La Laguna Travel Guide

 thelukey Says:  One of my Peace Corps friends did me one better with the leadership training, organizing a three-day soccer and leadership camp for approximately fifty-five young women in Puerto El Triunfo, Usulután. Along with another volunteer and a Puerto El Triunfo local, I worked on... 

 thelukey Says:  During the time when I was active with the CIVI (the Comité Interinstitucional para la Prevención y Atención de la Violencia Intrafamiliar), I thought it might be a good idea to organize some short hikes so that children from the town of La Laguna would have the opportunity... 

 thelukey Says:  One of the few specific requests that the La Laguna City Hall had when they asked the Peace Corps to send a volunteer to the municipality was that they needed help promoting their projects and activities to members of the surrounding communities. Towards that end, I worked... 

 thelukey Says:  For some reason, a wave of Brazilophilia swept through El Salvador during the time I lived in the country. One result of this sudden fondness for all things brasileiros was the decision to create the “Primer Gran Carnaval Chalateco do Brasil,” a celebration held in... 

 thelukey Says:  After FODES and ISDEM (two government institutions that support the activities of El Salvador’s local governments) had prepared an enormous map of the urban center of La Laguna in anticipation of the City Hall’s efforts to collect a newly-minted property tax, I thought it... 

 thelukey Says:  For some reason, small towns in El Salvador tend to renovate their central plaza once every couple of years. My suspicion is that the reason for these frequent renovations and re-renovations is that, since most of the funds spent on these projects go to pay the salaries of... 

 thelukey Says:  For four months in 2003, the City Hall in La Laguna was abuzz with activity, trying to explain the various irregularities that El Salvador’s “Corte de Cuentas” (a government auditing mechanism) had uncovered during their examination of La Laguna’s paperwork. Since the City... 

 thelukey Says:  Truth be told, most of the time I spent in City Hall was spent chit-chatting with the rarely busy municipal employees, but I did make myself useful every now and then. One of my contributions was to teach three City Hall employees how to use the internet to download... 

 thelukey Says:  Four months before my Peace Corps service came to an end, I was approached by another volunteer who had been approached by a representative from the Chalatenango office of the Salvadoran Soccer Federation (FEDEFUT), who were looking for help as they began organizing a new... 

 thelukey Says:  At La Laguna’s high school, the INDEL, students have the option of following a 2-year general course of study (bachillerato general) or a 3-year course of study (bachillerato técnico) with a specialization in either secretarial skills or accounting. One of the graduation... 

 thelukey Says:  The basketball game, as I described it at the time in an email message:I’d said well in advance that I wouldn’t play basketball, because it wouldn’t be fair, because I’m just too good (and too tall) for any of the high school kids to be able to contain. So, I sat with a few... 

 thelukey Says:  On the work side of the equation, my participation in the annual intramural sports competitions in the local high school and in their occasional “convivios” with other high schools in the department of Chalatenango was limited to serving as a soccer and basketball referee.... 

 thelukey Says:  Through my collaboration with the local school district, I eventually met the director (and only teacher) of the school in the small community of El Camalote (located alongside the road that leads from La Laguna to El Carrizal, just beyond the turn-off the leads to La... 

 thelukey Says:  In October 2003, I began working with the Women’s Community Bank of La Laguna, an association that had been established earlier that year with the help of Ana, a Spanish psychologist who spent a year and a half living in La Laguna and working on various community projects.... 

 thelukey Says:  In June 2002, I worked with the Peace Corps volunteer who was stationed in the neighboring municipality of El Carrizal, with three teachers from the high school in La Laguna, and with a local police officer to organize a two-day youth encounter in La Montañona. Thirteen... 

 thelukey Says:  Beginning in April 2002, I worked with La Laguna’s then-resident Spanish psychologist, representatives of the National Civil Police, the Justice Department, other government institutions, and various community associations to form the Comité Interinstitucional para la... 

 thelukey Says:  Each year, the Peace Corps El Salvador Gender Analysis and Development Committee (GAD) organizes a series of three-day regional youth workshops. Twice I participated (and brought local kids along with me) in GAD workshops held in Upatoro (a small village just outside the... 

 thelukey Says:  In at least one way, La Laguna is a very lucky community. A very generous man who completed two service tours in the Peace Corps, first in the Dominican Republic and then in El Salvador, in the tiny community of La Montañona, has organized a scholarship program for students... 

 thelukey Says:  Incidentally, my first organized game in El Salvador ended the same way. While still living in Santa Clara during Peace Corps pre-service training, I took advantage of a rare day off to travel with the Santa Clara team for a friendly match against El Coco. After the first...