Hammock Reflections From El Salvador and Iowa

Gary A. T. Guthrie

Have you ever noticed that when you lie in a hammock your world view changes? Life slows down as you slowly rock back and forth drifting away. Your body relaxes and all of those immediate cares soon dissipate as you look up at the clouds passing by or you begin your nap. I have coined a name for a disease called hammockitis that can only be cured by laying in a hammock for a fair amount of time. The main symptom of hammockitis is a general feeling of being disconnected from our world and people.

Nancy, Eric and I had ample opportunities to cure our hammockitis when we returned to El Salvador in March this year. We had departed in March of 1990 leaving behind many friendships developed during the difficult times of the twelve year old civil war. From 1987 to March 1990, working for the Mennonite Central Committee, we had administered a fertilizer loan program to 180 families in San Jose Guayabal.

The purpose of our recent trip was to reconnect with our friends and for Eric to experience his mother country where he was born. We spent many days of our two weeks walking out to the villages visiting friends. You have to understand that when we visited it was not just for an hour or two. One man took us to his newly constructed home. In October of 1981 he had fled his community located on Guazapa mountain thinking he would be able to return in a couple of weeks. He left all of his beans and corn harvest in his home and fields. Sixteen years later he was finally able to return to his community. It was a joy to walk with him in a community that we could not visit before. We ate a lunch of thick white corn tortillas, beans and eggs. Their tortillas fill you up and stay with you all day long. It wasn’t until late afternoon after harvesting some mangoes that we made our way back to town. It had been a long time since I had hung-out with a friend “doing” nothing all day long. Most of our two week trip was filled with these kind of visits, along with Eric playing soccer with his Salvadoran friends.

Lying in the hammock I reflected upon the changes that have taken place the past ten years. We arrived the day of mayoral and legislative elections. The FMLN opposition party that ten years ago was fighting against the government, won the election! It was unthinkable that this could happen a decade ago. It was good seeing the government investing in infrastructure such as improved roads, electricity to many villages, water projects and competition in the telephone business. Ten years ago there were five private phones in our town. Now there are 200 and at more affordable prices. We attended a meeting of a group of families in one community where ten years ago there would have been tension in the air wondering if the Salvadoran military would pass by and interrogate us. Now the people can freely associate without fear.

I was struck, however, by the similarities between my friends’ economic situations and those of my Iowan friends. The global “free” market economy is devastating to all farmers. The basic commodity prices for their corn and red beans are so low that it is nearly impossible for them to pay back their fertilizer loans. On a national scale the government has abandoned the ag sector because from my perspective they see it as a lost cause. Even coffee has been abandoned to some extent because of low coffee prices. It is difficult to make investments where there is little promise of return.

To make ends meet, many look for off farm income, not unlike Iowans. One friend’s wife works in a garment factory in San Salvador working 12 hour shifts for 4 days on, 4 days off. We figured she was earning about 50 cents/hour. By the time you add up transportation, some rent where she stays with friends, and meals, they are not saving much.

It was sugar cane harvest time during our stay. Some farmers hire themselves out to harvest the blackened burnt canes. They burn the canes to burn off the leaves. This makes the harvest easier for cutting and piling. We encountered two friends coming home after a days work. They were black with soot from head to toe.
I returned to Iowa with a deeper conviction that PFI and INCA are on the right path. We need one another, we need to look for ways to make the local and international connections. We need more farmer to farmer programs where we can learn and be inspired by one another’s lives and nourished by our friendships. Food security issues are and will be critical in the years to come. National governments have a right to protect their own food security, yet with the new treaties we are allowing the multi-national corporations to establish economic serfdoms around the world where the farmer is basically serving as a slave to the corporations and if they don’t participate then essentially they are expendable social capital. It is not a comfortable sight seeing your close friends covered with soot.

Yet I was encouraged to hear about some projects working with organic agriculture in El Salvador. We ate some organic produce one evening in San Salvador at a friend’s home. I heard that a Christian Base Community has hired someone full time to work on permaculture in their communities. They also have developed a campesino to campesino program, encouraging farmer to farmer contact. I was amazed to see that a farmer, who I had worked with building ditches on the contour on his land, had expanded the ditches just last year. A seventy-five year old man named, Joseph Mary Joy, building for the future. I thought for sure he would have abandoned the work I had started with him.

Is anyone interested in a delegation trip to El Salvador say in January some year?