General life update … less than 6 months to go in BVS (well,
more like a little less than 7, but there will be a month of tying up loose
ends / vagabonding / visiting / cherishing / goodbye-ing, which I am not
mentally counting quite yet. I’m getting
anxious to move on; not necessarily anxious to actually get on the plane and
leave El Salvador, but definitely looking forward to not being so tied to
Emmanuel Baptist and their ways of doing things … Some staff have left … one
quit in early February, one was let go in December (if I’m not mistaken),
another let go in January or early February, and one is currently in the
process of finishing the last 2 weeks of their work, having submitted their
resignation letter within the last few weeks.
So things are rocky around here.
Salvadoran morale is low, which makes mine plummet to new depths.
I’m nervous about the sustainability of keeping Emmanuel
Baptist as a BVS project. There, I said
it. Publicly. I’ve mentioned this to many of you, I’m sure,
and it’s something that’s been nagging at me since last year even, but with
each passing day, week, month, the nagging continues. I know at least in terms of funding this is
often the case with programs in Latin America, but it seems here that the
church relies on people to keep their projects / interests going, rather than
there being a way to pass on the torch, so to speak. At this point, the peace program is not rolling
in the dough, and if Josué or I leave, or both of us, it’s quite likely that
for lack of funding and lack of personnel, the program will founder. Even though it is an absolutely imperative
and noble thing for Salvadoran society, at both the local and national
level. We haven’t done much networking
outside of the church itself, partly because there are only two of us, and
partly because there seems to be a way of making connections that involves the
pastor as the face of the program, rather than myself or Josué. Quite frankly, that dampens my outlook and
initiative to set something up, if I have to wait for the pastor to give me the
go-ahead. One would think he would be
quite open to letting the program flourish and brag about having two committed
young adults as the ones who made it into what it is, but that does not seem to
be the case. Even so, I am going to work
on networking, with other churches, organizations, NGOs, government groups,
universities, etc. I know I won’t be
able to do all this in just a few months, but I want to get something going so
that the program doesn’t fold if and when it happens to not have specific
coordinators.
………
Next up? No
idea. 3 job applications out: 1 I know I didn’t get, and 2 I just sent out
this past Thursday. And a possible thing
near DC, but that’s in the works, and I haven’t committed, though in nearly all
aspects sounds absolutely FANTASTIC.
Except one thing. And I hate to
get snagged on this one thing … known as dinero for you Spanish speakers … but
with college loans and a credit card payment always looming, and no savings, it
would be nice to be able to pay those off and put a little something away for a
rainy day (read: trip to El Salvador to visit).
Your thoughts and opinions and ears and eyes would be much
appreciated as I discern what could be next.
I do know I want to be in the US, I want to use my Spanish, and would
like to be within a 6-hour-drive of my parents’ in central Pennsylvania. The rest is up to the powers that be.
No comments:
Post a Comment