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Welcome! You are about to set off on a challenging trip to a variety of different places in Honduras. Some of you have extensive travel experience, and may have a sense of what to expect. If the majority of your experience is in the United States or Europe, this trip may be very different. You will see amazing things, but also some disturbing things, including extreme poverty. The food, living conditions, and weather may be challenging. Some attitudes and standards, such as ideas of time and punctuality may be frustrating to us. This is all part of the experience, and we have not attempted to remove these challenges.
This is an experiential learning experience with a service component. The value of a trip of this sort is found in the interaction of the students with the community. The degree of formal instruction during the trip depends on the faculty members involved, but the focus will be on the experiential and service learning portion. The service is designed by the communities, based on what they want, not on our ideas of what service should be.
The trip may be challenging and uncomfortable at times, but you will be getting an authentic experience in these communities. This is not a cookie-cutter trip, and we may be the first group with which some members of the community has worked. This is not a trip to a series of museums or tourist attractions, and things can change without notice. This is especially true in smaller communities where other necessities may be more important than interviews or other events we set up. For this reason, we must bring with us on this trip flexibility, patience, and understanding. |