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If I had shown you THIS picture, some of you would have gotten it right away.   Funny place to hide a flower, huh?

Another pic of the flower, without flash:

How do I reproduce?

I don’t know where else it’s raining in El Salvador today, but it’s rained good for the second day in a row, and some of us have been real excited about bringing it on.   Just as we were sick and tired of the sop sop drip wet last year, the constant dry, dry, dry, has been getting old.   Dust layers everything, and the once green hills turn a sad brown.
Though this is a tropical climate, some trees are not evergreen so drop their leaves and go dormant for awhile like in a Northern climate – but usually not as long.  We’re less affected by dry-ness at the higher altitude where we live, but in many areas of El Salvador dry season is like a long, hot “winter” — things drying up or looking dead, lying in wait for the rains to return.

The izotes and mangos could care less there is no water, they fare well during dry season, and shine on.  The ones in this picture here do well also, they hardly need water.  But kiss your impatiens goodbye without daily watering. Our poor lawn was toast.  Now we get to live in a green world again, dotted everywhere with flowers and butterflies and spiders like an impressionist painting.

Bonus Quiz << Click Pix at Right for the Answer >>

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Last night, for the third night in a row, the possum walked all the way up the stairs, from the lawn 12 feet below, and up onto the patio, to trot right in front and past me just 5 feet away – he knows I was sitting there.  Very brazen of him, I thought.  “Hey, Dude” I said, standing up, so he trotted faster, and ran the length of the patio and into the neighbor’s yard, just like he’d done the two nights prior.  I wonder if he has a little “spot” in the garden where he sleeps every day.

Speaking of animals, one of the Gringa’s who went to the gring-union at the zoo this past weekend has inspired me to come out with it, since she’s going to start a chicken coup, after the landlord says yes:

“IF YOU DON’T HEAR ROOSTERS WHEN YOU WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIVING AROUND TOO MANY RICH PEOPLE!”

And the big news of the day was:    It rained, ALL DAY.  From mid-morning till mid-afternoon, and pouring for stretches.  We’ve had some rain here and there, those “occasional rains” they were talking about, but there was no mistaking this.  An all day rain session can mean only one thing around here:  Rainy Season in Los Planes de Renderos, El Salvador,  has officially begun.  Hooray!!!   Let the festivities begin.

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Hi all, a famous song called the Carbonero (the coal deliverer) is usually sung in Spanish, cumbia or folk style.  This one here is sung in Nahuatl, and I thought it would be nice to share with you all.

Para los Paisanos Salvadoreños, aca vean y escuchen un video de la cancion El Carbonero, pero cantado en Nahuatl:

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Fer-o-cious doggy. Watch out would-be-thieves, she'll rip the back pocket of your jeans right off!

Ok, so it finally happened.  Something baaad happened to us in our neighborhood.  But fortunately, it was a not-so-bad kinda bad thing.   We got robbed of a few of our possessions, valued at probably $75.  Ok, hubby left the toolbox, drill, and a bucket with tools in plain view, in the garage where everyone can see them through the fence.  So…sometime between Thursday afternoon and Sunday morning, we didn’t notice until today, someone made off with the box, drill, and a couple extension cords.  My husband found “pistas” (evidence) of where they climbed in at the corner of the garage, using pieces of the rebar for footholds and climbed over the barbed wire (if it were razor wire, oh, not sure they would have dared it).  Ok, well, lesson learned.  Husband was very sore about it, but I reminded him that we did invite temptation by leaving those things in plain view, and it could have been a LOT worse.  It was a reminder to count our blessings they didnt make off with the car, or break into the lower part of the house while were were in it, and other blessings, like how we’re not poor and stuck living in El Salvador forever like many people here with no other recourse – where a robbery would be so much more painful, right?    Didn’t quite lift his spirits, but I tried.

Which brings me to my point.  Even though we have just a tiny little chiweeny, if she were here instead of my mother in law’s house, her bark would have scared them off because it’s an instant alarm system.  And that’s why so many people in El Salvador have a dog.  My friend and I are joking right now, imagining this little doggy, ferocious thing, hanging by her teeth off the back of one of the perp’s jeans, while he tries to make off with some of the loot.  And she would do that, too.

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We went to the Fiestas Patronales of Agua Caliente, Chalatenango, El Salvador this past March.  Fiestas Patronales are festivals celebrated in different pueblos salvadoreños in honor of a patron saint.   The Fiestas Patronales remind me of carnival type festivals we had back home called the Field days, with mechanical rides, games, sometimes animals, all mixed in with a lot of drinking around the beer tent.   But there the commonalities stop, and Fiesta Patronales feel like a bigger festival, with their religious orientation, and a crowning of the “Reina,” or Queen, a local teenage girl who  gets crowned pageant style and rides through town in a parade.  Another fun extra part, at least in Agua Caliente, is the rodeo, called a “jaripeo” here, with bull riders, and live entertainers such as singers and dancers.   Here is a link to the schedule of the Fiestas Patronales in El Salvador for 2012, organized by department.

