The needs and problems plaguing El Salvador

This year has been a huge learning curve for me!  In order to be more effective as a therapist, I've spent a lot of time learning about the history of El Salvador and the social problems plaguing the country.  And it is a lot.

When I first started working with the kids here, I noticed that they were not just dealing with their traumas, but that it appeared that they had learned behaviors from their families for how to survive.  Their parents, who grew up in the civil war (1979-1992),  and learned how to be adults and how to live during this time.  They taught their kids how to live as trauma survivors and have passed down these behaviors.  This has led me to reading all about the physical traits passed down genetically from trauma survivors which I have found quite illuminating in the struggles that these kids live under.

The war created a culture of suspicion.  There is no trust.  (This is also an attribute of trauma survivors). 

Lack of education, nutrition and growing up under abuse and trauma have changed brain development in the poor areas of the country.  This has left a lot of the population without the capacity to think about possible solutions and changes to their lives.  Helping and healing is slow because you have to teach and build the basic resources needed for this process.  And I have had to learn how to teach these skills at a basic level I did not even realize had to be taught.

People do not share that they have been raped because it is expected.  "Why would you complain, that happens to everyone?" is a normal response.

Here is information I've excerpted from a press release from Unicef last month:

"child malnutrition still affects more than 20% of children.

One of the biggest challenges that the new government should take is the right to comprehensive protection , which has been hit hard as a result of the culture of violence affecting children and adolescents in the country. A recent report by UNICEF at mundial1 El Salvador ranks ahead of countries with higher homicide rates against children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 in the world , with 27 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Guatemala ( 22 ) and Venezuela ( 20 ) . homicide is also the leading cause of death among adolescent boys. Furthermore, estimated that 43 percent of sixth grade students have experienced some form of bullying (theft , insults, threats or physical aggression ) and that 16 percent have been physically assaulted in their schools.

Nearly 94 % of sexual assaults were committed against girls and adolescents and 7 out of 10 children and adolescents suffer from some form of violence at home.  Furthermore, in El Salvador , 33 percent of adolescents between 15 and 19 years report having experienced physical , sexual or emotional violence by their parents, And each hour three teenagers give birth .

In urban areas , 47 percent of teens enrolled in school, whereas in rural areas barely 27% . Some obstacles to

guarantee of this right are insecurity , gaps in infrastructure , low teaching quality , low consideration of the relevance of education and lack of family income."

UNICEF has done a lot in the country to attempt to help with child protection.  Unfortunately, some of  the implementation of their protections have backfired.  A few years ago, the laws regarding child protection were completely changed.  At the core, the message was that each child has a right to be with their families and that the best place for a child was with their natural family.

In theory that is awesome.  In practice, there are great discrepancies.  Children have been removed from institutions and placed back with their abusive families.  There are examples of babies being thrown in the trash by a mother and then given back to the same mother 3 months later, and the baby dies.  I've seen the damage of this with kids I work with.  One child has been court ordered to visit her home every other weekend (with the goal that she will move back when her mom is more stable to take her).  This child spends the weeks in fear of the abuse she will receive on the weekends.  And also hates the orphanage that keeps her safe because she does not understand they do not have a choice in her not visiting her abusive home.  It is heartbreaking.

But where there is great need, there are great opportunities to help!

I got my visa!

Exciting news!  I received my visa this week.  And. . .almost as exciting, we have internet in my house again!  Ok, not quite equal footing, but both are lovely.  (kind of makes me think of the facebook post I saw last week about analogies that actual high schoolers have used, including this one: "The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM."

After 10 months of gathering documents and going through a bit of a torturous process, I got a 1 year residency visa. Thanks to all who I asked for favors and helped me out in this!!!

