Gracias El Salvador. Vaya bien...

I am back in Canada. This is not a dream.

Time has raced by, especially in the last week as we prepared for the presentation of the Romeo y Julieta scene. Everything has happened so fast that I still don't feel like I am back.

We completed the Romeo y Julieta project with great success. I worked with the students on a variety of exercises for text, performance, character, etc. over two weeks just focused on the scene. Much of the work we do here in Canada when addressing Shakespeare, I managed to translate...or Patricia did for the most part! Though many of the students took some time to understand all the text and appreciate how to interpret the situation, some were very quick to give outstanding and clear performances.

On the day of the performancet here was no rain and a fair crowd was present. In the morning, a pre-requisite scandal took place when ten of the students (the majority of whom were in the Prologue) didn't manage to get on the bus from Copapayo, a neighbouring town. But when they arrived by the afternoon, everyone cheered and we managed to get in our dress rehearsal.

Perhaps the only problem was that the audience arrived early! This is definitely not the norm in El Salvador and Tatiana was excited to see this new tendency. We posted the show time as 4pm, expecting to start by 4:30 because people always show up late in El Salvador! But people began to arrive at 3:30! We barely managed to squeeze in a dress rehearsal because a crowd had gathered outside.

We even managed to interest the owner of Las Ruinas to come. Though he was highly critical of the students and of the show, he did say that he was happy to see the students being introduced to Shakespeare and that he was interested in seeing a professional production of R+J in his theater one day.

It was, to me, a major victory. This man had expressed so much skepticism about the entire venture of Es Artes when I first met him, that I was thrilled to find him even slightly interested in the future of the project.

The students were very excited and very thankful at the end. They presented me with a beautiful cotton shirt on Friday. We all hugged when I left, tears were shed and a general sense of accomplishment was what I was left with. I left behind a few gifts and things for the props and wardrobe. I had hoped to shed a huge amount of unnecessary weight in my bags, but my suitcase still weighed 50lbs when I got to the airport!!

I didn't bring back very much but a heavy heart, full of memories, song and a lot of humidity!! The weather in Toronto is actually the same as what I experienced there, 35 degrees and humid.

I find it hard to quantify and qualify all the things I have in mind when I think about this amazing experience. Perhaps that's why I got political in my last blog.  It's impossible not to see injustice in El Salvador and it's just as hard not to want to get involved in helping.

Not getting involved in the politics in El Salvador, when one has worked and lived there is also impossible. A project like Es Artes has so many different major organisations, donors and sponsors behind it that it has become a puzzle of political and personal interests. I said to Patricia once that it sometimes feels like everybody wants a piece of Es Artes.

Tatiana said in one of our final encounters, that Es Artes really needs people who are ready to do social work. Perhaps as somewhat of a challenge, she said "We need people here that fit the right profile." I wondered if I was the right profile.

In all honesty, living in the tropics for the first time for an extended period of time can be very intense. In the last week, I saw more insects of an impressive size than ever in my life. Spiders the size of my hand, centipedes, wasps. Living without access to warm water, drinkable water, basic goods and services is not always easy for a middle class Canadian.

But when I took my first hot shower last night, it somehow felt all wrong. It helps that it's over 30 degrees here too, but nonetheless...My cold shower seemed so much more right somehow! I feel like I have been bitten by a tropical bug...one that makes me yearn to go back to that heat, those faces, that work.

I am almost certain that I will apply to return to El Salvador to work with the Es Artes program again. Tatiana and I spoke about the potential of my returning to do teacher training and I would like to explore the prospect of staying four to six months there next year.

In the meantime, I will carry many fond memories of Suchitoto and the country in my heart and mind. I will likely write more in this blog at some point, when something comes back to me in a flurry of colour, sounds and taste.

I have started putting spicy sauce on everything and am really looking forward to giving my mother the homemade chili sauce from Lupita's restaurant in the Centro of Suchitoto. I have so many stories to share, things to tell and really, I just want to start thinking about the next time I get to back.

Though I am thrilled to be home, I will carry the feelings I have from that country for some time I know. It may be two or more days before I feel grounded again.

On my last day in San Salvador, Tatiana asked me to help a little with the combat she has planned for the upcoming production of The House of Bernarda Alba. I was surprised to hear that this included several beatings and a drowning sequence at the end. I tried to help as much as possible, but their rehearsal was only four hours long. We took almost that whole time to work on the fights. But otherwise, they wouldn't have had anyone to help them! I hope what I did for them was useful.

I also want to spend more time doing stage combat next time I go down. There simply isn't much of a tradition in El Salvador and all of the actors have stories about getting hurt in fights onstage because no one there teaches that.

Regardless of what I do when I return and even when I return, I know El Salvador will always present it's own challenges, it's own rewards, a welcoming smile and an open hand. Muchas gracias Suchitoto, El Salvador y todo el pueblo Slavadoreano! Hasta la huega y que tu vaya bien!! Con muchos besos...Nicolas VB Toronto Canada, August 31st 2010.