Hello. On June 1-9, 2012, I traveled to El Salvador. The trip was amazing and very emotional! I have decided that I will write a blog to put my thoughts in order while also sharing some stories of the people that I met and the things that I learned. I am not a person who normally journals and even if I was the best writer (which I do not pretend to be), I could not fully communicate the experience and the emotions but I was asked to share the stories and I plan to do just that.
The most common question that I was asked before the trip was "Why are you going to El Salvador?" Many people could not understand why I would want to go to a country that is known to be so dangerous. El Salvador is known to have the 2nd highest murder rate in the world. Of course this did concern me but I did my research and spoke to others from Augsburg College who had been there recently and they eased my tension. They also told me that if I went, it would be a life changing experience. I would never have taken this trip when the girls were younger but they are old enough to do OK with me away for awhile and this just felt right. Patrick encouraged the opportunity. So in spite of the reservations expressed by my parents and my siblings, I decided I would go.
Here is a link to the brochure that I was sent that interested me in the trip in the first place. http://www.augsburg.edu/augsburgabroad/documents/hoversten2012.pdf
It will give a general overview of the trip but basically, we would be going to learn-about the people, the culture, the 12 year civil war that ended 20 years ago, post war issues, how the U. S. was involved in the war, the government, economics, etc.
As a college student, I never studied abroad and as an adult, my travels abroad have been limited to vacations in Mexico. I was eager to expand my travel and my limited view of the world. I encourage my students to study abroad all of the time. It was time for me to take my own advice. Fortunately, the timing of this trip also worked very well and thanks to the generous support of the Hoversten Peace Endowment, the price was right too-greatly discounted. I do not normally work in May and June so it would not interfere with work. Even if I were working, as a staff member of Augsburg College, with the permission of your director, this trip could be attended without taking vacation time. What a great benefit! For me, we worked out another arrangement since I was already off.
So, I turned in my application on the day it was due (February 1, 2012) and hoped that I would be one of the 10 chosen to go. Fortunately, on my way back from turning it in, I saw a student of mine. We started talking and she mentioned being interested in studying abroad sometime. I told her about just turning in an application for a trip and gave a summary of what it was and said if she was interested, she would need to complete the application and turn it in by the end of the day. She did just that. She also told a couple friends. Of course, since I am writing this blog, I was chosen. She and one other TRIO student were also chosen as well as 7 others. I was really excited to have the opportunity to travel and learn with two TRIO students who I also taught in my class. I knew that together we could share our experiences with TRIO students and staff when we returned as well as the general Augsburg population.
So in future blog posts, I will perhaps give a chronological account of the trip. I imagine I may go off on tangents sometimes as there is so much to share. Who knows? This is my first blog so I hope you enjoy reading it and learn "Why El Salvador".
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