ikram

Well, yes, doing research. What can I say. It was so much fun and easy getting to know people, different organizations. Joining the activities they have. Now I found out that that was the easy life, the easy part of doing research.

Now I got to the moment where the less fun part starts.. Actually doing research.

An important part of my research is having workshops and interviews with the youth participating in prevention programs. 2 weeks ago I had my first workshop and that just went absolutely great. The group was fun, easygoing and just so into learning new things. I must say that this was a youth group in a village with 20 families about an hour walking from the main road. So they were in general quite happy with the presence of outsiders. I also had my first interviews with people from that group. Still have to work on my interviewing skills and maybe use some other methods than just words to get my information, but yes, working on that.

Last Wednesday was sooo different. Things started going a bit weird in the afternoon. After a month of trying to go to an activity of a governmental organization I actually succeeded. This group of young people had weekly activities in a community house. So, I went there, the group leader and a supervisor from the organization told me that they hadn’t prepared anything for that day. So I said, well, I have never seen these kids in my life, but if you want to, I could give a workshop. They thought it was a great idea. I wasn’t that convinced, but decided to go with the flow and thought it could bring me some useful information. So, I entered the room and to my surprise I saw that these ‘young people’ were actually extremely young people. The youngest was 3 and the oldest about 13 years old. Most of them about 7-8. I was like ‘I am so sorry but my workshop is not designed for children this young!’. They told me to try. So I did. Fuck. I am not that much in to little children. I chose this subject cause I didn’t want to work with children! I do not like working with children! I do not have the patience to work with children! Aaaah…

Needless to say, 2 hours later I had a major headache and was so tired. But the most important part of the day was still waiting for me. A workshop with a youth group in a community with high gang presence. These children were a bit older, but so active, too active. I had planned a 2 hour workshop. At the end I was only able to do the activities I had planned for the first hour.. and that took me 2,5 hours! So frustrating..

After the workshop I stayed talking to one of the older guys who kind of leads the group. He told me it maybe wasn’t such a good idea to have this workshop here. He said the subject was a bit difficult. They were already having problems with the gangs in the neighbourhood. The gang had threatened to kill him and the other leader (I usually hang out with and stay with whenever I am in that community). I told him we didn’t talk about weird stuff that could be a danger for the gang. He said it didn’t really matter. These gangs find so many things suspicious. I really hope my workshop won’t get them in to more problems than they already have.

I don’t know about you girls, but I think I have a research-dip. Bleh, I had enough. Patty came to visit me 2 weeks ago. We had the most amazing time together. Went to the beach, had lots of fun and met some cool people there. Good for Patty that she is back in Guatemala now, far far away from all the temptations. For me, however, it is only an hour by bus.. So I spent the weekend there doing absolutely nothing, haha. Was great, but now I am back in the city, the only thing I can do is thinking of the next opportunity to go back the hang out and relax. Bad thoughts, bad thoughts… Focus!

love you and miss you all!

So far I have only written a bit extreme stuff. However, you guys must know that not all my days are like that. Most of my days pass without anything interesting happening. What I also found out is that gang members, the pandilleros, are actually normal people, hahah. Seriously! Yesterday I had a little conversation with one of the ´leaders´ of a small clicka of one of the major gangs here. He told me he could organize the guys to tell me something about their life, so I could spread around the ´truth´ and not the bullshit many people are writing about gangs and their causes.

Anyways, I have lots to tell, but I´m gonna use this post for some good news. Cause, I don´t want to make my mother cry again…

Starting with some very good news: I have an academic supervisor! Whaaaa.. I had contact with an organisation here in San Salvador. They do lots of research about many different subjecs, and they also have a department of youth and development. They told me a while ago that they didn´t have time for academic supervision, but that I could contact them when I was in the country and that they could give me some recommendations. A couple of days ago I finally dared to send them an email. But I didn´t really know why I was contacting them in the first place and what I would say. My appointment was with Wim Savenije. He is a Dutch researcher who has been living here for about 10 years. I have read many of his articles and books. He has done a lot of research on poverty, exclusion, violence and gangs. Well, I had an appointment with him, but he did not show up. But the next day he called me, we had coffee, he liked my research and he is going to help me!!! It was nice talking to someone who knows a lot about my subject, the theory and the way things work in this country. And the funny thing was, when he saw my research question (the first part is: in which ways is salvadoran youth being prevented from joining youth gangs), he said ´that is easy to answer, nothing is happening in this country´. Funny, because that was exactly the reason why I thought that such a research would be complete bullshit.. But, the second part of my question is way more interesting. And besides, everybody I talk to says that my research is so incredibly important. Or, well, maybe not my research, but the subject. This is something the country needs. Something to stop the circle of violence.

