“What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”
-Pedro Arrupe
We enter into this experience of preparing for, studying for, traveling to, reflecting on, and acting alongside Guatemala and its people in hopes knowing what enlivens us with the kind of certainty and purpose Pedro Arrupe references above. It is a charge of life, and unquestionably a charge of education to discover where we derive value and meaning. We are a group of individuals who are in love with the idea of connecting to people who have stories different from our own, believing that we have something to both learn from and teach to others. We are a group of individuals who feel our imaginations seized when we consider the problems of poverty, racism, sickness, and injustice and seek solutions instead of offering laments. We want roots of learning, service, and solidarity to drive what gets us out of bed and equally to be what keeps us thoughtful in the evenings. We want to read about the realities of this world, the brutal as well as the beautiful. We want to be able to identify what breaks our heart about life and we want awareness for what amazes us, understanding that it will be the joy and gratitude found in our amazement that allows the broken heart to make the mend. We have entered into this because we believe that a service learning class and trip to Guatemala will positively impact us as students, citizens and people. Our confidence in that prospect is certain; what remains unknown is how all the details and dynamics of this project converge. This blog is intended to be a record of that creative process that will ultimately tell how all the pieces come together. It is intended to be an extension of the classroom as well as the field. It is intended to be a space for thought and a place for growth during this journey. It is ours and it is yours, so write, comment, read, think, imagine, suggest, question, consider and together let’s learn.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and take a look at the blog. We so genuinely hope it is a medium that serves as an outlet for the intellectual, emotional, and human ponderings stirred by this experience.
Please find below the course description, goals, and logistics.
It is the purpose of this course for students to walk away with an understanding of the joy that derives from connecting to a community that has been able to survive its story and honor its heritage despite conditions of incredible struggle and sorrow. Students will broaden their perspective on issues of international importance. They will become scholars of indigenous identity, poverty, civil war, and the connected outcomes and resolutions whose impact on life in Guatemala is immeasurable. They will be guests in a community dedicated to positive development for the individuals, the local culture, and the international volunteers who come to share their respective story. It is the sincere hope that the participants of this course come to appreciate how service truly enriches life and they will take the skills and experiences gained from this connection to the San Lucas community and Guatemala to continue to make decisions and commit actions with respect and love for “the other” in mind.
We have outlined four major goals for this course:
Goals
1. Walk away with an understanding of joy amidst incredible perceived sorrow.
2. Exposure to a culture and country drastically diverse from that which is known here in Hawaii.
3. Gain awareness: the world is vaster than what we know. More direct involvement leads to greater understanding.
4. Continued solidarity.
The trip to Guatemala is the field work for the larger course being taught on service learning. Since students will be receiving school credit for the trip, there will be a substantial amount of work expected of students prior, during, and post the trip. Some of that work will be posted on this blog, and we hope that you will really take time to delve into all the work that they are doing.
It is with great excitement that we sign off on our first blog post.
Adios,
Mr. Courtney and Ms. Gasparka
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