Today is my last day in El Salvador! Tommorrow we leave for Nicaragua at 4:30 in the morning! This past week I have been doing alot of school work. We broke up into small groups to work on individual issues that interested us. I worked on environmental issues, so I interviewed the Ministry of the Environment and various NGO environmental organizations. It has been really interesting. El Salvador is the most deforested country in Latin America aside from Haiti. There are only 1.9% of the origonal forests left in the country, which is horrible. On Friday we gave our group presentations, my group presented our information in the form of a news report- it was really cool.
This week I have also been working on my final project for the class, which could be whatever, it just had to portray our knowledge from the class. I did a painting, with various quotes and images. Friday was problably my favorite class of the whole four weeks because there was so much creativity, and it was interesting hearing people talk about how they are digesting all these experiences and information. And last night we went Salsa dancing!! it was really fun- the music scene here is amazing.
Today is the anniversary of Oscar Romero´s death, a liberation theology martyr who died in 1980. He was archbishop who had a strong commitment to helping the poor of El Salvador. This morning I went to a church service in honor of him. Then they had a march in honor of him where we marched all the way from the church he was shot to the cathedral downtown. It was great though, people were giving speeches, signing music, there was so much passion and hope there it was a beautiful thing to see. There must of been a thousand or so people there. Tonight theres a candle light vigil, concert and candle march which is usually attended by thousands of people. I think I will go if I get all my stuff packed! I am gonna miss El Salvador- but I am excited for Nicaragua!!