One of Those Days

Well, I arrived home from two weeks in El Salvador on Saturday night. I was thinking of posting on the road, but we thought we shouldn't (because there are people in this world who might take advantage of my absence by throwing a huge party in my home, and inviting too many).

It was a pretty grand adventure. Much more exciting and 'impactful' than I was expecting. I actually did a wee bit of writing on the trip, and will post it here in a series describing some aspects of life as a photographer on the field:

One of Those Days

I'm sitting in a rustic hotel room in Tacuba, El Salvador, watching the green status bar inch its way to the right on my memory card transferring it's billions 1's and 0's of data onto my laptop. It's late, about 10:30pm. It's warm, probably about 27 degrees, I'm finding it a bit of a battle keeping hydrated to tell you the truth. I'm pretty upbeat, which may be surprising after you hear what kind of day it has been. Today is Monday, October 16^th.

I woke up around 6:30am with the sun blinding my eyes. I am convinced that Tacuba, El Salvador is rooster Mecca. You know how cartoon roosters crow when the sun rises, well these buggers are jumping the gun by about 7 hours. Don't get me wrong, they do their job in the morning, but they are pretty anxious.

Anyway, I woke up and started getting ready for another day of shooting for World Vision Canada. I am here on a resource gathering trip with a journalist named Robert Vesleno. He and I get along marvously, which is fantastic. I got all my clothes and got ready to go for breakfast. My last item to add to my person was my wallet, which seemed a bit elusive, then even more elusive, then downright hiding on me. My adrenaline kicked up a notch and I started looking under beds, through my luggage and even in the bathroom. No luck.

I went outside to find Balta, a communications representative from World Vision El Salvador, and our driver for these two weeks. He had the key to the Mazda pickup which had become our beast of burden for the trip. I wanted to look in my spot in the back seat to see if It had somehow fallen out of my pocket. Nothing.

After a second go through of our room, and a crazed memory scan of where I last remember having it, I asked Robert for his international cell phone in order to cancel my Visa. I called Julie and told her I thought I may have been pickpocketed the day before at a city festival (it was our day off, and I had eaten some frog's legs, which taste exactly like...you guessed it, chicken). She of course showed her shock and surprise through a familiar 's' word that is her favourite for thoughtful expression. I concurred with her.

I talked with the other three of my companions: Robert, Balta, and Febe (pronounced Faybay, another communications expert from WV E.S. and our translator), and over breakfast (which of course included corn tortilla's, because EVERYTHING includes corn tortilla's, not that I don’t like corn tortilla's, but not three times a day for 9 days straight) we realized that I had it at a cafe/hotel we stopped at the day before on our way to our own hotel from the festival. We decided we would call once we got the ADP office.

ADP stands for Area Development Program, and World Vision Canada supports 4 of these (out of 18) in the whole country of El Salvador. Each ADP is in an area of the country which has the worst poverty rates. World Vision sets up an office in the area or municipality and starts supporting local people through child sponsorship, gift catalogue and other giving from supporting countries (like Canada).

So, this morning we were going to go to the ADP office's devotional time. The director of World Vision El Salvador (everybody's boss) just happens to be visiting this ADP the same time we are, so everyone was in good spirits for the worship and devotional time (none of which we understood in the least). After that was over, Febe called the cafe we visited the day before asking about my wallet. Nothing.

We then went into a meeting with the manager of the ADP itself to talk about the stories we would be covering. I have little to do with these meetings. They are more for Robert, who is covering the 'story' side of the 'stories', while I of course cover the photos. This meeting lasted like two hours. Me and Balta sat in the back helplessly wondering when we would get out to our two stories which we would be covering that day. Don't get me wrong, this time is important, just long for those who add nothing to it. It was during these two hours that it hit me: I knew exactly where my wallet was. To be more precise, I knew exactly how my wallet came not to be my wallet (or my money - $180 US dollars).

TO BE CONTINUED....
and don't worry.
I will be posting photos of the actual people.
I just have to go through them all to pick my favourites
(there are over 6000 photos to sift through).
Here is a small sample though