Iris, Gary, Joel, Mike, Jeff, Ana, Jason, and Jason
in front of Roman Catholic Church in San Salvador
during a day of sightseeing in the capital.
in front of Roman Catholic Church in San Salvador
during a day of sightseeing in the capital.
A Participant's View
I signed up for the Hillel-sponsored spring break trip to El Salvador with very little knowledge of exactly where we were going or what we would be doing. All I knew was that I was going to El Salvador to engage in a service project with other Jewish college students-and that was enough for me.
But what began as simply a way to spend my spring break evolved into an experience that has shaped my entire outlook on life.
On March 17, Michael Blank '02, Jason Ferraro (Programming Director), Iris Leviner '02, Anna Oppenheim '05, Joel Schudson '02, Jason Spitalnick '02, Gary Weissman '02 and I departed for a week in Ciudad Romero, a rural village of two hundred families about fifty miles outside of the capital San Salvador.
I signed up for the Hillel-sponsored spring break trip to El Salvador with very little knowledge of exactly where we were going or what we would be doing. All I knew was that I was going to El Salvador to engage in a service project with other Jewish college students-and that was enough for me.
But what began as simply a way to spend my spring break evolved into an experience that has shaped my entire outlook on life.
On March 17, Michael Blank '02, Jason Ferraro (Programming Director), Iris Leviner '02, Anna Oppenheim '05, Joel Schudson '02, Jason Spitalnick '02, Gary Weissman '02 and I departed for a week in Ciudad Romero, a rural village of two hundred families about fifty miles outside of the capital San Salvador.
 Loading the boats for our two hour ride to work in a remote village. |
 Bagging 10,000 bags of seeded soil to be planted after the rainy season. |
We joined over forty students from six other universities to engage in sustainable development projects with the American Jewish World Service in conjunction with the Foundation for Self Sufficiency and La Coordinadora, two Salvadorian organizations established to cultivate the local environment and economy.
Four days we worked in the field. Our undertakings varied from beautifying the village park to erecting a greenhouse, preparing seedlings for planting, tilling the soil on a watermelon farm, and building foundations for new houses.
Twice a day, after lunch and dinner, we gathered for formal discussion and reflection sessions. These were typically centered on traditional Jewish texts and broached such topics as identity, service, activism, and social justice as components of a Jewish life
Four days we worked in the field. Our undertakings varied from beautifying the village park to erecting a greenhouse, preparing seedlings for planting, tilling the soil on a watermelon farm, and building foundations for new houses.
Twice a day, after lunch and dinner, we gathered for formal discussion and reflection sessions. These were typically centered on traditional Jewish texts and broached such topics as identity, service, activism, and social justice as components of a Jewish life
 The Synagogue of San Salvadore, the nation's only congregation for the country's 200 Jews. |
 Digging foundations for cinderblock roundhouses in a rural village. |
We slept in a new-yet very rustic-compound that had just been built to house volunteers from abroad and we were all matched up with families in the village with whom we ate breakfast and dinner.
We spent one day in San Salvador visiting with members of the country's only Jewish congregation, touring the churches at which Archbishop Romero lived, worked, and was assassinated, shopping at a traditional flea market, meeting with local schoolchildren, and swimming in the Rio Lempa.
We spent one day in San Salvador visiting with members of the country's only Jewish congregation, touring the churches at which Archbishop Romero lived, worked, and was assassinated, shopping at a traditional flea market, meeting with local schoolchildren, and swimming in the Rio Lempa.
It was quite a transition returning to Hanover, replete with cell phones, laptops, and satellite TV, from a village in which the inhabitants share their dirt-floor, cinderblock roundhouses with chickens and pigs. The work we did, the discussions we had, and the people we met motivated me to further involve myself in social justice. I think everyone would agree that our week spent in El Salvador will not be one easily forgotten.
Written by Jeffrey Murphy '02
Written by Jeffrey Murphy '02
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Created by Ethan Levine '03 ethan.levine@dartmouth.edu |
March 2002
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