The best dance I have ever been to...

Above: Candida (the lady I stayed with while in El Rucio, who also got up at 3am to listen to the radio... but I think she made up for it by giving me fresh cheese and sugar cane candy to eat!!)

All I could think about was being able to close my eyes and sleep, even if it was in a hammock, but the conversation with Don Natividad, my 70 year old, tree-climbing, fence hopping host, was so interesting. He was telling me about times during the war and how him and his family were affected. It was only 6:30 at night and we had only begun the after dinner conversation, but I was completely exhausted. I had been up since 3:30am, went to bed at midnight the night before, helped with an organic fertilizer workshop during the day, hiked to the river and swam with the kids in the afternoon after the workshop, chased pigs, and more all in one day…hence, I thought sleep was a well deserved end to the day.

         Above is Don Natividad in the process of climbing a tree and hoping the fence!

   I was in El Rucio, a community in Morazán, the poorest and most isolated zone in the country, which also happens to be the zone most affected by the war. Plus, El Rucio is one of the poorest and remote communities that we work with.  It’s probable that every family in the community lives on less than $1 per day and during the rainy season you have to walk 3 hours and cross the river on a cable (there’s a little seat and the person on the other side of the river hauls you across) to get in or out of the community. This was my first visit to this beautiful community, and I was thoroughly in love (and exhausted!). Despite the poverty, we were treated like royalty. We ate fresh cheese every day made from the cows in the community, ate the beans and corn the people grew, and

 chewed on sugar cane in the hot afternoons to renew our energy. Plus the landscape was continually inspiring as tall mountains and big rivers that I was dying to explore surrounded us!

            I had been invited to the community to help with a workshop on organic fertilizer and get to know the community, surveying the possibilities of repeating the community garden experience we were attempting in Los Naranjos there in El Rucio. The workshop had gone well and people from four neighboring communities had walked long distances to attend as well. It was exciting to see the people getting excited, asking questions and curious about this new technology (which is actually not new and probably something their parents were very familiar with). However, I also realized we were starting on a long slow road. The community is not highly organized, and the people have absolutely no experience in growing any type of vegetables. And, not surprisingly, malnutrition is an obvious problem in the community.  I was convinced of the need of a community garden, and hopeful that it could work, but I still needed to feel out the interest level in the people.

            But going back to where I started, the night after the workshop, I was exhausted and around 7:30 our conversation was winding down and we were getting ready for bed (but you should know that 7:30pm is actually past the normal bedtime in the community – they go to bed around 7pm and get up around 4am!) when Don Natividad asked us if we weren’t going to the dance. We (my 2 friends helping with the workshop and I) exchanged shocked looks and I slowly ventured to ask, “What dance?” He explained that several people had been talking about hosting a dance for us tonight. We all looked around, thankful for the people’s kindness, but hoping that Don Natividad was wrong or the people had decided against it as we were so close to finally resting in our hammocks. However, 15 minutes later, when we were almost in our hammocks, twenty people showed up at the house asking why we weren’t at the dance!

Obviously, we had to go to this dance that was hosted in our honor! So we taped on our smiles, wished for some Red Bulls and espressos, grabbed the flashlights, and headed out on the 15 minute walk to the house where the dance would be, following the music.

            While walking, I couldn’t help but be humbled and amazed by the stars. It was completely clear and there wasn’t electricity for at least an hour’s drive so the stars were spectacular. As we got closer and the music louder, I started waking up a bit more. It hit me just how cool it was that we were listening to music out there – just a few months ago another non-profit had helped the families install small solar panels on the roofs of the houses, giving them the first bit of electricity they had ever had.  Thus, I was going to a solar powered dance! I started getting more excited and began talking to the people I was walking with a bit more. The people began telling me who all had come to the dance, and I realized people had walked from communities almost 2 hours away to come to this dance. And again, it hit me in the head like a brick… I was on my way to a dance hosted in my honor, in one of the most remote parts of El Salvador, where people had walked 2 hours in the dark and crossed a river to attend, plus the music and lights were solar powered! And I hadn’t even wanted to come at first! I felt like I should be reading about this or watching it in some documentary instead of actually living it.

            Once we arrived at Don Tito’s house where the dance would be hosted, we saw the tons of people crowded around the small adobe house. Of course no one was actually dancing yet – all waiting for the guests of honor to start the dance off. Ana (my Italian friend helping with the project) and I had to dance the first 2 or 3 songs alone with Don Natividad and another Senor, but after a few minutes everyone was dancing and around 50 people were dancing in this house about the size of my living room! Plus another 50 were outside watching! Lucky for me there were so many people so that no one could notice my lack of rhythm and complete incompetence at the traditional Salvadoran dances… but not like they would have cared anyways.

            We ended up making it on the dance floor for about 2 hours before having to venture, half-asleep and drenched in sweat, back to our hammocks, walking under the stars. Fortunately we got to sleep a little later the next day, and the neighbors didn’t come over to visit till 4am… ready to hear and share more stories from the visitors.