Sugar Mills and Running Steep Hills

February is such a teaser month. It arrives sluggishly on the heels of January, is more than pokey to start, but before you know it, it zips through its last week, and it’s over!

For me, this past week has been true to end-of-February form and simply flew by, filled with countless bus rides, a visit to my neighborhood sugar mill, judging tryouts for a fellow PCV’s dance team (which is pretty hilarious seeing as I didn’t even take toddler tap dance), and rounded out with an 11k road race in the capital with quite the crew of PC runners.

Sugar Mills: Ingenio La Magdalena

From the very beginning of my time in site, it was impressed upon me how important the sugar mill, Ingenio La Magdalena, a mere 20 minutes walk below my community, and sugar cane were to the welfare of the people of San Luis. Those men (nearly exclusively) who are lucky enough work one of the three eight hour shifts at the mill everyday from December 15^th until March 15^th without rest. They rotate shift assignments every two weeks. Those who aren’t so fortunate to have an ingenio job work cutting sugar can for the local cooperative, very hard backbreaking work. I’d know. I did it. Once.

The money earned in these four short months of sugar cane harvesting and processing is the vast majority of income that any family will earn in a given year. Labor laws aren’t so progressive in El Salvador, and though a minimum wage exists, it is far from a living wage. The only supplemental income that most people will earn comes from the sale of their crops of beans and corn. Because most farmers are subsistence farmers, only their surplus crops are sold. These surplus crops are sold when cash is needed, at the current market rate, rather than when prices are higher. Long term cash planning and market analysis are things I am trying to teach.

So, in an effort to better understand the lives of my community members, following an invitation from the head engineer at the sugar mill, my counterpart, Don Miguel, my PCV friend, Bri, and her two host sisters went on a tour of Ingenio La Magdalena last Thursday. Our invitation was an open one by Ingeniero Arana, so we selected last Friday as our tour date.

I attempted to call Ingeniero Arana well over a half dozen times, found that he had had his phone number changed, and no one was able to tell me his new phone number. A little concerned we wouldn’t be able go on a tour without a set appointment, I asked Don Miguel what he thought we should do. He said, don’t worry, we’ll go as planned and it will be fine. So, in true Salvadoran fashion the five of us arrived at the guarded gates of the ingenio, announced ourselves, and explained the intent of our visit. Also, in true Salvadoran fashion, we waited over an hour for the engineers to come collect us from the gate to start our tour.

When our two engineer tour guides arrived, Bri whispered to me, “This better be worth the wait.” I was secretly saying the same thing to myself; it was my idea after all to go on this tour and to just show up. I figured, two blonde haired, blue-eyed gringas? We’re good to go. In the end we were and boy, was it worth the wait.

We started our tour in a conference room in the ingenio where the head engineer Ingeniero Arana welcomed us and gave us a brief run down of what we were going to see before playing a short video on the process of sugar milling. The video, filmed in our very own Ingenio La Magdalena, featured the familiar faces of members of our own community. It was rather silly how we couldn’t help shouting out, “Pues, ¡mire! ¡Es Don Jose!”

As soon as the video was over, Ingeniero Arana passes us all a bright yellow hardhat, checked our footwear to make sure we ladies weren’t wearing high heels, encouraged us to take as many photos as we liked and sent us on our way with our guides, the head engineer of processing and the head engineer of product control.

Walking across the grounds of the ingenio Bri and I received catcalls galore, but quite frankly she and I have grown rather accustomed to it (we meet every week in our shared municipality to speak English and regain our sanity) and generally applaud the efforts of the creative ones. The first stop on the tour was the weight station where the huge trucks, small pickups, and, believe it or not, ox drawn carts are weighed to measure how much cane is brought in. Here, each load is given an identification number and barcode, then sent to the next step in the process: cane analysis.

In this step, a roughly five pound sample of the load is taken and sent into the lab where it is determined how many pounds of sugar per ton of cane will be produced. The ingenio pays a varying price for the cane based on this data. Normally a ton of sugar cane can produced anywhere between 175 and 280 pounds of sugar. The variation can be due to soil conditions, water conditions, and how old the sugar cane is.

From the lab, the cane is driven to where the milling process begins. Cranes and men transfer the cane from the trucks and carts to the mill. The sugar cane passes through a series of five mills that extract all the sugar cane juice. All the cane pulp, once all the juice is full extracted from it, is then used as a fuel for energy production for the ingenio. The water that is later extracted from the juice is also used for energy production. The ingenio is 100% energy independent. Don’t let that fool you, though. By no means does energy independence equate with energy efficiency.

