Reflection: This is a visual essay in which I intend to communicate the strange feeling of Mission Trips. These photos are from my first trip to Guaymas, Mexico where we volunteered at a daycare center and built homes out of adobe bricks for the community. The strange feeling that I get from these images is that we, as short-term volunteers in a needy community do make a difference -- the children and volunteers in the photos are sharing a real emotional connection. But, on the other hand, upon leaving, it just doesn't feel like enough and a sadness lives where the happiness of service was.
I loved your photos! And, I love the idea of a visual essay. Is that an assignment of ours? It's really cool, and I'd love to try it with my students. I think they'd embrace the idea of talking through images in my English class.
ReplyDeleteI totally get your comments on short-term mission work. I have done a few projects like this, and it does feel like you've just started to make a connection and really help, and then you have to go back to your safe little world where everything is taken for granted. I am sometimes amazed though at how much kids take away from these experiences. I guess when your younger a week or two feels longer than it does to me now, and maybe you're more open to bonding and less set in your ways because your future is still so absolutely unshaped. I've also been a little disappointed by kids' reactions to these experiences. Sometimes, they may seem deeply affected, and then upon return to their lives, they immediately go back to taking everything for granted. One example is this: I had kids work in a school in Tanzania, and these Tanzanian kids were soooooo excited about the new books that were brought to them by the American students. The Tanzanian children loved school and loved to learn! When some of my kids came back to the States, they still seemed to think school was dumb, useless, unnecessary. It made me a little sad. I think some of it is maturity...that's what I'm hoping.