When students sign up for the Winter Term in Service trip to El Salvador, they aren't just doing it for the warmer weather.
This year, DePauw celebrated 20 years of partnership with CoCoDA (Companion Community Development Alternatives) Ltd., and El Salvador. Since 1993, CoCoDA has partnered with DePauw University, and has given ten different sets of students the opportunity to take trips to El Salvador in order to work, learn and contribute to communities there.
Ivan Villasboa, now the executive director of CoCoDA, has been involved in this partnership since the very first trip.
As a senior student at DePauw University, Villasboa took a chance on the newest Winter Term in Service program, a trip to El Salvador. Though a group of five students and two faculty members had gone to El Salvador the year before, in 1992, it was considered by the university to be a scouting trip of sorts.
"[The 1992 group] was mostly sightseeing: figuring out if this was something DePauw could do," Villasboa said.
When the '92 group came back and the university gave the go ahead for the '93 El Salvador trip, Villasboa signed up. For him, the experience was life changing.
"When I graduated six months later, I joined [CoCoDA] and now I get to keep reliving my Winter Term in Service experience over and over again," he said.
Since his graduation, Villasboa has been a key player in continuing the partnership between DePauw, El Salvador and CoCoDA. The El Salvador trip has taken place 10 times in the past 20 years, and has become one of the most regular Winter Term in Service trips offered by the university.
Kelsey Schultz, semester and short-term off campus study and service advisor, pointed to the overall importance of the El Salvador trip when it comes to Winter Term in Service at DePauw.
"In general, Winter Term in Service has been a huge part of DePauw since 1973, so it's been 40 years. This is a really significant part of that broader program," Schultz said.
While recognizing the impact the El Salvador trips have on Winter Term in service as a whole, she feels the biggest effect this trip has had is on the students themselves. Students have moved back to El Salvador, written theses and done independent studies, all based on a few weeks they spent in a foreign country over Winter Term.
"It doesn't end at Winter Term, it becomes a part of them," Schultz said.
Senior Ariella Ford was the program leader for last Winter Term's El Salvador trip. She and the Reflection Leader senior Josh Miller went along with faculty leaders Bob Hershberger and Alex Puga.
"There's lots of little things that have to be organized before you go that you don't necessarily stop and think of until you're actually doing it," Ford said.
Ford was involved with a lot of the legwork that took place before the group actually left the states and she was a big part of organizing this year's two service projects: the revamping of a school's drainage system, and the gathering of testimonials from citizens involved in or affected by El Salvador's Civil War.
"The service projects are totally based on what [the people] say they want-it's not like CoCoDA just picks the projects randomly," Ford said.
Though there have been a few medical based service projects, often, DePauw students are asked to work on projects that in some way involve education or schools.
"They want schools built that are closer to their homes and things like that," Ford said.
In order to accomplish these goals, students were sent to the village of Las Delicias, where days began and ended early. Even the little time students spent sleeping weren't always peaceful.
"The chickens start squawking at one or two a.m., so the first few nights were really rough," Ford said.
Chickens, however, were by far the least threatening creatures students came in contact with. Many students came across large spiders and scorpions, among other animals, in the room they slept in.
"[My roommate's] mattress was right next to mine and she woke up with a rat on her one night," Ford said.
Even after students became used to the late night noises and surprise visits from wildlife, they were forced to quickly adjust to days beginning around 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. and ending around 9 or 10 p.m.
During the day, students were divided into up to four groups. Some were responsible for construction on the school, some worked in the fields, and a few were given kitchen duty or sent to the city to gather testimonials.
"The kitchen was, I think, everyone's favorite, since they got to take a break from the hard labor-I still have some scars from where the corn scratched me. It looked like we were mauled by animals when we finished work in the fields," Ford said.
The group spent a total of almost three weeks in El Salvador, and traveled many times between Las Delicias and two cities: the nation's capitol, San Salvador and another larger city, Suchitoto.
Time in the cities was used for testimonial collections and "us" time, said Ford, while hours logged in the villages were dedicated mostly to manual labor.
In Las Delicias, trip members stayed with host families. At least two students were assigned to each family and attempted communication between the English-speaking students and the Spanish-speaking hosts was often comical, Ford said.
"We brought Uno, and that's one way we tried to connect with them, because of the numbers and colors. We ended up leaving our deck of cards with our family so they could play Uno."
True to Schultz's word, the experience students underwent in El Salvador has had huge effects on life since their return.
Junior Erika Tucker said that even since returning to the United States, she has been amazing by how much every day life has been affected by her stay in El Salvador.
"You've been living with people who have absolutely nothing, and are still so happy-that attitude definitely rubs off."
Ford agreed completely.
"Even though everyone there has been through [this war], they're still so happy. They're so welcoming to us, and they're so family and community oriented."
Even Tucker's academic life has experienced big changes since the trip. She has had the opportunity to bring up aspects of her trip in class more than once, and mentions of El Salvador have snuck into her papers.
"I've actually been surprised by how many of classes this semester my experience in El Salvador has tied in to," she said.
While Tucker hadn't ever taken a trip like this one before, she has definite plans to do something like this again, and recommends this specific trip, or at least one very similar, to all students.
"It seems so cliché," Ford added, "but it really is a life changing experience. Your mind set is never the same."
And this one life changing experience that Villasboa, who has been involved since the very beginning, hopes will continue for at least another 20 years.
"I hope, 20 years from now, we will be celebrating the Ruby anniversary of this partnership-and 10 years after that the Golden anniversary."