IPSL Reflection #1

Kate Ackert

Reflection Journal

February 16^th, 2015

                  To hell with good intentions, right? I absolutely loved this reading. As we discussed Hitler, Mussolini, and more, my 10^th grade European History teacher always said, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. My 16-year-old brain didn’t quite comprehend this as well as I can now. In terms of service for me, good intentions are defined as wanting to help others altruistically. I don’t believe this is always the case.

                  In the reading, Illich says, “all you will do in a Mexican village is create disorder. At best, you can try to convince Mexican girls that they should marry a young man who is self-made, rich, a consumer, and as disrespectful of tradition as one of you. At worst, in your "community development" spirit you might create just enough problems to get someone shot after your vacation ends and you rush back to your middleclass neighborhoods where your friends make jokes about "spits" and "wetbacks." You start on your task without any training. Even the Peace Corps spends around $10,000 on each corps member to help him adapt to his new environment and to guard him against culture shock. How odd that nobody ever thought about spending money to educate poor Mexicans in order to prevent them from the culture shock of meeting you?” This is one thing that I really want to focus on. I want to be here and learn how to serve while respecting the culture of the Galapagos, without making this out to be a “voluntourism” trip. You know, one where you come home with a sunburn, lots of pictures for facebook, and another item to add to your resume. This leads me back to my constant internal conflict about service. Is service done for the wrong reasons still worth it? To the students, to the community, to the 'common good'? We are humans and have expectations for our service experience, we want to use our talents and skills, but the community may be expecting to complete a different but necessary task they have prioritized with no regard for your resumes achievements or personal/professional goals for the semester. This is something that is very close to me right now as I am now starting the application process for medical school. When I first spoke with Amy, the IPSL coordinator, she mentioned that she was looking into me working at Casa de Cultura, which would be a summer camp (summer here is now) that focused on the arts, photography, etc. This would have been a lot of fun, and I think I would have been very useful because I am good with children, but I had this internal conflict that made me talk to Amy about seeing if I could work in the hospital or with a doctor. I didn’t know exactly how I should feel about doing that. On one hand, I have all of this science knowledge that I have been cultivating and a need gain health professions experience. On the other hand, I want to do what they need me to do here. By asking if I can work in the hospital, am I pretentiously imposing myself on these people? As Illich said, I am here to recognize my inability, my powerlessness and my incapacity to do the "good" which I intend to do here. I have only been on the Galápagos Islands for one week, but I have already recognized how tiny my place in the world is. However, I think this is a good starting point for me.

                  My expectations almost always are proven wrong, but I’ll say what I am expecting anyway. I think (hope) that I will be interning with the doctor as he or she visits patients in their houses that are too sick to go to the hospital. I am not completely sure what my role in this will be. Hopefully, it will be as hands-on as possible. In the United States, when I have shadowed physicians, it usually entails me standing in a corner observing silently. It has been really interesting to watch and definitely a learning experience, but I think I am ready for some more hands-on experience. Of course I would do whatever the doctor needs me to do, such as helping move patients, writing down vitals/statistics, but I hope I also get to practice things such as taking pulses, blood pressure, etc.

                  Many people try to leave something permanent on the Galapagos. Some try to do this by leaving things here, such as graffiti. This is neither permanent nor something that is helpful to the community here. I want to leave my permanent mark by making an impact on the lives of people and patients that I have helped. Even if they don’t remember my name or face, the fact that I helped someone feel more comfortable is the impact that I would like to leave here. That is the legacy I would like to leave on the island.