Two sisters in western El Salvador are taking their love of learning to great heights: Every day they climb a mountain, then scramble up an olive tree to get a signal to access their online college lessons.
Thousands of Salvadoreans living in rural areas have faced the same juggling act since March, when authorities closed schools and universities to halt the spread of COVID-19.
It is especially hard to get a strong phone signal to access the Internet in El Tigre canton, near the border with Guatemala, where the Matilde and Marlene Pimentel live.
Photo: AFP
“For most of us living in rural areas it’s difficult [to study]. There’s no [Internet] connection,” said Matilde, 22, who is studying mathematics.
She is joined on her daily escapade by 19-year-old Marlene, who is studying statistics.
The seventh and eighth of 10 children, they are aiming to be the first members of their family to graduate from the University of El Salvador.
Their story came to light when police officer Castro Ruiz stumbled across Matilde “in the middle of nowhere” while patrolling El Tigre mountain.
Finding the young woman on a path leading to a lush olive tree, “my first impression was that something had happened to her,” Ruiz said.
When he asked her what had happened, her reply stunned him: “I just want to study.”
Touched by such a “positive story,” the officer took a photo and posted it on Facebook, where it went viral.
To reach the peak of the mountain in the middle of the rainy season, the sisters walk a kilometer along a slippery path while avoiding snakes hiding in the undergrowth.
They tackle the journey weighed down by a foldable table and chairs, while trying to keep the rain off their heads with an umbrella.
“This is the only way to get a little bit of a signal, and sometimes even here it doesn’t work,” Marlene said, speaking from her perch in the olive tree.
She admits to being afraid of falling out of the tree, and scared of the “venomous animals” lurking in the grass in this lush area.
When not studying, the sisters sell bread at the weekend to help their father, who grows sweetcorn, beans and squash.
Erick Palacios, a university student in Ojo de Agua, about 20km west of the capital, San Salvador, has to climb a hill strewn with rocks and waste to access the Internet.
“I came here because I realized it was clear ... it gave me a signal,” said the 20-year-old, who is studying toward a degree in communications at the private Jose Matias Delgado University.
Perched on three bricks and covered by an umbrella, Palacios said that taking classes this way is “uncomfortable” because of the mosquitoes he must fend off.
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