Organizations, Outsiders, and Communities
The Brown IHF members who hosted an inaugural party at the SYJAC community center January 17, 2009 were essentially different from the group of students who walked dazedly through the Mexico City airport on January 5. Not only were we a bit more tanned (or sunburned in my case), but we had each learned a great deal about ourselves, the world, and the connections across the global community. While we all had prepared ourselves for this trip as best we could by reading up on the political, social, and historical situations in Chiapas, researching the cultural roots of the local Mayan community, and browsing through travel sites, there was no way we could have readied ourselves for the full impact this trip would have on our studies, our world views, and even our own personal identities and values.
On the trip we faced challenges and gained critical knowledge about the developing world and our own capabilities and limitations in driving change. The significance of our presence at SYJAC went much further than the tangible effects of a new paint job for their daycare center; rather, our impact was in the symbolism that our trip held for the local community. Our trip demonstrated that there is a larger world community invested in the welfare of the community SYJAC serves, and this global interest legitimizes and reinforces the work of the community center. While initially this role felt uncomfortable for our group, we grew to realize that the greatest asset we can offer to SYJAC and the local San Cristóbal community is through our identities as American university students. Furthermore, the significance of our interest in their situation is that we have the networks and resources to connect them to the solutions that they as a community need.
While we are still struggling to understand our own utility for the purposes of a community center and grappling with the role we should play as outsiders to a community organization, we have come to realize that our impact went much further than the sunny walls we painted and continues to have a lasting effect through our maintained connections with the people we met and friendships we made while working at SYJAC.
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