At the end of February and the beginning of March, I (Derrick) had the chance to go with our Connecting People Coordinator (Andrew) to Guatemala City for a regional MCC and partners encounter. It brought together a significant span across Latin America: Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, and the U.S. and Canada.
Day 1: as participants trickled in from many different directions, I joined a group organizing a taxi-van riding down to the main square. Rebekah and I were here back in 2007 and it was interesting to be back.
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| Ted and Katherine Oswald |
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| Ted and Katherine Oswald |
Days 2-4: The first half of the week was partner-focused, sharing experiences and ways of working with advocacy and change among the many different, but often related, contexts. It is humbling to think about the effort and commitment represented in this group: struggles for rights among indigenous communities, work within the context of war/violent crime/political turmoil, struggle to protect natural resources, risking personal safety to promote understanding, and more. In addition to the sessions, another highlight for me was evening supper conversations, hearing stories and perspectives from different country contexts.
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| Anna Vogt |
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| Ted and Katherine Oswald |
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| Ted and Katherine Oswald |
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| Anna Vogt |
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| Ted and Katherine Oswald |
Days 5-6: During the second half of the week we were joined by staff working with Global Service Learning: the SALT, YAMEN, IVEP, Seed, Learning Tours, and other programs. There was opportunity to have some good conversations to improve and close some gaps in some of these processes. I enjoyed the chance to meet again with some people we had been with in the orientation and others who I had not yet met beyond Skype and emails. This is really helpful for future conversations that happen at a distance.
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| Anna Vogt |
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| Anna Vogt |
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| Anna Vogt |
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