San Salvador, El Salvador to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in 11 Days!

Our recent trip to El Salvador and Honduras was filled with all sorts of adventures and a few misadventures as well. We hit six stops along the way to see as much as we could in our short time. We enjoyed getting right back into using our Spanish and meeting the extremely friendly people of El Salvador. When we reached Honduras our comprehension was put to the test a lee bit as we tried to decipher a new form of Spanish which often tended to come out in one long continuous stream! We still managed it (after a day or so) and had some great conversations. At this rate, we'll be speaking lone Spanish in no time :)

We loved learning about the places we visited and will share our adventures with you in additional posts. For now, here's a brief preview, more to come: wandering the largest mall we've ever been in, hiking to waterfalls, horseback riding through guerilla war territory, climbing the tallest peak in El Salvador, looking back in the past at ancient hieroglyphs in Mayan ruins, resting on a hammock overlooking the sea, and eating some great pupusas, ice cream, and yes, American Fast Food...

First Stop: San Salvador, El Salvador

The trip began in El Salvador's capital city, San Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country size-wise in Central America, but has a population far greater than we have here in Belize (just in San Salvador it is more than double at over 850,000 and around 2 million in the entire metropolitan area; the entire country has around 6 million people - making it the most densely populated country in Central America). Not having been in a place with so many people and so much traffic in over a year, it was a bit overwhelming when we went exploring in the city center.

(To the left) The Catedral Metropolitina outside of the Plaza Barrios and is the center of the city's street grid. Archbishop Oscar Romero is buried in a tomb beneath the building. As archbishop, Romero witnessed ongoing violations of human rights and started a group which spoke out on behalf of the poor and victims of the country's civil war. In 1980, he was assassinated by a right-wing group headed by former major Roberto D'Aubuisson due to his political involvement with the opposing party as he held the consecrated host up during a Mass. This provoked international outcry for reform in El Salvador. In 1997, a cause for beatification and canonization into sainthood was opened for Romero, and Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him the title of Servant of God. (On the right) A statue in the center of Plaza Barrios dedicated to a former president and crusader for the separation of church and state.

A shot from inside the Metrocentro Mall, 4 floors of food and shops...Yikes!

After a morning of checking out some sites, we spent the afternoon at MetroCentro, a really big mall that covers a few city blocks. This is the first mall Ginnie's gotten lost in, and she has a pretty good navigational sense in malls. It was so big, we stumbled upon the food court for lunch, only to find an even bigger food court much later in the day, one with Papa John's Pizza no less. We did indulge in some fast food since we don't have access to it regularly and it was just fabulous to have some treats from home (despite the fact that we rarely eat them there). Our first meal was dinner from Wendy's when we arrived. We ate at Subway for lunch and Pizza Hut for dinner. The Pizza Huts in Central America are huge restaurants with fancy dining areas, much different from the little take out spaces back home, though there was a time when Pizza Hut had dining areas, but not as big as these! There was a birthday party going on when we went in for our two for one personal pizzas. The prices of things in El Salvador were so nice for us coming from Belize, which is pretty expensive. We really were able to eat quite well on so little! After a day of eating the fast food, we did turn to eating the local cuisine in the towns we visited and we definitely enjoyed that too.

As you can see, we got a little excited to have our fast food treats... so sad

We are thankful to all the extremely friendly Salvadorans who helped us navigate the city buses and find our way to the bus terminal where we were to leave for our next stop - Suchitoto, a small colonial town about 1.5 hours north of the capitol. All of the people we met in El Salvador were so nice and were happy to converse with us, and even help us to be sure our Spanish was correct. It was just a wonderful experience and makes us want to go back to El Salvador and see more of the beautiful country.

A few more pictures of sights around the city...

(Left) Palacio Nacional, formerly the headquarters of the government prior to the 1986 earthquake. (On the right) The inside of Iglesia El Rosario, an old church with a soaring arch of stain glass panels leading from the floor to ceiling. The church was quite unique as it contained many pieces of art and sculpture made solely from scrap metal. The father of Central American independence, Padre Delgado, is buried here.

Camp GLOW Belize 2008

18 July - 22 July 2008

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) was held at the Tropical Education Center at the Belize Zoo for 18 girls from communities throughout the country of Belize. A group of nine PCVs working in youth development and education sectors came together on the WID/GAD (Women in Development/Gender and Development) Committee to discuss ways in which we as volunteers can work with gender issues in our communities. After brainstorming and conducting a priority matrix, we generated a list of topics important to women in Belize and we came up with a plan to hold Camp GLOW to bring girls between the ages of 10 and 14 together in the summer. Our goal was to provide them with an opportunity to explore several issues women face, as well as to allow them to interact with one another and just have fun and be free to be themselves for a few days. After months of planning and working with teachers and principals to identify participants, camp became a reality this past week and it was a huge success. Not to mention it was the most fun and rewarding activity I have been involved with in my whole time in Belize to date!

