Connection

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Everything was different. The language, the people, the money, the landscape, the housing, the food- all of it was different.

Being immersed into a new culture was an intimidating blur.  It was a rush to the senses feverishly trying to decipher the panoply of sights and sounds.

Eventually, I found the Rosetta stone. Just as the storm of sensation initially overtook me, I was subject to the more powerful monsoon of similarities.  It started with a little girl’s playful smile that I couldn’t help but return. Without words we connected.  The impact became more and more powerful as I recognized the bonds of family, the sense of duty and tradition, the grimaces of struggle, and the expressions of gratitude.  It was humbling as the thought began to form in my mind: these people do not have near the access to things that I do.  Yet here they are, alive, together, happy. And the doubt crept in, who is really missing out here?

Arriving, the assumption would be that we would give something to these people, but they gave us something so much more.  Their lives and culture are absolutely different, but they are no longer unfamiliar.

It is one thing to write about this connection, it is another to experience it.  Often, donating to causes in countries worlds away is difficult because we don’t have that connection.  This is one of the most powerful pieces of PIF, it closes that distance and allows for that connection.

Nathan Worrell
PIF Sojourner, Guatemala October 2008

Tags: Central America, Outdoor Adventure, Volunteer Vacation, voluntourism
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