El Salvador has always and will always be a special place in my life. I
chose El Salvador because my parents were both born there and it defined
so much of their life and mine as well. I visited El Salvador when I
was eight and then again when I was 18. El Salvador is known to have
many people living in poverty and it stuck with me in both visits to
appreciate everything I have in my life. In both visits, i realized what
my parents gave up and went through to give my siblings and me a
better. They also taught us through these visits that helping less
fortunate is important. El Salvador taught me important life lessons
that will stay with me always and also taught me more about my culture
as well.
|
A street in San Miguel where my father is from. This is how typical streets look like in city areas of El Salvador. |
The streets were beautiful to walk through because most of the buildings were colorful and had thier own charm to them.
The most impactful portion of the trips was always getting the
opportunity to help or give to the most impoverished neighborhoods. The
picture above shows how houses of the impoverished neighborhood look
like. The houses are usually falling apart, have roofs that are rusted,
and have patches. My most memorable experience was visiting a family.
The family lived off of what they could grow or sell and they had no
chairs or tables so they sat on bricks to eat. The family had a young
boy who was so grateful just to be able to sit on a chair to eat and to
be able to eat chicken was a big treat for them. I wont ever forget that
and I hope to return and to keep helping people like my parents have
shown me.
Just to say that it is so good to see El Salvador as a favorite place in the class this semester, Emily! India is also a country that struggles with poverty (much of it a legacy of the colonial looting during the time India was a British colony)... and you will see that theme in the epics too; watch for the story of Drona in the Mahabharata, for example, whose whole life is shaped by what happens when his little boy sees other children drinking milk, and he realizes he does not have money to get milk for his child; both Drona and his son, Ashwatthaman, are major characters in the Mahabharata: Wikipedia: Drona link (we do the Ramayana first, and then the Mahabharata comes next!)
ReplyDelete