Dear Friends

The greetings come with some good news. The academic year in El Salvador coincides with the calendar year, and nine of our students have finished their courses. Eight have completed their Baccalaureate, all with good grades and some with excellent grades. Yanira is the other graduating student, the last of those who embarked on long courses some years ago. She now has a licentiate, the equivalent of an MA, and she will begin her teaching career in the new year. Others are doing well on first year Baccalaureate and others on technical FE type courses and some have found work as a consequence of their studies.

And even with those who are still seeking employment their contribution to the life of the community is greatly improved by their ability to think analytically and involve themselves articulately in the various social programmes. One or two are deeply engaged in regional political activities.

Another welcome bit of educational news is that, the government has at last granted the El Tular School permission to expand and include baccalaureate courses in its curriculum. If and when it happens it will be crucial in the development of the women of the community. Up to now very few girls have had the opportunity to take their schooling beyond the ninth grade, and most of them much lower. Through the work of our partners in The Balsamo Association the role of women has developed enormously, but there remain many families clinging on to some old fashioned ideas on the subject. These have in some measure been reinforced by the reluctance of parents to expose their very sheltered teenage girls to that wicked world beyond the bounds of the community. So a Baccalaureate course which does not require them to travel will be a godsend.

As an aside, I remember once naively asking some of the parents, why they couldn’t just arrange for the boys from the village to protect their daughters on the way to the high school, and got the reply “It’s the boys from the village we’re worried about!”

The changes in the school will eventually come to us as a request for financial help, because the Government always expects the local community to bear some of the costs no matter how poor they are. But for now we will just celebrate the opportunity.

And talking of celebration, the end of Advent is a wonderful time in El Tular. It is the time of the “Zambumba”. The harvest is over and the men have some space, and a dozen or more will use it to prepare props and costumes, lighting and seating, and cast for the Zambumba, which is a traditional musical masque to celebrate Christmas, though its origins clearly go back way beyond the Spanish conquest.

The cast consists of 3 wise men who play guitars, disciples who sing and dance, the Devil who creates mischief in the audience before falling under the sword of the hero, the Archangel Gabriel who is protecting the heroine, the Blessed Virgin. I remember sitting in an area lit by glimmering rags in jars of petrol with forty or fifty people waiting for ages, until out of the dark scrub slow rhythmic guitar chords first insinuated themselves into our ears and then bore the sacred procession in magnificent costume into the centre of the clearing. Magic! And that will happen 20 times in different parts of the community to herald Christmas.

The event itself consists of acts of worship and the eating of the fatted pig or the largest of the hens that inhabit the front porch, and after that unfortunately an unhealthy conjunction of alcohol and home-made fireworks! (Not much alcohol it must be said, because not much can be afforded, but with blood counts like theirs it doesn’t take much.) So my Christmas greetings to them always include ‘safe’ along with ‘merry’. They think I’m a wimp!

The Wellsprings trustees join me and our El Tular committee in sending our warmest greetings and thanks to you all for your faithful support over the years.

Sincerely

Brian