Life in San Salvador. La vida de los capitalinos.

The people of the capital city of San Salvador are in a state of depression due to the level of violence.  They are very preoccupied by the increase of crime in their city.  This, according to La Prensa Grafica, a Salvadoran newspaper this Sunday, February 8, 2015.  Citing their own polls, the entire metropolital area is concerned, but six districts were identified, according to 75% of the residents, as being bad or very bad with regard to securidad and public safety.  Most of the concerns come from ongoing gangland style killings of police officers, extending to interfeudal  gang murders, extortion, drug related violence, and petty theft on buses and on the street.  Sooner or later, almost every one seems to become just one more violence related statistic in a sea of crime, most of which goes unresolved.

Yet, life seems to go on for most regular folks.  Maria Antonia is still selling newspapers for "solo una cora", one quarter, on the corner of Bulevar Constitution and Avenida Motocross.  Her daughter is in kinder now.

Private security guards are still on the job, although all the faces seem new to me.  I think their bosses reassign them periodically, moving them to new locations.

I even ran into an old friend, Roxanna.

She looked better than ever.  I think she is a reformed drug addicted prostitute, but I can't say that for sure.  When I first met her a couple of years ago she looked to be in pretty rough shape, living on the street and begging on the street corner.  Now, she tells me she has been staying in a room at the neighborhood church thanks to the pastor.  And she is set to move into a small apartment nearby.  "But, I need thirty dollars for the first month's rent."  I said I can only help you out with part of that.  Then, we went shopping at the Super Selectos grocery store for groceries.  I even met her daughter who is very pregnant.

Roxanna asked if we could meet again the next Tuesday.  I showed up a bit late that day, walking on my way home as I do every day.  Roxanna was not there.  Perhaps, I had arrived too late, or perhaps a thousand other things might have happened.  Our paths may never cross again.

Several weeks later, I stopped to see Carlos and Yolanda, the couple who had housed me two years ago.  They told me that they had run into Roxanna near the church and she told them that I was here again, and how overjoyed she was with my help of food and rent.  Carlos told me that she really has straighted out her life, and is living honorably.

There are some new folks on my walking route each day.   Adonai is a young man who walked along with me for a mile or so uphill on my way home one day, pushing his ice cream cart in the street.  You can't malipulate very easily here on the side walks.  From cars parked on the walkways, to dog excrement, to busted up concrete, to open holes resulting from stolen metal grates, to garbage, you walk with you eyes down so as not to fall, or worse.  Sometimes, you need to move to the street which presents an additional risk of fas moving buses and cars.  There is very little give from drivers to pedestrians here, who routinely jay walk even on the busiest streets.

Adonai explained that he works for his uncle and is on commission.  A cone costs fifty cents.  Adonai works from 9 or 9:30 to almost 6:00pm.  "What's a really great day? I inquired.  Explaining that he get 30 percent of his sales, he said "when I sell $50.00 worth, then I get to keep $15.00."

Insecurity may be the biggest issue for Salvadorans.  But, I would put garbage right up there.  There is no recycling done in the homes.  It's done on the street.  People bag their garbage in plastic bags, then take them to the curb, or the corner, or the entrance to their gated community.  There it may sit for several days until the garbage truck arrives.  In the meantime, the dogs and birds have a field day, picking apart the bags looking for food.  and then there are the recyclers, mostly men, who walk throughout the city carrying large bags filled with the cans and plastic they can scavage from the bags on the streets.  Sometimes they arrive before the dogs, feeling the outside of each bag to detect a recyclable item, then ripping that area open to extract the can or bottle.

This pile lay on the street corner for three straight days before it disappeared.  The garbage men, aided occasionally by a woman, have to scoop up this garbage, bare handed.  They then do some recycling on the back of the truck.

It's all part of daily life in San Salvador.