It´s time for me to go. (Ya es hora de irme.)
Today is my final day in El Salvador as I leave in a few hours for a new job opportunity in the United States. It is not lost on me that in taking this position and leaving El Salvador for the US, I will be enacting the dream of so many Salvadorans who seek a better life on the other side of the border.
Interestingly, in my time here, I have grown to love both countries more than I ever have, but through opposite actions.
El Salvador I have grown to love through knowing its people, culture, landscape and raw vitality -- and through establishing a life lived in all its normalcy, allowing my life and history to meld into its own. This is the love one feels for family. An unquestioned love nourished by shared experience, shared future, support, and acceptance.
The United States, on the other hand, I have grown to love more by leaving it behind. By being able to see it from afar, as most Salvadorans do, I now more clearly understand its phenomenal capacity (often, but not always, acted upon) to compel our common humanity toward the principles of justice and liberty. This is the love one has for the iconic role models of our world, the ones who rise above all others and chart the course of our destiny.
But leaving El Salvador to go back to our great country is anything but easy and, in fact, is proving to be one of the hardest things I have ever done -- though it will never be as hard as what Salvadorans experience as they travel dangerously to the US with the possibility of never seeing El Salvador or their families again. By being born with the exclusive membership of American citizenship, I am afforded rights and opportunities that I used to take for granted -- like being able to cross our borders freely.
El Salvador is not an easy country to leave. But I´m leaving my heart here as an assurance that I´ll be back.
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6 comentarios:
Wait, so you're leaving El Salvador and the Peace Corps?
Yep.
Suerte con todo. I have been reading your blog since your training (I'm thinking about becoming a volunteer). Good luck!
Wow! Thanks for reading. My husband John is still in El Salvador and will join me in August, so he´ll keep up the Salvadoran Peace Corps blog until then. Me, I was lucky to have a great job opportunity come up in a bad economy so I had to cut my service short by 4 months. I wish the timing were better.
It´s been a tough transition. Leaving El Salvador on Monday was incredibly hard. But I am glad that John is still there for now, being that connection to this country that I love.
I hope you are still considering Peace Corps. We have had an amazing experience. I´d do it all over again.
No problem! You guys always had thoughtful posts, I enjoyed reading and I lived vicariously through your experience.
I am still considering the Peace Corps...a while down the road though. I plan on going abroad with another organization this summer though.
Good luck with your new job, you're right, you were very lucky to get a job with this economy!
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