Abril

April was an eventful month. I spent most of the month planting trees in my community, but it wasn’t all work. My community celebrated Fiestas Patronales (Patron Saint Festivals) April 16-21. It was one of the craziest weeks of my life here in El Salv. Not only was there a huge dance/show every night for a week on the streets of my community, but there were carnival rides, a pizza man (I ate pizza for dinner for about a month straight) and about 100 “hermanos lejanos” (aka salvos that live in the states) that came back to visit for the celebration. I got no sleep and was practically deaf by the time the week was over!

I played with my women’s softball team in a tournament one day (we lost) and the rest of my afternoons during fiestas were spent cooking and selling food with Nina Panchita. She’s 70 years old and still involved in every sporting event fundraiser. We had a sponsor from the states that paid for all the food we sold, so everything we made that week in food sales went towards our men’s soccer team and women’s softball team.

At night, everyone got dressed up and headed out to the bailes. I’ve NEVER seen bailes in this country as big as the productions that lined my dirt roads that week. Giant stages, hundreds of speakers, lights everywhere. It was complete insanity for my small, rural community, but when you’ve got community members in the states paying the bills there are apparently no limits to what we could afford.

While fiestas was fun, it was a perfect example of why this country is never going to develop when it relies on remittances from the USA to survive. Money from the states is “free” to the people in my community (and all over the country). They don’t live 10 to a home like their brothers and sisters in the states do to be able to save money to send home. They don’t work three jobs at minimum wage (or lower) to earn a buck. They sit in their hammocks and watch their novellas until it’s time to head to western union to pick up their cash. It’s easy money for those receiving. Our fiestas were funded with this kind of money, and when all was said and done, the weeklong party in my community ended up costing around $15,000. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Meanwhile, we have unpaved roads, are in desperate need of a small bridge on our main road, a tank to store water and there are still some homes in my community that are without water and/or electricity.

The guys from the states came to San Jeronimo last April and asked me why I hadn’t gotten funds from the USA to build a water tank for the water system, or bathrooms for the casa comunal, implying that I wasn’t working hard enough or doing my job in the community. Meanwhile, if they would forgo two or three years of fiestas patronales, all of those projects could be fully funded with the money they raise amongst themselves in the states! It was kind of a slap in the face, but the culture of receiving remittances down here is something that I (and every other PCV) has to come to terms with. It’s something that we constantly fight against when we try to raise money for the small projects we’re able to complete.

I won’t be in my community next year for Fiestas, and while it was fun, I am glad I don’t have to watch all that hard earned money go towards a couple nights of dancing instead of new bathrooms at the school or pipes to the remaining houses that can’t afford to have water.

PS. I danced on stage one night in a competition and to this day, eight months later, I STILL have people coming up to me telling me they saw me dancing during fiestas!