Other Club San Salvador Cuscatlán Activities

I found my host club to be incredibly active in a variety of ventures which I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in and/or observing.  I’ve already mentioned the club’s role in founding a local branch of Gift of Life which does open-heart surgeries for children (see blog titled “Music for Heart”) and its response to the natural disaster (see blog titled “Rotary’s Humanitarian Mission”).  And it seems like every member has their own NGOs or side projects.  Additionally, Club Cuscatlán has been active in the following ways:


Backpacks
An important annual campaign for the club is to provide backpacks full of supplies to needy children in the area.  The backpacks cost $7/each and last year the club raised money for 20,000 backpacks.  Some of the money comes from companies and organizations whose logos are then printed on the bags and the rest from philanthropic individuals.  Rotarians and children alike light up when the bags are delivered.  This year’s campaign has been much more difficult due to the economic crisis, but the club is still shooting for 15,000 backpacks.  I facilitated a donation for my sponsor club in Hamden to take part in the campaign.

Advertisement for the backpack campaign - it helps when your President runs a print shop!

President Carlos Pocosangre kicks off event to thank last year's big givers

Presenting an award to one of last year's most generous givers

Award

Honoring Local Heroes

I also had the opportunity to attend a really well produced awards ceremony honoring El Salvadorans who have made a difference in their fields.  One of the club members is a producer for one of the country’s main TV stations and he put together professional videos highlighting the efforts of each award winner.  It was literally like watching the Oscar’s.  Awards were given in the areas of human rights, the environment, the arts, and sports.  (Unfortunately I forgot my camera that night.)    


Voices de Rotary
Perhaps the event that impressed me most – which actually happened in April before my time – was a “Voices of Rotary” concert.  In the early days of Rotary, founder Paul Harris and his friends used to sing as part of their regular meetings, which rotated among the homes of the members (thus spawning the name “Rotary”).  Channeling this bit of history, Club Cuscatlán organized an impressive concert at the National Theatre with orchestras, ballet dancers and more.  Every song featured a singer and every singer was a Rotarian.  Some were famous names, others just average folks with a gift and some courage.  Rotary sold 1,200 tickets and raised tens of thousands of dollars for local causes.  I bought the DVD (also a fundraiser) and will be happy to show it off when I get home.    


Social Events
The members of my host club also have developed wonderful friendships –as is common in Rotary – and they generously welcomed me into their family.  On a number of occasions I joined Rotarians for lunch, dinner or drinks.  On one particular occasion, I was invited to the going-away party for one of the club’s long-standing members.

National Conference
Finally, my sponsor club organized this year’s National Rotary Conference Nov 13-14.  It was largely a social event with the chance for all the clubs in El Salvador to get together, network, celebrate, and do some strategizing.  It was held at the Real Intercontinental, the same hotel where I attended the microfinance conference (see blog titled: “Microfinance Conference”).      


The event kicked off Friday late afternoon with the Air Force Band playing a range of rousing tunes including the theme song from Star Wars.  After the current Governor of Rotary District #4240 (covering El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) officially inaugurated the event, the band played the Costa Rican and El Salvadoran National Anthems.  

Air Force Band

Club Cuscatlan kicks off the 2009 National Conference

District #4240 Governor inaugurates the conference

That was followed up by a nice evening of socializing, where I got to visit with members from all of the clubs I had spoken to over the course of my scholarship period. 

Saturday was a full day and chock full of great speakers and presentations.  A particular moving portion was a video shot by a fellow member of Club Cuscatlán on his visit to the disaster areas.  I have posted a copy of it in the blog about Rotary’s humanitarian work post-hurricane.  Another highlight was a presentation by Rodrigo Davila, a member of another San Salvador Club and renowned motivational speaker.  He has two best-selling books and is a really great orator.  I am sometimes skeptical of motivational speakers, but Rodrigo’s enthusiasm and delivery reminded me of why they can be so popular.  He had a room full of adults dancing joyfully around like school-children by the end.  Quite impressive.  Rodrigo also joined us in the trip to deliver provisions to Paraiso.

Rodrigo Davila

Are you feeling motivated?

Next, there was some time set aside for breakout sessions.  One of Rotary International’s goals for the year is to promote greater coordination and collaboration among clubs.  I joined in with the emergency response committee.  One great result was the resulting coordination between the San Salvador clubs to pool their resources and organize three helicopter deliveries last week.

