Water is piped or bucketed into the deep section of a lavadero. This child put water into a basin, for use in the top shallow section for scrubbing. The item was placed onto the scrubbing surface, Water was soaked into it . Soap was added.
I came upon this child, while visiting a rural community. I was fascinated by her energetic scrubbing, rinsing, and examining her work. After exchanging greetings, I showed her my camera. She nodded approval, with a serious face. I asked her to smile..she refused, until I said my name was Benedicto Loco. She tried to hold back from laughing at Crazy Benedict.
Although this is a technically poor photo, it remains one of my favorites. Children are no different in El Salvador than other places. Here was a child doing a family chore that is usually the work of teens and older folks. She, like so many other kids, in this tiny country, had a look that stays in my memory.
We installed a www.Cleanwaterforworld.org purification unit at this girls home in April 2010.
Every visit was memorable, especially, when I bid them farewell.
They put on a show, that included toddlers through teens, dancing and singing.
Their Rock Around The Clock had teens lifting and dancing with little partners.
Kids & Livestock
Ever since my first visit, in 1999, I’ve been fascinated by with this mode of mass transportation. I rode in back of Padre Daniel’s pick-up, with several from my Michigan delegation, on a dark night in November, that year, to the UCA. We rode to the University Of Central America’s soccer stadium. After an eternity of rocking, bouncing, and laughing, Padre Daniel stopped at a massive traffic jam at the UCA entrance. Its crowds were there to attend the tenth anniversary vigil, commemorating the murder of six Jesuit professors and their mother & daughter housekeepers
I compiled a gallery of photos, over the next several years, of how these people ride throughout El Salvador, in all kinds of weather. A photo that exists, only in my mind’s eye, shows two guys, draped in black plastic, playing cards as their truck splashed through heavy rain.
Click image for enlarged view
Cleanwaterfortheworld's system in Natalia de Siman
The clean water system was installed Sun, 4-25-10, at this girl’s home in Sta. Tecla, El Salvador
To visit Clean Water For The World’s home page, click here.