The sugar cane juice then travels through more processes including clarification of all the dirty and debris that is present in the juice, extreme heat processing, and eventually the miel (literally translated is honey) passed through a centrifuge where the sugar crystals and molasses are separated. The sugar then is packaged in 100-pound bags and stored on the premises. A very interesting fact is that all sugar produced in El Salvador for domestic consumption is mandated to be fortified with Vitamin A. The ingenieros explained to us that the Vitamin A is very important in eye health.

Unfortunately the packaging plant was closed for the night, they only operate 8AM-6PM, but we were given an invitation back for another visit. All of us were given a two pound bag of La Magdalena sugar as a parting gift and we were sent on our way.

The wait was well worth it, especially when I left the ingenio with a better understanding of the work and condition in which my community members work. I won’t go into the details, but sugar milling in a hot, dirty process. By no means is it a profession I would choose. So, next time you go to put sugar in your coffee or in the cookies you’re baking, it may have come from my ingenio. (Only if it’s raw sugar, though. All white sugar produced is for domestic consumption only.)

Running Steep Hills: Yo Amo ES 11k

Bri, my PCV partner in crime, and I headed to San Salvador Saturday afternoon to pick up our race packets at the InterContinental Hotel for Sunday’s Yo Amo ES (just think I © NY for El Salvador) run. In addition to our race number (I was 425), chip for timing, and free Yo © ES stickers, we got a great wicking commemorative shirt, water bottle and hat. This race had some great sponsors, and being volunteers, we took full advantage of all the free swag.

We, along with two other PCV friends, indulged in our favorite half-price sushi dinner special. As always, the conversation was great (poor Alayna was just recovering from dengue fever), the food was delicious and the price was right. After our pre-race meal, we headed to the grocery store to load up on Gatorade and bananas before heading to our hotel for the night. Unlike most Saturday nights when PCVs get together, this was a quiet, early night.

In the morning, bright and early at 6:30AM Bri and I, along with the pack of other PCVs jogged down to the starting line, stretched and waited for the start. I was shocked, first, to see so many volunteers running (our group was over twenty) and second to see so many runners from other countries such as Guatemala. Shockingly enough, and completely un-Salvadoran, the race began promptly at 7:30AM as scheduled.

With the reggaeton blasting, we were off in a pack of roughly 1500 runners. A pretty impressive number if you ask me. The first two kilometers for me were great. Though most of the course to that point had been uphill, the grades of the hills weren’t too severe and I figured wed have to head down at some point. But, kilometer four, kilometer five, we were still going up and the grades were getting steeper and steeper. Why hadn’t I noticed how hilly San Sal was before? It was getting pretty ridiculous.

Around kilometer four and a half, I realized how grossly out of shape I am (running on one rocky, dirt road back and forth isn’t the best way to maintain in form) and the fatigue started to kick in. I kept telling myself, it’s only a little over six miles, you can do this, this is nothing. Let me just say this: running the streets of Rochester and Buffalo, NY have nothing on San Sal. And, quite frankly, Heartbreak Hill’s got nothing on San Sal.

Finally after kilometer six the downhill began, and didn’t end until the last, flat kilometer. Getting up those hills was tough, but the downhill was super refreshing. I finally started to feel a bit of a stride. Nowhere near my best time, I finished. That’s the point, though, isn’t it? To finish it, complete a personal goal, and enjoy yourself. With the support of my fellow PCVs as I crossed the finish line, I felt great.

We all stayed and supported one another until the very last runner crossed the finish line. We had four brave souls choose to run the 21 kilometer course, kudos to them! After refueling, stretching and showering, we headed to the Sheraton to sit poolside, relax and enjoy each other’s company.

On Monday, with a little bit of a limp in my step and my muscles sore, I returned back to site. It’s back to the grind, and time to get down and dirty. I have been busy writing solicitations for support for my community including sugar from the sugar mill for school lunches, transport from the cooperative to go pick up the efficient kitchens that fifteen people in my community have invested in, and monetary support to complete a world and El Salvador map project in my community’s school.

I’ve also been planning my sister’s visit a mere three weeks from now! I can’t wait to show her what life here is like!

Be sure to check out my photos on Facebook. The photo of my first tarantula is now featured along with a pre-race shot of myself and running buddy Bri, and more.

As always, thanks for reading. I miss you all and hope to hear from you soon.