Emergency response team

During dinner I was unexpectedly invited up to the podium and given a nice send-off by the President of Club Cuscatlán Carlos Pocosangre.  He also game a warm thank you to the Hamden Club for their donations.  I was invited to give a few words and I thanked all of the clubs for their kindness and hospitality, and for working so hard to improve communities in El Salvador and around the world.  Of course, I also thanked them for supporting programs like my scholarship.  My host club then presented me with their club polo shirt which I wore to last week’s trip to deliver humanitarian aid.

The conference ended with a night of dancing and celebration.  I will sincerely miss the Rotarians from El Salvador, particularly the members of Club Cuscatlán.

Rotary Speeches

One of the requirements – and highlights – of my scholarship has been to visit with and give speeches to area Rotary Clubs.  I attended weekly meetings with my host club and gave my first speech in Spanish to them (see “First Rotary Speech”), but also made the rounds to other clubs.  Over my 12 weeks, and really just over the past six weeks since I have been comfortable enough to give public addresses in Spanish, I have delivered speeches to five of the six San Salvador Rotary Clubs and one of the two clubs in Santa Ana.  


In all of the speeches I gave the audience a history of Hamden and New Haven, CT, an overview of the activities of the Hamden Rotary Club, an introduction to Rotary’s Ambassadorial Scholarship Program, and a lecture on social entrepreneurship and VisionSpring's work in El Salvador.  The speeches have ranged between five minutes and forty-five minutes.  All have been graciously received by my hosts, many of whom speak pretty decent English but stuck to Spanish for my sake (and for the sake of their members who do not speak English).   



Here are some pictures from the visits (unfortunately I did not get pics at all of them):

Speaking to the Santa Ana Heroica Club 

Receiving a banner from the President of the Santa Ana Heroica Club

President of the San Salvador South Club

Receiving a banner from the San Salvador Maquilishuat Club

Rotary’s Humanitarian Mission

n the days leading up to November 9th it started raining.  And it didn’t stop.  At one point, El Salvador received a month’s worth of rain in just four hours.  As a result of Hurricane Ida and a low pressure system in the Pacific, the rains just kept battering El Salvador.  As I hunkered down comfortably in my house in San Salvador cranking out my final project for VisionSpring – and to be honest enjoying the sound of the rain hitting my roof – I had no idea that communities were being destroyed as close as ten miles away.  

The storms themselves did little damage, but the deluge of rain caused rivers to overflow and hillsides to collapse.  Since so many El Salvadorans live along a river or at the base of mountains and volcanoes this spelled disaster.  Roads were washed away, bridges collapsed, landslides crushed homes, crops were destroyed, and water infrastructure damaged.  As of current count, 189 people died, another 80 are missing, and over 10,000 are homeless and living in shelters.  It is the worst disaster in El Salvador since the 2001 earthquakes which killed over 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Here's a video that one of our club members put together about the disaster: 



Like many other organizations, the Rotary Clubs of San Salvador have banded together to provide relief to those affected by the storms.  I facilitated a donation by my sponsor club, the Rotary Club of Hamden, and then joined in on a humanitarian mission to provide bags of food to affected families.  By now, most communities have received at least some assistance, but many families are still in dire straits.   Most food rations bring provided last families at most a week and potable water runs out even more quickly.  What is more, due to the floods and landslides some communities still cannot be reached by land.

As a result, El Salvador’s Air Force has played a critical role in the rescue and recovery efforts.  They were the first to know of the unfolding tragedies – many communities were cut off when electricity and cell phone towers went down, but the Air Force does regular exercises to survey the country and so spotted the trouble – and were the first on the scene pulling people out of rivers and off of rooftops.   

Allow me to digress briefly.  The rescue and relief efforts are only part of and parcel of the expanded civil role the El Salvadoran military plays today.  Something I haven’t had the chance to address yet in my blog is the President’s recent (and controversial) decision to use thousands of army personnel to support the national police in keeping the peace.  Gang violence had risen to such unprecedented levels in October that the President chose to put the military back into the streets for the first time since they ransacked the countryside before and during the nation’s civil war (see various blogs including “Chalate” and “Perquin”, with more to follow on Monseignor Romero).  Despite the terrible memories, most El Salvadorans were willing to turn a page on their history and tackle the country’s gang problem (see blog post “Las Pandillas”).  But the military barely had the chance to get accustomed to their new role as law enforcers when they were called into action to respond to the national emergency.  

Since one of the members of my host Rotary Club is married to the colonel in charge of overseeing the Air Force’s transport vehicles, we were able to take part in one of the Air Force’s many supply runs.  

Rotaract Clubs assembled the supplies

The rest of us loaded up the truck

Rodrigo, Brando, Carlos and I pose at the Air Force Base

We were met at the Air Force Base by Lt. Colonel Villatoro, the spouse of Rotary Club member Claudia, and Colonel Angulo, the Commander of one of the Air Force’s two divisions.  

