hasta bien tarde una gran fiesta popular. El lunes dimos vueltas por Santa Tecla, fuimos al mercado, alli entre otras cosas a Mauricio se le ocurrio comprar una piniata. Cuando llegamos el tio (Mauricio) le dijo a Favi en chiste, que era el cumple de Mateo, ella se lo creyo, y en secreto llamo a la madre, quien salio corriendo a comprar una torta de cumpleanios y un regalito. Incluso hicieron la torta personal y escribieron en ella : Talibancito. Asi es como nos conoce todo el mundo! Gracias a Mauricio nos conocen como los Talibanes del Norte. Este gesto fue/es otra muestra de la generosidad de esta gente! Ayer salimos de paseo, fuimos cerca del volcan de Izalco, y seguimos la carretera llamada la Ruta de las Flores. Ni que decir, que comimos en varios pueblitos y varias veces. A la tarde Ariel y Mauricio tomaron un chilate en el pueblito de Juayua (otra comida tipica de aqui), y nos juntamos con Luz y sus ninios donde terminamos el paseo todos juntos en un lindo cafe. Cuando volvimos a la casa Raquel estaba preparando las pupusas mas ricas que comimos en nuestra vida! La verdad es que nos dimos terrible panzada!

Ahora a pensar en nuestra lenta pero segura marcha ... esa va a ser la parte mas dificil (y que se esta volviendo costumbre), el irse y dejar amigos y familia en el camino. Pero si sabemos que siempre hay mas oportunidades para encontrarse, y que tambien hay muchos otros amigos por ver.

Sorry for the long break again, but we have been too lazy to write! Let’s just say that we have been relaxed and busy at the same time. First of all, to clarify: those were not stuffed peppers but actual cashew fruits! The cashew is one of the only fruits where the seed grows on the outside and there is only one per fruit (see photo of them actually growing on the tree). In order to extract the nut from the inside of the hard, ceramic-like shell, you either have to roast them over coals or deep fry them and then hammer them open – it is really a challenge to get them out whole, so that is why whole cashews are so much more expensive than pieces. We continue to eat new things and marvel over the diversity of food here: someone has got to write a dictionary of edible plants and flowers of El Salvador! After a few days of homework for the kids and writing/editing for me, the calm ended on Thursday when we went to the airport to pick up Mauricio and Edgardo, who of course were the last ones to come out of the terminal so we got a good chance to people watch – it is really incredible to think about the number of Salvadorans living in the US: apparently 30% of the economy here is dependant upon remesas, money sent home to family by people working in the US. That is partly why the Arena party has been so successful in the past in using scare tactics, telling people that if the FMLN won they would sever ties to the US (they even threatened that the US government would start deporting people from El Salvador). The next couple of days were filled with family, food, music, walks under the full moon and celebration (despite the law forbidding the sale of alcohol in the days leading up to and of the election) and Jose and his mom even came to visit us at the beach and stayed over night. On Sunday we headed back to Santa Tecla in order to witness the elections first hand. It is truly incredible to be able to be here at such an historic moment in El Salvador’s history, and we enjoyed walking around the polling stations while Mauricio and his family voted. We were impressed by both the organization and the amount of people – it was like a big party, with people selling food and stuff on the streets. There was also very little tension, at least that we could sense, between people wearing the colours of the two parties. Apparently this time the whole process was more transparent and clean than before. Two things that we noticed were that in order to vote you look for your name and photo on a list at your polling station – it was neat to see little kids running around yelling, “look, there’s grandpa!” or “hey, that’s my uncle!” when looking at the photos. Also, when you vote they fingerprint you with indelible ink so that no one can vote more than once, and for days afterwards people carry a mark on their body to show that they voted (in the newspaper we noticed that some businesses even offer discounts if you show your finger, to encourage people to exercise their right to vote). Somehow it makes it all seem more participatory or something….After voting, we all went out for lunch (there were a mountain of us at the table, and 10 of us were kids!) and then over to Mauricio’s oldest brother Neto’s place to watch the results start coming in on TV. There were some nail biting moments, but for the most part it was clear from early on that the FMLN were going to win – what is a bit disappointing is the closeness of the results (51% to 48%). Of course, stories of corrupt polls still abound…. Late that night, there was a huge celebration in the streets and all you could see was red everywhere. Only time will tell how much of a difference the change in government can make, but at the very least the symbolic importance of this victory is astounding and we are truly privileged to be here to experience it. On Monday we spent time hanging out in Santa Tecla, doing some shopping and going to the market (I even made a new green friend!). Mauricio decided, in one of his moments of compulsive shopping, to buy this huge Clifford the big red dog piñata, and when we got it home he joked that it was Mateo’s birthday. Favi thought it was true, and told her mother on the phone, who then bought Mateo a cake and present on her way home from work! So, we all enjoyed eating Mateo’s birthday cake for breakfast the next day (which said “Talibancito” – little Taliban – on it – long story for those of you who don’t already know why we are known as the Talibanes del norte). On Tuesday, after cutting the dreadlocks out of Ariel’s hair (which were looking pretty ratty) we went on an excursion in the westy with Mauricio and Edgardo to the Ruta de Las Flores, a coffee growing area in the west of the country with picturesque little villages in the mountains. It was beautiful and green and cool there, and we had a blast driving around with the side door open so we could film the scenery. We didn’t have a chance to climb any, but everywhere you go here you are surrounded by volcanoes, which is why there are so many earthquakes here (apparently they happen all the time, but we have been lucky so far…) We even had a pupusa-making lesson from Raquel! The next day we headed back to the beach to pick up our stuff and get organized to leave. After stopping by to visit Jose at his mom’s place in San Lorenzo, we are going to prise ourselves away from here (if we can!) and finally head over to see Suzanne and Quique and the kids in Costa Rica – in order to get there we need to cross 3 borders in as many days! It should be interesting, so we’ll keep you posted.