Reflection and Goodbyes

Our last couple of hours here in San Diego have been spent in reflection led by Pat Ell who guided us in an exercise entitled "ver, pensar, y actuar" or "see, think, act".   We decided to share this reflection with Juan, Rigo, Gabe, and Sara, all members of Via who helped us this week and made our experience what is was. This exercise required us to imagine images or feelings that stuck out to us from the trip Then we had to dig deeper and think about why these images stuck out to us and why.  Finally, we brainstormed a list of small, yet important and achievable actions that we could complete within a week of returning to campus.  Pat explained that as we continue to process our week, we may find it difficult to understand everything, and we may feel helpless, but by completing small actions, we will slowly work through this and make large differences in our communities.  We all vowed to achieve at least two of these actions within our first week of returning to campus, and that we would hold each other accountable.

After reflection we did another activity linked to all that we had learned that week.  The first day we arrived, we took a paper out of a hat that had the name of another group member and our goal was to get to know that person better during that week. At this time, we each shared who our secret buddies were and the qualities, dreams, or stories that we discovered about them.  It was a truly a learning experience to be able to grow with each one of the people on this trip and sharing our admiration for each other and our secret buddies solidified the family that we have all gained after this week. 

As we begin to the load the plane and head back to the northwest, and back to what we are used to, we will never forget the stories, faces, and feelings that were shared with us this week.  Each person we met shared a little bit of themselves with us and in meeting them, we discovered another brother or sister in our human family.  Their struggles will always be our struggles as we try to dissolve the borders that are both seen and unseen.