Student Reflections from Fall 2006Below are the reflections and thoughts submitted by some of the Casa students who were in El Salvador for the Fall 2006 semester. These reflections are in alphabetical order by student's last name.
My time thus far in El Salvador is tough to sum up. I have been experiencing and thinking more than I ever have. I have been doing things I never thought that I could. Every few days I miss my family and my friends. But more days than that I think to myself "There is nowhere else that I would rather be right now." It is really hard to reflect on all that I have gone through in the last two months, and even harder to write emails. I feel like no matter how many stories I share, I can never truly do justice to the people I have met, and the relationships i have built. Being in El Salvador shows me what is important in life and I am already dreading the day that I have to leave.
"We don't receive wisdom; we discover it for ourselves after a journey that noone can take for us or spare us." -Marcel Proust The Casa is a part of my journey. It's hard to look back now and determine why I came here in the first place. I suppose it is because I wanted to learn in new and different ways. I wanted to learn in a way that didn't revolve around my final grade and that would leave me utterly confused. I've found that here. I've been shocked by the other things I have been able to find too. I've been able to form true, genuine relationships with people. I've learned so much more than about the issues I expected to encounter. I've learned about the people wrapped up in them that I could only imagine before. I've begun to put my finger on what is really important to me and I've begun to accept that four months can't answer all of my questions, but it can certainly help me to ask new ones. I've realized the importance of laughter. This experience has been constantly challenging to me and I am so grateful for that. I'm also grateful that it has given me the support I need to address these challenges. I may not be able to name exactly what it was that brought me here or exactly why I would encourage others to come, but I can tell you how thrilled I am to be here and how looking back on it I can't imagine having made any other decision. If you have any questions at all feel free to ask me, jbodnar@luc.edu
One of the most distinctive aspects to this study abroad experience would be the community built among the American and Salvadoran students. Living in a house with 9 other students proved to be challenging at times, but overall very fruitful. These people became more than roommates to me; they became my support system during an emotional four months. My housemates and I shared moments of great joy, our fears, Marie Sharp's hot sauce, digestive adventures, attempts at Salvadoran dancing, and countless laughs throughout the semester. It was incredible to be able to process my time in El Salvador with others experiencing similar thoughts in an open and loving environment.
My experience here has affected me in so many ways. I came here to learn from the people, but I could never have guessed how much they had to teach. Some days I feel so childlike because nothing in my life has prepared me for living in El Salvador. Yet there is such beauty in learning so fully about a different way of life. The learning that we do in the classroom is important, but it is the daily lessons about living and surviving with hope and dignity that I will never forget. Before I came here the poor of the world were faceless masses living in misery. That has all changed these last few months. The poor live difficult lives but they are not always miserable, their lives are so much more than hunger and poverty. Etty Hillesum wrote “I am with the hungry, with the ill treated and the dying, everyday, but I am also with the jasmine and with that piece of sky beyond my window; there is room for everything in a single life.” Making friends in my praxis site, staying with a family out in the country for a week, living with Salvadoran students makes it impossible to see stereotypes of differences. My heart has come to know their hearts. A part of their hearts have become a part of mine. And now I can never forget. Their smiles, laughter, and tears will follow me home, reminding me of all that this country has taught me.
My casa experience is hard to put into words, it was that amazing. It was an opportunity to learn about a life that we so often turn our shoulder towards in the U.S. It was an opportunity to create relationships with people that will impact me for the rest of my life, within the casa as well as Salvadorans. It was opportunity to learn about the conditions that over half the world lives under. It was an opportunity to understand a struggle other than my own. My casa experience opened me up to so many more opportunities in my life, as well as a better view on how I want to live my life.
The name "Casa de la Solidaridad" implies a certain kind of experience for a certain kind of person, but PLEASE, don't think that and timidly pass up one of the greatest opportunities you'll ever have. I go to Boston College where there is a prevalent crowd of what I like to call "social-justice-istas." I have always been interested in the concept of social justice, but I am by I simply could not survive in a crowd of these people. I knew some of them and respected them, but I could never be them or hang out with more than two of them for more than an hour. They had some sort of an aura of superiority about them because they thought they knew the truth about the world. Well, that was my overly cynical judgment, but the fact was, I was just your ordinary college kid living the ordinary college social scene, if you catch my drift. When I got to El Salvador in August, I found that I wasn't the only ordinary kid. There were a variety of different kinds of people, and sure, there are social-justice-istas--you guys are welcome to come, too! All of us came for different reasons: to learn, to develop relationships, to be touched. And wow, I have never learned so much. The Casa gave me the opportunity to encounter the world face to face through something praxis. And I mean that literally. If you are an international studies major--or just interested in the world like myself--you need to be here. You can only learn so much about the majority of the world from a classroom. This gray, faceless, conglomeration that surrounds the United States that we still like to call "The Third World," is real. It is many real places with many real people with many real faces. I had the opportunity to see these faces in the children at a school, Fe y Alegría, in a marginal community of San Salvador. And I saw them in the faces of the women and men who did their best every day to fight the overwhelming odds to make these children more than a statistic of a prison itinerary or an obituary. Plus I have made some amazing friendships with fellow students--American and Salvadoran--with the teachers and staff, and with countless other people I have met.
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Sheila Barucha
Julie Bodnar
Cara Caponi
Kristen Casterson
Amy DePree
George Toth-Demetriadie
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