Students should make time to study abroad
Before the spring delegation to Guatemala, hosted by Students for Peace and Justice, I always felt left out when my colleagues here at Miami would talk excitedly about the phenomenon of "learning outside of the classroom" in all its glory and possibility. For me, the ideal simply did not make sense. How could one learn outside of the classroom? Even if it were possible, would I really want to be taking notes about indigenous history, or anything else for that matter, anywhere outside of a dimly lit lecture hall? Well, after bumping down the dusty mountains of Rio Negro, near our last day in Guatemala, struggling to write something, well, legible about this powerful trip, I came to realize I had finally understood a few things about this phenomenon I harvested so many doubts about. The three most notable, are that this learning is unconscious, unbiased, and at many times unbelievable.
I call service learning unconscious because while it was happening, I was more focused on the experience than the fact I was gaining knowledge. It was usually not until after the days that started around 6 a.m., when I found myself underneath the open ceiling of our hotel, would I realize that I had learned something profound. For example, I was able to understand the growing feminist movement in Central America only after experiencing the women's independence parade that left me unable to cross the street for an hour.
The same phenomenon happened to me when I read the news of the excavations of the Mayan Popul Vuh on the front page of the newspaper La Prensa Libre, which highlighted for me the way many Latin American countries embrace folkloric elements of their indigenous people, but do not give them full justice. I did not have to mentally prepare myself to learn as I would for a traditional class. This learning was constant. It flowed into my mind, if I were ready for it or not. Maybe I could call it osmosis ... hmm ... not quite.
This learning is also unbiased. In Guatemala there was no one trying to convince us mining companies were breaking down the social communities of hard-working indigenous families, whose ancestors were forced to live in the mountains during colonization, or that the women in these communities are resisting actively to keep their land and save their culture. It was already clear; I could hear the fight in their voices as they shared their stories with us.
I could see the injustice in the long cracks running down the walls of their small homes, made by the bombs bursting in the nearby mountains. My group and I knew the situation was real and directly affecting the safety and well being of these people. We knew they would be left with nowhere to turn if their land were to be destroyed. This learning was not words on a page that I had to make myself believe or make myself read. It was a reality that could not be ignored.
Lastly, this learning was unbelievably similar to the themes of my courses in sociology, history,and literature here at Miami. The tactic of divide and conquer that I was taught in my black world studies class, that were implemented to divide Africa are still used today by mining companies to create tension within the indigenous communities for their own personal gain of the land. I also explored the places Spanish History professor mentions during lectures. I saw the cities where Spanish colonies were built, the site where 177 innocent indigenous women and children were massacred during the 1980s, and I had the opportunity to speak with a 12-year-old boy whose great aunt was shot dead in that
massacre. Through this delegation I came to the conclusion that history is not over but constantly showing its implications in the present. This is the theme Mexican writer Elena Garro wanted to express in her novel Recuerdos de Provenir or "Memories of the Future;" the power of the ancestral voice and the modernity of history.
After this trip, I will only join in with enthusiasm when my colleagues begin the conversation on their amazing service-learning experiences they have had within or across U.S. borders. I take this time to encourage all of my fellow Miamians to take a trip like this even if the costs are high or you feel you are too busy. This trip gave me an incredible appreciation of my education and a new confidence in the material taught in my major and yes, even, in those pesky Miami Plan Courses we all moan about at one point or another.
Tiffanie ClarkCLARKTR@MUOHIO.EDU
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