Sunday, September 11, 2011

Children of El Cuco

I've been in El Cuco, El Salvador now for 10 days and it has been an amazing experience from day 1. This will be my first blog post in a while and the first of this trip. There is still so much to post about, what I'm actually doing here (I'm still kinda figuring that out for myself), the waves (of course) and the people, however, the shots and story I wanted share the most  are the following.

 
During this last week a group of people from San Francisco came down to Azul Surf Club, El Cuco. These folks are from all walks of life but have collaborated to raise money and come down to help finish building the local school. They known collectively as Surf for Life.


While Danny Hess (hesssurfboards.com) and Jay Nelson (news.jaynelsonart.com) designed and built desks and benches for the new classrooms, myself and the rest of the team got down and dirty preparing the location for new foundations. There happened to be three eager and willing surfers from the West Coast of Oz in camp who took time out of their daily surf schedule to lend a hand in the heat of the day too.



As the project progressed, sand and rubble was moved, and moved again, cement was mixed and walls began to rise, more and more surfers joined in. During early morning dawn patrols Andy (sanfranpsycho.com) managed to recruit dudes and dudettes straight from the line-up. By the end of the week there were more hands than needed. Its incredible how people (surfers) are willing to give their time to help the local communities of the places they travel to and surf when approached.



After a sweaty, dirty and surfed out week (its not a surf trip if you don't surf) the children of El Cuco wanted to show their appreciation by holding a soccer event on the beach in front of the school. The crew were stoked to the thought of running circles around the kids until we arrived. I'd say most of the town had come out to show their support and the kids had begun setting out the field. Real legit! We sat on the sidelines as the first games begun in awe.



The children had skills and I for one can barely run without causing a scene. In fact that would have to be my secret weapon, perhaps I could distract them with fits of laughter watching the clumsy, blonde, gringo giant falling over himself. One little dude who I aptly named Mini Monster Man, was the most intimidating of all the kids, he was probably 4-5yrs and could run circles around Rooney (he took some good pics too when he and his buddy Jose' got hold of my camera).


This little dude's mom was one of the locals working at the school, as hard as nails, and he spent most of his time hanging out on the small construction site handing out tools and scrotum high blows. The soccer games went into the evening with everyone getting involved and having a grand time.

Photo by Jose'
Jose'
One thing that I noticed was the amount of  local children that turned out for the event. This brought me to the realization that the work Surf for Life does and continues to do will impact more people and children than my initial view from a glance. Many of the older kids don't go to school due to lack of teachers and room. They therefore can never graduate and in turn will probably end up, if they lucky, as local fisherman or surf guides or end up heading to the city, well, we all know how that ends.


I've been to a fair amount of 3rd world countries on surf trips but I've never taken it upon myself to inquire or reach out to see if there was any way I could help out. What may seem insignificant to one could mean the world to another. If anyone is interested, donations to Surf For Life can be made at surfforlife.org. Forward it to your friends, you could also jump on board one of their trips to help on a project and get a chance to surf some great spots. Check it out!