THIS POST IS THE WORDS OF JENN CORREAS:

Good afternoon, 

I arrived to El Salvador on a saturday three weeks ago, after a summer of reading, writing, and living in Oxford. My summer was life changing, as in any other summer. The experience of independent work took me to find myself learning things I thought I knew, and more importantly, feeling the awe of discovering completely new paths of literature entangled with human life. 

Two days after I arrived, the Bread Loaf Conference started. Rich and I dearly kept remembering how we created the first draft of the conference in the barn in Vermont. We sat on those colorful chairs and thought, and talked and talked, and imagined how it would be. During the week, we glanced at each other in conspiration, and gratitude. 

For a week, we wrote, read, and became a community of writers. We took writing to Morazán where the wounds of the civil war are still so fresh that they bleed very often. It was not just a day of workshops, it was a day to speak our truth and inspire teachers to believe in the power of love and community, which in the end, will be the few things remain. 

There are next steps. The Bread Loaf Conference is now part of ConTextos's DNA. There are more workshops to come for our teachers, more days at the school to work with students. There are more opportunities to be writers and poets. There will be more opportunities for US to witness them. Many more will happen in the intimacy of the classroom and homes. There will be another conference next year. And the next. And the next. 

Thank you. To all of you, who are supporters, mentors. ears, eyes, colleagues, teachers and most of all friends that believe we can create a better world to live in now. One word at a time. 

With deep gratitude, 

Jenn