Camp GLOW-inspired ramblings on the American Dream

Sometimes the situation in El Salvador feels hopeless. Meetings are canceled, the ADESCO runs in the same endless circle for the entire year, community members give me a half-shrug when I suggest change or entrepreneurship - their remesa money will arrive each month no matter what they do at home. Girls drop out of school and get pregnant, boys drop out and join gangs or start field work. Insecurity makes the establishment of successful small businesses a huge personal risk: get too successful and you’ll see gangs breathing down your neck for “security” payments. El Salvador has crept up again to the top, but not in a good way - it’s back at #1 for yearly homicides per capita. Note to self: Does it have anything to do with it being an election year? Does El Sal drop down a few spaces then hit the top every five years? Look at the stats or talk to the older generation, and change seems impossible in this little country. 

I never thought Peace Corps would be the solution for El Salvador, and I still don’t. When I see the kids, though, I hope. I hope they can learn more and get creative and make life work here. I hope they can break the cycle of teen pregnancies, teen murderers and illegal immigrants. I hope they will be the change in their country that we are trying to be in our own. I signed up for Peace Corps not only as a personal challenge, but because Americans are often inward-looking and egotistical, concerned only for the rest of the world when it makes a good photo opportunity or it directly affects our own very high quality of life. That’s a huge generality, and like all generalities it’s not entirely true, but it’s a persistent feeling I get every time I come home. 

We have this American Dream mentality that anyone can pull themselves up to millionaire status, which has pervaded the Salvadoran ethos as well. The problem arises when you have the American Dream without America, when you realize that “anyone” doesn’t mean “everyone,” when the immediacy of American culture and consumerism is the overwhelming sentiment, and when the American Dream is forced into a pluralistic rather than individualistic culture. I have problems with the American Dream, but the idea of hard work and seizing opportunities to improve my lot is one that I support. The thing I have noticed about that sentiment is that it is profoundly egotistical (not in a bad way, just in a "this is our culture, take it or leave it" way) - I want to work hard for myself to improve my own life. 

Salvadorans are extremely family-oriented and heavily in men’s favor, and from what I have seen, this subscription to the American Dream is harmful. The father says “I will do whatever it takes to bring money to my family,” so he leaves for the US. Problem one: the dream has changed from improving quality of life to getting more money. This can also lead the mother to follow her husband, leaving her small children to be raised by relatives. Problem two: the US is individualistic, while El Salvador is not. This means that the entire family is relying on one person to pull them up out of poverty, rather than each working to his or her own ends that luckily also benefit the family.  Problem three: in a machista, family oriented culture, family disintegration can be disastrous. Women are degraded and elders are rarely respected, so boys looking for role models turn to gangs because, knowing Salvadoran culture, they offer brotherhood, money and power. Even in a community without gang presence, kids look to their parents as role models. If dad is never around and mom says he’s doing the best thing by working and sending back money, boys are raised to believe that their only duty to the family is money and girls are conditioned to expect to be sole caretakers. This makes infidelity and teen pregnancy more commonplace - the father already is expected be a nonentity in the relationship, and the culture praises macho men with notorious sexual prowess. 

So you have Salvadoran men and some women working hard in the US to achieve the American Dream, which they interpret as big TVs and new cell phones and fancy houses, because that’s what TV and social media adore. They send this all back to El Salvador, creating dependency and perpetuating the image that success is money and money is the United States. Families subscribe to a consumer lifestyle but work at home or in subsistence agriculture, so their consumption is funded through relatives at no extra effort to themselves. "Success is money" is the same image the gangs use, and they have the same idea of no work and all gain, just different methods to achieve it. We aren’t helping matters in the US with a flawed immigration system that makes getting a green card all but impossible for the average Jose but makes it easy to get sent to family members in the US rather than deported after crossing the border illegally, and by trying to punish individuals rather than the companies that employ them. If the cost were too high for a company to employ illegal immigrants, they wouldn’t do it, forcing immigrants to find legal means to live in the US to be employable. Everyone would receive the benefits, and Salvadorans wouldn't be terrified to return home because it would be possible for them to get back to work again. The system would change to two-year or five-year work stints, rather than a lifetime without having met your son or daughter. 

On the Salvadoran end, security is the biggest issue. If you can’t invest the money you’re getting sent into sustainable activities like a business, then consumerism and those big empty houses are essentially the only options. Extortions are squeezing this country dry of capital, both human and investment. There’s probably no system of insurance for small businesses either, so any damages wrought by extortionists is paid for out of pocket. It’s certainly not how development people think, but making the country almost entirely corporate, essentially pushing out small business in favor of big factories, big farms and chains, would at least provide jobs, require at least a high school education to join the job market, put a penalty on environmental pollution, and possibly diminish extortion. Big chains are much harder to intimidate, especially since they all come with personal security guards and insurance. Granted, gangs may turn to collecting ransoms, but maybe people would rather earn a steady pay than a big score and the constant risk of death and vengeance. I’m generally averse to the death penalty, but something dramatic needs to be done and the prison system is a wreck and the government is powerless. At least with a death penalty the risk would be the same to join or not - the gang says they’ll kill you, and so does the government. Is that horribly cynical of me? If gang members could be trained to form and run cooperatives rather than extort from them, that would be ideal - increased productivity and increased security in one fell swoop. But how do you convince someone to change who knows a gun will get them money much faster than a smile? Would an arms exchange program work here - turn in your gun for seeds or a computer or a job? Death penalty seems like a great motivator to me - join the work training program or take the penalty. Two strikes, you’re out. 

