So it goes
This past weekend we went up to visit some [evangelical] Quaker friends in La Reina. That was lovely, except for the Catholic church 2 doors down feeling entitled to use a loudspeaker system for music, prayers and announcements at 6 AM on Saturday and 5 AM on Sunday. Alicia and Daniel took us to this town in Guatemala called Esquipulas which is famous for having a gorgeous colonial church and a black Jesus figure. I took about a hundred pictures. You think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not.
Today we finally had a meeting with all the women to tell them what we wanted to do, and figure out a rough schedule. This is coming with 5 working days before Ruby leaves, but that’s how it is. By the way, I want to say something before I continue. I know I said I would put pictures up, but I think that probably won’t happen until I get home in a week and a half. I keep forgetting to bring my flash drive to the cyber cafe.
Anyway, we got a fair amount done today. I scanned about 15 pictures, and Ruby spent some time asking Alicia about them. I don’t know what Alicia told her because I was listening to Cloud Cult, but Ruby took a lot of notes, so we’re set. We also finished asking clarifying questions on the last transcription we have down here, so we’ve done as much as we can on that front. The next step is to reprint them (not sure where that will happen) and then go over what is okay to publish and what isn’t. For example, regarding one woman’s capture, they’ve told us that it’s okay to publish that the military was looking for a relative of hers, and when they couldn’t find that relative they took her instead; however, even though they told us the specifics of this incident, we’re not supposed to go into more detail in the book. I think we should spend some time talking to them about the situation today and how to protect them, because that’s the kind of thing that wouldn’t have occurred to me if Alicia hadn’t said, “But you’re not going to put that in the book, right?”
In other words, progress is slow, but existent. Tomorrow we’re doing an interview and making pupusas, and Thursday I think we’re going to a church that housed a refuge during the war with hopes that someone will still be there who was there in those days. We’re also going to go to the monument for the disappeared and assasinated. We visited it 2 years ago, but they’ve come much closer to completing it since then. Money is always a hang up.
Next weekend we’re going to Suchitoto, this lovely town in the northish of El Salvador. We’ll get to see Alex and also Alvaro, who was Ruby’s teacher at CIS (Center for Exchange and Solidarity) and also works for an organization called Seeds of Learning. He’s responsible for leading delagations of North Americans who come down to help build schools and learn about El Salvador.
One more thing before I go– we moved on Sunday to stay for the rest of the time with Flor and her 2 kids (Antony, 11, and Johana, 19), with whom we stayed last year. The highlight of this transition has been that they have a very very cute 7 month Boxer pup (who I think is also part Dalmatian), and I’m so happy about that. For those of you who haven’t been around me lately, I’m dying to get out of school and live somewhere I can have a puppy. So I’m very content to have one to buy chew toys for and play tug-o-war with and teach the meaning of “suelta!” (“drop it!”) to. Yes, I know that was bad grammar. Hush.
Until next time.