Volunteer Stories | Monica
I am going to be honest and say that I knew close to nothing about El Salvador. The only things I knew about this small, proud country were mostly negative. For example, El Salvador is widely known for its severe gang violence and the horrible civil war that tore up this country for more than 20 years. But there is so much more to this unique and beautiful country than just violence and war. And I was about set out on my life changing adventure to discover what El Salvador has to offer.
I first arrived in El Salvador in their summer season. I was so nervous but mostly excited. I had always wanted to go to Central America but now that I had arrived, many fears started to rush over me. My biggest fear was that no one would be at the airport to pick me up and that I had fallen for some major scam and now someone was running around with my money in Thailand. But as I walked out of the airport these fears were instantly washed away when I saw my coordinator, Joaquin, holding up a sign for me. He saw me and he gave me a great, warm hug that made me feel safe instantly. He had come with his father to pick me up from the airport. On the drive to the volunteer house, I had my first encounter with the culture in El Salvador. This encounter was with the food culture in El Salvador. Joaquin had shown me the great culinary tradition of pupusas. Pupusas are stuffed rice or corn tortillas that are found everywhere in the country. When living in El Salvador one grows a huge taste for these delicious treats and once you leave you will crave them all the time.
After a long deserved nap the first day, Joaquin took me on a walking tour of Santa Tecla. He told me about the project I would be working on, gave me advice, answered any of my questions, told me about the city of Santa Tecla, and made me feel at ease. I knew instantly from the very first day that I could fully trust and depend on Joaquin to be a reliable coordinator.
I had signed up to be in El Salvador for three months. The time being away from home I had no problem with, it was the culture adjustment that took me about 2 weeks. The culture in El Salvador is completely different from the United States, especially from Atlanta, Georgia. But by the end of the first week I had already started walking to places by myself and I only got lost once in that first week. But now I look back on getting lost and it is really funny. I was going to the grocery store and I even had one of the other volunteers draw me a map to the store. I found my way to the store perfectly but then it started to rain on my way home and I lost my way completely. I ended up on the complete opposite side of town and had to call Joaquin to come and find me. But luckily he was understanding about the situation and helped me home.
Being lost in a foreign country is so unnerving but it really helped me learn my way around the city and it also made me realize that I felt safe in this country. And after getting a good handle on walking around the city, I then learned how to use the local bus system by myself. I really did love riding the buses in El Salvador. It was always an adventure on the buses because of people selling crazy things from toothbrushes, soda in a bag, pens, pupusas, jewelry and even live saxophone entertainment! If soda in a bag sounds strange to you know, just wait till you go to El Salvador!
The project I was assigned to work on was teaching English at a place called Casa de Mujeres. Casa de Mujeres is a place that offers many different free classes and lectures to mostly women. There were three different English classes. There were two basic level classes and one intermediate class. I was so nervous about the project because I had no teaching experience prior to this. But I was soon relieved of my feelings of nervousness by the warmth and extreme friendliness of the people in the classes and the women who worked at Casa de Mujeres.
The people are my favorite part of the culture in El Salvador. Everyone I met was just so nice and friendly. I had never experienced people who were just so giving and friendly automatically like in El Salvador. Everyone you met was instantly your friend and treated you like you are one of his or her own. It is such a refreshing feeling that I had never experienced before. Having such wonderful people at Casa de Mujeres really made teaching a lot easier. The people are just so grateful for the free classes because usually English classes are very expensive. I made so many life long friends in the project at Casa de Mujeres. Every day at Casa de Mujeres was a rewarding experience for me. Also, a total unexpected bonus was all the wonderful food people brought for me to try almost every day. I really got a thorough taste of El Salvadorian cuisine. This was a definitely welcomed bonus!
Although I was there for three months, it felt like I was there for only a few weeks. The time went by so fast because I was always busy. During the weekdays, I was at Casa de Mujeres and on the weekends I traveled around the country. I went and visited so many amazing places in El Salvador. El Salvador has so much to offer. It has exotic beaches and lakes, beautiful mountains, mysterious volcanoes, ancient ruins, quaint and colorful towns, amazing people and culture, fast paced markets and so much more. I had no idea that this small country had so much to offer. This experience taught me so much about life, the world, and myself. This experience changed my life for the better and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to come and to know the great and proud country of El Salvador.