Lt. Colonel shows us our destination on a map 

Both gentlemen were modest but distinguished individuals who impressed me with their knowledge of rescue and recovery operations and genuine passion for humanitarian work.  They seemed eager to help, and eager to show the constructive role that the Air Force is playing.  Colonel Argulo and I swapped stories about our travels overseas.  In particular, I appreciated his stories about his service in Baghdad during the first Gulf War.  There he worked alongside servicemen and woman from around the world and the experience impressed upon him the value of speaking other languages.  Without English, he and his fellow service members from all over the world would not have been able to communicate.  Thus, he appreciated my efforts to learn Spanish. 
   

Colonel Argulo's fly bag

After signing our lives away into release forms, we boarded a Huey, one of the iconic helicopters from the Vietnam era and our mode of transportation for the day.  (After boarding and feeling the rush of the take-off, I decided that such helicopters should come with a build in CCR soundtrack.)  The United States government has loaned El Salvador four helicopters for humanitarian missions, which the Air Force is putting to good use.  The Colonel mentioned the Huey-Vietnam connection as well.  Flying over the tropical landscape in the helicopter makes him think of “Heart of Darkness” or other Vietnam movies.  The flight was exhilarating and the vistas beautiful.  

Club President Carlos Pocosangre signing up for duty, Sir!

New Club member Renee and I pose before take-off

One of our Air Force guides looks out over the landscape

Unbelievable views from above Lake Illopango

And finally, here's a video of the first half of our flight:

[coming soon...]

But of course, the helicopter ride was only a means to an end.  Our real purpose was to deliver provisions and to assess the situation on the ground in order to plan future missions.  Over the course of the day we visited two communities, Paraiso de Osoria and San Rafael.  We arrived in Paraiso (“Paradise”) and immediately received a briefing from the town’s mayor.

The Mayor of Paraiso meets us at the helicopter

And we brief each other in his office

We then proceeded to hand out the bags of food (there have been scattered stories of food being horded and distributed to political allies, so we were told we should distribute the food directly to the recipients).  Our efforts at this time were directed only at people who had been forced from their homes (27 families in this small community), so the line in Paraiso was relatively short.  

Families queue up for assistance

Colonel Argulo, Brando and Carlos get ready to give out bags

As I was leaving the town center to survey damage to the town’s water infrastructure, a woman waiting in line reached for me.  She took me by the hand and began to cry.  She simply wanted to say thank you.  For the first time in a while, I found that I was completely at a loss for Spanish (I actually find when I get emotional, I can only think in my native tongue).  I scanned my brain for the right words to respond, but I couldn’t find any.  “De nada”, or “it’s nothing” didn’t quite seem to cut it.  Finally, after stammering for a few moments, I spit out that we were happy to help, would pray for her and would do our best to send more supplies.  She smiled.

Next we visited the town’s water pump, a 15 minute drive down-hill.  As we drove, we saw how rain water had torn through the earth, and how landslides had destroyed crops.  

 A landslide tears through crops outside of Paraiso

When we got to the river, we found that both the pipe that bring water to the pump and that which delivers water up-hill to three communities including Paraiso were broken.

The pipe to nowhere 

People fill up from the broken water line to carry water back to their community - 15 min by car and much worse on foot

Making lemonade from lemons

For our next stop, we headed to San Rafael, a neighboring community.  Like Paraiso, the relief efforts were well-organized.  We visited a shelter where 59 families are being housed.  Some of them lost their homes entirely and for others their homes are so precariously situated that they cannot return.  Most return to their land to attend to their remaining crops and animals and sleep in the shelter at night.  I had a nice conversation with a young woman, Sandra, and two of her four young children.  Her home had been badly damaged by flooding and falling debris.  We visited with the women who have been working week straight to cook and care for the displaced, and then we provided bags of food to each of the families.  

The Mayor of San Rafael briefs us at the homeless shelter

I am going to be collecting money to help with the recovery effort when I return home so please keep your eyes out.  Rotary is going to continue to provide food and water, has acquired temporary homes for 300 families and will continue helping people rebuild their homes and lives for the long-term.

The 20th Anniversary

Last week was the 20th anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuits priests, their housekeeper and the housekeeper’s daughter at the local Jesuit University, the UCA (which I intend to write more about in a future post since it is so critical to the history of El Salvador).  As such, the UCA hosted a series of events to commemorate and remember.  Last Friday night I attended a moving chorale/orchestral/operatic performance in honor of Rufina Amaya.