Saturday morning Group Violin in San Salvador
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sat 18 Sep 2010 15:25
night. Sean had a 1 on 1 violin lesson yesterday and is in a group violin
session with 8 other kids, he is very keen on this, even though he has to
working Spanish so he is learning violin and Spanish at the same time. The
session is in an old house similar to the big houses in some of the suburbs
of Melbourne (Heidelberg) and Sydney, Joburg in a very well establish old
neighbor hood with a small garden but a big rambling house that has been
turned in a school of music with the big rooms now able to host groups. But
outside the noise is dominated by traffic and horns as there is a busy road
passing by. The streets are lined with over hanging trees, and you pass many
malls and markets, you could be in many major cities of the world.
In understanding the contrast in El Salvador they 6 Million people but 2
Million live in the USA with the biggest source of foreign income from those
2Million sending money back to El Salvador. But I believe an even bigger
influence in the modern El Salvador is that during the 15 years of war in
the 80s/90s many people moved to the USA, especially for their education,
all these people are now in their 30, 40, 50s, and have come back with
ideas, money and motivation to make this country work. Like South Africa you
now have two levels of people, those who have stayed and those who have a
good middle/ upper class built from those who have been educated abroad, and
brought back ideas. That is why when we are out at night, many people will
speak very good English, and many are out eating in USA like restaurants,
you could have been at Fashion Island in Newport Beach California last night
except signs and people are speaking in Spanish. With the currency been US
dollars it makes it easy to relate to USA, one of the biggest USA Embassies
in the world is situated here.
All the people are really nice, but it is this middle class that is going
and is driving the recovery in this country. They have a very well
established education policy so all kids must be educated by law which will
be a huge effect in 10 years, and have a very big University. But many will
go to USA for higher education.
When you look at the countries in the Central American group Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador it is clear that this country is the
business hub and growing, and is well ahead in its development plans, and
policies, it could easily become the next Costa Rica/ Switzerland of Central
America. You can see this today when the government has introduced some very
hard rules around involvement in gangs(originating from US and Mexico with
drug links) and they signed a law this week that any involvement/ membership
means instant imprisonment for 3 to 6 years, the policy was opposed by the
gangs (which a few but out there) last week where they threatened the bus
drivers and did effect the day to day life. The Government held it's ground
used arm as a bus service and now the law is signed, this shows promise like
the new "Development Bank" mergers into one development bank focused on
making funds/ loans available for public development projects, and private
business and economy developments, which is key in this time when private
banks around the world today are conservative in their loans to the private
sector. All this gives this country real hope and future.
Today we will go to kids Museum for interaction, and enjoy the city like a
massive European style deli for lunch and stocking for others in the fleet.
We received yesterday the estimated shipping date from Costa Rica for the
boat is approx 20th Dec, which gives us 3 months of cruising a much small
area than we did earlier in the year, so we will take is slowly and enjoy
and explore the natural beauty of the rich jungle on the shores, probably
staying away from cities where possible.
Stay tuned
It is
Tim, Tracy, Sean, Alex Sowell
S/V Gijima