The bull riders are not the most successful, I have to say, and manage to stay on the toro for probably 2 or 3 seconds.  A few years ago, I think 2010, they had a skinny Nicaraguan man as part of the Toro team and he was pretty good – stayed on all of eight seconds almost every time he rode.  We got to the jaripeo a bit later this year so we missed someone who stayed on several seconds.   Below is one of the bull clowns, his name is Juan, and he’s been part of the team every year that I’ve gone – four years now – I was lucky enough to catch the 2009 festival during a visit here.  I think Juan is more talented than a lot of the bull riders, and likes to have fun with the bulls.  << CLICK ON ANY PICTURE IN THIS POST TO ENLARGE >>

Below is  video of part of the jaripeo where young men try to conquer young bulls.

Unusual Surprise
Our visit to the Fiesta Patronal this year had a bit of a surprise.  It started off with a visit to the jaripeo/rodeo.  Then while walking back into town with my niece Carmen, we felt raindrops.  Could this be, on March 18?   Yes, it was, and so we and everyone else around ran for cover under the gazebo in the middle of the town square, all waiting for the rain to stop like a bunch of gallinas (chickens).   Well, that was fun, and when it was done we wandered over to where the rides and food were.  We sat down at the Toro Grande tent to splurge on steak dinners.  They had live entertainment, two men singing Cumbia songs, outfitted with a karaoke machine as their band, with two female dancers accompanying them.  One of them had a skirt so short you could see, and I’m not kidding because I wear daisy dukes myself, pretty much all of her rear-side as she twirled about, which the audience loved.   No sooner did we sit down when we the patter of raindrops began again, and so re-arranged ourselves on the table to avoid the drops on the outside.   Light drops turned into heavy ones, and within 10 minutes upwards of 200 people who had been in the rides and games area were trying to squeeze in under the vinyl for cover.    The rain was now gushing, and streams were starting to fall inside of the tent.  The musicians stopped playing and moved their amps away from the falling wetness.   A pool of water above the seam joining two sheets of vinyl gave, and we looked over to see several people getting doused underneath it in a large waterfall.  One woman was enjoying this waterful experience, and began standing beneath big streams of water, as if showering.  Onlookers stared while she bathed herself gleefully.   She works with the carnival, and seems to be a bit “off”, but hey she was having fun.  We moved earlier to a table further inside the tent to stay dry, but wetness from below was catching up.   The ground, soppy from the earlier rain when we came in, was now full of large puddles, which then grew until they finally formed one large lake, and the water kept on rising as the rain poured down.  People fortunate enough to have chairs raised their legs and lifting their feet to stay dry, and also for safety, as this tent was rigged with various types of lighting, wires strung everywhere. My husband used his plastic dinner fork to measure the water, and it got up to about 5 inches.  On a few occasions the lights went out, then came back on, and I kept thinking of the horrible demise that might occur if the current and water were to meet.   The wait staff continued to serve everyone heroically, a couple of whom were completely soaked.  God bless ‘em.   After at least an hour and a half of constant rain, it began to die down.   Some of the crowd bravely left during the rains, a courageous few running for cars to retrieve their sopping  companions, or locals who could, running home.   The rain finally stopped, and the musicians and dancers resumed their act.   A small group of three men took their places in front to get a good view, and one of them was a macho-dressed and transgender lesbian.   There was a dance later that night as there is every year, but we decided to go home and stay dry.

A couple days later, on the news, they mentioned that “Occasional Rains” were taking place here and there.   Jesus and I laughed together.   OCCASIONAL?    Nothing occasional about the rain spilt on us at the Festival!

WHY do they call it Agua Caliente?    That same night, as we were piling into the car to leave, my husband says to me, “Hey, want to know why it’s called Agua Caliente?”   Come on over here, and I’ll show you.  I walked over behind the car.   All right, stick your hands in there, he says, gesturing to a small creek at our feet.  I crouched down and stuck my hands in it.  Yep.  Hot like bathwater.  And mind you, it had just rained for nearly two hours.    There is a hot water source right there where the festival takes place, and my husband said years back the water used to collect into a small pond, but they filled it in and now what they have is this small creek that runs along this dirt-road area.   What a way to NOT capitalize on a possible tourist attraction.  Hello??   But then, Agua Caliente is a long ways away from just about everything, so you’d have to build up a fairly attractive place to get people to come all this way.

Here's the small creek filled with Agua Caliente, or hot water, where the town gets its name. No volcanos close by, but something is heating this water.

Another picture of the water, with a bull next to it. It used to be a big pond, but they filled it in so they could use the land for other things, and this is what's left of the hot water pond there.

Let the festivities begin!

Some Salvadorans were lucky enough to start their vacation earlier this week, but by Thursday morning most of El Salvador is not working and spending their time between religious festivities and celebrating Semana Santa at the beach, water parks, or relaxing with family and friends.

This week is one of two big “vacation weeks” here in El Salvador, and marks the end of summer, much like how Labor Day weekend does back home, but with serious religious overtones.  Today in downtown San Salvador they had the procession of the  flagellation of Christ.

Thursday at midnight the carpet “weavers” will began making the salt carpets throughout downtown San Salvador, major cities and towns, and even here in Los Planes.  People will walk through morning and evening processions of viascruzes (way of the cross), on Viernes Santo (Good Friday), and continue celebrating over the weekend through Easter.  Happy Easter to all of you freezing your butts up North, we’re having a great time in sunny summer El Salvador, wahoo!

Funeral Companies all over El Salvador are Losing Business!

Photo from ElSalvadorNoticias.net. Click to link out to their site.

