While many college students were vacationing in fun, exotic locales this spring break, six Tufts students had a more laborious vacation. They spent their week in El Salvador, helping local communities maintain sustainable development through a variety of projects with the American Jewish World Service.
El Salvador, slightly smaller than Massachusetts in size, is located in the heart of Central America. The country was the topic of a presentation at Hillel on Tuesday by students who took part in the spring break trip.
Freshman Erin Allweiss started the presentation with a background of El Salvador, a country which is still suffering from a civil war 20 years ago. It was a time during which the government killed thousands of people, leaving the country to rebuild itself, she said.
For the students who took the trip, it was a world they had never known the likes of before. They said they found themselves looking at their lives with new perspective.
"[The hardest part was] comparing our lives to the lives of the people in Ciudad Romero," freshman Adina Allen said. "Although we have a lot, we are lacking in the cultural values and hospitality of the El Salvadorians."
Hospitality was a distinguishing characteristic of El Salvadorians, according to the students. A woman named Marcelina personified this hospitality and hosted the students this year. She has hosted members of the trip before, but last year forgot to inform the group that her home had been destroyed by an earthquake. However, she still offered to host students in her chicken coop, where she and her two kids were living.
Another example of the hospitality, as well as gratitude, the students experienced happened toward the end of their visit. Senior Seth Kaufman noticed a man was cutting down a tree in his front yard, which seemed odd because the tree looked pretty sturdy and healthy. Only later did he realize that the man was cutting down the tree to make room for the party he was throwing for the community and the students who helped build the home for him.
The volunteers included students from Northeastern University, Brandeis and Tufts, who had the opportunity to dedicate a new home built for the host by volunteers during the past year.
They flew to El Salvador and then traveled to a village named Ciudad Romero, named after a priest who was assassinated for his support of poor El Salvadorians and his actions against the government. Senior Abby Noble said the students' goal was not to solve every single problem, but to help develop Ciudad Romero into a more self-sustaining city.
Among the projects students worked on was building a park for the community. This involved filling thousands of bags with dirt for saplings that would be planted later. Some also worked on building foundations for roundhouses, which required taking motorized canoes to an island, where they dug holes and put the foundations up.
While the extreme heat made work difficult for the students, they were not without motivation.
"A seventy five year old woman, four feet tall, was hauling things really fast," Allen said. "She really inspired us."
Another project students worked on was building a greenhouse for individual homes. The greenhouse was simple, designed to hold smaller crops so families could harvest and sell them. Doing so, they could pay for the greenhouse, which would buy more crops for more people.
Interacting with schoolchildren proved eye-opening, they said. In the entire city, there was just one teacher for a single schoolhouse, and students usually attend for about an hour each day and rotate class schedules. The children are interested in computers, but feel that owning one is nothing more than a dream.
"The hardest part for me was hearing the students list the things they needed," Nobel said. "We were their hope; they had no faith in their government, no means to accomplish their goals." She said many students at the school said if they could have one gift, it would be a book waiting for them when they went home.
For sophomore Cecelia Golombek, her experience in El Salvador gave her a new home.
"The best thing about the trip was getting a chance to do the whole thing," Golombek said. "Looking back, I realized every little part made me feel connected with friends and at the end of the trip, I knew I had a home in El Salvador."
At Tuesday's presentation, students attempted to promote future projects in El Salvador.
Golombek plans to start a couple of programs next year to help the city, including a "chicken" project in which students buy chickens for families in El Salvador. Chickens only cost five dollars, and a family only needs eight chickens and two roosters to sustain itself. Golombek hopes to raise money for books and irrigation projects for the region.
"The irrigation project and the chicken project [are] two projects that are up and running. I want to brainstorm other ideas...and bring attention to things that are going on," Golombek said.
Allen said the group benefited as much as, if not more than, it contributed. "The best part of the trip for me was not only giving back to the people, but being able to receive," she said. "Donating money is good, but detached. The give and take of the experience taught us so much about family and cultural values."