Establishing that I have permission to stay here longer is helpful in planning for the future in my therapy work.  It not only helps in the orphanage, womens shelter and school, but also a new project i'm starting that will be a training conference for care-givers for other childrens homes.  I'm a bit overwhelmed with how to settle my ideas now that they are free to roam!!!

a true gift

This month has been an interesting one.  I've faced a lot (and I mean a LOT) of new challenges this month.  But I've also been a part of some amazing changes too.

Yesterday, I was at the women's shelter, and I am constantly in awe of how these young women are changing and growing.  It has been an honor to be able to walk beside them as they grow and heal.  They are facing their fears (which I can't share any because, besides breaking confidentiality, some of those are real and pose real threats to their safety) with a bravery that I've rarely seen.  These women are not the same women I met a year ago.  They have been fighting to no longer be held hostage to their fears and abuse, and it is amazing to see.

I am so blessed that they have allowed me an honest glimpse of their journey.

The gecko incident

This is too good not to share!!!  I've been giggling over the memory for the the past 3 days.  I only wish I had the great story telling abilities that Kramer, Newman and Seinfeld had as they shared about the Magic Loogi.

So we're all watching TV, and a gecko is on the ceiling chasing after a moth.  This was unusual because 1) normally the geckos stay within 6 inches of the windows to capture food or run from another gecko it's fighting with 2) They tend to stay on the walls instead of the ceiling - i might see one on the ceiling once every other month but still near the walls and near corners 3) normally they eat small bugs like gnats and mosquitos (yay!!!)

To set the scene:  There are 4 of us, me, Roxana, Michele & Freddy.  Michele and Fredy are on the couch, and Roxana is in a chair to the left of the couch and I am in a chair to  the right of the couch.  The gecko is spotted on the ceiling first in the middle of the room near the light but really runs about on the whole ceiling.  We spent a couple minutes watching this adventure.  At some point Michele asked if it would fall and Roxana said that geckos can't fall.

Then the moth landed on the ceiling beam above Michele's seat.  The gecko slowly made it's way over and Fredy returned to watching TV but the rest of us girls watched intently.  I couldn't wait to see if this little gecko would really eat this moth!  After it got about 2 inches away, it made it's move and ate it instantly!  I was so excited!  And then about 2 seconds later it fell!!!!

I see it flying over Michele and from my angle I can't see where it hit her, but I assume her arm because next Michele is yelling and flings her arm to the left towards Fredy.  Then Fredy starts yelling and she's checking his head.  I assume the gecko has been flung on his head but then he starts swatting at his stomach and I am searching to find where this gecko has ended up!!!!

Turns out, the gecko never hit Michele.  It hit the floor just to the right of the couch.  We couldn't find it and I checked for blood so I assumed it was ok since it disappeared so quickly and there was no blood on the floor. But it fell 8 feet!!! Michele yelled in fright and Fredy yelled because Michele's hot tea was spilt all on his stomach.  I think he might still be angry about this.  But the rest of us are still laughing!!!

About 30 minutes later the gecko made a return appearance on the ceiling and I was relieved to know that all is well :)

Watching geckos is my favorite!

overdue update

Hello, my long lost friends!

So, I've offically hit the 2 month gap for updating here.

April was both great and terrible.  I spent a lot of the month not feeling well.  My back was quite angry at me for the months of chiropractic neglect (especially after a 20 hour bus ride to costa rica each way).  I got desperate and took a chance on a chiropractor here (something that terrified me), but he's actually pretty great.  He studied in the states, which helped me get over my fear of finding a chiropractor here.  And I also got a terrible cold that kept me in bed for a few days.

We had semana santa in April and so it was a week of vacation and I went on a trip to the eastern part of the country for a couple days.  I went with the families of 2 of the teachers from the school where I teach english.  It was wonderful and relaxing (and then I spent the rest of my vacation week in bed sick).