Some of you may know this already, but the homicide rate in El Salvador dropped by less than half starting this March.  We went from up to 14 murders a day to around 5, almost overnight.   The drop coincided closely with the movement of 30 gang members from a maximum security prison to minimum security ones with perks like family visits, and included moving key leaders from both the major ‘maras’ (gangs) here – MS 13 and Barrio 18.   El Faro.net published an article on March 14 claiming this was the result of a negotiation between the gangs and the government, from a gang member they interviewed.  This sparked a whirlwind of controversy and a , howevflurry of media activity, including  a writeup in the NY Times. Meanwhile both the government and the gangs deny any negotiations.  Two groups did quickly take credit for the drop in crime:  the church, saying they were having discussions with gangs at the jails, and the police force, who say due to  “improvements in security”, things have dramatically improved.  Even Funes, in a TV spot I saw twice yesterday is proudly announcing the drop in crime due to their good work.   HA HA HA!   It’s good comic relief.

You can read more about this in Tim’s blog, and I’ll get to my point.  Even good news can be bad news for some, and a grave thing is happening:

On the news two days ago, my husband saw them interviewing a member of a funeral business, saying they’ve always had a constant flow of business and now things are suddenly drying up.  My husband was laughing and guffawing, and made me run from the kitchen to see the rest of the news spot.  He thought it would make a good blog entry.  He’s right, and I’ve written it – Thanks, Jesus.   Lemons to make lemonade with have now been halved.  There’s always Guatemala and Honduras, if they want to pack up and move their funeral shop there.

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“I’ll just dress like them, and blend in,” I thought to myself.   That was over two and a half  years now, and I do not ‘blend.’   I can live here twenty more years, and I’ll still be a gringa.    Here are some rules of the road that may help you when visiting (or just moved/moving) to El Salvador, similar to what you’ll read in the Lonely Planet or another travel guide, with color added, for your entertainment.

1. Dress HUMBLE.  Even if you are a Salvadoran or Latino by blood, if you’ve been living outside of El Salvador for a long time, here are some appearance guidelines, which basically follow the phrase ‘DO NOT ADVERTISE MONEY’.

• Leave the gold, fancy watches, and expensive jewelry at home.
  • Example of what not to do.   A girl  at a former job (no, not Habitat), sported a G-OR-geous and large diamond ring.  I had to comment (being “Metida”), ‘Wow, what a nice engagement ring.’  She corrected me: “Oh, it’s a commitment ring, to stay abstinent until I get married,” she said.  Her mother had bought it for her as a birthday gift.  It was a choice between that and a new car.    Theresa (let’s call her that) was a party girl.  Some of us agreed she was probably a bit “spurled” by mummy and daddy – Salvadorans, btw, but she and her brother decided to live here  “on their own” for a year or two * to beef up the C.V with ‘international business’ experience, along with their MBA in the works.  The partying life nearly cost Theresa her job at call centro a couple of times.  Perhaps it caught up with her, because she has since left the call center, and presumably El Salvador.  But the twenty-million dollar question is:  Did she return home with all ten fingers? **

• Clothing:  Avoid pricey name-brands or logos advertising your foreign-ness.  If they’re name brand, but worn out/older, you’re probably OK, as pp here buy 2nd hand American clothing here all the time (Variedades Genesis  has multiple locations.  There are a few used clothing store near the ‘Mercado Central’ including Genesis ).Pants versus shorts– pants first, then check out the scene for shorts.
  • Men:  some guys wear cargo shorts here.   I don’t see ‘golfing’ style much
  • Ladies:  shorts are worn here, shorter ones get whistles.  Bring calf and ankle length pants.
• Tennis Shoes / Sneakers
  • Men:  leave expensive Adidas, Nike, and Air Jordan (or latest $150 craze) where they belong:  at home in your closet, thousands of miles away from El Salvador.  Buy a cheapo pair, and replace them with a standard brand that non-ostentatious people wear here after you arrive.  It’s ok to look ‘cool’ at home, but here looking cool means “come steal my wallet.”  Or the very sneakers you are wearing.  People do wear converse style brand and knock-offs here.
  • Ladies:  it is still not common practice to walk around with “exercise/walking” sneakers as a female in El Salvador unless you’re going to the gym, or wearing the “converse” style that are all the rage.  Anything outside of that usually means, “Hey everyone, I’m NOT FROM HERE!!”
  • Example:   At the Fiestas Patronales recently, it appeared a woman at the next table was ‘visiting.’  Looked like a Salvadoran, as she was among them; who else comes to the boonies in Agua Caliente, Chalatenango?   The shorts she wore were shorter, but fair game for El Salvador.  It was the paper-white legs inside them, along with American style walking sneakers at the bottom (eeeek!  stop sign!) that were a dead give away.  That, along with constant camera-clicking, and taking pix of poor children in the snack area.   I wondered how many years those legs have gone without proper Tropical sunshine to have turned that hue.  My “trigueño“  husband, after having lived in the states for 5 years, had all bus lost his indigenous glow, and was almost (dare we say it) lookin’ like a “white guy.”

