As Ashley has mentioned, we had the special opportunity to tour the processing plant for Oro coffee because of Jaime's Dad's connections. Besides sampling some delicious coffee, we learned about the dark side of Starbucks coffee. Rainforest Alliance, part of their coffee growing co-op, no longer deals directly with Starbucks because they would buy up all of the best beans, leaving the lesser quality coffee for other buyers, which meant a bad rep for Oro. Starbucks also required that workers go through an elaborate and expensive training process to work for them, without compensating fairly. Another thing to put things in perspective is comparative prices of coffee; here in El Salvador, you can buy a pound of excellent quality for around $4, which is what you have to spend for a tall Frappuccino at Starbucks that pales in comparison for the rich flavors El Salvadoran coffee packs in their cups. This was a stressful revelation for my favorite traveling owl companion, Professor Wilson, who was "born" at a Tallahassee Starbucks (see photo below). I share him with my friend Connie; whenever one of us goes somewhere new and exciting, we bring him with us to take photos, and we put stamps of the places he has been in his little book. Think of it as a cuter version of "traveling pants." He's been skydiving, roamed Europe and New York City, and now he is getting a taste of El Salvadoran culture!
I think one of my favorite experiences of the weekend was visiting the national park in Juayua. On the one hand, it was a relaxing pause from the constant movement happening during the trip. Jaime picked out a special rock and we made clay masks in the sun! However, it was also an important learning experience. I have to admit, I was absolutely appalled at how much trash there was scattered on the ground next to the waterfall (and all over the base of a larger waterfall you can't walk to) and on the trails. Plastic water bags (water can come in little blue baggies for 10 cents, which is a bargain but a major contributor to trash in El Salvador), chip bags, soda bottles, styrofoam, dirty diapers (ugh! the worst!) and much more. In certain areas, the trash was multiple layers deep. This was an entirely new kind of culture shock for me. In the United States, if you litter in a National Park like Yosemite or Yellowstone, not only are you fined big time, but it is highly frowned upon, by the park rangers and your peers. Here, people just don't care, and there is no type of law enforcement to stop it, or a system of waste management to monitor it. It is not uncommon to see people on public transportation throw wrappers out the windows, or trash lining streets. Our group took it upon ourselves to try and clean as much of it as could fit in a giant black trashbag on the way back. There were people walking to and from the falls that were stunned and confused. Some people asked where we were from and what we were doing, and when Jaime told them we were from the US, they couldn't believe we were trying to clean their country's park. A few thanked us, and even helped us pick up a few pieces of trash on the way back! Guilt can be a powerful motivator, although at times a temporary one. Still, I think our efforts were successful just by planting that mental seed in some people's minds that it is important to take care of El Salvador. I never realized fully until that day how much waste is a problem here, but it is not just an environmental issue. It is also a form of a social problem that deserves more attention; in their culture people are not held responsible for keeping their towns and parks clean.
Another surprising aspect of El Salvadoran culture has to do with dogs. It doesn't take long to realize that they are EVERYWHERE! Virtually every street we've passed has at least one stray dog. In El Salvador, dogs are largely looked at like any other animal, especially among the lower classes. As a dog-lover and former animal shelter volunteer, it's one thing I have found difficult to get used to; it breaks my heart to see so many underweight dogs wandering the streets without a home. Unfortunately we have also seen more than one dead dog in the road (sorry for the morbid topic but it is the truth), and Jaime said that there aren't any designated persons to pick them up. Hypothetically if a dog were hit in an accident, it would be very rare for another driver to help the dog and/or bring it to a vet (he guessed 1 in 70 here versus maybe 1 in 7 or 8 in the US). Another volunteer at Hogar said El Salvador has a humane society, but if that is true then they have a huge job and they can't possibly help them all. If I were to volunteer in El Salvador again (and I certainly want to and hope that I do!!) I would consider looking into that type of project.
On a more positive note, I am also including some more of Jaime's photos from our Juayua weekend here, including pics from the Rope Course, the coffee plantation and the waterfall! There is so so so much more to tell and not enough time to do it! Buenas noches from El Salvador!
-Casey Reit
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