Students likely to return to Guelph with a new set of eyes
Posted on 11. Aug, 2011 by I Have Hope in In The News
By Chris Seto, Guelph Mercury
In less than a week, a dozen high school students will be returning to Guelph after spending nearly a month in African villages stricken with poverty and HIV-AIDS. Even though they’ve been gone only a short time, the impact of the trip will change them forever.
As part of the 18-month-long course leading up to this trip to Lesotho, the group took classes to help prepare them for what they might encounter, to prepare them for the culture shock. I have no doubt they’ll be able to cope with their surroundings while they are abroad — it’s the reverse culture shock when they return that I’m thinking about.
Human beings are incredibly adaptable creatures, able to live in almost any type of situation. We grow to accept our surroundings and embrace them. It’s only when we leave our comfort zone do we begin to appreciate what we have.
I learned this in a big way when I spent a term living in Southeast Asia with around 20 of my undergrad classmates. St. Stephen University makes it mandatory to spend two months studying in Southeast Asia in order to graduate from their liberal arts program. The reason they do this is because it changes you — forces you to see the world from someone else’s point of view.
During part of my time abroad, I stayed with a family just outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand in a small house that was fenced in and surrounded with barbed wire. At night, my host dad allowed his vicious dogs to prowl around the property, just in case someone was brave enough to challenge the barbed wire. They scared the hell out of me.
We travelled to remote villages in Thailand and the Philippines and lived in one another’s shoes for just a moment. We traded off the comforts of a bed and a toilet for a hard mat and hole in the ground. We saw the barefooted children give us huge smiles, but with rotting teeth. The toys some of them played with were scraps of metal that would require a tetanus shot if it were to cut them. It was moments like this I realized I had expectations regarding what life was supposed to be like. The bubble I grew up in popped and I don’t think it can be formed again, even if I wanted it to.
While I don’t know exactly how immersed the Guelph students will be in Lesotho, I do have an idea of what they might feel when they return. When I got back to Canada after my time abroad, I had a hard time stepping into a mall. The giant box stores like Walmart overwhelmed and sickened me. I couldn’t go in.
I’m excited for their return and to hear about how their world looks now that it’s no longer rose-coloured. Giving the students a chance to walk a few steps in someone else’s shoes allows their world view to be torn down. And as they are picking up the pieces and delicately piecing it back together, so much is being learned. This is real education.