2.  Electronic Equipment.   More and more people in El Salvador have access to nicer phones and cameras, but it’s wise to think location, location, location before whipping out electronics.  My husband yelled at me the other day when I took out our five year old camera for a couple quick shots at the Mercado Central.  I was with him, my personal “vigilante” and willing to chance it would get snatched.  Laptops:  people I worked with at my last job would not travel on buses with their laptop, opting for a ride with a relative/friend or a cab.  And they are Salvadoran.  Heed their smart behavior and do the same.  If you absolutely “must” travel with a laptop, be smart and camoflouge it inside a backpack or something.

3. Traveling alone, or in small groups – especially in isolated areas.

Have you ever visited a city back home, wandered away from the “tourist area”, and asked yourself, “Hmm..have I gone too far, is this a good area or a BAD area?”   Don’t do that here.  Common sense at home applies here, too.  We do not do a lot of hiking or sightseeing in parks with few people, but when we went to El Imposible the ranger walked on a trail with us -  the only clients that afternoon, he was all ours!    I literally NEVER hear on TV or radio about tourists getting jumped or accosted here.  I read of one incident on a travel site  a couple years back of a small group of 2-3 people jumped on a trail, so it’s advised to have a park ranger or tourism police walk with you.  Some parks will not allow you to walk alone and you’re obliged to have them as guides.

4. Traveling at night – buses, the country, and the Bronx

Buses at night?   VERY Safe area?  Maybe.  Sketchy/Not sure area?  NO NO NO.  Take a cab.    At call centro where I worked, the company paid for private transportation (mini buses) to take everyone who lived within 30+ minutes of San Salvador, home at the end of shifts ending at night (usually 9pm+) .  People who lived in Santa Ana requested, and got, day shifts because they lived outside of the transport area.

In the “safe” areas of the city of San Salvador, it’s fairly safe to travel at night, in a car.

Driving through the country at night:  if you KNOW where you are driving – the area, the people, and know its safe to drive there, cool beans.   If you do not know what you’re driving through at night, then don’t.   I have traveled from “country” Chalatenango to San Salvador in the dark, but 8pm is my limit  – tomorrow is another day.

Example.  If I wanted to drive from the beach at the Puerto de Libertad to Los Planes, I would see two possible routes on my map.  One starts on route 4, and runs past Santa Tecla and Antiguo Cuscatlan, and the city, and up to Los Planes.   Another starts on route 2, and then takes some lesser “country roads” but looks shorter and might be faster.  As a novice in El Salvador, I decide to take  that route, which runs through both Panchimalco and Rosario de Mora, on the way back  to the hotel I’m staying at in Los Planes de Renderos.  In my naivete, I chose to drive through two very dangerous towns in El Salvador (many gang homicides).   My real self, knowing these towns, would never drive through either one at night.  Years ago, some people would never drive through the Bronx in New York at night (or daytime).  An ex boyfriend from outside NYC, said back in the 1980′s, if your car broke down on the highway there, and you left it to get help, by the time you got back your car would be on blocks, and stripped.   Panchimalco and Rosario de Mora are like THE BRONX IN THE COUNTRY and their gang members are scarier.  Do you want to run into them when your car breaks down at night?

5.  Do not answer unknown numbers ringing your phone or the door for strangers.

Everyone here knows the drill:  don’t answer your phone if you don’t recognize the number.  Back home, this is to avoid telemarketers.  Here, it’s to avoid an extortion threat, someone demanding money or else.  It’s not just “gang” members but any yahoo who thinks they can get away with it.  I cannot say how frequent this is, but it has happened enough where the rule is:  IGNORE UNKNOWN NUMBERS.  A gringo from the call center who’s lived here several years said it happened to him once, he hung up, and nothing happened.  I answer the door to vendors I recognize, usually women, but …(BAD EXAMPLE) I answered the door to a young man who knocked yesterday, who worked on the road crew in our neighborhood recently.  Said his brother was murdered and he was collecting money for his casket.  Now, my husband told me a few days ago that a worker asked him for a dollar when he walked past (said he’d spent his busfare on a drink at lunch), so I figured, same guy, new lie.  The street workers did NOT work yesterday, and this one, who’s not from here was touring around – very discomforting.  I wanted to kick myself for answering the door.  I gave him two dollars and said I hope you’re not lying, and if you or someone else comes knocking on the door again, I will not answer it, and good luck.  My friend from El Salvador laughed when I told him, said it’s one of the ‘stories’ they use.

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* What makes Theresa’s ring-wearing even more odd, is that her brother Michael (let’s call him that) told us a story about something that had happened to them.  It was a presentation we had to do in training, tell the group about a “near-death” or most astonishing experience you’ve had.  Their family (all Salvadoran) came here  for a visit some years back.  Having  just arrived from the airport, and in their relative’s home, a thug entered the house, and demanded everyone get on the floor.  They emerged victorious, a gun and lots of courage were involved, no one died, and everyone lived happily ever after.  And Theresa’s parents let her (or she insisted – ?) leave the U.S. of A sporting that big fat momma diamond ring.  Go figure.

