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Newsletter “Voices” # 6 September 2009
Our Intercordians are home (from home)! I hope that the following reflections written by Amy, Jillian, Vanessa, Ryan, Kelsey, Kristen, Ryan (a different Ryan!) and Kimberley, some of the 43 students who participated in the Intercordia Program this year, will give you a taste of what our students experienced in the Intercordia Canada Program. Read and ponder! Peace, Joe
Alright, it’s confession time: when I found out I had been placed in Ecuador for the summer, I was less than thrilled. It had been my third choice. But after spending three months in Ecuador, if I could take back all the disappointment and frustration I felt before, I absolutely would. My host family has been fantastic. Even though I am at times very frustrated with my school, the other teachers, the students, and the education system, I’ve learned immeasurable lessons and fell in love with both teaching and my students. At the health clinic, I am sometimes frustrated with the Ecuadorian public health system, the patients, and my lack of Spanish comprehension, but I love doing the little I can to help the “doctora” and the patients. In closing, I have fallen in love with these people, this place, and I know I was meant to end up here, even though I didn’t feel that way in the beginning (Amy, SJU/Ecuador ‘09).
Before leaving Canada, I knew the very basics of where I was going / what I was doing… I knew the town I was moving to had been through a war and was divided. But what does that mean? The war in GVU is not just history, today it means when I walk out my door I see bullet holes still in the houses. Many people didn’t understand why they were fighting, they just fought because they thought, “If I didn’t shoot your family, you will shoot my family!” There are some amazing people here who want to bridge the division, but then there are others who are stuck and simply don’t want to move on. When I think about all this it makes me angry and then I try to challenge these thoughts and ask myself how I would feel if “they” shot and killed one of my family members? How would I act? I don’t know, maybe the same way? And that upsets me even more. I would like to think I could move on, but I can’t pretend it would be easy. Everything can be good in theory, but living life is a lot more difficult than that. I can’t say I’ve completely changed my views this summer, but I have built on them and I watched them expand, with the hope that this process will continue throughout my life (Jillian, STU/Bosnia ‘09).
My first two weeks in Sabanagrande were utterly miserable. Not only did I not speak the language, but the smallness and slowness of my new life was suffocating. However, as I started to pick up the language and meet some friends, my perception of SBG slowly altered. I had my first realization of this changed perspective while I was sitting outside the “cafe” waiting for a computer. At separate times, different kids and adults walked by, each greeting me with an “adios” or a “buenas.” At this moment something snapped in my mind, and I thought, “Wow I really do like this place!” What I once considered a tiny, tiny, tiny, town, was now homey and comfortable. I now perceived the slow pace as normal and relaxing. My free time, which I once dreaded due to the lack of activities available, I now welcomed and was full of idle walks, sitting in the park and time spent with my Honduran friends. SBG became my home in Honduras, a home that I love and a home that I intend on returning to (Vanessa, Kings/Honduras ‘09).
Since discovering that my placement would be in Bosnia and Hercegovina, I have carried certain assumptions as to what my experience would entail. As much as I would like to deny it, I fell victim to the romantic notion that I was saving the world this summer. I knew better, but it was always in the back of my head. I was going to help these people from the Balkans learn to respect and get along with one another. With these assumptions I also planned out what it would take to successfully complete them. Clearly I would have to ensure that the kids I was working with were working and playing together in perfect harmony. For a successful placement there could be nothing short of complete cohesion. Writing this now makes me laugh. So naive! Trying to achieve these goals was extremely frustrating. They were impossible. I let it bother me and it clouded the goals I should have been pursuing from the beginning. This summer was about providing a place for children to have fun and participate in things that they otherwise might not have been able to do. It was about “learning through doing.” Some of my strongest pillars of knowledge this summer were children under the age of 12. On paper these things may look simple, or not in tune with what we associate goals with but after this summer I see that they are far more important and worthy than any others I had before (Ryan, STM/Bosnia ‘09).
When I first arrived everything felt so new but three months later I feel I am a part of the culture. It is not abnormal now for me to be carrying on my head a bucket full of water or things from the farm. I have grown to love this culture. I am not ready to leave this beautiful place yet. I am living every day to its fullest and so happy and thankful that I was given this opportunity. This has by far been the best and most meaningful experience of my life. I am leaving here with a changed heart, a new outlook/appreciation on life and a grown person. I am happy that I can now call this place home and my family here will stay close to my heart forever and I will always consider them as my family. (Kelsey, STU/Ghana 09)
My first month living in Tegucigalpa revealed many sad realities and to be honest sometimes it made falling asleep at night pretty hard. Seeing people everyday struggling to live, especially children, was extremely difficult. The first time I saw a person living in extreme poverty I was filled with a sense of anger and a desire to help. My first week at my placement a co-worker explained how many children inhale toxic glue to stave off hunger. She explained how the first time she saw it her heart broke, but later on it became a fixture of everyday life. I am struggling right now with this same change in feelings. The things that used to make me cry and break my heart, I now view with a certain degree of apathy. For me this is upsetting, because I know that poverty is a terrible reality that should never be ignored. For me this is a battle of conscience, because deep down I believe that I am a compassionate person. Now I am beginning to understand how I have been desensitized to the poverty and realities of my own country. I now realize that maintaining a motivation for change is a constant struggle. And though as hard as it can be to live with that kind of emotion, I never want to forget the struggles of the people I have met during this experience. (Kristen, STM/Honduras 09)
Over the past 12 weeks, I have lived in a country with the highest rate of HIV infection in the world. The Kingdom of Swaziland has been ravaged by this global epidemic like no other. Prior to leaving Canada, prior to any serious deliberation, I assumed that the alarmingly high prevalence rate in Swaziland and neighbouring states could be attributed to a wide-ranging lack of awareness regarding HIV infection. In retrospect, my vista could hardly have been more arrogantly colonial and imposing. The factors responsible for the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Swaziland are manifold, diverse and not easily digested. Some of the drivers of the spread of HIV in this region are clandestine and excel at evading recognition. Entrenched gender inequality; vast economic disparity; cultural and traditional norms and practices, including polygamy; and a general denial of basic human rights, notably for women, are a rudimentary and incomprehensive catalogue of some factors shaping the proliferation of the HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. My readiness to assess a situation of such gravity in the absence of facts or data led to the development of a grossly inaccurate conclusion. This experience reaffirmed the importance of maintaining an open-minded attitude upon encountering new and unique situations and environments. Objective and impartial rationalizing are central to avoiding self-construed fallacies and misconceptions. Fair and balanced approaches tend to result in much more valuable, positive, and accurate outcomes than do unilateral and biased tactics (Ryan, STU/Swaziland 09).
Entering my placement, I felt out of place, somewhat uncomfortable, and definitely out of my “safety zone”. I am glad to say that I have really grown into my placement, into this type of setting, and now feel like I am fully participating and appreciating almost every aspect of it. Intercordia’s invitation, “to experience the life of the marginalized and oppressed and develop moral sensitivity…” is what I have experienced here. I am so glad to have entered this program to truly see and experience what it means to be poor and oppressed. Unlike many organizations, Intercordia is founded on shared experience, rather than resorting to money to solve problems. I have established true friendships, which mean much more than any dollar amount (Kimberley, Kings/Ukraine ‘09).
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