Walking With El Salvador

No one has been to the small cantones.  The girls out there have never received any kind of sex education. The Unidad de Salud is hearing about girls who are falling into pregnancy ... you know ... because of what we are going through ... this pandemic.                    Sonia Acknowledging the possible and probable increase in the number of sexual assaults and sexual abuse of young girls due to the pandemic is something done in safe spaces.  The Women's Project in the Los Héroes church provides such a safe space, and when Sonia talks about the team's work and the positive impact it has on girls' lives, she is on fire.   Statistics for 2020 have been compiled by the Ministry of Health and are being studied by women's rights groups.  It's hard to tell what the actual numbers of child and teen pregnancies are for 2020, but initial numbers are included in the graphic below.  12,781 registered pregnancies of girls between the ages of 10 and 19. Anecdotally, the local c

The third destination for this year's virtual tour of El Salvador is ... our car!   Due to the pandemic, we are mostly staying at home.  However, on Sundays, we do make the drive through San Salvador out to our church community a little bit north of the capital city so we can attend worship.  The number of cases of COVID-19 in that area is very low, so we feel pretty safe. In anticipation of another episode of Just Click, I snapped some photos during the drive home from church.  So, let's begin our virtual tour of the route on Troncal del Norte into the city of San Salvador. We begin on the road from Tonaca to Troncal del Norte. Notice the motorcycle with the purple Hugo backpack.  That is the Salvadoran version  of Instacart - you can now literally get anything delivered. The truck turning at the intersection is loaded with cut sugar cane. It looks like grass because it was cut raw rather than after the field had been set afire and the leaves burned off. Cutting raw cane is mu

  This is one of the messages I received this morning: February 14th St. Valentine's Day To all my friends and family Have a very beautiful day of Friendship I love you a lot! ¡Feliz día de Amor! ¡Feliz día de Amistad! Happy Day of Love and Friendship!  I believe I have mentioned before just how wonderful Salvadorans are at sending memes and gifs of encouragement via social media on just any old day of the week, but during February, the messaging goes to a whole new level.  For Salvadorans, the entire month of February is a time for the color red, hearts, flowers, and surprise gifts. Take a look in any Salvadoran kitchen, and you will likely find some coffee mugs which were filled with some treats or a little stuffed bear and wrapped in clear cellophane with pink hearts on it and tied up with a big pink bow.  This is a pretty great and practical tradition.   Here's a pic of some of my mugs.  That little one is from my first February visit in El Salvador in 2004. One of the most

The start of the 2021 school year was delayed by a few weeks, but classes are now in session.  Kids are getting up early, doing their chores, pulling out their backpacks, organizing their supplies, and getting to work. Photo submitted by student's family on Feb 9 The morning routine does not include a bus ride.  The morning routine does include a walk to the corner store to pay for another week of data on a cell phone. Photo submitted by student's family on Feb 9 The morning routine does not include ironing a school uniform and shining a pair of black school shoes.  The morning routine does include helping little siblings to get settled, clearing the table and making sure the internet connection is working. Photo submitted by students' family on Feb 9 The Ministry of Education suggests students sign into their online classes 15 minutes before the start time, to make sure everything is working correctly.  Photo submitted by the student's family on Feb 9 Over the course o