And I after I recovered from being sick, I ended up with crisis after crisis at the orphanage and women's shelter.  And with only a month left of school, the kids have been crazy too.  I've done more disciplining than teaching several days this month!  That's made May crazy too.  It settled down a bit last week and this week has been calm so far (busy, but calm).  I've also had some exciting progress going on to.  The most exciting and significant is that I've been a part of creating a new therapy program at the orphanage.  There's been some processes adapted that have made the program less effective than it could be, so everyone was frustrated and wanting change - but not telling anyone they thought so.  As a newcomer learning about the program, I had the same frustrations and when asking everyone how they thought the program was, discovered every single person didn't like how it was set up, but all thought everyone else needed it that way.  So. . .we're changing that now!  We've developed a new program and have started implimenting it.  And though I know everyone wants change - it doesn't mean it's easy.  So, my next project there is to work on making the implementation go smoothly.  Easy, right?

That's my update.  I've been exhausted - both good and bad.  And I'm not quite ready to realize I only have 6 weeks left here.

Picture Day!

I started taking pictures around the city just to give an idea of what it looks like around where i live.  But first, here's a picture of the pineapple tree i bought today!!!  (only $5)

I live near the San Salvador volcano.  It's perfect to use for directions to know if i'm driving in the right direction and going towards or away from my house!  The first picture is about 3 blocks from my house

I took several pics from my car driving through the city.  My windows are tinted, so some will look hazier than others

and last week i had a day off and wasnt far from this beautiful place.  It's the dry season, but you can imagine how beautiful it looks when everything is green.  This is about an hour from where i live.  it's called la Puerta del Diable (the devil's gate)  It's named from a legend about an evil man who escaped into these mountains

Costa Rica

Well, I've had a busy couple of weeks.
A couple of weeks ago I had a busy week trying to prepare everything before going to Costa Rica and also trying to do some fun legal stuff for living here for the year.  In addition, the director from the women's shelter I volunteer at was here with a group for the week.  A lot of great experiences, but I started my week into going to Costa Rica tired.

My permission to stay in El Salvador is as a tourist for 90 days.  So, every 90 days I have to leave the country in order to re-enter and get another 90 days.  Unfortunately this is complicated because there is an agreement between the countries surrounding El Salvador.  Guatemala, Honduras & Nicoragua have an agreement that a tourist visa for one of the 4 countries is good for all of them.  So I can use my tourist visa to go to Guatemala without having to pay for a new visa and without having to pay again upon returning.  I love this.  But unfortuntaley, if I want to renew my 90 days, i have to travel far to leave all 4 countries to return for a new 90 day visit.  So, I took an 18 hour bus ride to Costa Rica.  It leaves at 3 am and arrives at 10pm give or take an hour.

We arrived in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica and stayed with a family there (they work with the church here in El Salvador and I have met them a couple times over the past several years).  We spent a day enjoying the city, the downtown market, and then the following day took a 4 hour bus ride to La Fortuna.  La Fortuna is a tourist town that is built on the side of the volcano Arenal.  Arenal is the 2nd most active volcano in the world.  On a clear night, you can see the lava flowing from the volcano and it sounds like thunder.  Here's a picture of our hostel next to the volcano (the volcano is covered by a lot of clouds, but it directly straight from the road) and the volcano from the hike we took:

And after the hike we enjoyed the hot springs that are the best benefit ever from being near an active volcano!  We tried to capture the picture of the waterfall behind us. . .but there wasn't quite enough light to get a good picture

We enjoyed the cute little tourist town

Then we enjoyed another day in San Jose before heading back (on another long bus ride).  Costa Rica is known for its protection and value of it's land.  I loved that in Downtown San Jose, even the paintings on the wall showed this value as the elephants recycle :)

I had a great trip, but I was glad to be back in my bed after a long bus ride (which the man behind me kept kicking my seat so i couldn't sleep) and my chair was broken, and i was in a terrible position to see the TV for the movies playing.  Those factors certainly make 18 hours feel a lot longer!!  But after a shower and a good nights sleep, i'm feeling much better.  

Well, time to get ready and head out to the women's shelter!