The group has returned to Dartmouth. Happy, tired, and more-or-less healthy. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the experiences we've had and the people we've met. And I'm consistently inspired by the passion, dedication and community of our group.
Without a doubt, I'm happy to be home. Ready for my nice, quiet bed. Delighted to see my family, and rest, and walk my dog. I'm excited to see spring unfold up north as we did around DC. But as we put the nation's capitol in our rear window, I couldn't help but feel a little sad as well.
On the one hand, I'll miss this group. They affirmed me in my calling and in the educational models we use. They inspire me to keep at it. And I quite simply enjoyed being around them for such long, focused, unadulterated stretches of time.
And on the other hand, I still wonder if I'm doing enough to counter the vast challenges of poverty in our nation and world. When I stay up at night, it's because I worry if my work is direct enough, bold enough, and radical enough. Given the immense problems of our country and world, is it okay for me to live such a comfortable existence?
And so as I drove home, in a van full of sleeping, brilliant students, I pondered my (and our) privilege.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Interfaith service: What's the big idea?
Parnian Parvin-Nejad '13
The phrase "interfaith service" itself sounds like a noble undertaking, but once you think about it, its meaning is not quite as clear. What exactly is so special about doing community service with a group of people of different faiths? Many faiths include service to the community as a component of putting their beliefs into practice, or in the case of Abrahamic religions, as a way to serve God. That's an easy answer for the "faith service" part, but the "inter-" part still remains to be clarified. Half of our ASB trip is focused on this idea of “interfaith” volunteering, but before the trip, it was still not entirely obvious to me why. Half What benefit is to be gained in bringing together people of different faiths to do service rather than drawing from a single belief system?
Thanks in part to the discussion we had with a representative from the President’s Office of Faith-Based Community Partnerships, I think I am on my way to an answer to this question. We started off our discussion with the representative, Clay, with his introduction to the initiatives organized by the Corporation for National Community Service (CNCS), such as AmeriCorps and Habitat for Humanity. He explained to us the difference between stupidity (a refusal to learn or a determination to retain incorrect assumptions) and ignorance (a willingness to fill in the spaces of incomplete knowledge).
The phrase "interfaith service" itself sounds like a noble undertaking, but once you think about it, its meaning is not quite as clear. What exactly is so special about doing community service with a group of people of different faiths? Many faiths include service to the community as a component of putting their beliefs into practice, or in the case of Abrahamic religions, as a way to serve God. That's an easy answer for the "faith service" part, but the "inter-" part still remains to be clarified. Half of our ASB trip is focused on this idea of “interfaith” volunteering, but before the trip, it was still not entirely obvious to me why. Half What benefit is to be gained in bringing together people of different faiths to do service rather than drawing from a single belief system?
Thanks in part to the discussion we had with a representative from the President’s Office of Faith-Based Community Partnerships, I think I am on my way to an answer to this question. We started off our discussion with the representative, Clay, with his introduction to the initiatives organized by the Corporation for National Community Service (CNCS), such as AmeriCorps and Habitat for Humanity. He explained to us the difference between stupidity (a refusal to learn or a determination to retain incorrect assumptions) and ignorance (a willingness to fill in the spaces of incomplete knowledge).
Saturday, March 24, 2012
A Hopeful Cynic
Geovanni Cuevas, '14
Inez is a homeless man who wanders around our nation’s capitol in despair. We met him on the first official day of our trip, and what a bizarre day to say the least. If I were to hand you a hot dog wrapped in foil paper, a bottle of water and an orange and then instruct you to wander the streets of Washington, D.C profiling every person you saw in an attempt to identify the one in the most need of the aforementioned food, how would you begin your search?
Words cannot properly express the guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach as I scanned the streets while pausing on every black and brown face to evaluate “how homeless they looked.” Imagine, if you can, the awkward situation of approaching someone on their smoke break and offering them some water---a seemingly innocuous gesture, but one where there is no denying the implications--- you think this person is homeless. And even if it’s true, is it not a humiliating experience to have someone explicitly acknowledge our destitution? The minute you meet the eyes of the person to whom you’re offering food, there is a mutual understanding that you’ve made an assessment about their well being, about their status as a person and about their ability to provide for themselves. I assume for most of us, accepting charity would imply a level of humility bordering on embarrassment. Not exactly the most dignifying of experiences. Nevertheless, we wandered from the shelter in Southeast Washington to Union Station, where we met Inez, randomly approaching strangers offering them food and attempting to offer them, as our guide put it, “some dignity.”