** My husband had a “close ring-call” in August of 2009.  He was on the bus, returning from his English class, in a not-so great area – the “Tiendona.”  A group of 7 gang-members boarded the bus and began ordering people to give it up, wielding knives.  A marero (gang member) held a knife to my husband’s throat and demanded the goods, including his gold wedding ring.  It was too difficult to get off, so the gangmember made threats – like cutting off his finger – and finally came up with a better alternative.  He stuck my husband’s finger in his mouth and yanked off the ring with his teeth.  To this day my husband will not ride the bus in that area.  He’ll walk all the way from the Mercado central up to the street called “5 de Noviembre” to catch a bus heading up to Chalatenango.  Even though the streets there are not ‘that safe’ it makes sense.  On a bus you are a sitting duck – no where to run.  On the street you can run, cross the street, or yell for help.  No more Tiendona drama for my husband.  

Will this happen to YOU?  It’s not August 2009 anymore, and  ‘presumably’ the American and Salvadoran economies have improved, but people get robbed on the bus frequently, so ride with few valuables and split your money in multiple places.

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During your first year in El Salvador, after living through an ever-sunny and always dry 6 months, followed by a rainy, and by the end of it, soppy wet season in rain-forest world, you assume there are only two “seasons” here.  But look beyond the sky and the changing-to-green-and-black colors of your cloth items, out the window and into the trees, onto the ground and what sprouts from it, and you’ll discover there are many seasons here.

Every fruit, tree, and plant has its season, insects all have their ‘time’, even birds and animals behave differently certain periods of the year.

We begin with the Zapote tree in our yard. Recently it was looking sickly – poor thing’s leaves were all spotted and browning.  Then it began sprouting new leaves alongside them, dropped the old spotties almost overnight, and grew the new ones out within days.  An ever-green, unlike the pine needle kind we are akin to.

Foto by jmisael123ct. Click for his flickr page.

AN EXTENSIVE BLOOM
In northern North America, one typically sees trees blooming between March and May, in a short and predictable spring.   Here in El Salvador, “blooming” is extensive and various.   The veranera (buganvilla) – whose name in Spanish is derived from summer (“verano”),  flowers throughout the summer/dry season for many months.  In places like western Chalatenango, which are desert-like in dry season, one sees  toasted pastures, browning plants, dry ground and dust layering itself in your nose.  Just when you think everything is dead, suddenly a veranera appears, serving up a flowering oasis.  In Los Planes, we are fortunate during dry season, and have green vistas year-round.

Foto from LaMujerSinAtributos.blogspot.com. Click this foto to link to her page.

El Salvador has numerous and beautiful flowering trees, and they each have a  moment of glory.   The grand Ceiba sheds its leaves in December, fools you into thinking it has died, and suddenly sprouts leaves and blooms through January;  the Maquilishuat, the Salvadoran national tree, flowers from February to April, and an all time favorite here (though originally from Madagascar), the Tree of Fire (“Arbol del Fuego”) drops its leaves the end of dry season in April, blooms, and is still flowering as rainy season begins.  Here is a nice page showing different trees of El Salvador I ran into.  The only one I’d want to add is the Conacaste, a giant and gorgeous shade-giver.

Just before rainy season, one bird starts to act quirky – the chonte (cenzontle), or Mockingbird, sings a longer and stronger song – my husband says it’s because it is asking God to bring the rain.

After the flurry of flowering activity happens and the seasons transition from dry to wet, the entire world turns green – even in tumbleweed west Chalate where the suegros (in-laws) live.  Plants sprout from every crack and crevice, insects hang off of leaves and petals, and the world awakens.

Check out this book from "MAG" (Ministry of Agriculture and ranching) from 1982!!!
http://books.google.com.sv/books?id=UfEqAAAAYAAJ

CANE, COFFEE, and GRAIN
You don’t have to work in agriculture to notice Sugar Cane “season,” or rather, its harvest, which lasts about four months, usually starting around December.  Giant tractor-trailer size vehicles haul the cane from the field to the mill and are seen everywhere.   Coffee, another important product here, is also harvested in the middle of dry season, but its transport is much less obvious.  More likely, you’ll see a truck packed full of people on their way to or from picking the beans early am or late pm.    These ‘seasons’ are very important to agricultural workers here; many of them get steady work only during “siembra” and “cosecha” (planting and harvesting).  The two biggest grains El Salvador produces are maize (maiz) and red beans (frijoles rojos).   Both are sown at the start of the rains, but have different harvests.   My husband told me beans can be planted twice a year, but in today’s research I learned from this agro book (Perfil del cultivo de frijol en El Salvador / Cristina Choto de Cerna ), a third sowing can happen the tail end of rainy season, using residual humidity or watering to grow.  Last year, after storm 12E flood in October, people talked about doing this.  Maiz only has one season, as far as I know, and is harvested at the end of rainy season, farmers “doubling” the corn stalks to halt their growth.

BUG FRIENDS
Mosquitos (“zancudos”) have a gloriously long season here, buzzing around during summer, dwindling down as the rainy season approaches, and then finally, disappearing as the multiple daily rains wash away their egg-laying work (at least where we live – in other places they may be year-round pets).   The Cicada, known here as a Chicharra or a Cigarra in Spanish, sings for the entire month of march, taking over the sound spectrum with his booming rattle to lure female groupies into his backstage den.  A purple flowering plant most Salvadorans would call “monte” (weed) has been growing for a couple months now in our yard, and once the rains come, I’m hoping the glass butterfly will come land on them.  The rains tend to bring bugs out of hiding.  Spiders spin webs furiously during rainy season; new webs appear after every shower.   This fella, pictured on the right, landed on my shoulder last year while I was in the garden, at the beginning of April – rains had barely begun here – he’s a leaf-backed praying mantis.

