Bags are left unattended on the parking lot, food is left unattended on the tables, friendships are suspended in time, unfinished, just started.
This morning, 9 am, still confused by the remains of a few hours of sleep, I see the first participant leave. Paola. The rush of bags, relatives, cars, friends, tears. And then it hits you in the face: the experience is over.
After five weeks of collaboration and the creation of a safe space, every single one of our 41 change makers will return to their respective reality. Will they resist the social pressure? I ask myself the question as a facilitator explains how hard it will be to share their experience and the change they have been through.
This day feels surreal. We all now it has come to an end, it is in the air, but the same rituals take place. Struggle for waking up, rushed breakfast, struggle to gather the students together. I suspect they are trying to slow time down, trying to avoid the inevitable separation. Without each other’s physical support, determination will be challenged.
As we sit down in our last family session, our “Chilaquiles” seem to dread the reflection that is expected from the them. It will probably take them several weeks if not months to digest the amount of information that was given to them in these four weeks. Each of them was touched by something different and they will take this individual experience with them. Saul was inspired by his community service as much as Adriana found her direction during her Social Issue Activity.
An adequate reflexion of the courses content: a source of information and inspiration for further development. Thinking about the future, I can’t help but wonder how we will be able to reduce this experience to three weeks when they agreed they all would have needed more time. Time to prepare themselves for the transition, the resistance and the indifference.
Every issue seems so trivial in these last hours. Distance between facilitator-participant, authority, punctuality.
I remember the collage made by a group of my Visual Arts students: “It’s funny cause we’re all the same”. We are from the same generation, a youth full of hope and will to transform our realities, bring them just a bit closer to this vision we created. As we sit in the last plenary session, it seems to me that these 41 participants are one step ahead of us. As a facilitator, I chose to support Patricio Provencio’s initiative and contribute to it with my input. It is his vision we all worked towards and, with this vision in mind, we gave all we could. Thinking of the open day and the presentation of the social projects, I find myself confronted with the conclusion that for the time being I do not have the strength to initiate such a project in my own community. We all have a lot to learn form these 41 young adults who decided to act upon their society, despite of the fear. I know the memory of the nervous and excited faces will accompany me once I decide to engage on this same path.
Today is a sunny day. Sititng in a living room in Mexico City, I am ready to start the next part of my journey. Destination: Oaxaca, Chiapas. Ready to discover this country that 41 teenagers are so eager to change for the better. In this same morning sun, I know a majority of our participants are sitting in a classroom, reintegrating the immutable routine of schooldays. Hope that the changed they have gone through will be contagious. Hope that it will spread like a disease and become a pandemic. As the mother of a friend said on the way back to Mexico City, maybe only two of them will carry their project through, but for each awareness risen, our common vision is expanding. I have faith that none of the 41 participants will forget the lessons learnt during these four weeks and even when projects encounter too much resistance, I believe our lives have now taken a certain direction and no one could put us off this track.
I think time has now come to close this chapter. The task of writing the last blog entry was my burden. I could have used more time to draw reflections our of this condensed experience, but I realize that I would never get to the bottom of my emotions. I didn’t mention the tears, the cries, and embraces exchanged. I didn’t talk about the promises that were made. These emotions were theirs, ours and so should it remain.
A mountain of challenges is awaiting each and everyone of us, the road ahead will be filled with obstacles. Skepticism, conservatism, pessimism, close-mindedness, racism, discrimination. But we have faith, we do not stand alone.
Catherine Ador - Norway/ Switzerland (AC '09-'11)
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