Life in the Campo: A New Change of Pace

This past week I spent the week in the campo staying with a family I had never met. All of us students were divided up into 3 different communities and placed in different houses with another student. Nate and I stayed with a family in Carasque in the North of El Salvador very close to the Honduran border. The family consisted of Froilan and Fidalina, a few of their sons and their granddaughter Kenia. Life in Carasque is so different from life in Antiguo Cuscatlan (where we live) and completely different from life in the US. Carasque has a lot of history; it’s located high up in the mountains and was a main battle ground during the war. Today there is electricity but it has a tendency to go out quite frequently, they have a pump that brings water to the pila but there is no running water indoors. For this reason there is no indoor shower or bathroom. Showers were taken outside behind a tarp and using a hose and the toilet was a walk through the backyard to a little outhouse. The houses are 2 stone walled rooms with tin and tarp roofs. There are chickens everywhere and we slept with bats and rats every night. People are poor but it doesn’t really bother them, it is simply the way of life they have always known.

The table where we spent the majority of our time

Our backyard at our house

This past week was Semana Patronal, a week honoring the patron saint of the town St. Francis of Assisi. There were festivities all week including fútbol games, church services, dances, and weird parades where people danced around with masks. We ate pan and coffee made from corn outside the casa comunal, we danced to Lady Gaga and Elvis with 14 year old boys and 70 year old women, we sang songs of hope and struggle, “ate” tamales made from questionable chicken parts, and trotted up and down a very steep hill in the dark and pouring rain. Overall the week was an adventure. The festivities really gave us a chance to see the strong bonds that exist in the community as well as showed us some of the problems the people of Carasque are faced with everyday.

Partido de Fútbol

Fiestas patronales

Beautiful view of Honduras during our hike

Life in Carasque today’s is very much influenced by the war that took place, the guerillas that organized in the area, and the many many people that were lost during the war. Carasque is definitely an FMLN town. Everywhere you look there are red flags flying, people wearing FMLN shirts, and pictures of Funes. During the war the campesinos of Carasque began to organize, many joining the guerillas in order to fight for their rights. I had the privilege of staying with Froilan, one of the 6 men that formed the directivo in Carasque in 1982 in order to defend his people. Froilan may not look like the strongest man; he is maybe 4 foot 9, 77 years old, and only has a few teeth left but he is one of the strongest men I have ever met. Froilan likes to talk, he could probably tell stories for the rest of his life and I would gladly listen. He only completed 2^nd grade before he quit school to work for his family but he probably knows more about the world than someone who has spent their entire life studying. Froilan has an opinion about everything, an opinion he’s not afraid to share but at the same time he never tries to force it upon you or make you think a certain way. Froilan would ask me really tough questions about politics, history, the idea of marriage, and so much more. He could tell I had things to say and he wanted to make sure I got a chance to say them. He challenged me to think about what I am doing with my life and inspired me to do more. 

Mi familia: Fidalina, Armando, Nate (Paco), Froilan, Me and Kenia