Project Launch:

Field trips are virtually nonexistent in El Salvadoran primary schools and a Peace Corps Volunteer stationed there in 2010 received a World Connect grant from its Kids to Kids Program to provide an opportunity for students from five different schools to see historically and culturally significant sites in the surrounding region. The project established a Cultural Excursion Month, bringing students to five different destinations: 1) Perquin, El Salvador’s home to the most detailed museum documenting the country’s 12 year Civil War and how it helped to reshape the country, with informational tours given by local former guerillas; 2) The caves of Corinto, where pictographs 10,000+ years old depict every day life and animals important to Salvadoran indigenous ancestors; 3) Guatagiagua, a pueblo renowned country-wide for its distinct black tinted pottery called “barro negro”,  where students received an instructional seminar from a master artisan who performed and explained his trade, which has been passed down from generations; 4) The small village of El Mozote, which is famous for a government troop attack on innocent civilians during the war and where today, a women’s cooperative operates re-telling the story and explaining the monuments set up to honor and never forget the victims’ tales; 5) A group of earth science Instituto students (ages 18-20) traveled to Berlin to tour a GeoThermal plant that turns superheated underground steam into energy, which provides power and jobs to the surrounding area.