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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Finally here - ISW students make it to Chiapas, Mexico

Today we arrived at our final destination; San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. After more than 24 hours in travel transit, I can confidently speak on behalf of the group when I say we are extremely glad to be here!

People say there is opportunity to learn in everything you do, I believe this is true. Since Monday evening at 11:00pm when we left Belleville, Ontario for our five-week adventure I feel all ISW students and Quest Internacional participants have partaken in essential learning experiences and personal growth. Some things may not seem as important as others but all are essential to competent staff in the field of international work.

For example; safe travel. This included some things that may seem more obvious, such as researching of destination, proper packing, proper health requirements and vaccinations, travel documentation and life style commitments and obligations such as who will look after my cat and I must remember to pay my rent in advance. Once on the road we learned about safe and adequate travel; stay together, be respectful of others, always keep an eye on your bag and never leave it unattended, do not act inappropriately suspicious unless you are looking for delay, be flexible, be patient, be prepared. It's interesting but often I feel it is a lot of these little things that are important when travelling in large groups. Everyone is on their own journey and have different levels of travel experience and different styles of everything; learning to cooperate, be patient, kind and work as a team are difficult things to overcome, especially when tensions are up and sleep levels are down, but are also essential to a successful group learning experience.

Although there have been minor bumps in the road all members of the ISW class as well as members of Quest Internacional have done a phenomenal job of all the things listed above. I am impressed with the levels of maturity, responsibility and understanding of others and am proud to be part of this group. I look forward to tomorrow and am excited to fall asleep. Yes, it is only 11:16pm and I am exhausted.

Hasta pronto y hasta manana!!

2 comments:

  1. Awesome! Michelle, I really appreciate your blogging. With your skills, it'll be like I'm almost there, (no, far cry I'm sure), but *almost* almost there, with you all. Keep up the good work. How was sleeping?? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to hear you have all safely arrived!
    Your friends in the ARC are thinking of you!!

    ReplyDelete

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