El Salvador mission draws local teen

Kathryn Budwig’s time in the tropics won’t be spent on the beach.

By: Jeff Milgram
   Kathryn Budwig is going to spend most of her summer in the tropics, but she’s not going for the sun.
   The 19-year-old Oberlin College freshman will be leaving Sunday for San Salvador, the capital of the Central American republic of El Salvador, where she will teach English to children, teens and adults as part of All Saints’ Church’s ongoing relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of El Salvador.
   The Latin American studies student will be there until Aug. 1, when she hopes to escort a group of 14 Salvadoran teenagers to Princeton — that is if the U.S. State Department issues them visas.
   This will be Ms. Budwig’s second trip to El Salvador, but she is already a veteran English teacher. She taught English at the YWCA in Princeton last summer.
   "El Salvador is extremely poor," Ms. Budwig said. She will be staying with the family of a student she met on her first trip to El Salvador. She is volunteering her services as a teacher and will pay for her board.
   Because El Salvador is so poor, Ms. Budwig has been scraping together the supplies she’ll take with her.
   "I just ordered some books off the Internet," she said. "I’m basically going to be working without supplies."
   But she is bringing two flutes. She will play one and teach with the other. At the end of her stay, Ms. Budwig hopes to leave one of them behind.
   She is familiar with the politics of Central America from her course work at Oberlin.
   What she found is that about 12 families own most of El Salvador. "The disparity between the rich and poor is immense," Ms. Budwig said.
   But the poverty hasn’t turned them bitter. "The people are the nicest people in the world. They have such a passion for life even though they have so little," she said.
   The Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey has established a cooperative relationship with its counterpart in El Salvador. All Saints’ Episcopal Church hopes to host the 14 Salvador teenagers Aug. 1-12.
   But new State Department security rules have made the visa process much slower. Each applicant must appear in person at the U.S. embassy and pay a $100 fee for an interview. So far, none of the 14 Salvadoran teens has received a visa, said the Rev. Richard Kunz, pastor of All Saints’, which split from Trinity Church in 1960 and now has 450 members.
   The church has asked U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) to cut through the red tape, he said.
   The teenagers must pay for the $100 fee and their airfare — All Saints’ takes care of the rest of the expenses. Church members will take the Salvadoran teens on trips and the teens will hold one or two vacation Bible school classes.
   "I’m excited about it," the Rev. Kunz said.
   Ms. Budwig first thought she wanted to join the Peace Corps after graduation, but a religious reawakening may change her plans. "I’m either going to be a teacher or a priest," she said.