Not so long ago, I was sitting at brunch with my friends at Pacific Lutheran University. In the tri-fold on the table, there was an ad for studying away for the summer to a city in Mexico in order to install a well. The conversation quickly turned to how people and organizations use this as a chance to act as a savior and explore an "exotic" place. People turn their acts of misguided kindness towards shunning other cultures and, generally, spreading Christianity and white supremacy globally.
Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator
In some way, yes, I am diminishing others attempts to "help" other people and places, generally those out of the U.S., in third world countries, and places that have high poverty rates. Not all of their acts have good intents; maybe some do but they do not always have good results. I was raised Lutheran; I even go to a Lutheran University today. I have attended multiple mission trips, and I am white. I have been on the side of the person giving but I have not truly been on the side of the receiver.
Recently at a store I mentioned to the cashier that I would be studying away in January to Trinidad and Tobago. Automatically she went off saying how I was so generous and kind to be going to such a place in order to help them, in order to rebuild their community, and such and such, but I was not even able to tell her what I was going to be doing there. Because I was planning to study away to a developing country, I was put on a pedestal. Because I was planning to study away I turned into an explorer, a colonizer, a missionary. She transformed me in that moment to someone who was not going there to learn but to teach and correct.
Social, Health, and Educational Services in Tobago. That is the course title.
"We will explore the strengths and challenges of the multi-cultural community of Scarborough, a city on the Caribbean island of Tobago. We will study and observe the effects of history and colonialism as they relate to the development of community problems and concerns as well as learning about how different cultures may address such concerns. We will engage in community-based education in a variety of settings, including educational, social service, and health care agencies. We will be learning from and being with service providers and community residents; we will not be 'doing for.' Through readings and reflections on our own experiences, as well as hearing from guest speakers, we will develop an understanding of the ways services are provided in another culture as well as a better understanding of our own ethic of meaningful service." - J. Keller and A. Hambrick
I am not an explorer, a colonizer, or a missionary. I am definitely not a savior. I am a scholar, a feminist, a Lutheran, a woman. I am many things but I am not a savior.