This is, of course, all speculative rambling, not a thesis on security and development in El Salvador. I don’t have any special training that qualifies me to opine, nor do I have examples of other countries that have a large corporate culture or the death penalty that are actually safer because of it (though at this point anywhere is safer than El Salvador). I would do so much research (and pointless web surfing and food porn, let’s be honest) if I had internet all the time. It’s all just thoughts as I come back to site after four days with eight other PCVs and thirteen teenage girls at an empowerment camp in the mountains. 

By virtue of being born in the United States to a loving, middle class family, I have been bestowed with endless opportunities most kids here can’t even fathom. I was expected to read all the time, to participate, to do my homework, to get good grades. Every summer I attended camps for everything from human anatomy to kite-making to pottery to choir. Extracurriculars were part of everyday life, so I signed up for swim team, knowledge bowl, bridge-building, science olympiad, battle of the books, saxophone lessons, honor band, youth in volunteering, and endless other activities every year. For eight years I competed in Future Problem Solving: researching new technologies and burgeoning issues on a global scale, then devising futuristic solutions to combat them. Here we can’t even identify present problems, let alone solve them or think about the future. 

I’m in Peace Corps because all of those opportunities I received seem out of reach here.  Through no effort of my own, I was handed a beautiful childhood that shaped me into the healthy, intelligent, motivated woman I am now. I have a debt to repay to all of the incredible counselors, teachers, parents, friends, professors, churchgoers, coaches and others who made me me. Peace Corps is, in some small way, part of my debt repaid. I want to be that camp counselor, that sports coach, that arts and crafts guru, and that teacher for the kids in my community that opened my mind, taught me about myself and about the world, and motivated me to make something of myself when I was a kid. I despair of the older generation in El Salvador, but the kids are limitless - all they need is a push in the right direction and someone to tell them “Yes, you are brilliant, do it,” rather than “No. Shut your mouth.”  

This brings us back to the present. I just returned from a GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camp organized by a group of PCVs for girls from our communities. We each brought one or two girls to Alegría in Usulután for a three-day camp about gender, leadership, women’s empowerment, goal-setting, HIV/AIDS, and self-esteem. This is very likely the only camp some of them will ever attend, and it was a chance to really open up and learn without fear. I brought one girl from each community I’m working with, and although they didn’t tell me much, I get the sense that they both enjoyed and learned from the experience. It made me laugh that I brought the two quiet kids who are basically just like I was in high school, and Catherine brought the two “cool kids” just like her. Suffice it to say I’m glad we met as adults because I think she’s awesome and a fantastic person to work with, but we definitely would not have run in the same circles as kids. 

What is a GLOW camp, you ask? It’s a camp for girls started by PCVs in Romania in 1995 to encourage young women to become active citizens by building their self-esteem and confidence, increasing their self-awareness, and developing their skills in goal setting, assertiveness, and career and life planning. Both GLOW and BRO camps have become common activities for PCVs around the world. Especially in a country that places so little value on women and has such strong cultural norms about the role of women, GLOW camp can be life-changing. The girls get the chance to take a stand, to see their peers acting as leaders, to learn about their rights, their health and their future, and to identify ways they can change their world. Women are a strong majority in El Salvador, but they are silent and hidden. This country needs strong women in the public eye and in daily life to take charge and make something of El Salvador. One of the girls told me she wants to be a secretary. One wants to start an NGO rehabilitating drug addicts. One wants to be an artist. All of those are better than staying at home every day raising children and relying on remittances. I have nothing against stay-at-home moms, but there’s a big difference between doing it because you want to, and doing it because you think you can’t do anything else. 

What did we do at camp? Well, here’s the schedule minus food, free time and literally endless icebreaker and motivation camp songs and activities. They were full days from 8:00 am until 9:00 pm, followed by nightly dance parties until midnight. The staff at Cartagena were troopers and were endlessly helpful and supportive in everything, even setting us up with a sound system for the dance parties. 

Day 1: Welcome & Introduction, explore the nature park, write your story - “Yo, Heroína,” designing the camp flag, after-dinner dance instruction, yoga, dance party, movie night

Day 2: Self-esteem workshop, leadership talk, gender stereotypes, camera activity, HIV/AIDS training, flag-making, camp olympics, learning the cup song, bracelet-making, dance party!

Day 3: Aspirations and goal setting, finishing “my hero story”, myths and truths about HIV/AIDS, Safe and Unsafe relationships and secrets, hike up to the crater lake, more cup song practice, Campfire “I can’t…” activity, DANCE PARTY!

Day 4: Affirmations game (touch someone who…), wrap-up and evaluations, diplomas, photo booth photos, check-out at 10:00 am and home by 2:00 pm.

I had a great time and having so many PCVs meant that we had time to work in small groups, guide the activities, and plan while others were presenting. Everyone led a few activities and we had a good mix of seriousness and craziness, and of course the insane and perky camp counselor attitude every camp needs. Hilary and Frank wrote the grant and Hilary generally managed the entire pre-camp organization process, for which I will be eternally grateful. After planning volunteer get-togethers and realizing that we have another event in two weeks and two more camps in the near future, I definitely prefer being on the “I signed you up, so show up and give your sessions” end of the organizational spectrum rather than the “you’re the organized one, we all trust you to get everything organized and prepared” end. 

It's a toss-up whether these girls actually turn into leaders, but at least they now have those special camp memories that every kid should have. They can remember themselves as they were at camp - strong, courageous, inquisitive young women - and hopefully turn that girl into the one we see every day. 

New Books read: 75

Total Books read: 111