Since we were doing class work over the weekend, our "weekend" was Monday and Tuesday (this was true every week). On Monday, we all went to Costa del Sol, one of the best beach spots in the country. I couldn't believe how warm the ocean water was! Because it was so warm, it wasn't really very refreshing, but it was fun to play in the waves and build sandcastles and just relax. At the same time, it wasn't fun to discover I had gotten the worst sunburn of my life.
On Thursday, we traveled south to Nueva Esperanza, another resettled community with a difficult but inspiring history. Most of the residents were originally from the department of Chalatenango and had to flee because of the violence and repression during the war. They were able to find refuge in Nicaragua, and lived there for 9 years, learning how to organize themselves. After almost a year-long struggle, they were finally able to return to El Salvador to the place they are located now, and since then they have suffered an earthquake and two floods caused by Hurrican Stan. The floods were caused by damage done to the dike when the dam upstream decided to open their gates and let all the water out at once. Nueva Esperanza is an amazing community -- even more organized than Las Flores. It permeates the air. They have co- op after co-op after co-op (coconut, sugar cane, cashew), sturdy homes, water, electricity, community organizations and activities for youth and cultural memory (e.g music and dance).
Their history, with first-hand accounts, is in a book called "Like Gold in the Fire."
Here's a little anecdote for you about life in the campo: "The first night here, when I went to use the latrine at my host house before going to bed, I took my flashlight. You have to go to the back of the dirt yard, past where the chickens are sleeping in the trees, through a little barbed-wire and stick gate into the area where the cows are, and then up the stairs into the latrine. Well, there were a bunch of sleeping cows back there, and on was laying directly on the other side of the gate, which I had to walk past. Then, when I entered the latrine, I saw cocroaches skittering across the walls away from the light. And on my way back, a cow started grunting and walking toward me. I never used that latrine at night again."
