Betsy Agar: On A Mission To Learn

"What are you going to do there?" is what I'm asked most often when friends learn that I am traveling to Guatemala for a Study Abroad sociology course at Capilano University. "Are you building something or doing something for the people?" (My professor is rolling her eyes thinking, not this again!)

At first I struggled to answer. I turned to our group leaders for eloquent responses. But truthfully, I regarded them sceptically when they replied: "We are reminding the people of Guatemala that the world hasn't forgotten about them."

As much as I try to convince my kids that my mere presence is a blessing in itself, I was having a hard time believing I could convince Guatemalans (especially in my broken Spanish!) of the same virtue. Canada is a relatively small player in international politics, so why would a group of university students from a small town in BC bear any impact on the lives of Central Americans? 

In preparation for our trip, we have been reading plenty of material about Guatemala's history, economics, politics, social tensions, and culture, and through those readings I have learned about the world's considerable habit of disregarding Guatemalan perspectives, especially the perspectives of the country's indigenous Mayan people.

While the role of Guatemala's resources has been scripted by global politics and market trends, the role of the Mayan people has been largely undefined.

I have returned many times to that initial question, and I think I finally have an answer. Whereas at first I struggled with what we would offer the people we visit, now I am eager to take in what they generously offer us. (How arrogant to imagine ourselves as a gift of knowledge and development!)

What are we going to do there? Listen. Reflect. Transform.

We will listen to the nuns, the priests, the guerrillas, the children, the mothers, and the sounds of a jungle that is under constant threat.

We will reflect on our own choices at home and their impacts on distant peasant farmers and ecosystems in a land we will inevitably hold dear to our hearts for years to come.

We will transform the social and environmental inequities that are entrenched in our global systems of trade and politics through our own actions at home.

We will stop asking what "we" can do for "them" and start asking how we can listen to each other and develop a truly sustainable global system together, remembering that sustainability is a three-pronged pursuit: Environmental, Social, and Economic.

Most of all, we will learn about sociology in the most appropriate context: society.