Projects

Strong winds have been occupying San Salvador for the last couple of weeks, building a layer of dust inside and outside. They make CIS impossible to work in because the dust is sure to mess up my computer and the noises make me crazy. Luckily though, a lot of my work has been in the field, where I help two different teams build profiles for the municipalities where we will be observing. Taking long bus rides has been a great way to get to know the country and meeting with the various politicians and other community leaders illuminates much about the broken democracy of El Salvador. The wind is not the only thing making me crazy. 

In each department (state) we have to meet with the State Electoral Board (JED) to inform them of our observing mission and ask for coordinating information. So far, the JEDs where I have been working were very friendly and welcoming of our mission, but other team members working in other states have been met with confrontation and an unwarranted demand to see credentials. In these cases there seems to be a personal abuse of power executed by an electoral body that wishes it had more power in the hierarchy of comissions that organize the elections. Right now the Municipal Electoral Boards (JEM) are forming and receiving training, so we will see them in the next couple of weeks and hope that they can organize more quickly and thoroughly than the JEDs have.

During our meetings we found that the members of the JEDs sometimes didn't even know each others' names. There is very little communication between the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the JEDs, which is compounded by the fact that the new Electoral Code containing rushed reforms and some recommendations from the Organization of American States was only released last week. So maybe we were rushing into our meetings with the JED because we wanted to give sufficient notice and have plenty of time to conduct meetings with other electoral bodies and supporting institutions, but everyone must get organized faster if they are to prevent fraud. 

Another aspect that keeps the JED and the JEM from working fluidly is that they are made up of members of the various political parties. Each party elects its most militant members to represent them in the local and state electoral boards in order to best defend party interests in these bodies. This means that in many cases, despite the vocalized effort to work smoothly with consensus, that disagreement dominates many discussions. For example, in one meeting of the JED where I went to observe, a representative of the national police came to discuss security plans but the conversation broke into accusations that in previous elections the police had forced the substitutes of the representatives of one electoral body to leave the voting center because it was too crowded. One party claimed that the police had done this in a clear maneuver to keep their substitutes from viewing fraudulent acts that could have been taking place while others noted that the police were simply attempting to keep order and organization by not allowing too many people to hover around the table where the ballots are given to voters. The conversation ended when the party who was making the accusations admitted that it did not have documented evidence of its claims, but it became clear that there was no consensus as to whether or not the substitutes should in fact be allowed to remain near the table in the coming elections. With all of these discussions being dominated by militant party members, it seems impossible to fluidly compose the elections in an unbiased manner. 

However, I do understand the reasoning behind building the electoral boards in this manner. Some of these parties did not have a political voice until after the signing of the Peace Accords, so this is one of the ways that they are able to be involved in the development of democracy. I am just not convinced that politcal parties should have a role in this aspect. In order for the elections to be organized without political conflict, there should be depoliticized groups who work in the interest of all voters, instead of just voters from one party or another. This will be one of the criticisms I will propose be included in our final report after the elections. 

After having been rather frustrated about the lack of information that I was getting from the various trips to the municipalites for which I am responsible, I had a rather uplifting trip to Ilobasco with a compañero who is from that city. Marvin was able to show us the most important places to visit and he introduced us to great people and organizations. We visited MOJE, an organization where youth who were in gangs can recuperate and reintegrate into society. They have workshops where the young people learn how to create art, become a waiter, or work on cooking skills. Through building skills, they are given opportunities to be part of their community and they are less likely to immigrate. I was super impressed, but since all of the youth were on a field trip that day, I will have to return another day to meet them and get their perspective on how MOJE helps them. 

In the afternoon we walked down to La Palma, where the terribly contaminated river (filled with sewage from the entire city) runs between concrete huts filled with animals and people. Marvin introduced us to a family that he helps support and we spent a few hours talking with the women in the house while they processed ears of corn recently harvested from the fields close by. Then the daughter, Elisa, took us out to las canchas (fields) where the men were busy cutting down the rice before it got eaten by birds. Marvin suggested I take pictures of the family in the field to send to their family in the United States, which I thought was cool. As we were talking to the father, he revealed that he was actually just elected to be the President of the local electoral board and that he would gladly help us coordinate with them and learn more about their process. It was a beautiful day in the campo. 

The other most exciting development that has kept me from writing for a while, is that I started teaching English classes at La Casa de Juventud, a youth center in a marginalized neighborhood. All the kids (ages 12-21) come from low-income homes and use the La Casa as a place to kick it. They can use the internet, play video games, play ping-pong, or lift weights while socializing in a safe and healthy environment. I am really excited to be working with young people of this age because I can be more socially conscious and critical with them than I was able to with the younger kids where I used to work. Right now I only teach English, but I think I can develop a curriculum to work with them more. The only thing is that I would have to come up with money for materials, even though I would do all the work volunteer. So if anyone knows of some grant to help young people in poor countries, let me know because I would rapidly apply. 

In the meantime I am learning by experience how to teach English. I welcome advice as to specific activities for this age group. The first day I had a class of 15 and a class of 8. The second day I had a class of 20 and a class of 16 because everyone whent and invited their friends and Guillermo, the administrator, allowed everyone to sign up. I decided to offer and advanced course in the morning for people who want to spend more time practicing, but I feel like an hour and a half is very little time for them to be able to absorb anything. I'm thinking of giving them more of my time after the January elections if I don't have as much work with CIS. 

Since its Sunday, I had better get after my house chores and start writing lesson plans. I would love to get some long-letter emails (hint-hint)... 

Constant illumintation without expectations...