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Published: April 4th 2010
Today marks a month until my departure to Ghana. Things are slowly but surely coming together and my emotions are a mix of everything.
For those of you who don't know much about my upcoming trip, I'll try to fill you in as best I can. This past December I was accepted into a program offered through my school (St. Thomas University, located in Fredericton NB!) called Intercordia Canada. Intercordia sets itself apart as an organization that invites students to
'See the world through the eyes of their heart. Intercordia participants are not expected to be agents of change. Change comes slowly and Intercordia strives to show students that when we give of ourselves, making use of the gifts and talents we already possess, we
can have a positive influence on the lives of others. Intercordia was formed by Jean Vanier, a man I knew very little of until I was accepted into the program. He is the man who invented L'arche Communities, (for those of you who don't know what they are I encourage to check out http://www.larche.org/ to learn more about them) and who has a life philosophy I am very attracted to.
One of Jean's notions about life is that as much as people long to be loved, what they ultimately want is to be understood and most importantly, belong. I definitely am able to connect with this notion because for one reason or another I have always felt a little like an oddball. I'm not looking for sympathy, I am aware that I am one of many, more like one of most, for everyone has felt like they would fit better somewhere else at some point of time in their life. And that is where Jean Vanier and Intercordia Canada come in for me. Intercordia is unlike most Canadian study abroad programs in that its mandate is not to help foster Canada's democratic values in another part of the world or focus on skills development of the participants but just to simply be and (attempt to) understand. Jean Vanier wishes for Intercordia students to go to their international partners “not essentially to
do something, but to
be- that is to say, to discover the culture that is there, to discover the
beauty of that culture, so then the persons of Intercordia...
they are changed, more than what they can do for others.”
That is something that has been hard for me to grasp. I'm all about helping people. The profession I am studying for is all about helping people. Something I have learned over this year however is that before people can be helped they have to be understood and that is something I think North Americans are very unaware of. For the most part we think that we can throw money at a problem and be done with it but that does not get to the root of the cause. We are also very good at trying to solve the ‘big issues’ when what we need to do is realize those ‘big issues’ are made up of a whole bunch of little individualized issues that involve real people. We are very good at putting issues into categories that mask the affects of these real problems, on real humans with beating hearts, real feelings and the same needs as you and me. What we then get is the creation of ‘others.’ People that we don’t understand because we have never tried become notions and figments of our imagination to us and when we do finally encounter ‘others’ our mind is blown at the fact that we are more alike than we are different.
My mind is going to get blown in a month. If you know me even from a distance you know that I have always wanted to go to Africa. I am finally getting there (although for awhile there I wasn’t... but that is a story in itself.) I do not want to say that I am fully prepared, but that I am aware that my trip to Ghana will break me (in the best way possible). Every prejudice or bias I have ever had, or thought I never had will be brought to the surface. When I get off the plane in Accra, when I live with my host family, and when I teach at the school I am to teach at I will come to realize all of the ‘otherness’ I have created and have had created for me. I know I will learn more from those I am surrounded by this summer than they could have learn from me. Those who I have been brought up to view as “weak” will lead me, the “strong.” Jean Vanier writes,
“Power and strength can separate people, whereas weakness and the recognition of weakness and the cry for help brings people together. When you are weak, you need people, it’s easy. When you are strong, you don’t need people. The weak person calls people together, and when the weak call forth the strong, what happens is they awaken what is most beautiful in a human person: compassion, goodness, openness to another, and so on. Our weakness brings people together.”
I will learn to recognize my weaknesses this summer. And I will learn that we are more alike than we are different. I will learn to see the world through the eyes of my heart.
I could write so much more about this journey I’ve been on but I am sure it will all come out over time this summer. What I do need to say before I am finished is how blessed I am to have all of you supporting me. Not only financially, (although I am so thankful, I have only $375 left to raise out of the original $3900 I had!) but as people who genuinely care about me. This trip is everything I have ever wanted, but that is not to say it has been a walk in the park. Anything that is worth it has to be hard on the heart, and this journey has definitely been and will continue to be for me. Your words of encouragement, understanding and support mean the world and as I’ve said before I want to make you a part of my journey as much as humanly possible pre, during and post trip.
That being said, I will have limited access to a computer while I am in Ghana and to be truthful hope to keep it that way. I will however be journaling everyday though and will try my best to fill in the blanks on my return. I also must let you know that I am unsure if I will bring a camera with me to Ghana, and if I do pictures will not be going up on Facebook. Through my seminar and class every Thursday night I have been made very aware of what a camera can bring to my placement. I can very easily be labelled and seen as a tourist and I want none of that. I also do not want my pictures being seen as pictures of the “weak.” We have been so conditioned to look at pictures of Africans, or anybody for the matter from a “developing” country and see people who are helpless and don’t know how to help themselves that I do not want to be a part of that cycle. If I do decide to document my travels I will share pictures but it will be on a personal level through email, that will probably be comprised of a lot of rambling from me that you have just paid witness to if you’ve read all the way to here.
Anywho, I must finish up now. A month from today I leave for Ghana. I fly Fredericton to Toronto, Toronto to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Ghana. I will be back in Fredericton on the 15th of August. I will be living in the Greater Accra Region but I do not know where exactly or who my host family is, what school I will be teaching at, the grades of the children, etc. I guess I should also mention that I got my needles this past Wednesday as well. Fundraising is going beautifully. I will be writing more as time allows and will figure out a way to let everyone know when a new update has been completed. Also, I must mention that I never said I was a good writer, please take this for what it is, the ramblings of a soon to be twenty year old finally going home.
With much love,
kate.
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Steph
non-member comment
Take your camera!
Hi Kate, I am so happy for you that you are travelling to Africa! I know that you will love it! I disagree about the camera - being young and white will make you stand out like a tourist - not having a camera! Even living in Ethiopia I still take pictures all the time, just like Canadians take pictures all the time here. It has nothing to do with you wanting to portrait Africa as some imagine, it is about memories, whether those memories are here or in Africa or wherever....I see nothing wrong with taking a camera! (did you get my reply on facebook from your message?)