After a 6:00am airport run, we had breakfast and then headed to "José Simeón Cañas" Central American University (also known as UCA) for the day. Chacón gave an incredibly creative workshop on Psicología de la liberación where he had an activity for each idea from an Ignacio Martín Baró article he covered.  I was really impressed. In addition to learning so many new concepts, I will be able to use those activities as a teacher in so many situations.

I am definitely leaving here motivated to read more and learn more. I don't like my habit of comparing experiences, because I should appreciate each one. Still, here is what I thought yesterday: I learned more in one morning than I learned at my recent multi-day expensive conferences. Now, there are different learning styles and maybe most people learn by sitting silently watching a person scroll through a powerpoint, but that is not how I learn.

After the workshop, Choco's mom brought us lunch and much more. As we ate she shared her experiences during the war. It wasn't planned and it was incredibly powerful. As I have witnessed numerous times, you often wouldn't know the hell that people have been through. Also, the beginning of the story doesn't give away the ending.

When we finished lunch we went on a tour of the university and the Centro Monsenor Romero where the assassinations of Romero, Ignacio Martin Baro and the others are documented. Martin Baro and seven others were murdered on November 16th, 1989 right where we were on the UCA campus.


“There are truths that can only be discovered through suffering or from the critical vantage point of extreme situations.” -Ignacio Martin-baro, scholar, social psychologist, philosopher and Jesuit priest