SEASON EATS
Fruits galore here, and each one has its “day”.    A couple months ago Jicama was everywhere, then gone.   March marks the season of the Mango – with dozens of varieties here – some are already ripe, but many, including the infamous “Mango Indio” are still green or becoming “sasson” (not green, but not ripe – the sour taste has ebbed).  Jocotes are fully-ripe at the moment, and not far from now we’ll be seeing the famous Anona.   Unlike back home, where you can buy nearly every fruit or vegetable almost year-round, here fruits and vegetables become scarce or disappear when their season wanes, and often too pricey for small vendors to afford.  When pipianes (zucchini) run out, forget it.  Tomatoes that were once 10 or 12 for a dollar are suddenly 3 for 50cents.    One learns to eat in-season vegetables and fruit, and that’s what makes them so enjoyable.  During the short season of the Anona, everyone loves to eat them, and kids climb like monkeys to get the last of the red jocotes.

So when someone says, “Yeah, but I like the FOUR seasons,” comparing a temperate climate to ours, I can be sure to tell them, while we don’t have snow, ice, or frigid cold, we got plenty more than four seasons here.

Yesterday, March 24, 2012, was the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

The text with this picture reads, in my translation to English:

Follow the Savior [Christ] …”The church preaches from the poor and we shall never be ashamed to say: The church of the poor, because Christ wanted to put his cathedral of redemption among the poor.” – Monsenor Romero, December 24, 1978

We went to Metropolitan Cathedral, where Romero’s tomb is located, to pay our respects to this very revered man of El Salvador, yesterday.  New water fountains have been installed in the square in front of the church; children played in them, and one woman even used the water to wash her hands as she passed through.  This is the same church where a mosaic mural installed by artist Fernando Llort many years ago was removed last year, and caused a lot of controversy – before and after pics here in El Faro.net.

Monseñor Romero is a modern day Jesus to the people of El Salvador.  Almost anywhere throughout the country of El Salvador, upon entering someone’s home, you will see a picture of Monseñor Romero hanging on the wall of the living room, or at times, and this is often the case at the homes of people in the country, to see his picture proudly displayed outside, on the front patio/porch area.   He is a hero and human emblem of the struggling poor of El Salvador, and of Latin America.

Every year, Oscar Romero’s followers make a pilgrimage from where he was assassinated, in the chapel of the Divine Providence Hospital in Miramonte, San Salvador, to the Metropolitan Cathedral where his remains now lie.  One church, in the parish of Cristo Salvador, in the Mejicanos neighborhood of San Salvador, makes a special “way of the cross” (viacrucis) in his honor, and the night before his death marches through its 15 stations.

"We must rediscover the profound evangelical truth that we should serve the poor majorities" - Oscar Romero, April 9, 1978

When he first became Archbishop, people suspected Oscar Romero would continue with a conservative approach they had seen him demonstrate until then (and which was a consistent style among religious leaders in El Salvador, to ‘go along with’ the desires of the privileged), but he surprised many by becoming a staunch defender of the poor in the years before his death.  Romero was 62 years old when he was killed by death squads on March 24, 1980.

We entered the Metropolitan Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador) through a door on the left, descended a staircase into the basement, and entered an area where a series of tile mosaic pictures of deceased religious leaders hung up high.

Underneath the mosaic of Oscar Romero was a group of people surrounding his tomb.  Some were kneeling in prayer, some taking pictures, and others read material on and around his tomb.  As people came throughout the day, they left flowers, pictures, notes and messages, as seen here on the right – a note in large letters on orange paper says “No more Militiamen in power” (referring to the appointment of former military leaders to government national security positions).  On another note was written a sarcastic message, supposedly by Funes, apologizing for his recent errors.  A young man, who appeared to be a Salvadoran National visiting the country – they stick out like sore thumbs with expensive Levi jeans and smartphones -  was reading and then taking a picture of the note.  Candles were lit everywhere, and the gathering was peaceful.

A woman was finishing reading an homage to him as we approached, and the crowd applauded.   It was nearly 2pm, and the largest crowds had already come and gone.

Tomb of Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, decorated by visitors with palm leaves, flowers, and notes.	A visitor to the tomb, reading a newspaper article (Diario de Hoy) about his murder. The paper cost 30 cents at that time (.30 of one colon, the old currency. El Salvador began using the U.S. currency in 2001).

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Hi all, overdue on posting election results.  The long and short of it is ARENA came out as the biggest winner, both for seats in the legislative assembly and for mayors in municipalities.   The spread between municipalities (Alcaldías) won by ARENA versus FMLN is striking – see results below.    Both Tim’s El Salvador Blog and Voices from El Salvador offer great election results coverage, so visit their blogs for more detail and analysis.

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY SEATS  – Deputies (think: Senator) – “Diputados”

ARENA won 33 seats
FMLN just behind with 31
GANA won 11 seats
CN winning 6
3 remaining seats were won by CD (1), PES (1), and a coalition of PES/CN (1)
- none of the independent candidates were elected as Deputy (“Diputado”).

