The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.
Sunday, 13 October 1991 – 2:30 PM - Exodus 29 October
We are visiting a community on the outskirts of San Salvador which was occupied on 29 October 1989 by people who had been displaced by a bad storm. They occupied previously vacant land and put up housing with the help of the CCM, The Council of Marginalized Communities. Our guide through the community is A., a member of the CCM directorate. CCM provided the tin siding, and the rest the people had done for themselves. Before coming here some had lived along the banks of the sewage rivers which run through the capital, or in tenements which had fallen down. Others had been evicted from their homes when the rent got too high.
After they were established, they asked the city for permits to hook up to the city water and electric supplies, but there was no action for months. So they tapped into the water main and into the power lines themselves. Once the city saw that the hook-ups were an established fact, the permits were issued. Now both electricity and water are legal and metered. Water is available to them on week-ends and after 6:00 PM on week-days, but all day during the week it is turned off.
