The last few weeks I have been spending my time in meetings, meetings, and more meetings. However, I am finding that for this site, this is part of the development process here. Because of the extreme poverty of this municipality, many NGOs and GOs are here, initiating projects, following up on past projects, and many things are in the works that I had no idea existed here. Lately I have been going to the meetings by the NGO called ADEL that gives money to micro-businesses, with a focus on women´s groups. And because this municipality is forming a women´s association with the hopes of income generation projects (funded by yet a different NGO), ADEL wishes to include Caluco in it´s activities. This means that all the women´s groups in our department are organizing and sharing information on where the markets and fairs are to sell their products and who is selling what. Eventually they hope to create some tourist route that will focus on visits to all the artisan groups in the area. As Caluco has yet to begin to think about some income generation projects for the women´s association, this will most likely happen far in the future.
But, because other projects are going, like the previously mentioned (by yet 2 other NGOs) project with pigs and chickens, the prospects for income generation here are still very good. The canton that started this pig-chicken project last spring has been having problems selling their products, and ADEL has suggested that some of these women with eggs and meat to sell start attending these meetings with me and going to the markets. I hope there is interest here. However, I am finding that as micro-enterprises, for helping women especially, is somewhat glamorized and misconstrued. While they do have the potential to alleviate poverty, at least in the context of this area, and El Salvador, the women´s groups that are having the most success are from women who already have disposable funds, and really aren´t the poorest of the poor. This is likely because these are the women who have time to invest in a big project, have the education to think of a business, and the luxury of making a time (and therefore monetary) investment in something that is slightly precarious and often takes a lot of time to see a payment or results.Furthermore, these women often live in bigger cities with more access to places to sell, whereas the poorest women live in rural areas with unreliable and less money available to spend on transportation. So in the context of Caluco, starting up a women´s micro-business includes many challenges that are often invisible in the big picture of income generation and context matters!
Also, I was able to witness two events that were really exciting personally, since they related to what I focused my studies on in school. The first was a pay day of direct cash payments that happens on one day every two months. People from all over the municipality come to town to receive about 20-40 dollars in cash. Women are the primary recipients, as research and experience has shown they show more responsibilty with the investment of the money. Families that are eligible are based on poverty of course, but mostly on whether the woman is pregnant, how many children under a certain age are in her care. Then, if the children complete the required number of days in school and the required number of medical check-ups over the span of 2 months, they will receive their cash payment. This is a fairly contested method of aid, even by people who live here, and there is really no mechanism to determine ultimately how the money is spent. But the hope is that cash will give them the flexibility to buy those things that aren´t donated or easily accessible, like shoes for kids, medicine, or other supplies.
The other event I got to see was the payment of a food-for-work program. In the 2001 earthquake that devastated El Salvador, a crucial bridge from a canton was destroyed, which made crossing the river very dangerous or impossible in the rainy season. This bridge was recently completed, and the people who worked on the bridge received their salary in the form of food, which was donated by the UN´s World Food Program, through El Salvador´s government agency, the Secretary of Families. This method of development also has it´s pros and cons, but today seeing people recieve huge bags of beans, rice, and oil was truly a magnificent sight.
And each day I learn more about the complexity that is Caluco, but through the tragic stories and frustration with the broken system and extreme poverty, situations like these continue to provide hope for a better future and show that little successes, even with setbacks, are part of the development process.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
El Campo
The last couple of weeks here in Caluco I have had the pleasure of going out to the "campo," or the countryside, just about everyday. Since the majority of the people here in Caluco live in the rural region, I have wanted to go out and visit them, since it is very hard to get to know them since I live in the pueblo. Also, for my own selfish reasons I have been going out to these areas, partly because I just love the rural towns of Caluco. It is cooler, full of beautiful tropical trees and flowers, and the learning about how people make their living is very interesting. Most of the people work in agriculture, whether it is just for their own substinance or they sell their crops as well. Here in Caluco, the crops are not that much different from the rest of the country, although there are some variations. The majority of people harvest maize and beans, and there is also a lot of sugar cane and yuca. In one high area in the hills, some people are still harvesting balsam, which has many medicinal purposes. This is fairly rare, and the process is fascinating; it is kind of like harvesting maple sugar from trees, as the trees are tapped.
Caluco is also rare in that cacao is still around. When the Spanish first came to El Salvador, Caluco was one of the first areas occupied by the conquistadors. At this time, the indigenous were still using cacao seeds or beans as a form of currency. The Spanish took over much of the production, and cacao became a major export in El Salvador. Today, very little cacao is still being harvested, and no one that I know of is growing or harvesting cacao. As a chocolate lover, I would love to see Caluco use their specialty here to make chocolate...