Oh, I told Wim about my Soyapango adventure and about the 1 dollar I had for the gangsters. He had to laugh, but told me that 1 dollar would only make them angry because they expect more from foreigners. He told me to bring 5-10 dollars and an extra 10 hidden somewhere in case I did feel uncomfortable somewhere, so I could always take a taxi and leave the place.

I have more good news. Today I went to a workshop with Fundahmer in a small village called Las Mesas. There were about 20 people between 13 and 20 years old. It was such a cool group and I had so much fun with them. I decided to have my first workshop for my research with them. They reacted very enthusiastic.  The workshop will be next week thurday! Exciting!

But before that: weekend! I am going to a barbeque of my 2 spinning teachers (they are married). And on sunday we will go to a football tournament in Las Mesas. Cheerleading and working on my (salsa)dancing skills :))

Miss you all! xxxxxxxxx

And thank you for all the veeeerrrryyy sweet emails!

The last time I wrote I was so excited about all the crazy things that happened in my first week in El Salvador. After that crazy week things were quite peaceful and relaxed. I had something to do every day, but not that much. I found a place to stay, got to know some people, and had my first interviews. I travelled a bit with Fundahmer to the villages to have reunions with the youth there. They are having these meetings to analyze what these youth would like to do the next year during the monthly reunions they will have with Fundahmer. So, it was the same concept with each group. It was nice to get to know the people and the villages.

With Valentines Day Jenny, Angela (girls working at Fundahmer) and I went with some boys from the village Los Naranjos to a little party in another village: Las Mesas. The girls from Los Naranjos weren’t allowed to join us. We had to walk 20 minutes through the forest to the other village. The people from the Los Naranjos weren’t really happy with the fact that we were going. They thought it was dangerous. At the end they let us go with 4 boys from the village. The youngest were 12 and 14 years old. They usually don’t leave the village that much and loved going to this party with us. The party was in Las Mesas, in a community house. They had some speakers and salsa and reggaeton all night long. The party was organized by the youth from Las Mesas. And everybody was there, from 8 till 80 years old The boys from Los Naranjos loved it! First they said they wouldn’t dance, but at 11 o’clock, when it was time to leave for us, they wanted to stay. They danced all the time! Hahah, was lots of fun! I also got to meet some youth of Las Mesas. Fundahmer is working with them as well. This Thursday we will go there to have a meeting, like the other ones.

The past weeks I also spent some time with the guys from Homies. One even bought me a rose for Valentines Day, which is by the way the day of love AND friendship here We went to eat soup at the Mercado.. It’s nice hanging out with them. I got to know better what it means to be a pandillero, a gang member. However, it didn’t help me that much with my research on prevention. So at one moment I asked one of the guys: Ok, tell me, what do you do for young people, who are not in a gang, to prevent them from joining gangs!?! He was like: huh, for people who are not in a gang? Well, not much.. Anyways, it seems to me that Homies is more a network of solidarity for people from the Barrio 18 gang. They mostly help family members of gang members and gang members who are in prison.. But Homies did know an organisation in Soyapango, the poor neighbourhood I mentioned the last time, that worked with young people at risk! Whaa, great! Anyways, I went there with Homies, talked to the lady, and agreed to come back on Monday to join a meeting they would have with the kids about Tolerance. The problem was, I had to go there alone. So that was yesterday. I must say it was the first time I was afraid here.

So… going to Soyapango by myself was an idea that many people did not really like. They told me to be careful, not to wear any jewellery and not to bring money. I left my house with 1 dollar for the bus and 1 dollar in case gang members would enter de bus and ask for money (the lady I am staying with told me to do this). (And of course, some extra protection: I was disguised: I looked en felt Canadian! ;) ok, ok, inside joke). I took a bus to the city centre and from there it took me a while to find the right bus to Soyapango. When I finally found one, I entered, made sure the driver and the guy collecting the money knew where I had to go. Then the long ride started. I knew it wasn’t that far. But the bus stopped a couple of times for about 15 min to wait for more people to get in. After a while, we were finally moving away from the centre to the poorer suburbs. Then I started to recognize some stores and streets I had seen the day I went there with Homies. So I thought I was almost there and was waiting for a sign from the driver. Well, nothing happened. 10 minutes later the bus was completely empty and we were at the FINAL STOP!!!! What the fuck was I doing there?!?! There were only lots of busses.. and guys hanging around. I was getting afraid. The guys from my bus started counting the money they had earned so far. Another guy entered our bus and started talking to me. Some bullshit about nothing. They told me they would leave soon and that I would be at the church (where I had to get out) in about 30 min. After a couple of minutes about 6 guys started walking to our bus. My heart started beating as hell. There was no one else around. Some houses. I couldn’t leave the bus. I didn’t know the way. That would be even more dangerous. About 20 minutes later some girls entered the bus, then more passengers and finally we left that creepy place. And yes, they dropped me at the church. I found the building with some trouble. I arrived an hour too late. Luckily everybody there was soo nice to me. The ‘at risk’ youth were quite excited about my presence. After the meeting I left quickly to be able to get home before dark. I took the bus and saw all the places I had recognized on the way. They were just half a block from the church! The Fuckers! The lady I am renting a room from told was so relieved when I got home. She told me that the final stops are the most dangerous places. There is where the gangs mostly hang out and rob the busses. 

