My last week at Exodus. My, how time flies...
This summer we started out with twenty interns, and then there were none :(
Just kidding, there's still around four of us, I think. But it seems as though every day there are less and less people in the conference room during lunchtime. Sometimes I feel like the staff secretly whisper to each other: "Why is that one still here?..." I even got asked today when I was leaving, even though it was a friendly conversation starter. The office sure is lonely without all my intern friends!
This has been a really good summer for me. I have learned and grown and taken chances and met some incredible people, some of whom are my students who I will never forget.
This weekend I left Indiana to go to New York City to see my friends from study abroad in the Dominican Republic. When I first met my roommate and friend who I had lived with for four months, we hugged and cried and hugged and cried. I had really missed her, but hadn't had so much time this summer to think about it. And when we saw our other friends when we arrived at Washington Heights, it was such a beautiful moment, as though we had never left the DR. And the Heights is a great neighborhood, reminded me so much of Santiago that I felt like I was back there again, and with my same gals. We had been through so much together, so many tender moments, hard life obstacles, sketchy situations, you name it. We have a friendship and bond that only living in a new place that none of you are familiar with can create. And going to see them and be in New York was one of the best weekends of my life. I had been feeling pretty burned out, and every once in a while I need a pick-me-up (usually involving either travel or seeing long-lost friends). And now I feel ready and rejuvenated to start the school year again!
This summer has made me realize a lot of things about myself and about my life goals. Working at Exodus has been wonderful in so many ways, and has especially given me a new appreciation for social workers. They are always going places, always taking care of problems, interpreting for different languages, making appointments, and getting paid not a whole lot! To those of you out there who do social work, hats off to you. You're making the world a better place, helping those who need it, and working hard for the well-being of others and getting not a lot in return. As many of my students would say, "God bless you."
And this summer has made me realize what I really want to pursue in my Fulbright scholarship. I have decided to make it my goal to try to go to Colombia. I have a newfound passion for the situation of misplaced people, and with all that is going on in Colombia right now, there are many people who have had to leave their homes and either go to the city or to other countries to seek refuge. I feel a strong need to find this story, to express it somehow. Although I don't have a strong background in research, I would like to write some sort of compilation of stories from people in the community who have had to go through similar situations as those who I've worked with at Exodus. And I feel strongly that Colombia is the place to do it. So when I go back to school, I'm going to work hard, get that application in the best that I can, and hope that this scholarship works to the best of my abilities.
Sometimes people ask me why I don't want to go to a place that I would never go to in a million years, like southern Africa or Eastern Europe. And the truth is that communication through language is the key to understanding a community, and my best shot at understanding a community is speaking the native tongue. Since my strongest language is Spanish, I know that I can make more of a difference in Latin America than I can anywhere else in the world. And making a difference can come in many shapes and forms. I know tons of people who make a difference every day and aren't recognized for it. One doesn't have to travel halfway across the world to feed hungry children in order to make a difference. Sometimes the answer is right at our doorstep, and someone not too far from you is waiting for your help. It's all about making the right effort to take the opportunity to do something about it :)
Sometimes it is very hard to feel like I can't communicate with my students. Although I am teaching English to them and we are communicating, I feel as though I would have a more meaningful relationship with them if I spoke their language. But they make a great effort to learn English and to come to class every day to better their lives. And I have to say, I am a firm believer in ESL around the world. After having seen the struggles that some of the clients go through here because of language barriers, and how much easier it is for those who have an English background, I feel that denying people around the world the right to learn English doesn't have an overall positive outcome. I understand the argument of cultural and lingual preservation. I love different languages as much as the next person! But I also understand a bit of how the world works on a global level, and the truth is that the world is changing, and English is the new trend. These days, people need to speak English to be able to have access to so many opportunities and resources. It's a shame, I admit, that English is the most important language. I don't think it's fair that some people like me get to go through life without really having to learn another language while others who are trying to make it in the world must learn two or three.
But I believe that because this is the way society works, we have to adapt to give everyone equal opportunity. Equal opportunity of education means equal opportunity of language acquisition. I think that everyone should be given that right.
But alas, my days teaching English to these students are numbered, and soon I will be off to school and the students will have a new teacher and the cycle will begin again. Let's hope it gets better and better each time around. :)
Thanks for reading and my final post of A Summer of Refuge will be up next week!
Anna
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