The focus of Camp was on three major areas: self-esteem, self-reliance, and self-expression. Topics of sessions/activities came from the list of needs and included such things as domestic violence, body image awareness, dating and healthy relationships, communication, goal-setting and career planning, nutrition and fitness, yoga, art projects, leadership, as well as trips to the zoo (including a fun scavenger hunt about the animals), a campfire with s'mores, a talent show, mini-olympics, and a crazy dance party. We ended with a panel of Belizean female role models who spoke to the girls about how they achieved their goals and became successful in their lives and chosen careers.

The girls who attended camp came from one end of the country to the other, with delegations from Ranchito Village (Corozal), Belize City, Belmopan, Dangriga, Santa Teresa Village (Toledo), Big Falls Village (Toledo), and Punta Gorda Town and represent the many cultures found in Belize - Maya, Mestizo, Garifuna, and Kriol. Each of them blossomed and showed us what incredible and amazing young women they are and every counselor is pretty excited to work with our delegations to begin a Club GLOW in our communities.

This was an opportunity for girls to have an experience they may never have been able to participate in and to interact with positive role models and make new friends. At the end of camp, girls expressed how much they enjoyed themselves and some even said it was "the best summer of my life." It was incredible to be part of such a transformative and inspiring experience.

Here are some pictures of all the fun!

Art Activities

Decorating the talking stick, question box, and coloring pictures on the first night

GLOW Girls Quilt Mural
We are so lucky to have Cheryl working with us because she is an amazing artist and brought so many meaningful art activities to help the girls express themselves and learn through their creative expression. Miss Cheryl drew this on the wall at the zoo entrance so Camp GLOW would leave its mark! Included in art activities were a quilt mural, self-portraits, shadow profiles, painting, and making masks with Miss Rachel (our other resident artistic PCV), decorating everything we had and much more!

Interactive Sessions

Searching magazines to find images considered beautiful
Acting out a situation involving asking Dad to be allowed to date

Putting together pieces of the Food Guide Pyramid

Campfire and S'Mores!
The campfire was a huge hit! Only one girl had ever had a S'more before so it was really fun to see how the girls enjoyed them. They loved roasting the marshmallows and most people ate their marshmallows before we could show them how to make a s'more, so they just had to go right back for another and try again - once they had the chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow together, they were lovin' it!
The Belize City Gyals!

Yoga
Each morning we did a yoga session. I put together routines to introduce basic poses and if the girls want, they can put each day's routine together for one long session. It was a great, relaxing way to start each of our very full days. The girls mentioned it as one of their favorite times at camp and I hope they will continue to enjoy yoga on their own.

GLOW Girls Got Talent!
The GLOW "Modelers" (as they named themselves)
Singing to Hannah Montanna, a GLOW Girls' favorite

Everyone singing the new GLOWIN' Girls song to the tune of "She's Royal," written by Rachel and Liz for the counselors to sing to the girls at the Talent Show. They loved our "remix."

Mini-Olympics

GLOWIN' Girls!
My 3-legged race partner, Michelle. We did really well, coming in second on our second heat (we had a shoe mishap in the first round when Michelle's shoe flew off and then a bandanna malfunction in the third round when our bandanna just came untied!). We were pretty fast though, I must admit, Michelle is a competitor. Michelle also has a perfect sportswoman attitude, she said "We're great partners, we don't have to win it's just for fun!"
The water balloon toss was a great competition - and of course girls never minded getting wet since it's so hot!
Nothing like a little arm wrestling competition!

Dancin' Gyals Crazy Party
The girls got all dressed up in silly outfits and really got into their facepainting. We played games like musical chairs, hokey pokey, and one the girls taught us standing in a circle as one girl is in the middle with various songs and then performs different dances and such... it was a pretty fun night with lots of laughter

Our Final Day at Camp GLOW


Mariesha, Khadeisha, and Yolanda represented Belize City very well! I am so proud of them and look forward to their leadership for Club GLOW
All ah wi in fi wi Camp GLOW shirts
GLOW Girls 2008 - what a gorgeous group of leaders!

Everyone who participated in Camp GLOW also wants to extend our gratitude to everyone who supported camp and made it a success - from the staff in PC Office who worked with us to plan and organize the camp, to the many friends and family who donated to our PCPP grant, to the people of James Bus Line who donated transportation, the shops who offered discounts on our supplies, the folks at LOVE FM who shared our camp with the country of Belize, and the TEC who gave us a discounted rate for our stay at camp and the wonderful staff who fed us well and made sure our stay was comfortable - we couldn't have made this camp a reality without any of them! And of course, we thank these inspirational young women for making this the most memorable weekend for everyone.