The Luxury of Certainty
Shweta Raghu '15
When I removed my dust mask and returned to the hostel after our work at the Manna building site yesterday, I had a new nickname: The Stairmaster. No, it as not because of my love for the gym-machine-of-joy, but because I spent the whole workday scraping and sweeping mud, paint, and other debris off several flights of stairs. Yes, it may sound like extremely boring and repetitive labor. And don't get me wrong, it was repetitive (scrape, sweep, move down one step, repeat), and (dare I say) boring at times, but it made me think. About what we had been doing on the trip, and what I was hoping to learn.
In fact, we had been doing repetitive tasks almost every day. For many of us, repetitive to the point of frustration- at least while we were doing the jobs and immediately afterwards. But during our daily reflections, I found that many of my most positive experiences were seemingly pointless and repetitive tasks.
When I removed my dust mask and returned to the hostel after our work at the Manna building site yesterday, I had a new nickname: The Stairmaster. No, it as not because of my love for the gym-machine-of-joy, but because I spent the whole workday scraping and sweeping mud, paint, and other debris off several flights of stairs. Yes, it may sound like extremely boring and repetitive labor. And don't get me wrong, it was repetitive (scrape, sweep, move down one step, repeat), and (dare I say) boring at times, but it made me think. About what we had been doing on the trip, and what I was hoping to learn.
In fact, we had been doing repetitive tasks almost every day. For many of us, repetitive to the point of frustration- at least while we were doing the jobs and immediately afterwards. But during our daily reflections, I found that many of my most positive experiences were seemingly pointless and repetitive tasks.
Finding God at the Washington Monument
Phoebe Reid '15
Cherry blossoms arched overhead, masking the warm night sky
above as we trekked down the mall. Imposing stone monuments of governance and
our country’s greatness flanked the sides of our journey, as our faith carried
us on.
My frustrations about faith and belief were aired and
vulnerabilities revealed. The Buddhas teachings and 7 Unitarian Universalist principles swarmed
around a lack of a higher power and questions emerged.
Where does someone not raised in a religious tradition find
God?
“On this walk, before we get to the monument”
“Yes, I’ll find God at the Washington Monument”
God wasn't there.
Instead I found a family at the monument.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Pinkeye.
Stephen Kirkpatrick '13
I’ll
bring many things home from this trip.
Memories. Awareness. Photographs. 14 wonderful friends. Newfound
ambitions.
And
I’ll bring home 2 swollen red eyes.
Thursday
morning, I woke up with pinkeye. Not precisely sure where it came from, but by
this morning it had spread to both eyes, so I figured I should see a doctor.
No
big deal. Just a quick call to the local clinic, a 30-miinute appointment, and
a prescription for some antibiotics. In another week I’ll be perfectly fine.
The
clinic I went to on Capitol Hill is a lot like my clinic at home. It’s
immaculately clean, decorated in serene blues, and well-staffed. The nurse and
the doctor who saw me are friendly. Transferring my parents’ insurance was a
breeze, and the whole ordeal only ended up costing me $25.
The
thing is, the entire day, before catching some extra sleep, while watching TV
on my MacBook, over my $15 lunch at a diner near the clinic, I couldn’t help
making the contrast between my experience today and the one I had on Wednesday.
We
helped organize a closet for the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project at DC
General, a hospital-turned-shelter at the outermost border of the District.
Martha's Table
Wajahat Kiani '14
To further our understanding of how different organizations are tackling the issue of homelessness, we headed over to Martha’s Table on 14th street NorthWest. With the image of shelters run by Anna Federner-esque figure etched in my mind, I was clearly in for a surprise. The place appeared extremely professional; the front office could have been easily been mistaken for a well-kept front desk at any reasonable corporation. We were given a quick orientation by the extremely energetic profession, Nadia. According to her, Martha’s table provided educational programs to approximately 250 children, meals to homeless people through both their support and referral program and their city-wide distribution centers and registered organizations. Nadia’s voice struggled to contain the passion she felt towards her work. Her enthusiasm for her work reinforced the significance of the work that we would do that day.
To further our understanding of how different organizations are tackling the issue of homelessness, we headed over to Martha’s Table on 14th street NorthWest. With the image of shelters run by Anna Federner-esque figure etched in my mind, I was clearly in for a surprise. The place appeared extremely professional; the front office could have been easily been mistaken for a well-kept front desk at any reasonable corporation. We were given a quick orientation by the extremely energetic profession, Nadia. According to her, Martha’s table provided educational programs to approximately 250 children, meals to homeless people through both their support and referral program and their city-wide distribution centers and registered organizations. Nadia’s voice struggled to contain the passion she felt towards her work. Her enthusiasm for her work reinforced the significance of the work that we would do that day.
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