What occupies my days..

So, I’ve been interning at this organization called FUNDAMUNI. Even though I read through their history and yearly planned projects, I had no idea what they actually did. I thought I did, but now that I am here I can tell that they are a pretty special organization.

This is how it works:

The government has created a (very tiny) budget to give aid to the most war-affected areas of El Salvador.

Every year a bunch of NGO’s plan projects and organize presentations to get this funding, FUNDAMUNI has been rocking it since 1994 and manages to get funding.

(This makes me wonder how stable their aid can be if the government decides to quit “helping” the people.)

FUNDAMUNI not only works in different geographical areas, but they also work in different structural areas of the society. They work with children, adults, local government, schools, etc.

Now, what I am doing is helping out with the youth programs. I am the dance teacher. I work with multiple communities and at the end of the program in their school we have a presentation of showcase of what they have learned. Just recently the youth (ages 12-17) performed in front of their whole community.

Here is a picture of my beautiful girls!

I am just loving being here. I feel like I have created a good relationship with the kids, they tell me about their lives, we joke around, they teach me something new every day.

Most of them don’t have much, they don’t own a TV, or ipod, they barely have more than two pairs of shirts, and more often than not they come to practice barefoot, yet they are always happy and eager to learn and play. As an American society I think we have a lot to learn about giving less value to our stuff, and more value to experiences. So, instead of watching so much TV we should go out and play something, meet up with friends, be social… and instead of listening to our ipods so much maybe we should try talking to the person next to us on the bus or subway.

These kids know each other so well. Granted they do live in communities of less than 400 people, but I bet if we took the time to go up the street and meet our neighbors like they do we would be able to unite our communities a little more.

How many of us even know who are neighbors are? What their names are? If they have kids?

If we don’t know them, how can we be able to collaborate to better our neighborhoods?

Just the other day, there were too many bushes and trees blocking the entry way to one community. So, they had a neighborhood meeting, they grabbed machetes and cut down the bushes and tree.