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Other entries in Valparaíso

holiday spirit

I survived my second christmas outside of the states, this one on my own, this one the most surreal of all. backpackers say christmas on the road just doesnt feel like christmas and I agree. I made tacos for dinner, wandered the streets, thought a TON about my family and friends back home and honestly waited for the day to end. (sorry, is that too honest?)

but thankfully, tomorrow IS another day and now I'm in valparaiso - a city that gives an incredible vibe the minute you arrive. I thought graffiti was powerful in santiago....well here it's stellar (stay tuned for photos). theres a cultural festival for the next 4 days full of art, music and dance and the best part.....free!! I plan to drink nothing (until new years) and soak it UP!

but more importantly, in the spirit of the holidays, here's an update from my former spanish school in cusco. I was so lucky to have saul as my english partner, but sad to say I couldn't talk enough spanish with him to learn this story. now I'm just glad to get it in any form. if you are compelled to help them out, go here. it's worth it!: http://spanishcusco.com/english/donations.html

(and check this page for picks of saul and the school: http://www.ballofdirt.com/entries/8695/85642.html )

From the director of amigos spanish school:

Now I feel very grateful to be able to tell you the life story of Saul, a thirteen year old child who arrived at the doors of our school in April of this year.  

A typical day within the life of Saul begins very early in the morning.  He wakes up at five, gets himself ready and heads out for work with his mother.  He collects plastic bottles with his mother from trash bins in order to sell them for a mere fifty cents per kilo.  He returns home around eight in the morning while his mother continues working in the streets with an untiring search for bottles through the miseries of the city.  Upon his arrival home, he immediately starts to cook for his younger siblings.   They eat breakfast consisting of a cup of tea with a lot of sugar and two pieces of buttered bread.  At nine-thirty he leaves home to start his class at Amigos.  He returns to his house at midday where he only has  half an hour to get ready in order to go to high school, which starts at twelve-thirty and lasts until early evening.  He returns home at seven at night to eat dinner and to do his homework of the day.  Saul goes to bed around eleven to start the same routine the next morning. 
 

Peering through the window pane, Saul pleaded with melancholic eyes for the door to be opened.  ¨Come in¨ I told him.  He was wearing faded trousers exhausted of its colour and the same orange-coloured sweater with rolled-up sleeves, like a labourer ready for work. 

He had long giraffe-like eyelashes adorning his  big eyes.  I noticed two scars deeply etched beneath his dark brown skin but it has been masked by words and drawings he had made over the top with blue inked pen. 

His confidence and strength to look into the eye of another had not been diminished by the trudgeries of life.  From here, I began my interview with him that took me into the depths of his life. 

Saul was born on the sixteenth of March, 1992.  According to the stars of the cosmos, this is the day of Inspiration.  His mother, Josefina had him when she was just seventeen years old.  Back then, she was a living beauty full of liveliness and innocence.  I was later shown a photograph of her.  From that picture, she had long lushes black hair, a slender face with rosy cheeks.  She smiled uncaringly, yet to abandon her zeal for life, yet to taste the bitterness that the future was to bring. 

The afternoon Saul came into this world, his mother had suffered from contractions since the morning. They called a midwife to assist with her birth. Upon entering the door, she caught the eyes of all those in the room.  She seemed to be very old yet her spirit was alive and strong.  She had a protruding forehead draping long braids on either side.  Her face was deep with crevices as though it were a map of rivers and canyons,  illuminated by her strong piercing eyes.  She had more than five layers of worn out skirts which are now full of irreducible stains.  She had sandals made of old tires.  Her feet were diseased, the flesh had been slowly eaten away by parasites and infected with all kinds of bacterial growth.  The volcanic eruptions were as urgent as her pain. 

She looked straight into Josefina's eyes as though she had already known where Josefina was laying in the room before she arrived.  In one hand she held a cloth bag of herbs and in the other a tin of llama fat.  Smells of Pepirmi, Ajinjo, and Romero penetrated the room.  She sat herself down silently and began to gather her herbs together into a concoction.   

