Service-learning trips to El Salvador

To promote social awareness we have arranged for annual teen summer trips to El Salvador to teach American teens about our work and life in a third world country. Our first delegation of 10 teens and 3 adults came to El Salvador in July of 2006 and this sparked interest with other teens from California. Ann now after 3 years of bringing youth to visit our projects in rural El Salvador we are convienced that a trip for any youth to a third world country is a life changing experience as they learn how the majority of the world actualy lives. Intercultural exchange between salvadoran youths and our teen groups has been very inspiring and we have found how common barriers like diferences in language are easily broken down through simple activites liking working together. We plan to continue offering this intercultural experience to teens from around the US in the following years..

We took our second group of teens to El Salvador the summer of 2007, another unforgettable experience. The 2006 service learning trip was such a success that we tried it again. There were six young people—three from California and three from Washington, five girls and one guy—all eager to immerse themselves in another language, culture, and political context to experience daily life in a developing country. Through daily worship-sharing and discussions about what Quakers believe, the group explored how the Spirit is working in their lives and reflected on their experiences each day. Through the three half-day service projects, meals and interactive sessions in the community halls, a visit to the agricultural cooperatives, and an overnight stay in local homes, the group learned about the daily lives in the communities that we visited and made friends with our hosts. The young people asked many questions about the current political situation (especially as a few weeks before our arrival in Suchitoto there had been a nonviolent protest resulting in many arrests) and gained historical perspective about the civil war by listening to the stories of ex-combatants. The group was eager to work hard and they lifted rocks, mixed concrete, and dug out weeds uncomplainingly in sweltering temperatures. We hope that our work was helpful to the communities, though we spent so little time in each one. I have been thinking about how my own service is often inspired by Matthew 25:35 “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” We are so grateful to the people of El Bario, El Gigante, Jocoaitique, and Apulo. We were strangers and you welcomed us as though we were long lost family.(Barbara Babin, teen group leader)

One teen participant Mariah writes about her experience in 2007:

It Began With Pupusas Mariah, Teen Trip participant

It began with pupusas, those cake-like tortillas that mysteriously have a filling. After much of the night in awkward positions in the desperate attempt for sleep, after waiting and waiting to be picked up from the airport, tentatively trying to begin conversations with people I was barely acquainted with in a country I didn't know much about, my love for pupusas and El Salvador began instantaneously with my first bite. Maybe it was the hunger after a night on a turbulent plane, or maybe it was just excitement at what I viewed as my first REAL Salvadoran experience. Pupusas were my first introduction into the cuisine and culture of El Salvador. Now, the trip really began. The group of six teenagers and five adults made our way to Suchitoto, seeing glimpses of the country that was to be our home for the next seven days. We came to Suchi, as it is affectionately called, exhausted but happy. The hostel was beautiful, with an open courtyard, which the rain poured into in sheets during the thunderous nights. Each of us was paired with a partner to share a room with a stool, a small wooden closet, and bunk beds. After exploring Suchi with its beautiful cobblestone streets and tall, picturesque iglesia in the town square, buying souvenirs (and a hat that would follow me everywhere no matter how many times I forgot it), we met in an outdoor adjoining courtyard for worship and to hear about why we were gathered and what we were setting out to do. This was also my first introduction to Quakerism, which I was to learn much more about. Roberto and Koky, our guides and friends, explained to us that on this whirlwind adventure we were here to learn about the culture of the country and to help with service projects. We learned more about Carmen Broz, from whose vision our entire trip stemmed, and whose son is in fact Roberto. What we weren't told, but would find out ourselves, is that we would meet amazing, historical people who would be some of the kindest I’ve met anywhere in my entire life. Or that we would see some of the most radically different, remarkable sights of our lives. But I guess that was implied. Over the course of the week we were immersed in a completely new and interesting culture. We visited a school, played games, spoke very broken but earnest Spanish, explained who we were and where we came from, stayed with families in El Barío for a night where we went on the most frightening high-speed ferris wheel rides of our lives. We laughed a lot, got sick at least once, moved all around the country, visited a war museum, heard speeches, met scholarship students, hiked, were shown stores where hammocks are made, learned about the different political parties. We were given the opportunity to listen to and meet Los Torogoces de Morazán, the amazing revolutionary band from the Civil War, boated on Lake Suchitlán, swam, worshipped, ate meals I have never heard of and mostly enjoyed. We met the feistiest Catholic nun I have ever encountered. According to her, love for El Salvador is like a low-grade herpes virus. Once you catch it, you may not see it for a long time, but you can guarantee it won’t lie dormant forever. In the process, we learned more about each other. We came on the trip as six very different teenagers, three of whom were already pals (Kaley, Avery, and Allison), three of whom had very briefly met (Alice, Cosmo, and myself). But by the time we left, after spending a week and learning about each other’s lives, staying up late and sharing those deepest parts of ourselves, we left bonded by the intense experience of El Salvador, never to forget that time we spent together. The last experience of our trip to El Salvador was learning to make the pupusas that had first brought us together. We learned to pat the dough into a flat circle, dab bits of various fillings in the middle, to seal the edges, and lastly to fry it. We were clumsy, and were good-naturedly laughed at for our efforts. The last real memory of the whole group together is sitting in Roberto’s house, talking and laughing, and eating the food that brought us together. And that is how I will forever remember my first trip to El Salvador.

See photos from the July, 2007 teen trip to El Salvador. See the new slide show video of lasts years, 2007 teen service trip to El Salvador.

We made some minor changes for the trip in July of 2008, offering a 1-3 week option to the participating teens. The 1st week we we were based in Suchitoto and our participants received intensive Spanish lessons at the Pajaro Flor language Academy. We filled in the rest of the time with trips to El Bario, the Guazapa mountains to learn about the recent civil war and San Salvador.

Then for week two we moved to northern Morazan where our time was split up between the two agricultural cooperatives where Palo Alto has projects. This week was spent doing service work, building a formal bathroom in the Cooperative of El Gigante and painting the communal building in the cooperative Sueños in Jocoaitique. Free time was used to visit Perquin, visit and art school, and dance to the revolutionary music of the famous Torogoces, a well know band that was formed during the civil war.

We spent out last week in Suchitoto which we used as a base to continue exploring the projects in this area including and over night trip to Apulo were the teens worked on a housing project and spent time getting to know the local youths from this community. We were also able to see an agricultural cooperative, learning how sugar and coffee are produced as well as having the chance to swim in a beautiful swimming hole under a large waterfall. We were also able to visit many of the local groups that work in and around Suchitoto, the radio run by teens, womens groups, the CRC and Progreso as well as a long talk with the youth association that runs the Spanish school.

Overall the trip was amazing for all involved, the teen participants some here for the 3 weeks and others for 1 or 2 weeks bound and life friendships will most likely be maintained. The adults some of them first time visitors to El Salvador and our projects were equally moved by the quality of our work, the spirit of the Salvadoran people and the progress that has been made. Click here to see photos of the 2008 teen trip to El Salvador.

If your are interested in information about future trips to El Salvador please contact our committee clerk or local field director, contact information can be found on our contact page.

General information about our trips

We maintain the number of teens to a maximum of 10 with 3 adults/parents, the delegation is completed by our field director in El Salvador, Robert Broz as well as a local translator/counselor. We spend at least two nights sleeping in rural communities with local families selected by our field director. The remaining nights are spent at hostels in Suchitoto. In 2008 we are offered a 1-3 week experience, where teens could sign up for 1, 2 or 3 weeks.