This Friday I have to go there again. But now I know the way!

Well, these were some new adventures. Don’t worry. Besides moving around in dangerous places I also do lots of fun stuff ;) I went to the beach this weekend! A friend has a house at the beach. We stayed there with a small group of people, had a barbeque and went to a reggae-ska festival in one of the surfing villages. Another friend was performing there with his ska band. Was really cool!. And I finally found the spot where all the tourists hang out: The beach! Next week Patty, a classmate who is doing her research in Guatemala, will come and visit me here. Looking forward to that and making the beaches unsafe together!

Love, ikram

Dear friends and family,

I am in El Salvador! Everybody thought I was crazy, including myself Going to one of the most violent countries in the world! But here I am and I am liking it!

The last weeks back home I was so incredibly nervous about going to El Salvador. Even at the airport, saying goodbye to the darlings that came out of their bed in the middle of the night just just to see me for the last time, I couldn’t believe I was actually going to this country nobody knows anything about. I had a short stop in Guatemala and I was just looking around, checking out the people, how they looked like. How people that go to El Salvador look like. I must say they looked pretty normal..

After a long journey, I finally arrived at the airport of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador! Emily, a girl from the organization Fundahmer I had contact with, came to pick me up. At the office/hostel the volunteers and the director were waiting for me. It was such a nice welcome. It was so good to feel that I wasn’t alone here. And to know that there are more people, foreign girls, living and working in this country, And that they loved being here.

Well, let me tell you something about the reason I am here. As you probably know, I am doing the masters Children’s Rights, track International Development Studies. As a part of this master I have to do research and write a thesis about it. My research is about violence prevention programs for youth in El Salvador. As you might know, El Salvador has a big problem with youth gangs and youth violence. In the first month of this year already 13 people a DAY were murdered. The government has reacted to the phenomenon of youth gangs with higly repressive measures.. Putting everybody with gang related tattoos in jail. These laws were declared unconstitutional, but practically nothing has changed. Now the government has a program called Mano Amiga in which they say they want to do something about youth violence prevention. They get a lot of money for it, especially from the European Union. However, human rights organizations claim that the project remains on paper and that the government is not really interested in prevention. Repressive laws attackt more votes.

Anyways, this was probably the boring part for you.. A little bit more interesting was my day with Luis, the director of Homies Unidos. Homies is an organization of gang members that are not active in violence (anymore). They try to help gangmembers leave the gang, help remove their tattoos and they have different prevention activities. That morning I was so nervous, because my research kind of depends on them and if they are willing to have me around. Luis was still working on something, so I was talking to his friend and explained him what I was going to do here. Somewhere in my story I used the word maras which is the word lots of people usually use when they refer to youth gangs. He interrupted me and said that I should never say that again. He, and the other people from Homies, are from a gang called Raza/Barrio 18. The word maras, he said, refers to the Mara Salvatrucha (the biggest rival of B18). So everytime I say maras, that is good for the ego of the MS, but it downgrades the B18. He said he felt angry and humiliated. So, if I wanted to say something about gangs, I should say pandilla which just means gang. That would refer to both the Mara Salvatrucha and the Barrio 18. Everybody happy. I ofcourse listened very carefully to this guy who had just spent 15 years of his life in jail.

After this talk Luis took me for a ride. We went to the city center. He showed me the drug addicts, prostitutes, a MS-member who was Hiv positive, a crack house where people can smoke for 25 cents, the AA, children sniffing glue, people living almost on the railway, neigborhoods of cardboard houses, a girl who used to be a drugaddict and MS member who has a 3 year old kid now…. After that we went to get the best pupusas (local food) in town. I felt so weird while Luis was showing me all these things as if they were some kind of tourist attraction. Then he told me, this is El Salvador, you wanna know something about gangs, you want to say something sensible about youth violence, then you have to see where they come from, you have to see the reality of these people. This was just a short introduction.

