How can we build up a city? In my mind, I we might take this process in a slow and gradual way, as a child grows up from being a small baby to an adult. Growth takes a lot of time, thought and patience.
I work right next to the Parque Bicentenario, or the "Bicentennial Park", in San Salvador, and eat lunch there every day. Sometimes after lunch, I go visit a tienda, or small shop, in the middle of the park for an afternoon sweet. I usually get a chocobanano, which is a frozen banana dipped in chocolate on a stick. The really nice thing about these visits isn’t the afternoon snack, but the relationship I’ve formed with the owners of the tienda. They are a brother and sister who were born and raised in that very area. They have stayed there for most of their lives. Although I usually plan to stay for just enough time to finish a snack or even just to pay for the food, I’ll end up staying for up to an hour at times to talk with them.
In a conversation that started from a comment about the heat we have right now, the brother, José, started talking about the park.
