El Salvador Diaries - Part 4

April 23 – Planting Garlic and Hoeing with Ruben

Today we had a more important task than continuing with the wall: we had to plant garlic.

Ranulfo was no longer actively working with us, since he was retired. He mostly watered the plants and took care of the shopping. The real “boss” became Ruben, who always knew exactly what we had to do, and also how to do it.

Six months earlier, Ruben had made the big decision to leave his life in Scotland behind. He quit his job as a web designer, broke up with his girlfriend, and since his parents were living in Spain rather than Scotland, it became easier for him to leave Europe and move to Central America.

He had grown tired of what he saw as Europe's political and moral decline, so he sold off his possessions, bought Bitcoin, and eventually settled in El Salvador.

I found his story incredibly inspiring. Even though he was only a few years older than me, I learned a huge amount from him.

His long-term plan was that once the value of his Bitcoin investments had grown enough, he would buy a piece of land in El Salvador and create a farm of his own, similar to Ranulfo's.

April 24 – New Farmland, a Mountain Pool, and Bitcoin Conversations

There were several garden beds that had not been used for years, so the quality of the soil had deteriorated considerably.

The ground had literally become hard and full of stones.

Early in the morning, we started the day by digging up one of these beds, which was only a few square meters in size, and then shovelling out the old, depleted soil.

After that, we started rebuilding the new, fertile soil layer by layer.

First, we covered the bottom with dry twigs and branches. On top of that came dry leaves and wood shavings. The next layer consisted of freshly cut grass and weeds, and finally we levelled everything out with ash.

At the end, we mixed compost with animal manure and spread a layer about fifteen centimetres thick over the top.

Well-prepared soil is not just an investment for a single year. It can remain fertile for many years, helping the soil stay well aerated, retain water and provide nutrients. This creates the best possible conditions for the plants growing in it.

We finished this work within a few hours, then Hagen and I returned to preparing the wall.

The next task was to dig out the area where the stone wall would stand.

Using a hoe and a shovel, we cut a section out of the hillside and created a straight, even surface. We then dug a trench along the entire length of the wall, about twenty centimetres deep and forty centimetres wide, for the foundation.

It was hard physical work, especially under the blazing sun, but I genuinely enjoyed it. It was especially good having Hagen helping me, and together we managed to finish the digging by noon.

Since it was extremely hot that day, we volunteers decided to go up to the pool in the mountains, where Hagen and I had already been before.

The weather was much hotter than the previous time. By the afternoon, the temperature had reached 37°C.

It was perfect weather for swimming.

Ruben had already driven our host's pickup several times, so it was no problem for him to take us up there.

The gravelly, uneven mountain road shook us around quite a bit again, but the view from the top of the mountain and the pool itself made it all worth it.

Especially because there was practically nobody there besides us.

The young man collecting the entrance fee greeted us with a smile, and shortly afterwards the owner of the pool also came over to us.

We quickly got into a conversation with the middle-aged man.

He told us that he had previously worked hard in San Salvador and saved money. Later, he managed to buy the building next to the pool, which he rented out as a guesthouse.

After that, he also built a large swimming pool, which he opened to the public.

At the end of the conversation, he invited us to a weekly men's gathering in the village called a fraternidad.

It was attended by local men whose lives had been affected by alcohol, drugs, gambling or other addictions. They had the opportunity to share their problems with each other and pray together for the strength to overcome these harmful addictions.

Although none of us struggled with any of these problems, we promised that we would visit the gathering the following day.

After a full day of physical work, it felt wonderful to get into the pool and simply enjoy the sunshine.

We stayed until late afternoon because we also got into a conversation with the young man who worked there.

We talked at length about Bitcoin and about how, essentially, it was the reason we had come to El Salvador.

April 25 – The Wall Takes Shape, Then Off to the Fraternidad

Today, we finally officially started building the stone wall.

We mixed several wheelbarrows of concrete and tried to place as many large stones as possible into the foundation.

This was not easy at all, because we had to spend a long time sorting through the pile of stones before finding pieces with the right shapes.

We tried to make the outside of the wall smooth, straight and aesthetically pleasing, while arranging the stones so that they would also interlock with each other to some extent.

We filled the gaps with concrete and larger pieces of gravel to make the structure as stable as possible.

The progress was particularly visible.

Within just a few hours, we managed to build a section of wall about thirty centimetres high.

The most exhausting part was definitely mixing the concrete.

We didn't have a concrete mixer, so everything had to be mixed by hand with a shovel in the wheelbarrow.

Since there were two of us, we took turns mixing the material, which ultimately made the task less exhausting.

As we had promised the previous day, in the late afternoon we headed into the village to attend the fraternidad gathering.

The owner of the pool was the main organizer, and he greeted us with a smile when we arrived.

The event was held in a local café.

Ruben, Hagen and I sat down at a separate table. At first, there were only a few local men there besides us, but the café gradually filled up.

The locals looked at us curiously, since it wasn't an everyday sight to see two or three young Europeans taking part in such a small village gathering.

The café was run by a young couple who offered drinks and snacks to the participants.

The evening began with a short prayer, followed by introductions. Everyone stood up and briefly said who they were and why they were there.

This surprised me a little, since I hadn't known beforehand what to expect.

I was a little nervous too, but by that point my Spanish was fairly confident, so introducing myself wasn't a problem.

After that, the organizer gave everyone a piece of paper and asked us to write down why we were grateful to God.

At this point, I felt a little embarrassed and ended up not writing anything.

I didn't know what was going to happen to the papers, and only later realized that we were supposed to fold them up and put them into a small basket.

I had assumed that they would later be read out in front of everyone.

Then a middle-aged local man was given the floor.

He spoke at length about the serious gambling and casino addiction he had struggled with in the past, and how it had almost cost him his marriage.

According to him, he eventually turned to God, and his faith helped him overcome his addiction.

Another man briefly shared his own story, and then the organizer gave a longer speech.

I was genuinely grateful that I had been able to take part in such a local event. It felt especially good that I understood the speeches completely.

As the gathering slowly came to an end, we exchanged a few more words with the organizer, who was clearly very happy that all three of us had accepted his invitation.

By the end of the evening, I once again felt that my trip to El Salvador was turning out to be about much more than I had originally expected. I had come because of Bitcoin, but along the way I had encountered a way of life, a community and an environment that increasingly made me think about how I wanted to live in the future.