Guatemala trip reflection: finding connections

Two months after returning from Guatemala, participants of the 2012 LWB service trip were asked to reflect on their experience volunteering with Librarians Without Borders at the Asturias Academy. This post comes to us from Megan Fitzgibbons. Megan is a liaison librarian at McGill University, working with Political Science, Education, and Continuing Studies programs.

To add to Nicole’s thoughts, I would agree that generosity was one of the central themes of my Guatemala trip experience.

I’ve noticed that when recounting the experience to others, I hasten to ward off the frequent comment, “oh, isn’t it nice that you went to help.” While I hope that our group was able to contribute something to the Asturias Academy through our efforts before, during, and after the visit, the whole project was more about learning and sharing our understandings of the world. That is, the trip was a chance to engage with like-minded people about education and culture and society.

I’m very conscious that we’re not the only group to visit the Academy-others come throughout the year and experience a similar warm welcome. The touching gestures of inclusion and gratitude weren’t for us alone but rather are shown to all outsiders who spend time at the school.

I wonder, then, what it must feel like to be a student in the school with a parade of visitors coming through each year. The visits might not be too meaningful in light of other day-to-day concerns. But for
us, the trip was a rare, meaning-rich, and perhaps life- changing event. In other words, we learned, benefited, and were changed. And that is why trips like this are important: not just for what we can contribute “across borders,” but also because this type of interaction is essential to creating real understanding of society and inequality on a global level.

One of my favourite activities during our time at the school was being interviewed by students who were tasked with practicing their English with us. They had a simple set of questions to ask (Where are you from? How old are you? What is your favourite food? What do you think of Guatemala?) and had to elicit our answers.

For me, this was a moment that typified the whole experience. On the one hand, I felt that our differences were magnified, as I struggled to explain that my favourite food is tofu, and that my opinion of Guatemala is complicated, necessarily coloured by my North American “default” way of living.

At the same time, like many members of the group, I spent well beyond the allotted 10 minutes with some students, really getting into the conversations. It was clear that the mutual interest was genuine: we
wanted to get to know each (a universal instinct) and were pleased to uncover the many commonalities that Nicole mentions in her post.

All of that is to say that I hope to visit Guatemala again someday, for the people…and, I have to admit, for the mangoes!