Security in El Salvador

We have been taken care of well in El Salvador. Quite frankly, the security we have received has been a bit unnerving.

One of the messages I try to get across in the spring semester of BECA 580 is that we should do our best to blend in, to not draw attention to ourselves, and to behave like the guests we are in the country we are visiting. And we make every effort to do so, by considering customs, manners of dress, issues of modesty, etc.. We prepared accordingly for this trip.

Here, as I have mentioned in earlier blogs, violence is an everyday occurrence. Although we have been privileged not to see any of it ourselves, we are reminded that it is an undercurrent in everyday life. When you go into a drugstore, there is a guard with a rifle. When you go into a gas station, there is a guard with a rifle. The same is true of restaurants. We drove up to El Boquerón, the mouth of a volcano, and in the parking lot was a jeep with four security guards with rifles. And so on.

One of our contacts here - Evelyn Huezo - works professionally as a social worker for the country's police. Because of the ongoing violence and the recognition that, as North Americans who must have money, we are prime targets, she arranged for the PPI, a division of the police, to provide officers to accompany us on trips to various parts of the country - on our shoots. So we have traveled in a tourist bus that seats twenty, followed or led by a police vehicle - usually a truck - with the respective paint, lettering, light and siren that indicate the police. PPI stands for Protección para Personas Importantes (Protection for Important Persons) - very embarrassing! And when the lights flash and the siren blares in front of us as we move through an area, we'd like to put bags over our heads.

We are very grateful for how well our friends here have taken care of us. But so much for "blending in"!