Reflections on Serving and Learning in El Salvador: More December Highlights!

I am back in El Salvador again, and it is hard to believe that the second week of January is already starting! The month of December went by super fast and was filled with a lot of very meaningful (and also fun!) events for me, so before I dive into January, I wanted to write a blog post reflecting on the past month’s activities (because although Christmas was great, it wasn’t the only thing that kept me busy this month!).

1) Day trip to the Finca

There weren’t a lot of things for me to do once the daycare/pre-school ended in the beginning of December, so one day I got to go with some exchange students from the US, to visit the Finca that ANADES owns (a finca is like a farm or piece of land out in the country). ANADES owns about 66 Hectares of land, about one and a half hours outside of the city, where they grow coffee, beans (a staple in the Salvadoran diet), vegetables and fruits, all organically grown. Although one day was too short to learn all about what ANADES does in the Finca, it was nice to get a taste of it, and I enjoyed being out of the city for once, and in the beautiful outdoors! I hope to visit it again soon, and possibly learn how to process coffee!

2) MCC/Youth Service Trip to Bezaleel

Every year the MCC Guatemala/El Salvador team organizes a “Semana de Servicio” or Service Week, for all the MCC workers as well as 3 youth from every partner organization, to get together and help out with some sort of volunteer project for a few days, as well as learn about a specific topic related to a social justice issue. This year’s topic was restorative justice, which I thought was very fitting and interesting to talk about, considering the context of violence and crime that practically all Salvadorans and Guatemalans live in.

The service project was extra special for me since it was held in the department of Alta Verapaz, at Bezaleel School, The Kekchi Mennonite Education, where I volunteered at for 2 weeks in March of 2005, when a group from my church participated in an MCC Work and Learn Team trip. This trip was a life changing experience for me, and it was really neat being back there again, almost 7 years later! Unfortunately it wasn’t quite the same atmosphere as I had the first time I was there, since the students were not there – they were home because of their Summer break. But this was a very special experience in its own way, due to the diversity of the group that came for the Service Week (or 3 days…it’s just not quite as catchy of a title!) There were about 25 Guatemalan & Salvadoran youth, ranging from the ages of 12-30, coming from both rural and urban areas, and more importantly speaking 4 different languages (Spanish, as well as 3 other Indigenous languages of Guatemala). Although the youth didn’t know each other before arriving at Bezaleel, they quickly became friends with each other (as well as the MCC workers) the first afternoon, when we split into groups and painted the school dorm rooms as our service project. The youth had fun painting the walls (as well as each other) while taking time to learn about each other’s communities, and even learn how to say words and phrases in the different languages, all while speaking in (broken) Spanish, the second language of about half of the youth present. Their eagerness and interest to learn and share with each other, despite their many differences, really caught me by surprise and (this may sound cheesy) but I found myself smiling to myself numerous times throughout these 3 days – I think this was one of the most concrete examples of peace building I have ever experienced! The last night they even started exchanging cell phone numbers and last names, so they could become “facebook friends” and stay in touch.

A fellow MCCer, Adriana, who is the Connecting People’s Coordinator, wrote a blog about the Service Week as well – I would highly recommend folllowing her blog, to anyone who is interested in learning more about the work being done by MCC and its partner organizations in Guatemala and El Salvador.

http://connectingpeoplesguatemala.blogspot.com/2011/12/service-week-bit-less-bit-more.html

3) The beach!

On a less serious note, I spent 3 days at the beach in El Salvador, before heading to Guatemala for the rest of my Christmas holidays. It was a great way to relax and soak up some sun, as well as some beautiful sights that this country has to offer.

4) New Year’s in Guate

Last but not least, my final highlight of December was spending New Year’s Eve with my Guatemalan host family once again, and all the cousins, aunts and uncles. New Year's in Central America is a lot more about spending time with family, than it is back home. It was pretty much the same as Christmas Eve, except for without the gift-giving, and no second party to go to after midnight – just lots of firecrackers, laughter, music, dancing, and a delicious supper at our house at 12:30 in the morning! I feel like a broken record saying this, just I can't begin to explain how wonderful it is to have a second set of family members like them.

I had some more thoughts that I wanted to share about my Christmas in Central America, but I just couldn’t bring myself to talk about the many reminders of violence and poverty that I saw this past month, in the same blogpost where I was talking about all the joys I had experienced and the abundance of food, family and friends I was (and am) blessed to have. Also, I am still trying to gather my thoughts about living in such a poor and violent country, so I will save this more serious topic for another day.

For now, I will end off the post with some photos! Peace and Happy New Year to you all!