I am at the end of my third week here in Suchitoto and feel like I have so much to relate that it may be hard to include it all! This country is amazing, the people here are incredibly welcoming and the experience is proving to be, hands down, one of the greatest in my life.

I arrived on the 9th of July, at the beginning of the rainy season. It has indeed rained almost every day and the storms are very impressive and very powerful. Once, it rained so hard over night that the municipal water pipes were somehow damaged and the entire town was without running water for four days! But I have come to understand that life here is about adaptation and survival. So many things here can hurt you, make you ill or even kill you that people have a different understanding and relationship to danger. When I first arrived, I was reminded of some of those dangers when I found a dead scorpion on the floor and a Coral Snake (highly venomous) on the road by the lake. I once asked my colleague and translator Patricia to help me translate the term "comfort zone" and she found it near impossible, adding that El Salvadoreans don't have any!

The drives to and from San Salvador have been a reminder of that. Negotiating the traffic between clouds of thick black smoke that pours out of the buses is not an experience for the faint of heart. I am convinced that I would not be able to cope and watching Tatiana or Patricia drive is always entertaining, to say the least.

Tito and I have also been joking about what we call "Ted and Frank moments". It would seem that Frank Holte and Ted Derry had no shortage of moments when their North American safety standards came crashing into the way things are often done here. I have lived several myself. Yesterday, we loaded a truck full of set pieces and props for the "Voces de los Cerros" performance taking place in one of the local schools. Filling the back of the truck, seemingly beyond it's actual capacity, is the norm here. Then, using rope to bind everything is place is the next step. Finally, everyone, children and elderly men alike, climb on top and hold on for dear life! I have actually seen a passenger bus so full of people, that a man was hanging outside the door, unable to place his feet inside, swinging about as the bus careened down the highway at over 90km per hour! I was told to expect things to be vastly different here and it has in fact become a joke between many of us, that our Canadian safety standards are not exactly being met here!

But for all the danger that one can (at times) encounter, the generosity, courage and heart of the people here is beyond parrallel. Everyone greets you warmly in the street and people are always very keen to know what you think of this amazing country. I find myself constantly being invited to share in people's meals, homes, activities, etc. It never ceases to amaze me how people who often have so little are so willing to give and share so much. How and why is it that in Canada, where we have everything we could ever ask for and so much more, that we somehow are always too busy, too stressed, too angry and too selfish to share in what we have?


The work at Esartes is equally invigorating. The kids are all courageous, intelligent, gifted and willing to engage. Many of them work and/or go to school as well as participating in the project, some work for 6 hours before coming to volunteer their time to learn about theater. On Saturdays, the group is as large as 40 kids, while the weekday classes are usually comprised of a group of about 8 to 15. This is the group with which I work the most. I have been working with them on some of the basics of performance and the work of the actor. We have done some basic clown, some movement work, voice work, Commedia, Mask and are starting to work increasingly with text. I brought a Spanish version of Romeo and Juliet with me and we are about to embark on a a journey into Shakespeare's world, albeit en Espanol. This is something that I am extremely excited about. I long to be able to share with them the masterful work of the Bard and invite them to explore his worlds.

Suchitoto is a magical place. A 19th century town that hardly seems to have changed in aspect in over 150 years. The streets are almost all cobblestone and I was admiring a labourer replace some of the cobblestone at Esartes. Breaking up stones with a hammer (and no safety glasses of course), this gentleman of some 60 or 70 years old, would place them in just the right fashion so as to create a level surface, then pack dirt in the spaces between the stones. I mused that this technique looks like it hasn't changed in 200 years!

But for all it's antique and historic charm, I am really starting to realize that this town could become the epicenter of El Salvadorean culture and tourism. And the Esartes project is proving to embody the re-birth of theater in this country. After years of civil war, most of the theater artists left the country. Notably, when a famous actor was executed publicly on television, nearly all of the actors in the country fled to Eastern Europe. And now, with many finally choosing to return, the country seems to be experiencing a veritable artistic Renaissance. There isn't really much of a theatrical tradition any more here, but that is starting to change and Esartes promised to be at the very hub of this rebirth. The project is so exciting and so promising for many Salvadorean artists that it is not uncommon to talk about it as a major stepping stone, a springboard. Indeed, Suchitoto promises to become the Stratford of El Salvador, nurturing and envigorating the entire theater community, mobilizing it and energising it into a new, unprecedented level of activity. Clearly, there are many challenges, but the heart, will and energy coming from the local population is nothing short of awesome and with such fervent desire, success is not really optional, it is going to happen. Ressources need to be pooled, talent needs to be harnessed, political divergences need to be resolved, funding needs to be found, but the will of the people, the energy of the kids involved is so strong that I have little doubt that this project will have a long and amzing life. I consider myself truly blessed to be part of it, even if only in a small capacity.