Cindy Ross
Letters from Papaturro, Cuscatlán

June 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002

June, 2002

Dear friends and family,

Hope this letter finds everyone well. Things here are going good. We finally got our first heavy rains of the season this last week and the farmers are now able to plant their crops. It is about three weeks later than normal, but it is better than nothing. With being here I am constantly surrounded by nature and get to see the wonderful part that God plays in it, from the beautiful orange sunset to the change of everything from brown to green with the coming of the rainy season. You also get to see how delicate the balance of nature really is. People here still burn their fields before planting. A couple of weeks ago, a field up from my house was burning but the fire quickly burned out of control. Out in the country, their are no firefighters to help and access to water in the fields is rare. The fire eventually died down with a little luck and a few prayers. But it makes you think how the people here work in a delicate balance with nature.

The fruit has been abundant lately. We have eaten enough mangos that they are coming out our ears!! We just finished the last of the jocotes. They are a small fruit that are bitter when green and sweet when red. We are also eating marañones, which you would know for its seed which is called the cashew nut. The fruit is both eaten and made into a fruit juice, and the seed it toasted in the shell. The shell is then cracked open and the nut eaten.

We just finished the month of the Virgin Mary. Every day the people of my community, in the month of May, pray the rosary together. Tony and Ellie are doing well. Tony will be 3 years old this month it is so hard to believe! He has learned to ride a tricycle and wants one for his birthday. Ellie is doing well in school and growing taller than ever. She has become fluent in Spanish and even helped me the other day when I didn't understand what somebody else was saying. Work is going good. I have started substituting for the teachers in the school. It keeps me busy at least one day a week. I am still teaching computer classes
five days a week and I'm impressed by some of the students' abilities. During the day I am running the game corner and teaching art. The kids have learned to play Uno, Connect Four, and Dominoes, among others, but their favorite is Sorry. It has also become a popular game with the youth.

I have decided to extend my stay here for another year. I enjoy my work and feel I can be an asset to the community if I contribute another year. Ellie is excited about staying longer. We hope to come home for Christmas but a lot will depend on funding. Not much other news for now. I hope to drop another line soon.

Peace,
Cindy

April, 2002

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry it has been a while since I have given a real update. Things here are going well. The weather has been warm as usual and it has rained almost every day for the past week and a half. This is very unusual because normally we don't get rain till mid May. People are worried that the rain season might end earlier than usual and are starting to prepare their fields now. Rode my first horse the other day. I also fell off my first horse the other day. The horse that I rode did not have a saddle and when he started running I didn't know how to stay on. Just a little bruised and everyone in the community got a good laugh out of it. Will try again later. I started the game corner. I was supposed to move into one of the old classrooms, but upon inspection the children were unable to move into the new school. I have been going around at night with the games and have been teaching both the parents and the kids, it has been great fun!!

Ellie is doing well in school. She keeps doing work at the house in order to keep up with the U.S. Tony is growing like a weed and is speaking pretty clearly in both English and Spanish. He had an ear infection last week, but with medication he has done fine. Not much else on the home front. Hope everyone is doing well. I will be back in the capital on the 10th and will try to write some more personal letters. Also, Marilyn received her first hearing aid. She said, and I quote, "I can hear music". Something really important to a 13-year-old girl. She will be getting a second one sometime this month. Thank you for all the help!!

Peace, Cindy

March, 2002

Dear Friends and family,

I would like to thank everyone again for all their financial support. As you know a majority of the funding has gone to help to pay my expenses here (rent, food, medical expenses, clothes, etc.), but I would like to show you where some of your money also went. Over $700 has gone towards buying art and craft supplies. This includes paper, markers, crayons, scissors, construction paper, beads, paint, clay, etc.

As of this month a Rincon de juegos (game corner) was started in the community with your help. Children in El Salvador do not have games at their house. These games were not only bought to help children to think, but will also be used in building self-esteem and working on conflict-resolution. Some of the games that were purchased were Memory, Connect four, Sorry, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Chess, Battleship, Pickup sticks, Twister, Mancala and puzzles along with other games. We are also going to start youth night so the youth in the community can come out and have a good safe time together. So far $200 dollars has been placed in this project.

At the end of this month I will finish taking pictures of everyone in the community. People in the Campo cannot afford a camera, much less the cost of developing the film. To develop a roll in El Salvador averages $10.00 a roll. This is a project where all the people in Papaturro will receive two free photographs of their family. The project will cost about $150. I am also creating a book of all the family pictures to keep in public record in El Salvador.

$75 dollars has been put towards the care and health of the baby next door, Estella. Estrella will be two months old on the 10th of April. Her mom is a single parent and receives no help from the father and her family is already financially strained. Recently she has a slight medical problem and part of the money went to help pay the doctor's bill. Medicine down here is just as expensive as in the States, the medicine alone was $20. The other part has gone to help buy clothes for the child, along with formula and other necessities.

$400 has thus far gone into the account to help Marilyn. The other woman who had offered to help with some of the finances has since backed out and this project has taken a lot longer than I expected, but I am still working towards my goal of Marilyn being able to hear.

Once again, THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP!! None of this would have been possible without your support.!!!

Peace, Cindy

February, 2002

Dear Friends and Family,

Things here are going great. I am finally getting everything settled in the house, not that I have a lot. I started to cut down all the weeds around my house and I am in the process of planting flowers. I will probably not plant them in the ground until mid May since we are in the dry season. We have not seen rain since Dec 31st and do not expect to see any till the beginning of May. This year they are predicting a drought, which would be detrimental to my community and all the communities like it. These people survive because of their crops, without this they cannot live. So say a prayer for a lot of rain in El Salvador! Some of the families in my community are harvesting sugar cane right now. Their is a cooperative in my community which gives each family who has sugar cane a chance to use the processing area to process it into dulce to sell. Wish I could send some home. It tastes so good and is extremely sweet. Computer classes are going well with the youth. I have about 12 that come on a daily basis, not including the children who come for art and English. I am amazed at some of these kids being able to pick it up so fast especially since they have never touched a computer before.

So far I have raised $350 from 4 different donors. I have been trying to work with another woman who has volunteered to help, but she is busy on other projects and so I am running on Salvadoran time. I have talked with Marilyn's parents, so they know that the money is ready for use. I am still trying to raise the full $2000 so if anyone has suggestions on how this can be done, please forward them on. Both of the kids are doing well. It seems they grow more and more every day. I got my tax returns back and have decided to use part of it for the kids and I to go to Panama for a week. I've always wanted to see the Panama Canal. Also the hotel room has carpeting, something I miss a lot!! Will cut short for now. Hope everyone is doing well.

One last bit of good news. They finished the school in my community yesterday. Only two days behind schedule. It even has flushing toilets!! All the gringos have been betting the flushing toilets don't last two months since most everyone in my community has never even used one, much alone can repair one!! Life goes on.

Peace, Cindy

Dear friends and family,
There is a revision to my last letter. I had written about $350 dollars being raised, but I forgot to write why.

This is the money that has been raised to date for Marilyn, the girl in my community who needs hearing aids. Since this last report another $100 was donated. This $450 will cover the cost of the hearing aids, but not the doctor's bill, the cost of batteries or repairs and replacement. We are still excepting donations for anyone who is interested. Sorry about the confusion.

Peace, Cindy

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