Painters in the house

February 2013

This week the landlady decided it was time to paint our house.

On Monday morning the crew arrived - 2 young boys and an older Salvadorean. They spent the day outside, painting the front of the house which was quite weathered after probably 3 years of rainy and dry seasons.

Mauricio (21), Mateo and Serjio (17)

The following 2 days they swept through the house, working nonstop from 8am till 5pm, with a 1 hour lunch break. I guess they went to a local comedor and had the tipico meal of carne de res, frijoles, casimento and guacamole.

Each day we had at least one visit from the 2 supervising locals - Alejandro - the Poligono manager, Luiz - resident at no. 52, maybe a friend of the owner, and Artillo - the armed guard who spoke english and translated.

 

Each day we were asked if we were happy with the work, if the boys were working hard and if there were any areas they didn't paint well enough.

Luiz-neighbour ,Alejandro-manager and Artillo-guard

Serjio is 17 years old, lives in Ciudad Merliot, not far from our house. He is a friend of Mauricio who asks him to help painting houses whenever he has work.

Mauricio is 21 years old and lives in La Palma. He trained as a painter in the Fernando Llort program, painting traditional hancrafts. Now he works in San Salvador Mon-Fri and travels home by bus each weekend. He gets paid $12 a day as a skilled house painter.

Mateo lived in Oregon USA for 2 years and can speak good English. He was likely an overstayer, deported back to El Salvador - he had been working as a Pest Control worker there, visiting houses for termite control. He works when needed as a painter now - he only came for 2 days to help the boys get finished on time.