Creativity sparked by Gaseosas

In El Salvador, “gaseosas” refers to any soda. They drink a lot of it here. Soda out of glass bottles, soda out of aluminum cans, soda from plastic bags tied up with a rubber band.
During lunch today for a training session to 45 police officers, we were each served gaseosas. While I was mid-conversation with two policemen who were asking me why I didn't become a policewoman, a Salvadoran woman came around collecting the tabs off the aluminum cans. She wasn’t homeless; she wasn’t begging; she just said, “Your tab, please.” So, I twisted it off and placed it in the pile of tabs already mounded in her fat palm.

I assumed that she was collecting tabs to exchange for money, but after lunch I found her walking around with some new jewelry. Check out her earrings, necklace, and bracelet – all made with a mere piece of ribbon and the whole training session’s collected tabs from their Pepsi cans!



Click here to view photos from my trip to El Salvador and Guatemala!
And here to read other stories from my adventures in Central America!