For Josefina, it was not the first nor the last time she gave birth.  Saul was the third child, but physically she was in more pain than at any other time.  Sweat dripped down from her forehead as she bit hard into her lips to try to cope with the pain.  Her body was fighting, and sounds of her bones cracking echoed within the room. 

Somehow, as the herbs began to brew, with its steam rising into the air, Josefina's pain began to diminish.  The old midwife finally offered a hot cup of the herbal potion.  Josefina drank it quickly, ready to take a chance in anything that may relieve her of such excruciating pain. Like magic, her pain disappeared and Saul was born. Saul did not cry at all. 

Saul was like any other playful child.  He used to chase after the hens in the garden, otherwise guarded fiercely by their under-nourished dogs of some undefined breed.  They ran and played on earth that was always heated by the strong sun.  For Saul the Cusquenan Andes is a world of adventures.  The sky seemed forever blue and sunny.  The southern breeze in the afternoon was gentle on his tender skin.  Saul enjoyed the process of getting dirty and muddy in the midst of his explorations within the seemingly vastness of his house. 

Although he was yet to traverse beyond the boundaries of his house, he thought he had grasped the whole world.  He played joyously, laughed unsparingly and ran around carelessly.  With the same ease he also screamed and cried.  He cried because he was hungry or suffering from minor stomach-aches but he was ignorant to the poverty within which he was raised, as well as the sufferings and pain of life ahead.  For Saul, the world was now filled with love.   

Saul's voice became tremerous as his story unfolded.  He would stop every now and then, as his past resurged bringing forward emotions of nostalgia and sadness.  He would smile at me, reassuring me that he was okay, that he was strong enough to go on. 

His childhood was a time when innocence was bliss.  He didn't know how to read or write but neither did he worry about survival or money.  At the age of three, Saul experienced a disaster that was to be deeply imprinted within his memory.  It was not thunder nor lightening, nor an earthquake or flood but the crush of his heart that equalled in impact.  He stood by the door and watched his mother crying from pain.  At times her pain was so immense that she'd stop breathing, followed by heavy attempts to catch her breath back.  She was being beaten by a man, a man Saul had always called 'father'.  Saul did not understand why his father would beat his mother so furiously.  The eyes of his father spoke in hatred while Saul's heart pierced with pain. 

A year passed by and Saul's father abandoned the family.  Poverty over-washed the remaining members; Josefina with six children.  Josefina was forced to work more hours.  She washed other people's laundry and sold drinks to passer-bys on the streets.   

At the age of five, Saul's mother was accused of robbery.  Without money nor status Josefina was taken to prison without trial.  Saul and his younger brothers were taken into refuge by an aunt for the two weeks while their mother was away.  Those two weeks seemed to be forever long in Saul's mind.  Although the siblings  were fed and given a roof to live under, Saul felt loneliness and solitude like that of the vast dunes of the Sahara Desert.  By nightfall, his loneliness would well up from within and engulf him with fear.  His eyes opened to the faintest sound, with the glimpse of hope that his mother was sent home.  Night after night, he woke up and stare at the same ceiling made of plastic, wood and straw.   

One morning Saul was playing by himself on the floor.  There was a squeak in the door. As it opened, a shadow emerged.  Saul looked up and his mother came forward in urgency to cradle him in her longing arms. He felt his mothers arms so tightly but he did not mind.  Josefina kissed him over and over again while tears of her joy and pain fell onto his face.  

Saul continued with his story.  At the age of seven, his mother brought home a thin man of old age.  His hair had completely greyed.  He was dressed in rags and spoke few words.  But he was a man of good character and had touched the hearts of all and cured their sufferings with happiness and laughter. 

At present, his stepfather works as a construction worker, but his earnings are still insufficient to cover the necessities of six children in the family. This is why Saul has to work every morning. 

Like always, Saul has high marks in his high school and even though his friends make fun of the work his mother and he does in the mornings at times, this does not prevent Saul from helping his family or receiving high marks at school. His dream is to attain proficiency in a  profession and to be able to provide a nice house for his mother. The gift he asked from Santa Clause is for happiness   to continue in his family, and that there shall never be a day that his family might lack food on the table. His favourite colour is yellow and his favourite dessert is Arroz con Leche( rice with milk).  

Thank you Saul for sharing your story.

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