Top Five Things I Love about El Salvador

1. Children

Children are awesome! Living in a university setting for the past four years, I kind of forgot what it is like to have children around. Now, I am surrounded by them. The previous volunteers in my community were great and they always let kids come over to their house to play. I am living in the same house as they did, and the children are still accustomed to coming here. As a result, my house is constantly filled with a steady stream of children coming and going throughout the day. Sometimes I feel like my house is a daycare, but I love it and now the majority of my friends here are between the ages of eight and twelve. Children do not care how bad my Spanish might be, or if I even understand half of the things they tell me. They just like to talk, and I love to listen so it works out perfectly.

Interacting with children here also makes me reflect on life in the States. I could never imagine being in the same position in the US –the single new man in the neighborhood, living alone, with a bunch of kids coming to his house. Somehow I just don’t see that happening, especially if the new person in town was a foreigner. Perhaps my interaction with children here is a reflection of child rearing being a more communal activity in El Salvador. Many children’s parents are in the US and thus the children rely on extended family and community networks to raise them. Maybe in this system it is more acceptable for a single man to look after children. Who knows? But it certainly is interesting to think about.

2. The way Salvadoran women speak

The title pretty much sums this one up. I love the way Salvadoran women speak, and the older they are the better! They have such a great lilt and very expressive voices. Their speech is decorated with long drawn out “N’ombre!”s (an expression of negation derived from ‘no hombre’), inquisitive “De veras?” (for real?), and any statement can be followed by a “Gracias a Dios” (thanks to God). I love talking with the older women in shops, listening in admiration as they tell me stories. Or talking with women as they cook pupusas, which leads us to…

3. Pupusas!

Pupusas are the national dish of El Salvador, and have quickly won a tender place in my heart and palate. Pupusas are thin tortillas stuffed with a plethora of goodies – beans, cheese, chicharron, chicken, garlic, squash; the combinations are endless. You eat the pupusa with a side of curtido, spicy pickled cabbage, and tomato sauce. One of the best parts of eating pupusas is watching how other people eat their pupusas. Everyone seems to have their own individual strategy for eating the pupusa. Some put the curtido on top of the pupusa and eat it like a tostada. Some fold the pupusa around the curtido and eat it like a taco. Some tear off bits of the pupusa and use it to scoop up the curtido. Personally, I tear my pupusa in half, separating the two sides of the tortilla, usually burning my fingers in the process as the hot steam escapes the warm gooey pupusa center. Then I rip off tiny parts of the pupusa and use it to scoop up the curtido – delicious! November 8th is national day of the pupusa, so I highly recommend that you look up your nearest local Salvadoran restaurant and go and try one of these tasty little dishes for yourself.

4. Riding the bus

“If you want to know El Salvador, you travel by bus. That’s where you can meet everyone,” explains Dulce Rivas de Gutierrez in the book From Grandmother to Granddaughter: Salvadoran Women’s Stories. Dulce accurately captures the beauty of bus travel; you really do meet everyone. The well-dressed business men taking an urbano to work, las viejitas with ornately embroidered scarves covering their heads and wonderfully frilly aprons tied around their waists, the campesinos with their broad-brimmed hats and machetes hanging from their hips, the enamored youth sitting together stealing furtive glances and whispering sweet secrets, the bolos drunk and passed out in the back seat, the pick pockets and thieves – everyone, a microcosm of the diverse strata of Salvadoran life. Although cramped, smelly, chaotic, and quite arguably one of the most dangerous places to be in this country, I love riding the bus. I love the endless parade of people in transit, and the hustle and bustle of the chaos is oddly energizing. Although I must admit that when sick the bus is the last place I’d want to be. I can imagine no worse place for a random stomach illness to strike than on the bus.

5. Pizza Hut

Imagine, if you will, that you want to go on a classy date, really impress your guy or gal. You get dressed up, put your best shoes on, and where do you go? Pizza Hut, of course! In El Salvador, Pizza Hut is an expensive sit-down restaurant, complete with a waiting staff, menus, and flat screen TVs. It is also extremely expensive in comparison to other local restaurants, and as such Pizza Hut is a place to splurge and impress a date. I always get a chuckle out of how different Pizza Hut is here and in the States, although I sometimes feel uncomfortable with how popular corporate chains are here.