MUNICIPALITIES – “Alcaldías” ( Mayors -  “Alcaldes” )  – from ElSalvadornoticias.net

ARENA won 116 municipalities
FMLN won 85
CN  (Concertación Nacional) won 23
GANA (Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional ) won 16
PES (El Partido de la Esperanza) won 4
- 3 municipalities were won by CN in coalition with PES (Partido de la Esperanza).
- 8 municipalities won by FMLN and CD (Cambio Democrático) as a coalition.
- 2 won by PES (Partido de la Esperanza) in coalition with FMLN.
- 1 was won by a coaltion between PES and GANA.

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Here is a journal entry from a walk my husband and I went on April 26, 2010 that describes some of the nature around where his parents live in Chalatenango, El Salvador.

At 10:30am my husband and I went on a nature walk near the house in rural Chalatenango. Right outside our house flying over the now dry creek was a Toragoz. We crawled/stepped through and over many barbed wire fences – no one here minds you walking on their land, everyone knows each other. We stepped aside patches of cow dung, some drying into cow chips. Then reached a well and water feeder for cattle, which was also feeding a swarm of wasps today.   Two guys from the neighborhood were cleaning an area to plant maize later on.

As we walked away, I saw an interesting bird – or so I thought – which turned out to be a huge butterfly.  It is most likely a Blue Morpho.  I found this picture above  on a nice educational website about butterflies, put together by Alyssa Scott at St. Johns Fisher college.  Click on the picture and link to a page showing different types of butterflies her site.

Continuing on our nature walk, Jesus showed me the chontes and chorchas, two types of indigenous birds in El Salvador.

The chorcha is a bright yellow (and sometimes orange-yellow) colored bird I often see here -  it’s in the Oriole family.   Where we live now, they like to hang out in the bamboo trees, and their coloring blends well with the yellowy shade of the bamboo.  They build a peculiar nest. It’s a long, thin slinglike shape, like a pear stretched lengthwise or an upside-down skinny parachute. They often hang the nest over branches, and even power lines. Here is a picture of their nest from a site called HonduBirding.

The chonte is a more average-looking bird, with a gorgeous song.  Chonte is a local word for this bird more commonly known as a cenzontle in Spanish, and in English, it is a mockingbird.

Then we went looking for muta, a vegetable that local people eat, which comes from the new growth in piñales, spikey plants that look like aloe or pineapple bushes (thus, why they are called piñal), but are neither of which – people grow them along the edges of their property as a fence.  People cut out the muta from them, then peel and eat them with lemon and salt.   Everyone else beat us to it, so we’ll have to try more on a different walk tomorrow.

 

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LIVE UPDATES:   Check out Tim’s El Salvador blog, he put a good link up to the Election Commission that shows election  results as they come in,  percentage of ballots counted and percent that remain for each area.   Many ballots are still being counted (10:30 pm Salvadoran time).  Preliminary results are not surprising:  ARENA, coming in highest for both mayor/senators, FMLN in 2nd, and GANA in 3rd – but, they are preliminary!!

UPDATE:   my husband, Jesus, has gone on the 1.5 hour drive back home to post his ballot, wahoo!

Today, March 11, 2012, up to 4.5 million Salvadorans will vote for 84 senators and 262 mayors in a legislative and municipal election.  Nine parties are running (and 5 candidates are independent).

NEW rules:  there is an exciting change in El Salvador with this election.  Up to now, individual voters have not been able to elect individual “Senators” (Diputado is the word in Spanish for representatives in the legislative assembly).  Previously, you had to vote for a “party”, and the party would then choose the Diputado (sounds like an easy way to get re-elected, doesn’t it?).  Well, that’s half changed, because citizens can still vote for a “party,” like before, or they can now vote for individual candidates.  The  media and government have done a great job with instructive ads through all types of media explaining how the new process and ballots work.  I asked my co-worker Nico, at my volunteer job recently, what he thought and he said, “Well, it’s good, but….the choices of who to elect are still BAD!”  We laughed about that.   Same lack of good politician choice, different country.  Here is a funny blog post on something  N. Americans might find bizarre about Salvadoran elections.

Campaign/Media Freeze three days before elections.  On Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 12:00am  there was a “hard stop” on all campaign advertisement.  Here they use the Spanish word “propaganda” to refer to it, which I find rather tickling.  This is to give citizens “time to reflect on who they want to vote for”, according to the Election Commission / TSE (“que la ciudadanía se tome los espacios de tiempo para reflexionar a quién se le dará el voto“).

• Campaigners were making final attempts to lure votes Wednesday night.  A van was driving through our neighborhood with a loudspeaker broadcasting ARENA “propaganda” at 9:30pm.  That may not sound like much to you, but 9:30pm in most parts of El Salvador is fairly late to have a vehicle booming information at you. The van circled past our house a few times with a woman’s voice on the megaphone.
• Media frenzy:  With all the hoopla going on, it almost feels like a presidential election – ads have been going on for months though every media source, and from every angle.  Even back in 2009, several months after Mauricio Funes won the presidential election, ARENA (the opposing party) posted billboards in San Salvador stating the new guys were “Incompetentes” – planning well ahead or feeling aftershocks over their recent loss.  During this campaign, FMLN ran ads with “humble” people, one had an older man in it, and touching piano music.  So ARENA ran an Ad in response, copycatting the cinematography and music, with a similar-looking ‘poblano’ saying why he’s voting for them.  Then this week I was listening to a left-wing radio station.  Funes was making a speech while signing over 1,350 property deeds to Salvadorans in San Isidro en Izalco  (Sonsonate).  Most of the recipients have been working or living on lands tied up in red tape or abandoned for years and without proper titles.  Funes said that during the ‘reign of conservatives & ARENA,’ a total of 34,000 property deeds were granted to Salvadorans over the span of 30 years; he compared this to his current FMLN administration, with just 2.5 years in power, which has already given 24,590.  They plan to increase that  number to 45,000 by year’s end, and by the end of their five years in power, they plan to have signed over 90,000 properties.  I liked hearing these positive statistics but given the well-timed  ‘entrega’ (delivery) of these lands to campesinos – 5 days before elections – hmm… it seemed like a campaign event.   The station played the full speech, lasting an incredibly long time on radio air, and laced with thinly veiled campaign rhetoric so I finally changed the station. 

