We Meet with Her Honor

Months ago when I was planning this trip, Harry Reppert had told me of his plan to visit a school in El Salvador that his church was helping. As plans became clearer he told me that he would be delivering some clothing and school supplies directly to the schools. He also mentioned that he would be meeting with the mayor of Caluco where the school in located. Jim Labbe and I decided to accompany Harry on his trip to the school and we all fully expected that meeting the mayor meant a five-minute photo op and a thank you. We didn’t know the mayor!

  Blanca Lidia Orellana did met us at her office, but proceeded to serve us coffee and pupusas. (These are like a cross between a crepe and a thick corn tortilla.) We were being escorted by Alvaro Carian (on the left)who is with ESNA the El Salvador North America Village Network--the NGO that has the relationship with Harry Reppert’s church back in Alameda, California. Alvaro who is a native of El Salvador has spent many years teaching English, so he was our interpreter.

Her Honor told us that she has been in office for five years and that Caluco is made up of eight cantones that we might call hamlets.  Across from her office there is the Zocolo and Church we have come to expect in all Latin American towns.

The Zocolo at Coluco	The Church at Coluco

The mayor has only two taxable businesses in her town: a small tienda and a hardware store, so she supplements that budget with income from several entrepreneurial ventures.

The Tienda on the Square	The Ferreteria on the Square

One of these ventures is a Tourist Center. It is aimed mostly a local tourists. It consists of a park on a river with a restaurant complex that is rented out to family cocinas. The center is only two years old and is one of the mayors projects.

The Tourist Center	Restaurants within the Center
One of Many Pools on the River	Local Tourists Enjoying the Pool

To give us some idea of the level of development in Caluco, the mayor told us of a project to provide potable water and electricity to the Palistina Cantone. It is the only remaining cantone not to have what we would consider to be the most basic of public services. A German NGO has put up one million dollars to fund the project, but the mayor must provide one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of matching funds. To do so she has gotten an agreement from the other cantones to forgo all of their funding from her office for a year.

Here are a couple of scenes at a river crossing on the way from the mayor’s office to the tourist center that seemed to me to show the simplicity and dignity of life in Caluco.

Women Washing Clothes at the River	Riverside Restaurant