Last week I got into a conversation with my neighbor Mary, over the fence.   Since she has a new baby (a surprise) along with her 11 year old daughter, we talked about child-raising.  Oh, it’s old hat for me, she says.  I took care of my brothers since I was very young.  I was 13 [...]

“Only God Can Judge Me” – In English, seen on the back of a Route 12 bus. * There are numerous religious and biblical quotes on buses and private cars in El Salvador.  Some quotes are seen painted on walls or sides of buildings.  As I see them, I’ll jot new ones down for readers.

Colonia Quezaltepeque in Santa Tecla has been without water since the weekend and it’s Thursday now.  A video clip today on Channel 33 (Canal 33) shows people waiting in line with buckets and containers of all sizes to bring home.  Some waited in line for 3 hours.  A woman in line with a small bucket [...]

This is a repost from a fellow blogger’s site about a current case of water theft in Berlin, El Salvador.   << If anyone reading is able to help or intervene with this in some way, then please do. >> Water is a very SCARCE resource in El Salvador because of the annual dry season, which [...]

These photos were taken shortly after 6am on July 13, 2011 in Los Planes de Renderos, San Salvador, El Salvador.  The fog  is typical during rainy season and appears early morning and late afternoon. CLICK on a pic to enlarge: One normally sees clouds flowing over them where they live.  Because we are so high [...]

Until coming here, my idea of cream was the kind you find in the mini-size milk carton in the dairy section of the supermarket.  One of three varieties:  regular, cream, and ‘half and half’ which people use for coffee.  The color of all those creams is a presentable off-white. Many creams in the supers here [...]

It’s that time of year again…now that rainy season is in full swing, signs of life begin to emerge.   We inaugurate the  new “winter” season in El Salvador – which compares more to spring in temperate climates, with plants bursting green everywhere  – with a visit from some friends who emerged from the foliage. I [...]

A plague of flies has fallen upon us.  I wonder if it was like this for the Egyptians during Biblical times.  I blamed the food remains at the front of the house in the AM, but still they kept coming.  As clean as our back patio/kitchen area is kept, there had to be at least [...]

The rain finally came.  We were off on a day trip to Citala, El Salvador, a town near the border of Honduras, when it happened. The last time it rained anywhere near us was in the middle of November, a short storm, while we slept.  For 5 months now, it’s been ‘dry dry dry’.    Not [...]

In parts of El Salvador, a tradition from Indigenous times is fishing with a “Nasa”, or trap.   The Spanish word nasa is used for many types of fish traps.  The one we refer to is made of bamboo, and incorporates rocks and the current as part of the design. A small nasa in a creek.  [...]