IDEALS

by Gary Warren

It starts with a random comment about how much there is to do here, and so little time left. Someone is reminded about some last minute shopping that has to be done. Another then asks about our return schedule. It gets serious when one person checks their airline ticket and starts to count the ‘number of sleeps’ left. We are winding down. And with all the return preparation, we also have to make sense of it all. As one said, we have to connect the dots.

Caila arrived safely from Cuernavaca the other morning. I had taken a cab out the bus terminal to meet her, but went to the wrong one, and by the time I had walked over to the other one, she had arrived and left again. I feel good about the sense of independence and confidence students develop on these trips. Two weeks ago she was expressing delight at having lived alone, in her very own apartment, in Cuernavaca while she was doing her second placement there. She had always lived with her family, or at least at the institution for poor children that was her first Mexican placement. Now she is travelling to strange cities, catching cabs, and it all seems so matter-of-fact to her.

Dr. Dianne Livingstone and her stepson will be arriving from Chiapas tomorrow. Dianne certainly knows how to travel well, having lived and worked in Chiapas for the last 10 years. She has been doing community development there, especially with indigenous women. As a renowned psychologist, she also has been focusing on human rights for young people. She had been a great addition to our final days here.

Letty Cardenas will join us on Sunday. She is a very strong young woman from a village called Tlamacazapa, in the remote mountains south of here. She and her father sell baskets and jewellery on the streets of Zihuatanejo. She also spent 6 months in Canada and DSW students taught her to read, write, and speak English, 6 years ago. She uses these skills to support her family, and they are doing quite well. Her father told me yesterday that he was proud to have the only telephone in his areas of the village.

So in one place we will have a collection of very talented and experienced people, together with 3 DSW students, a graduate of our Journalism program, and me. All to figure out how the dots connect.