So, this was something about my first days in San Salvador. Don’t worry, not everyday is as exciting as that day with Luis.. I will probably spend quite a lot of time with Fundahmer which I will tell something about on another occasion. And I have an appointment with the National Security department something later this week. They are in charge of the mano amiga, the national prevention program. That is the final organization I have to get in my pocket

Yeeeeeaaaaahh!!!! Stage is afgelopen! hehehe… Zó erg was het niet, maar ben wel erg blij dat het voorbij is! De laatste weken stage waren een stuk interessanter en hadden we meer ruimte om leukere activiteiten te ondernemen en onze hersennen te gebruiken. Zo hebben we in een paar uurtjes 200 armbandjes verkocht (net als die van LiveStrong, maar dan blauw) om extra geld binnen te halen voor de stichting.. Het leuke was dat niemand het zag zitten en iedereen dacht dat zoiets in Ecuador niet kon werken, maar dat we binnen een paar uurtjes Sos-Kinderdorpen-achtig werk alles verkocht hadden!! :)) 

Erika heeft een stukje in de (landelijke!) krant geschreven over de stichting, Fundación Creer. Hier de link (helaas zonder foto´s): http://www.ultimasnoticias.ec/solo_texto_search.asp?id_noticia=1665&anio=2008&mes=1&dia=14

Vrijdag ons afscheidsfeestje gehad. Erg raar én erg jammer om nieuwe vrienden te verlaten.. Maar 1 troost: we zien elkaar in 2014, WK in Brazilië! :) Nu met Caro een mini-tour door Ecuador aan het maken. Eerst wat vrienden in Cuenca opgezocht én met heel veel pijn en moeite Parque Nacional Cajas bereikt. Nu een dagje in Guayaquil bij Nube (aiesec) aan het logeren en morgen met Erika, Enrique en wat andere mensen naar Montañita! Hét dorp voor feesten, surf & gringos! helaas gaat Caro zondag terug naar Brazilië en blijf ik nog voor een paar dagen met Erika… Daarna gaat het voor mij echt beginnen: alleen op gringo-tour! Niet voor lang, want 1 april komt mijn mammie langs. 10 dagen samen in Buenos Aires. Maar goed, zover is het nog niet.

Foto´s van de afgelopen maand zijn nu ook online: www.flickr.com/iekjepiek  

Chau!

Zoals de meeste van jullie weten, hou ik niet van schrijven. Ik was dit ook niet van plan, totdat ik er achter kwam dat zelfs David niet wist dat ik hier bij een familie woon…..

Ik woon dus bij een familie in Quito… Met een zusje van 18 (Erika), zus van 26 (Veronica) en papa en mama.

Ik werk in Cumbaya (iets buiten Quito, soort van Aerdenhout) bij Fundacion Creer samen met een Braziliaans meisje, Caro. Het idee was dat wij samen muziek,lectuur en kunst therapie zouden uitvoeren bij kinderen met kanker in een openbare ziekenhuis in Quito. Maar in de praktijk komt het er op neer dat wij met z´n 2en de hele dag aan het knippen & plakken zijn op kantoor en 3 middagen in de week naar de kindjes toe gaan met onze kunstwerkjes, zodat zij een beetje kunnen verven  en ´blij´ kunnen zijn. Ik had van te voren al bedacht dat dit werk niet iets voor mij zou zijn, maar arme Caro had er zo veel zin in… Nu dus niet meer :s

Na het werk en in het weekend doen we wel veel leuke dingen. Met carnaval zijn we met Aiesec naar Crucita en Manta geweest. 6 dagen aan het strand gechilld en (aiesec)mensen uit heel Ecuador leren kennen. Na 14 maart, als ik klaar ben met stage, ga ik die mensen opzoeken en zo de andere mooie steden van Ecuador leren kennen…

Hiernaast hebben Erika, mijn zusje, en ik ook nog een poging ondernomen om vulkaan Tungurahua te bekijken toen het even extra-actief was. Ondanks dat er in de krant stond dat de wegen afgesloten waren, konden we Baños (het dorpje) gewoon met bus bereiken. Het was helemaal uitgestorven én ook nog eens bewolkt waardoor we helemaal niks konden zien toch lol gehad met een groepje Argentijnen & watervallen-fietstocht door prachtig landschap. Dit weekend ga ik er (hopelijk) weer naartoe met Caro, haar zus hier Lili, Enrique (Mexicaan met wie we veel optrekken) en wat Aiesec-mensen.

Dit was even kort mijn leven hier.. Bekijk de foto´s! Véél leuker dan dit verhaaltje! Kus, iekie

foto´s zijn te vinden op www.flickr.com/iekjepiek

Hallo lieve mensen,

Ik ben aangekomen in Ecuador! Op deze website hou ik jullie op de hoogte van mijn leventje hier én komen al mijn foto´s!

Groetjes, ikram