2012 Summer Interns
In securing a grant from the Strategic Initiative Fund, the ASB El Salvador leaders agreed to create not only a Spring Break trip, but to extend the learning beyond that week in April. One way they achieved this goal was the funding of two summer intern positions. Rachel Wolf '12 and Melia Manter '15 were selected to be the 2012 summer interns with the Tamarindo Foundation.
It was hard to know exactly what we were getting in to when we applied to work with John Guiliano as summer interns. John asked for our plans for projects we could implement in the Tamarindo community, but in the end the internship was nothing like I expected.
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I left the day after graduation to start my internship in Guarjila, and we were working nonstop from the moment I touched down. My first hour in San Salvador included a meeting with the Tamarindo Foundation board and a crash course to get me up to date on everything John and Melia had been working on in the week before I arrived.
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My internship was a combination of community involvement and tour organization. John is riding his tour bike from Boston to San Francisco from August 5-Nov 15, and when I arrived very little of the logistics had been planned for the tour. Melia and I created a website, found and uploaded hundreds of photos, created videos for the tour, started the grant-writing process, created masses of links and text and designs, and sent out literally thousands of emails. And that was just in the mornings.

In the evenings I was completely involved in the Tamarindo community. We planned some nights with the Tamarindos and joined in on others. My favorite by far was , but every night was an adventure. We even celebrated my birthday in true Tamarindo style with piñatas and .
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Sleeping over at the Tamarindo was also an incredible experience. I spent a number of nights with the Tamarindo boys, learning about their lives, their hopes and their hardships. Although the majority of the work I did as an intern was online, John explained that it is impossible to do in the United States. It is not physically impossible, but emotionally impossible to complete a project like the Give Kids a Chance Tour without living with the kids that need the chance.
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Every kid in Guarjila has a story, and every life is dramatically different from the life I know in the United States. These kids grow up knowing how to work the land rather than work a computer. They know the names of every family in Guarjila, and each one has a brother or a father or an uncle living in the United States. Most see no future in Guarjila. The United States is the ultimate goal, and despite their lack of English let alone papers to enter the country legally, every year more kids leave. Even while I was there I talked to Freddy about his pending move to Las Vegas. It is incredibly dangerous and I fear for him on his journey.
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People like Freddy and his brother Gio bring home the message and the goals of the Give Kids a Chance Tour. We put together the bare bones of the project so that John can ride to raise money for the Tamarindo Foundation to build a new community center. It is not only a place for recreation and community, but a promise for the future. It represents economic opportunity for Guarjila. If the dream becomes a reality, the complex will host a state-of-the-art hockey rink fit for international tournaments, a hostel run by Tamarindos, workshops, recreation spaces, a gym, and more.
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They say that if you build it they will come, but the truth is that they are already here. The Tamarindo community has grown both in Guarjila and in the United States. The Tamarindo community already provides a safe space for youth, provides a cultural exchange, and educates the youth of the United States, but it has the potential to do so much more. It has been and continues to be an incredible experience working with the Tamarindo Foundation on projects that can change the fate of an entire community and reach out to thousands of people in the process.
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I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this internship, and it is all thanks to the amazing people at Lewis & Clark College who made it happen. The administrators, staff, leaders and students who were part of the ASB El Salvador trip and who made this all possible are truly incredible. Internships are an absolutely essential part of college and this internship was an unforgettable and unique experience that has inspired me and taught me invaluable lessons in human dignity and the importance of changing the world, one life at a time.

-Rachel Wolf
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