El Salvador - Suchitoto

Last weekend we visited our friends Onix and Cristina. Onix used to be my neigbour in Honduras. Him and Cristina, his Spanish girlfriend are some of our beautiful capoeira mates and friends.

Cristina works in Suchitoto - a sleepy, old village in the middle of El Salvador. With much touristic potential for its colonial style little houses, and a big lake to its side. From Cristina's place you have this beautiful lakeview.

All kinds of animals gave us company : During night huge toads, big bats and giant insects. During the day frogs (in Onix' head), toad-eating snakes, insect-eating lizards and chanting blue/yellow/red feathered birds.

We took long walks around the lake, visiting an amazing waterfall with incredible stonestructures.

We found three wild turtles in their natural habit: Between a little water, plants and mostly mud.

Driving around with one of Cristina's colleagues, we visited wide grassfields and a big hacienda. We heard some stories about El Salvador's heavy history (as war has taken place until 1992).

We also saw some of the present problems: The big lake being conteminated with waste - every day a little more - without any consideration for nature.

At least, in Suchitoto you are able to drink the water from the well - that is a big exception in El Salvador and in Central America in general. My Honduran friend tells me about the times before they started selling "purified water" - everyone drank the water from the tab. Then, in the nineties, there was a cholera epidemic, supposedly caused by conteminated water. Ready, for the purified water business to start!

Ok. For now you have enough to read and I better do not go on about any conspiracy theories, that seem to become more practic each time and less theoretic. What a world! I hope you enjoy the pictures of the beautiful side of humanity and nature!

Best wishes to everyone!

Working. Traveling. Working more.

Hola Todas y Todos!
Finally a new update. It is already end of may! Time flies by.
I hope summer has arrived for you with all its beauty over there in the North and the West. Here, the people talk about "winter coming soon" - because of the more regular rainfalls and heavy thunderstorms after a hot day. It is funny. We are sweating nakedly, yet talking about winter...

I am still in the settling proces here in Tegucigalpa. Trying to get installed in our new home, getting to know my work with Arte Acción. Things have changed. Only yesterday, we had a crisis-meeting within the organization. The money is getting rare, projects are finishing - donations by international coorporations stop. Evaluation reports must be written, new projects must be formulated - everybody is sacrifying oneself in order to carry on. It is hard to be a cultural, social organization with no governmental help, no ongoing support. When there are projects, everybody needs to sacrifice a lot of energy - to fulfill the expectations of the donators.

Social system is completely missing in these kind of countries. But Honduras is NOT a poor country! The majority of the people is poor - and only some very few families are richer than rich.
Consumism is very present everywhere! The shopping malls and buyingcenters are full of people - the supermarkets have much more cashiers than what I am used to in Europe -and still you always stay in line before you can pay.
When you come out of the market - little boys bid for money. Their eyes half closed , smelling like a tankstation of so much glue they inhaled .
Yesterday one of these boys saw me at a bank machine. It didn't accept my card . When the boy asked me for one Lempira and I had nothing to give to him, I explained that I could not take any money from the bank. He said: "It is because some guys came and took out suitcases full of banknotes of the machine. Now there is nothing left..."
Later I saw the boy again, I thought I would buy him some food rather than giving him cash. He told me he wanted chicken - from one of the American fast food restaurants that are EVERYWHERE: in all colours, in all varieties but with the same crappy food.
I bought him some fried potatoes that a woman sold on the streets. Suddenly there where three boys behind him, big eyes - wanting potatoes as well. Much better than chicken!

I feel that the Arte Acción's mission is very important. The young people we work with could be in the same position - their testimonies tell us that they would hang around on the streets if Arte Acción didn't exist. Through creativity, we reinforce the youth, help them to make conscious decisions - starting for example with their food choice, ending with personal development: We support them to determine dreams and values, personal needs and limits - we help them to take themselves and each other seriously and to trust in themselves. It sounds complicated maybe... HOW can a game or a theater play, a painting or dancing really benefit the human development? Creating self-confidence, stimulating communication - true communication with oneself and real communication with one another.

In the meantime there have been 4 succesfull girlgrouptherapy sessions realized. Its outcome is meaningful. Yesterday we worked out a dramasession -using masks again, like in Ecuador. This time, lots of therapeutical proces took place. The girls are all young adults, quite accostumed to creative activities and reflection. Every girl played with a selfmade mask, expressing a self-chosen emotion. The girls created either a monologue or a dialogue, expressing the emotion reflected by their mask in a presentation of a 5 minutes scene.
During the reflection in the end the girls shared some significant experiences...

• I feel that I could relax and get rid o some accumulated feelings

• I realize that we easily project our emotions on somebody else, making fun of somebody or getting angry with somebody - instead of searching for the emotion and its reason inside of ourselves

• I feel that we need to strengthen our self-confidence, our confidence with others - we need to practice to make REAL contact, also fisically - not only smiling and superficially talking to each other - as if we were wearing a mask always - it is difficult to make real friends

• I feel that what I express here is born inside of me and not because of a compromise I have made with somebody from the outside

• I feel that here I am free to ask others about their expriences; I feel free to ask "why" am I here; I feel free to express what I like to express.

It was a nice session - I gave my compliments to the group. Openness towards each other is growing and they start trusting in honest contact. Until now almost every one of the participants has shown up to all of the sessions. They are always eager to meet again - some of them said that the therapymoment is their highlight of the week.

ARTE ACCIÓN Presentation in the central park of Tegucigalpa

GirlgroupTherapy

We had our first session of group therapy. 5 of the 7 girls that had announced to participate showed up in the end. During the introduction of creative therapy that we had given a few times before, the young people questioned the confidence that exists between them – the facilitators. They said, although they work together a lot – being used to communicate with each other – they do not talk to each other so much on a personal level. Confidence, respect, mutual understanding and acceptance are some of the topics what we want to work on within creative therapy. We had some interesting outcome of the first activity, lots of motivation and participation of the girls – and ability to express themselves! Some explained their experiences more on a verbal level, during the reflection in the end. Others showed some strong interaction and expression during the crea(c)tivity – maybe with less verbal strength in the end.

It was obvious how well it worked to communicate through painting – making contact on paper – on a non-verbal but personal level. Within almost 2 hours of time there were some critical, emotional moments – but all in all we had a good first activity. Hopefully the next will come on regular base – at least weekly. There is surely going to be some creative, personal, human and social progress going to happen!

The boys are going to form a group in two weeks – then we will start therapy with them. Now they are busy, organizing festivals and presentations in different communities: too much work to concentrate on internal communication...

I am happy that Arte Acción – directors, workers and facilitators – have expressed their will and need to work on teambuilding again, to work on the human aspects within the organization. To focus on human development; on internal and organizational development! I am happy to be able to help with this as much as I can. Still, we are searching for a local psychologist who can work at my side, who is interested in learning about the application and methodology of creative therapy. Before we can hire him or her, we have to make sure that there are enough fonds to pay such a professional. Well, there will be – it is just a matter of time!