Edwin (and Fishing)

Yesterday I learned about fishing. I thought fishing was casting a line and waiting for a bite, but here in El Salvador they do things a little differently. My host dad and brothers fish for those tiny little guppy-sized fish that don’t seem worth it at all, stacking up plates full of the slippery little critters to fry and eat whole. (Random thought: One advantage of living a life primarily dedicated to manual labor from a young age is that everyone in my host family, including my ten-year-old host sister, has a fantastic six-pack.)

How do they catch these fish, you ask? 

With an explosive, of course.

Ages ago Edwin showed me how to catch one or two of the burras by dropping a huge rock onto another in the river, the shock of which will stun the fish hiding under the rock for long enough to grab it. This was the same concept on a much larger scale. 

My host dad dropped some tortilla dough to attract the fish, then forty minutes later dropped in a homemade explosive that killed everything in the immediate vicinity. Then it was all hands on deck collecting hundreds of tiny fish as they floated stunned or dead, drifting slowly to the bottom of the river. They caught what looked to me like a catfish with the blast as well, but mostly just filled a bag with pounds and pounds of finger-length fish. A plateful went directly into the frying pan, and the rest were carted home to the freezer for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch. 

I’m still taking care of the puppy, so rather than spend the night at the river I delivered the fish home with Edwin and spent the evening figuring out how to make bracelets with names on them. It’s a learning process, but the first two Edwin made look pretty dang good. Edwin explained that he wanted to learn the new design in a response to demand at school. Kids continually ask for name bracelets and he wants to expand his clientele. YES! ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!

Edwin is very probably one of my favorite people to grace this planet. He’s cute and intelligent, respectful and joyful, artistic and creative. He always wants to do something fun, be it going to the river or playing frisbee or making bracelets or baking, which is what I want to do too. He is the one who, rather than learn the first bracelet and lose interest, keeps pushing me to find more designs and teach him until he can do it better than me. He randomly starts laughing contests and can’t even last long enough to say “ready, go.” He loves Disney and I catch him shamelessly humming the songs from Spirit and Frozen and The Little Mermaid regularly. He has a fantastic memory for English and infinite enthusiasm as well. He will do absolutely anything new, and couldn’t be more excited to teach strangers how to make bracelets and cookies in a few weeks.  I couldn’t stop laughing when he explained that he doesn’t actually like baking that much, but he loves eating so he is happy to make brownies and cookies and cakes because it means he gets to lick the bowl and double portions for being the chef. A boy after my own heart, that one.