My main reason for going to the campo has been to visit the women who have attended the women´s groups meetings. So far, there has only been one meeting per group (and we have six groups for the 8 little towns). Each of these committees or groups is part of the Women´s Association of the municipality of Caluco. So I have been making house visits to talk to the women about their impressions of the meeting, discuss further what the women´s group is for, and why they want to be a part of the group and what they are interested in doing with the group. I have enjoyed talking with these women, and their families, and am encouraged by the number of people who seem genuinely enthusiatic about organizing themselves to work on projects. It is also nice to explain further to them who I am and why I am here. It is often difficult in a big meeting or passing by someone on the street to explain not only my role in the Peace Corps, but why being here is so important to me. I can only imagine, as so many people here dream about going to the States (or have already tried), how strange it must be to have someone from the States leaving everything to come here. I think I would be baffled as well, if I were in their shoes. In fact, sometimes I still am!
And in the pueblo, it seems like the whole school has now discovered where I live. A while ago I was on my bed reading, and looked up out my one window (about 6 feet of the ground) to see a kid that has scaled the wall and was peeking in at me. Knocks at my door are now normal, and I was just informed today (after being gone yesterday) that a kid was yelling my name in the street until someone came over to tell him I was not home! It is nice to be sought out, but it is also hard to adjust to a culture in which privacy is really not important, or not understood. But it is often quite funny, when these kids tell me they came by to keep me company to make sure I am not sad or lonely. Sometimes you just have to laugh at it all, meanwhile, becoming aware of your own cultural assumptions of "normalcy." I remember in training, numerous people mentioned that the language barrier, while frustrating, will probably not be the source of your biggest challenges; more than likely, it will be the challenges that come cultural barriers that are the most difficult to overcome.
Meanwhile, Spanish continues to be interesting. Today, when I was asking directions for a building and street, numerous people told me they couldn´t understand me. A little later, I was talking with a man who was telling me how great I speak Spanish. What a ride...
Caluco is also rare in that cacao is still around. When the Spanish first came to El Salvador, Caluco was one of the first areas occupied by the conquistadors. At this time, the indigenous were still using cacao seeds or beans as a form of currency. The Spanish took over much of the production, and cacao became a major export in El Salvador. Today, very little cacao is still being harvested, and no one that I know of is growing or harvesting cacao. As a chocolate lover, I would love to see Caluco use their specialty here to make chocolate...
My main reason for going to the campo has been to visit the women who have attended the women´s groups meetings. So far, there has only been one meeting per group (and we have six groups for the 8 little towns). Each of these committees or groups is part of the Women´s Association of the municipality of Caluco. So I have been making house visits to talk to the women about their impressions of the meeting, discuss further what the women´s group is for, and why they want to be a part of the group and what they are interested in doing with the group. I have enjoyed talking with these women, and their families, and am encouraged by the number of people who seem genuinely enthusiatic about organizing themselves to work on projects. It is also nice to explain further to them who I am and why I am here. It is often difficult in a big meeting or passing by someone on the street to explain not only my role in the Peace Corps, but why being here is so important to me. I can only imagine, as so many people here dream about going to the States (or have already tried), how strange it must be to have someone from the States leaving everything to come here. I think I would be baffled as well, if I were in their shoes. In fact, sometimes I still am!
And in the pueblo, it seems like the whole school has now discovered where I live. A while ago I was on my bed reading, and looked up out my one window (about 6 feet of the ground) to see a kid that has scaled the wall and was peeking in at me. Knocks at my door are now normal, and I was just informed today (after being gone yesterday) that a kid was yelling my name in the street until someone came over to tell him I was not home! It is nice to be sought out, but it is also hard to adjust to a culture in which privacy is really not important, or not understood. But it is often quite funny, when these kids tell me they came by to keep me company to make sure I am not sad or lonely. Sometimes you just have to laugh at it all, meanwhile, becoming aware of your own cultural assumptions of "normalcy." I remember in training, numerous people mentioned that the language barrier, while frustrating, will probably not be the source of your biggest challenges; more than likely, it will be the challenges that come cultural barriers that are the most difficult to overcome.
Meanwhile, Spanish continues to be interesting. Today, when I was asking directions for a building and street, numerous people told me they couldn´t understand me. A little later, I was talking with a man who was telling me how great I speak Spanish. What a ride...
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