New Photo Albums
I feel like pictures often say more than words, so I want to
direct your attention to a bunch of new albums that I have posted over the last
few months. To see the pictures, all you
have to do is click on the photo link to the right.
Going in chronological order (so oldest to newest) I’m going
to say a little bit about each album:
El Salvador Elections 2012- On Sunday March 11, I had
the unique opportunity to serve as an international observer of the El
Salvadoran elections, in which mayors and members of the legislator were
elected. We had to be at the poles at
5AM and stayed until 11pm at night. Are
major function was to observe and note any thing that seemed out of order (for
instance two people within the voting booth, the poll gates opening late and
closing early, voters trying to use false identification or table members
turning away voters with proper identification, ect.) and then as a team, we as
Cristosal compiled a report. Overall it
was a very long but interesting day.
Glasswing Alcohol Prevention Youth Day- As I
mentioned in my previous post, I’ve become involved with some volunteer
activities with the NGO Glasswing International. In return they have also been helping me plan
the alcohol prevention program that I am going to facilitate in El Pital. Part of the alcohol prevention program is a
celebration activity for all of the leaders that participate and finish the
program, so I helped out with the celebration for the leaders that just
finished the most recent course. The
celebration activity was held at an adventure center in Lourdes Colon. As you can see from the pictures, there were
a lot of fun activities for the kids to do, rock climbing, zip line, mask
making, dancing, ect. and as a helper, I also got to go flying through the sky
on the zip line.
Romero Vigilia- After a morning packed with youth
activities I caught the bus to Salvador del Mundo (a large monument in San
Salvador) to participate in the Vigil for Monsenor Romero; which is held every
year on March 24, the day that Romero was assassinated. In memory of the amazing work that Romero did
through out his short life, thousands of people come out every year to march
from Salvador del Mundo to the cathedral in the center. It was pretty amazing to be a part of this
growing tradition. Check out Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Óscar_Romero)
for more information about Romero and why he is so loved in El Salvador.
Semana Santa with the Almquist hermanas- In El
Salvador, everybody gets Semana Santa (Holy Week) off from work; basically
every thing closes down. I was very
lucky, and my one and only sister (Celanie), who I love very much came and
visited me for Semana Santa. We had a
jammed packed week: We started with a
weekend in the city and Celanie got to experience salsa dancing at La Luna and
Café Late (two fun restaurants/bars that have dancing) and a concert at the UCA
(the University of Central America).
From there we headed out to the beach (El Tunco), fresh water
springs/water falls (Juayua), a cute older town (Ataco), and we hit up some hot
springs (Agua Termales de Santa Teresa) on our way back to the city. Next on the list was Chalatenango, where we
joined my housemate Ani in a small town (Arcatao) in the countryside for a
night in the campo and a hike to the river/water fall. Then we went onto Las Palmas where we got to
see some beautiful “Alfombras” , rugs that the community make in the streets
for holy week, and next to El Pital (not the El Pital in Lourdes Colon where I
work but a different one), the highest area in El Salvador, where we saw some
amazing views and enjoyed the fresh, chilly air. For Easter vigil (5 hours) and Easter day,
Celanie had the opportunity to join me in El Pital (the community I work in)
for services at San Francisco de Asis and meet the lovely people I work with
day to day. As, I said it was a jammed
pack week but it was really an amazing week!
Circulo Solidario Actividades- As I mentioned in one
of my previous posts, I have also started volunteering a little of my time with
Circulo Solidario and this album has some pictures from some the health
education activities that I have helped out with.
Nicaragua- So
at the end of April, I got an amazing opportunity to spend a week traveling
with one of my good friends from the Boston area (Andrea) in Nicaragua. All I’m going to tell you on this one is the
name of the cities that we visited; otherwise I think the pictures really say
it all. 1.Managua, 2.Leon, 3.Granada,
4.Isla Ometepe, 5.San Juan del Sur.
Enjoy the pictures!
