Don't harm your neighbors

Everyone who works at Casa Maya keeps telling me about the importance of teaching simple morals and ideals in every single lesson or demonstrating them when I interact with kids. They keep telling me how important it is to stress sharing, helping each other, not fighting and respecting other's property. Every time somebody told me this my first week at Casa Maya I just sort of shrugged them off. I didn't ignore them because I thought their intentions were wrong but because I didn't believe that the need for such simple lessons could be so great.

On my second Monday on the job I had an epiphany kids in El Salvador don't learn these so called simple values from society, home or school. I could feel my preconceived notions about Salvadorian need crumbling around me. I assumed that I was coming to a well grounded country were I would be able to work off of the social and cultural building blocks that I am so accustomed to in the States but I was wrong. The people who are working with ESNA and Casa Maya are working on the next generation of kids, they are working on the building blocks for the future of El Salvador. Only from values such as don't harm your neighbor and help others in need can El Salvador prosper in the future. Mutual respect and trust is important in any relationship whether economic, political or social.