The Whole Experience

Last Friday I got some feedback on my proposal that I have not considered before. To be completely frank I didn’t think that my proposal would include this kind of information.

Our facilitator asked me why I had not included more information about what I would be doing on a day to day. Its true I talk a lot about my project but I have not really mentioned the other big factor that influenced me to decide to go to my field study in El Salvador.

As I have stated before I am Salvadoran. I left when I was ten. Two summers ago before leaving to college I decided to go back to El Salvador. I knew that if I didn’t go then I might not get a change to go in a very long time. I wanted to go because I had not met two of my sisters. One of them had been born in the seven years I had been away and the other one was a well kept secret of my fathers.

I remember he had told me about her when I was ten. He took me for a ride on the day I was to say good-bye to him. The next day I was leaving with my mother to America. He took me to a house with a red door. A little girl came out, he pointed at her and told me she was my sister. I never saw her again until two summers ago when I visited. She is 12 now.

I have 3 sisters, Alejandra who is 12. Diana who is 11 and Sara who is 3. There is another baby boy on the way. I am really exited! He is due to be born in the middle of my study! I want to be able to meet my baby brother and spend some time with my sisters. I wan them to know that I have not forgotten about them at all, that I think about them all the time. It was Diana’s dengue fever that got me to be interested in the water problems El Salvador has. If we were more careful about mosquito breeding grounds she may have never been sick. That was one of the worst emails I have ever gotten. She was in a very critical state.

This is the kind of other activities I will be doing while abroad. I didn’t know if I should add this to my proposal… interacting with my sisters. I want to get to know them, I don’t even know their favorite colors! But I will. I had not even though about this as part of my “whole” experience, but my facilitator was right. It is a big deal.