Antes del viaje (before the trip)...
During my month in Costa Rica I often visualized the maps of El Salvador and Guatemala, the Diego Rivera posters, the five-foot weaving of yarn and playground grasses, and the dozens of colorful tapestries woven by my fourth grade class. It was in this classroom of bright rugs and cluttered cubbies that I made crafts to sell in our Mercado, a marketplace whose proceeds went to a small, recovering village in El Salvador.