• We still had propaganda the night before the election in our own neighborhood, despite the ‘hard stop’ – but private, so legal.  Eduardo, who lives on the road down below us and always plays great Cumbia old style Ranchera music on Saturdays, loud enough so we don’t have to play our own (good thing I like his taste in music), dedicated his stereo last night to songs and slogans from the ARENA party.  Did they provide him with a CD to play?, I wonder.   I’m going to give him a citizen citation for emitting propaganda during the moratorium.

•  A “Frente” kind of town:  Los Planes de Renderos, where we live, is presided by a municipality that is currently FMLN run (“El Frente” is a nickname for this party).  Last year, someone(s) posted 3 or 4 large billboard-like signs near the main entrance to Los Planes, with phrases like “20 years of corruption,”  in reference to the ARENA party.  These signs stayed up in clear view for at least 3 months -  on someone’s private and strategically located property.   Eventually, the signs came down, but they gave me a chuckle every time I passed them by.

Election Observers Sighting!   My husband and I worked on his construction job Saturday, and on our way home we saw a police car with its lights flashing ahead of us. We couldn’t figure out who was being ‘pulled over’ until we saw that they were escorting a discreetly unmarked, and very new-looking white bus behind it.  Most buses in El Salvador are either the notorious “Chicken Buses” – rehabbed N. American school buses or minibuses in local fleets, luxury buses for travel between larger cities here, or colorful and always new buses loaded with tourists.  So I asked my  husband, “Do you think that bus has people who came to observe the elections?”  “Definitely,” he said.   At 5:30pm the night before the election, they must have been physically dispersing them throughout the country.  I was thrilled that we (believe we) got to see this ‘in action’ and with a police escort to boot.  (A total of 3,250+ people from within and outside of El Salvador will serve as election observers.  See details below. )

Last but not least:  a 3-day DRY LAW (Ley Seca para las elecciones en El Salvador) began at 12:00am Saturday morning, and lasts through the Tuesday, 12am after election day.  While watching the news late Friday night, my husband announces, “We screwed up, no more alcohol after tonight all weekend!”

The first time I experienced this in El Salvador, I thought, “What?!  The government is playing ‘parent’ with its citizens, treating them like children or teenagers with this dry law, how dare them?  The ACLU would be on TOP of this back home.”  But now, after having spent over 2 years here, I understand that people get very involved and heated in El Salvador regarding their choice of political party (like Eduardo’s ARENA music tracks), so an alcohol free environment in those tense moments right before the election probably prevents numerous fights and all out craziness, or even riots that could erupt when zealots and regular folk are ignited with alcohol.   Here’s how we handled the dry law:  Since people like my husband and I live by the adage that ‘some laws are meant to be broken,’ we of course, tried to get around the dry law to enjoy a few well-deserved beers after a long week of construction work.  We stopped at a Shell gas station and I went in without him, and played the “I’m just a gringa, I can’t vote anyway” card.  The woman said she’d like to, but the scan will show on her receipts, and she’ll get in trouble.  “No problem,” I said.  Then we agreed, that of course, the smaller tiendas can do what they want, they don’t keep receipts or records, or have video cameras.  So we rolled up in the car at the tienda on the way home, and my husband asked for them.  “How many beers do you want?”, she asked.  Bingo!   We got four tall Pilseners and relished our small victory against the ‘dry law’ during elections.

Can Salvadorans living outside of El Salvador vote?  Not yet, unfortunately, but Mauricio Funes has said he wants them to be able to by the 2014 election.   Read more here:  http://www.laprensagrafica.com/departamento-15/noticias/246227-el-salvador-anunciaria-pronto-planes-de-voto-en-el-exterior-.html

Details on Election Observers for March 2012 in El Salvador
Of the 3250+ observers, 1700 are through the Salvadoran Election Commission (Tribunal Supremo Electoral – TSE ), 850 of these are from outside of the country; the Organization of American States (Organización de Estados Americanos – OEA) has sent 23;  68 observers are appointed by the United Nations- from the University for Peace in Costa Rica (la Universidad para la Paz); 200 observers from Europe and Latin America via the Salvadoran Foundation for Local Development and Democracy (la Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Local y la Democracia); and the PDDH (a Salvadoran national agency) is also sending 1,552 national observers.  Various other Salvadoran organizations are also sending hundreds of observers.

Here is a full article about the March 2012 election observers:  http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/internacionales/244500-mas-de-3250-observadores-verificaran-elecciones-manana-salvador