Pilas and Politics

So, it seemed to be time to post something a little bit more about life here in El Salvador, in addition to all of these Peace Train updates.

A central part of every house here is the pila. A pila is the house water reservoir, with a connected concrete slab used to wash dishes, wash clothes, hands, brush teeth, and store water in case the water gets turned off (or in some parts of the country, their running water is only hooked up one or two days a week so they fill up their reservoirs for the days the don't have running water.) It is VERY useful.



As I said, one of the things pilas are used for is to wash clothes. Most people do not have washing machines (and dryers are even less common -- they use too much gas to run!). In fact, having a washing machine has been used by the government as a marker of income level. At the beginning of this year, the government changed the way they did the gas subsidy. They used to subsidize the companies and all gas "tambores" were sold for about $5. However, in the surrounding countries, they cost $15. So, now the government gives a monthly subsidy of $8.75 to families you do not own more than one house and do not have a washing machine. In many ways, this makes a lot of sense -- it cuts (necessarily) on government spending and on the gas black market. However, it's been a real struggle for many families (especially large ones who use more than one tambor of gas a month) and some have begun to cook in the older way using fire wood in a "stove" like this one.


At any rate... pilas are very useful for washing clothes, and quite the exercise. (Even people who have washing machines tell me that they still wash the things that get really dirty, like socks, by hand because they get them cleaner.) Welcome to a part of my weekly life!

spread the dry dirty shirt out in the pila and get it wet!


roll on soap (both the front and back!)


scrub the shirt using...the shirt! (particularly the armpits!)



Rinse and wring out



Turn inside out and repeat ... and your done!


All that's left is to hang it out to dry!

You say "Good Bye" I say "Hello"

It's a time of transitions at Centro Arte para la Paz. Within in the next week, all of the other volunteers I have spent the last 9 months with will have left. A new volunteer has just arrived. I am sad... and excited for the adventure of these coming months.

At the same time, two weeks ago was our Peace Train Class Graduation. I was so proud of my students, I almost cried ... but instead spent most of the day laughing and smiling so hard it hurt.

It began a little stressful (only three of our kids were there), but ended beautifully. Everyone came but the three that were preparing for their first communion in church the next day. We began marching into the chapel singing "Caminamos en la Paz de Dios" ("We are marching in the Peace of God") which is the song we sing as we swithc stations every day in class. Then we went down the line and each shared "what gives us peace" and "what takes away our peace" and led the parents in our Peace Pledge. The Helpers explained their experience with the class and said they wanted to continue as helpers in the next cycle.


We sang the songs we had learned together (some of the mother's teared up at this point, evidently having heard nearly all of the songs sung at home over the past few months)



gave a little talent show,


and finally presented "Peace Maker" Diplomas to each of our students.


Peggy had Diplomas and thank yous for Ariel and I, and said, among other things, that the Peace Train Class "is the heart of Centro Arte."



When she was done talking, one of the Dads stood up, wanting to thank us. He talked about how much his daughter loved the class and Ariel and I. He talked about how much he trusted us and was grateful for the opportunity we were giving his daughter. Before the graduation, he recommended we give our class in the schools.


It was a beautiful, bittersweet morning. I was bursting -- immensely proud of all we had done together, and sad to say good bye to these students.

Ariel and I spent an entire day last week revamping our syllabus -- tweaking the things that needed to be, and adding some more art projects and English lessons and reformatting the sheet as we begin the work to publish our curriculum. And yesterday, the next cycle of the Peace Train Class began. It was a miracle morning -- the day before only 3 students had signed up. At 9 o'clock, one of the woman from the office took our class list and added 4 more. Decent with 7 students at least. At 2:10, we had 11 students (3 who had signed up and 8 others!), our 2 helpers, 2 mothers, and 2 guests visiting. It was the biggest opening circle we have ever had and felt more than anything like a gift from God. I had been so scared there wouldn't be enough students to actually give the class again, and instead the room was overflowing. And one of our students was in the class last cycle, and even though we are doing nearly the same thing, she wanted to come again.

Hello, Hello! I don't know why you say Good Bye, I say Hello!