Reflections on my trip to El Salvador as part of SCU’s 2011 delegation
Elizabeth Day
My time and experience in El Salvador continue to sink into my bones. How does one go about describing a profound, multi-layered, mind-body-spirit experience? I didn’t know where to start. Then I was reminded of something my great uncle, poet Archibald MacLeish said: “A poem should not mean but be.” This is how I feel about El Salvador. Rather than rushing to make rational sense of it, I entered each experience with the intention of being fully present in heart, mind and spirit.
I was faced with many complex and conflicting realities. How can different ideologies be such a barrier to peace? How can we as a human race better understand other perspectives and mitigate unnecessary brutality? How can people trust a police force with a history of corruption? From whence does the fortitude come for communities to rally year after year fighting for their right to clean water? Why are some people who have so ‘little’ by the world’s material standards, so full of generosity and heart? And what’s the lesson to be learned?
As an educator I was particularly curious about the school system. I wondered how a principal could create a safe space for children to learn and teachers to excel, in a neighborhood rife with gang violence, under a government that only spends $8 a year per pupil? (Compare that to an average of $7000 spent per pupil in the U.S.) It seemed impossible to me, until I met Sister Marcos, a native of Northern Irelandwho came to run the Fe y Alegria School in 1990. At the time she didn’t know any Spanish and had never been a principal. Yet she entered this school with
Fe y Esperanza Students
a determination to help those in need, to restore not just the physical safety of the school, but student discipline and teachers’ professional passions as well. Our delegation entered Sister Marcos’ school and experienced brightly colored murals, boys practicing horn instruments, girls practicing a folk dance, students laughing and going to classes, and teachers preparing their lessons. Teachers creatively use what they can locally salvage to teach, whether it be beans and corn for counting or recycled materials to construct simple science experiments. Fe y alegria was present in this safe haven—and I was present too.
“A poem should not mean, but be.” In my being, I discovered that more space was
Sister Marcos and Elizabeth
created within myself for meaning to emerge. In being witness to Sister Marcos’ ongoing commitment to her students and faculty, my own dedication was renewed as an educator. Our world at SCU is connected to her world and I have faith and hope for the future of her community and, through experiences like this, ours.
Elizabeth Day
Elizabeth is a faculty member in Santa Clara University’s Liberal Studies Program.