The Beyond Borders class had a class today at the Working Centre in downtown Kitchener where we had a very interesting discussion about community, what the word means, what is derived from it and what community development means. It got me thinking about our group and how fourteen diverse people from all disciplines in the university wanted to have an international volunteer and learning experience. We range from math to arts, 19 to 22, shy to outgoing, reflective to outspoken. As community is based upon a Latin word that means people who live as one, a community is something that we are united together for or towards. This unification for Beyond Borders is based on each of our sincere interest in volunteering overseas and learning about the world through firsthand experience.
While reading Jim Lotz’s Understanding Canada and specifically Chapter One ‘What is Community Development?’ (http://www.theworkingcentre.org/wscd/pubs/understanding-canada.pdf), I pondered about the meaning of community and what it means. The fourteen of us that will be travelling around the world for the Beyond Borders program are friends that have a common interest to go overseas for three months but other than that there is no common interest amongst the fourteen students. However, this whole entire journey, including this term before the trip, is a learning experience and part of that are these blogs. On the right side of this page are the blogs of the other Beyond Borders students and the transformations that they are undertaking, getting ready for their placements. In these blogs lie our fears, excitement, interests and dreams of what our placements will be like. We are learning from each other and the support we are also lending each other is a solid system that we can rely on outside of friends and family for this journey. Blogging is not only an integral part of our mark; it is also a way for us to connect with each other. And we are all going to be provided with meaningful connections to people and real stories in the third world, connections which we will be providing you as well.
This is the power that the written word offers us, a power that we too often overlook. I was reading the assigned chapter for class and was trying to think about how this actually helps people build community. One of the examples in the chapter was a community in Nova Scotia that enticed Michelin to build a factory in this small town to build tires. It created jobs and was generally positive, yet the competition engendered by this decision of Michelin to build the factory in that community rather than a similar one down the road or in New Brunswick is a negative that we too often overlook. Competition is a necessary evil in our capitalist world. We are always competing for limited resources. I just hope that my blog will be an example that everything is not solely about competition, it is also about cooperation. I am putting a lot of time and effort to go on this trip for the opportunity to learn together with people in Kenya. I am not going down to teach them or be taught but to communally find a common ground between us and search for a better way to live. I just hope that you, as a reader, read this blog and my fellow Beyond Borders students’ blogs, as sources of inspiration for finding a community you can believe in and fight for. I aim to build meaningful connections and write about them, what they mean and how I can learn from them. If you learn as well, maybe the Beyond Border's "community" concerned with volunteering overseas can be expanded.
Blogging is an integral part of our mark but you are 100% right, it is also a mechanism that is supposed to unite us through mutual understanding, teaching, suggestions, tips and tricks! We have formed a community and I am proud of that! I'm proud to call everyone in that program a friend. It will be fascinating and invigorating to learn about one another, our placements and the changes we will make!
ReplyDelete-Sebastien :)
Conor, you say that you are "not going down to teach them or be taught but to communally find a common ground between us and search for a better way to live", but I think that finding a common ground is learning. You are looking for a way to learn about community within the world. Do not underestimate the power of learning, or teaching, because one of the main things that really stuck with me from one of the firt class last semester was Joanne saying that we will be learning just as much as we will be teaching or giving back to our placement. I think that you finding a common ground with the people you will met is a huge learning experience and I think that you should keep that in mind while preparing for your trip because sometimes learning so much in such a short time can become overwhelming, or you may experience and overwhelming sense of understanding that you weren't prepared for.
ReplyDeleteWonderful blog though! I thought you did a great job talking about community! It's funny because I wrote about our talk on Monday too and I saw it from a bit of a different perspective!
Carissa, what I got from Conor's sentence "not going down to teach them or be taught," was that he id not going to teach OR be taught, he is going to teach AND be taught as they build community together.
ReplyDeleteGreat posts on community, both of you. I will be writing one also ;)