On Monday afternoon I decided to cook a nice, fresh “Sopa de Chipilin” – soup of Chipliin, which is a leafy vegetable here in El Salvador.  The vendor lady came by in the morning, and the bunch (manojo) of chipilin was so inviting, I couldn’t resist. I’ve never cooked Chipilin soup before, but had a [...]

It was a regular day in our neighborhood and house today.  After morning coffee I charged full speed ahead on a two hour cleaning whirlwind.  After sweeping every floor in the house, ‘our’ side and the in-laws side, I mopped our front ceramic patio, then dug out some items for the laundry, when I was [...]

This was a diary entry from March 30, 2010 when I was living out in the country with my husband and the in-laws.   Much has changed since then, as we now live 20 minutes to the south of San Salvador on our own, in what I would practically call the Enchanted Forest.  I thought I [...]

A few weeks ago, a friend who sells tortillas for a living complained that a quintal (100 lb bag) of maize went from $16 in January to now $36 .   The maize and propane gas to cook it with are her main material costs.   She buys 1-2 bags a week. June 2011 newspapers report a [...]

“One Nation, Two Economies” is a phrase that’s been tossed about prior to and during the recession (still going ON by the way, don’t let anyone fool you), and recently in a February 2011 article by Rainer Rupp on how the ‘recovery’ merely funneled up to gamblers on Wall Street. While Americans enjoyed at least [...]

I’m not going to repeat the entire story, others have done a fine job explaining the situation, and reasons postulated for why Mauricio Funes appears to have LOST HIS MIND regarding his behavior in signing Decree 743 into law a little over a week ago. Two articles present good background and detail: Luterano blogspot: broad-opposition-to-decree-743.html [...]