Inspired gringos in a foreign land

(Alicia and I at the opening of "La memoria vive", the museum of Suchitoto, on Sunday)

I think the past few days have been pretty full and excellent experiences. Since posting my last blog on Thursday of last week, I took off for San Salvador early Friday morning to visit with Alicia. I had intended to travel with Sister Peggy at 5 am (she teaches Theology to Casa students every Friday), but when I awoke at 4:45 my stomach felt pretty terrible. I had been having some stomach issues the last few days- nothing too serious, just getting adjusted to the diet I think- but on Friday morning I felt like I may have been falling into a more serious illness. Fortunately I felt better after resting for another couple hours and I ended up taking off for San Salvador by myself via bus at 7.

San Salvador was a blast as usual. Alicia and I had some time to catch up and we spent the afternoon with Alicia's students and her CC staff having lunch together, running errands to PriceSmart (unfortunately WalMart exists here too), and just hanging out. We were supposed to take part in a dance lesson Friday night with all of the Casa staff, but unfortunately there were two family deaths on the same day and the directors of the Romero program (composed of the Salvadoran scholarship students) were busy coordinating a community trip out to see the families of the bereaved- Liliana and Efrain.

Instead of attending the dance lesson, Alicia, Guillermo, Betsy and I went over to Kevin and Trena's house (the co-directors of Casa) for a night of relaxation and the tv show "Modern Family". It's very interesting gathering around TV shows in El Salvador- and very necessary I think too. Christy, Korla, Ariel and I have been watching Glee episodes together quite frequently and I have been finding those times together to be a good release from the reality of El Salvador, as well as enjoyable simply because Glee is a tremendous show and our community of volunteers here is just great to spend time with.

So anyway, on Friday I was in San Salvador, and then on Saturday Alicia and I traveled back to Suchitoto together since their staff outing was canceled due to inclement weather predictions. It didn't end up raining too too much, but the outing was to a national park so it wouldn't have been great in the rain and the roads to and from the site could have been treacherous.

Saturday in Suchi was great, although again we had a late start because I started feeling ill in the morning and didn't want to get on a bus until about noon. Fortunately after Saturday morning I haven't felt ill at all so I really think it was just a matter of getting used to more greasy food (and learning that I should probably avoid some of it if I can).

The afternoon in Suchi was wonderful. Alicia was introduced to some of the staff here and we hung out at the skatepark for a little bit. The energy of the Center has been directed toward the opening of the Museum, however, which took place on Sunday. The opening was just spectacular. So many community members came, including the mayor of Suchitoto and the police chief, as well as enough kids and - - - a small interruption: a woman just came into the office (apparently she comes every day) bearing fruit for sale. I bought a couple discs of pineapple. - - - Anyway, many people came to the opening and even though it was raining the spirit of peace that Sister Peggy and so many others have worked so hard to build here was just shining through. The various speeches of the Salvadoran volunteers, the mayor, and Sister Peggy herself, were really hopeful. I was so proud to be in Suchitoto witnessing the opening of this wonderful museum and monument of culture and identity in a place that has been so scarred by violence, and continues to struggle with the realities of hunger and poverty.

(Berti, a director of programs at the Center, delivers some thank-yous and shares some thoughts regarding the museum as Ariel and Sister Peggy look on)

I will upload some pictures from the day, but I think there are more available on the Center's Facebook if anyone is interested. Just search "Centro arte para la paz" on Facebook. I may also open a photobucket account or something eventually so I can share many photos at once. I would like to upload all my pictures from the museum on blogspot but it would take way too long.

(Salvadoran youth performing Frere Jacques on harp for the opening of the museum. These kids took harp lessons at the Center from a local musician and they were really good. I will try to upload my video of their song on the Center's facebook)

Ok, so yesterday was a free day after the big opening of the museum. Alicia took off in the morning because she had morning meanings with her staff in San Salvador. Korla, Ariel and I went for a long and steep walk down to Lake Suchitlan, which was beautiful, and then we spent the afternoon going to the market, making lunch together, and of course watching a little Glee. I swear the intention was to do something productive, and actually by the afternoon I had completed my advertisements for the classes I'll be giving here at the Center.

One of my classes is a simple Yoga session which is intended to provide a space especially to adults in which they can relax and stretch their bodies. I am going to structure it as a guided meditation, emphasizing awareness of breath and body, and I will lead the group in a series of fairly simple stretches and yoga positions. After a while if the group feels comfortable we will probably do more advanced moves, but for now I want to emphasize the all-important process of simply taking the time to slow one's body down, pay attention to breath, and intentionally remove stress by moving the body in relaxing manners. There are already a bunch of people (majority women I believe) signed up for the class so it should be great. We start on Thursday so I am actually going to spend some time after this blog preparing the session and figuring out how best to explain moves in Spanish.

The other class I'll be giving is called "Poesia y Rap", and we'll be doing some interdisciplinary poetry and rap studies and hopefully performing original poetry at a later date along with Ariel's chorus group and Christy's life-stories illustrated class. There are some great things going on here at the Center; I'm really excited to be here and even though the process of figuring out what to do, how to do it, and how to get people to come is somewhat daunting, the fact is that people in Suchitoto need spaces to gather and are open to exploring creative outlets like poetry, yoga, chorus and story-telling. As time goes on and us volunteers get a feel for our respective "talleres" (workshops) and the people of Suchitoto, I am sure we will continue to find ways to bring people together which simultanously allow us to grow as individuals and as inspired gringos living in a foreign land. The Centro arte para la paz is uniquely equipped to nurture this mission, as the museum opening proved, as it is singularly geared toward promoting peace through creative energy and community cooperation. Way to go Sister Peggy and way to go Suchitoto.

Shout out to Mom, Dad, Will, Rose, Chris and Ogg. I love you, and hope you are having great days. Peace,

Alex