Light footprints

I'm continuing to think about the difference in carbon footprints for people here vs. those who live in the U.S. Here are some of the reasons footprints are lighter here:

1. Houses aren't heated, for obvious reasons.
   
2. Very, very few people (only the rich) have air conditioning.
3. Washing machines are rare; dryers are rarer; sunshine is available almost every day.
4. Most people don't have computers, though everyone has a cell phone.
   
5. Most people don't drive a car, instead taking the bus or piling on to a pickup truck.
6. Most people have never been on an airplane.

The average Salvadoran, because of climate and because of poverty, is contributing far less to global warming than the average North American. Is this the way we should all be living?

And yes, I have the use of a car and a computer, and yes, I fly back to the U.S. a few times a year. It's hard to imagine doing without those comforts, but it's time to begin imagining how I and we might live differently, might leave lighter footprints.

Fresh food

In a recent meeting of a group of Sisters and Associates, we talked about our carbon
footprints and what we might be able to do to reduce them. It’s a conversation I’ve had many times in the United States, but the whole subject looks different when you’re living in El Salvador.

When I lived in the U.S. I sometimes tried to eat locally – one summer I talked some friends into buying a farm share with me and we all drowned in greens. Another summer I decided to buy my vegetables only in the farmer’s market. Very satisfying, but costly!

Here, nothing is easier – or cheaper – than buying vegetables in the mercado, which happens to be in the next block. Tomatoes, onions, beans, broccoli, squash, huisquil (a pear-shaped green vegetable), cauliflower, garlic, cabbage, parsley, cilantro, carrots, and much more are available year-round. Mostly these vegetables come from Guatemala or Honduras, not quite local, but close enough. If you want to buy them at their freshest, you go to the market early in the morning, when the trucks have just come in from the Tiendona, the big wholesale market in San Salvador.

The glorious fruits – plantains, bananas, granadillas, oranges, lemons, watermelon, papaya, mango, coconut, nance, arrayan and many, many more - are more often local, I think. So are the local wild greens, mora and chipilín, ginger root, natural medicines. And the cheeses, eggs, chicken, fish and beef I’d guess come mainly from close by. You buy corn and beans, the staples, in the nearby farm stores.

The other possibility is a supermarket, which in the case of Suchitoto is a 40-minute drive away. The Supers have imported vegetables and fruits – like bell peppers, sweet potatoes, apples – that you can’t get at the mercado.

You’d think with such abundance close at hand (and very reasonably priced, by U.S. standards) Salvadorans would have super-healthy diets – but the other things that are available in the block next door pull in the other direction: potato chips and plantain chips, packaged snack foods, deep-fat-fried goodies, sugary confections. Hamburgers and pizza are beloved. Still, fresh local food is abundant here, and it’s easy to eat right.

Maria, Madre de los Pobres

On the feast day of Mary Magdalene, I visited a San Salvador parish, Maria, Madre de los Pobres, (Mary, Mother of the Poor) with Sister Patti, a Sister of Christian Community from Baltimore who has been coming there every summer for 21 years to work/play with the children (she teaches them to draw clowns) and to visit with families in crisis or in need.

It's a good thing I went with Patti, because I could never have found the church - located at the center of the La Chacra community - on my own. We took three buses and then went in by way of the railroad tracks, which like all railroad tracks here have sprouted a community of rundown houses - built of plastic and lamina, tin sheeting - on both sides of the abandoned rails. Patti walked us down the tracks and then down a narrow lane between houses and suddenly we came to the open gateway to Madre de los Pobres.

The church was the last thing to be built, Patti tells me, because Padre Daniel, the Spanish priest whose vision and energy created Madre de Los Pobres, wanted to be sure the basic needs of the people were served first. What he and the community created, with the help of Spain, Germany and U.S. parishes, is amazing: there's a big day-care center and an elementary school, a library with books and computers, a ludoteca (toy library - a great playroom for the kids) a medical clinic, dental clinic, and eye clinic where glasses are made, a natural medicine store, a social worker, a senior center, a scholarship program - and that's only the parts I can remember.

With all this support, the problems of poverty continue to erode life in the community. Gangs are very present; violent deaths are frequent; families are broken. But because of the church and the hope and presence it offers, there are other possibilities for the families of La Chacra. I met -among many wonderful people - Maria, who's studying to be a teacher and speaks excellent English, and Lucas who's going to be a systems engineer. They are the hope that Maria, Madre de los Pobres, makes possible.

Toma de Posesión

We have a new pastor at Santa Lucia, Padre Carlos Elias Echevarria. He introduced himself to us on Sunday July 11th and invited us all to come to his Toma de Posesión yesterday. The phrase Toma de Posesión is used for inaugurations, investitures, swearing-in ceremonies, and I like it because it's so direct: taking posesssion. Padre Carlos' Toma was a grand occasion, with Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas presiding and a formal reading of the Archbishop's declaration (that's probably not the right word) of him as Pastor with reference to the appropriate statutes in canon law. It was a grand liturgical occasion, and everyone in the packed church seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly. I don't know much about Padre Carlos yet, except that he preaches with passion and conviction, and connects with the people of Suchitoto warmly and easily: that's a very good beginning of his time here.

Thanks!

I recently received a "Blog with Substance" award from Susan Francois, my favorite blogger and fellow Sister of St. Joseph of Peace (thank you, Susan). As a condition of this estimable award, I'm supposed to describe my blogging philosophy in five words (easier said than done, let me tell you):

See
Understand
Love
Act
Write

Of course writing is itself an action, but that string of verbs describes what I hope I'm up to here as I use this blog to share some of my experience of the people and life of El Salvador.

In the midst of danger

In looking through the photos taken during our missions this year I came across this amazing image, a photograph by Mitch Costin of a dove nesting in razor wire.

Razor wire is used all over San Salvador to keep out thieves, and perhaps the dove chose that spot because she would be protected from raptors. There she sits, making a nest in the midst of danger, in the midst of wires that say "keep away," that say "mine, not yours." In the midst of all this danger she is creating new life.

An image of peace creating justice.

Happy 152nd birthday, Suchitoto!

When the big firecrackers went off at 6 AM this morning, I knew something was up, and when I heard the marching band tuning up I remembered - this is Suchitoto's birthday, this sweet town is 152 years old today. I turned out in time to watch the majorettes and bands and marchers with the flag and marchers with school banners and little kids dressed in chicken and alligator costumes parade by the market on their way to the big event in the Plaza Central. The photo is from last year, because our project camera has just stopped working and there's going to be a long pause before a new one is found.

If you're a North American reading this, do you know your city's birthday? Does anyone celebrate it? Why not?

As far as Suchitoto is concerned, it's an important day and a wonderful excuse for a fiesta.