Sabelo is home to The Geechee people, you can hear the whisper of their ancestors echo through the trees. This tiny beautiful island has been inhabited by the Geechee people for nine generations, dating back to slavery. A peaceful and humble community, They are being faced with the reality, that they may be forced to move. Taxes continue to rise, and so does their fear of their home becoming a vacation destination.
Although I do not have deep rooted ancestral links to where I grew up like the Geechee,my heart goes out to their community. My cultural heritage is in El Salvador, I was up rooted from my native land during a very intense civil war. During a time when tens of thousands of people including women and children were being massacred, I was one of the lucky ones. The book God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito man speaks a great deal on religion, spirits, and root (voodoo) as the Geechee call it. I can relate to their spiritual belief in the sense that; there must have been an angel watching and protecting me in El Salvador, because I made it all the way to Pennsylvania.
My adoptive family is not as tight nit as the Geechee community, They are sprinkled and scattered from the east cost, to the west cost. As the Geechee people embrace their culture and everyday way of life, I too embrace my roots, and wish to one day visit my ancestral land. I also make and eat Papusas which are a local native treat popular in El Salvador. The Geechee people take pride in who they are and stay close like one big family. They will always have their Geechee pride, even if they don't win their fight to save their land. Hopefully though, they will continue to remain on their island they have nurtured and called home for over 200 years. They are forever a part of the earth that they walk on.
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