Going Home

This past week has had a wrapping-up quality about it, but also a sense of unreality that everything can be over.

On Tuesday, we spoke with a panel of youth activists working in the larger Cuernavaca area. All of the speakers were fascinating, but I was the most inspired by Vera, who had been involved in, among other projects, the fight to keep Costco from replacing a historic area in Cuernavaca. What inspired me in particular was the joy she seemed to take in activism despite her very busy life.

On Thursday, we gave our final presentations. I was really impressed by the work each person did. I know that Ashley, Anna, and I are excited about the energy between us being directed toward the School of the Americas protest in November and working on these issues.

Friday was an odd combination of relaxation and emotional stress. We got the chance to hang out and be together swimming and playing on the water slide at the water park, but we also had to face being together as SJGELA for the last time. A lot of people cried. Libeth spilled water all over herself. It was a mixture of laughter and tears, reminiscent of our time in Guatemala as well.

To me it seems, you can take the woman out of the class, but you can’t take the class out of the woman. On the airplane ride home I started reading the in-flight magazine. First I read a letter from the president of the airline saying that Continental had been named by Forbes as one of the top ten most admired global companies in the category of community/environment. That made me think back about Libeth’s presentation on globalization and corporate ethics and made me want to learn more about Continental, and about the Forbes rankings. Later, I read an article about offshore oil drilling which explained that one of the platforms was named after the octopus-god once worshipped by the residents of the Georgian islands. This made me wonder whether anyone had thought to ask the native residents of the Georgian islands whether they wanted the oil drilling platform to be named after the god. Furthermore, if no one on the islands still worships this god, why is that? Could it not be the forces of imperialism and globalization that probably also brought the drilling platform to the islands in the first place?

Leaving everyone was rough, especially finally having to say good bye to Sarah and Brooke in the Houston airport. At the same time, it’s a little bit like the “Lord of the Rings”, the fellowship has disbanded, but the daunting work of living out our hopes still lies ahead, and the sense of solidarity between us that developed by the end of the semester will never be forgotten. Here’s to the hope of seeing each other again, and the dream that the world might be a little better by the time we do.