Page 25 - Priorities #48 2011-January/February

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The Benedictines are known worldwide as educators, as stewards of the
earth, and for promoting the wellbeing of people. The Priory takes this to heart, as do all our students, especially when we go abroad for community involvement trips.
In early 2010, nine Priory students, I and another Priory teacher, trudged down a small dirt road in a place few Americans have ever visited; a Mapuche Indian Reservation in the middle of the Argentine Patagonia. The Mapuche Indians of the Patagonia are similar to many tribes who live on reservations in the US. They are autonomous from state authority and receive very little funding to run schools, hospitals, and other social services.
As we neared the reservation, the students were anxious. We were here to volunteer our services to the community over the course of two days, but we didn’t know any specifics. We came to help create and post signs around the reservation to help identify routesforvisitors. Thismayseemlikearathersmallissue—creating and posting signs—but it was a large problem for the tribe because the reservation was difficult to navigate. Thus, if people couldn’t find their way around the reservation, the money they would receive from tourism would suffer.
The Priory students brimmed with excitement as we neared the school where we were to work alongside school children to complete the signposts. The first greetings were awkward; the kids
from the school seemed amazed to be around people from a different country. They were shy and the Priory students were timid as well, but on that beautiful February morning, a bond was created between a remote Native American community and that of the Priory. Priory students, worked side-by-side with Mapuche students and discovered a camaraderie that transcended language. They spent the next two days carving, painting and posting the signs around the reservation.
The highlight for Priory students was sharing “mate” (Argentine Tea) with the Mapuche chief. He said that he was hesitant to be a part of this at first because they had never had people come to work with them in this way. All previous contributions had been monetary. We ended the last day with a celebratory meal, with our Priory students sitting alongside the school children learning Spanish while teaching them some English phrases.
The Argentina trip was a pioneering event for our community. This model allows the Priory a great access point to explore the world while engaging in community service, to create meaningful relationships with others around the world, and to help make the world a better place. This is what makes the Priory so unique; we put our values into action. This trip and many more to come truly illustrate our mission statement that says: “to assist students in becoming lifelong learners and stewards who will productively serve a world in need of their gifts.”
“Working with the Mapuche tribe was a really unique experience that changed the way I looked at other cultures, and I loved to learn about something I didn’t know. They were really cool kids who warmed up to us as the days went by.”
- Riley Munks
“The kids and Chief were really grateful for our service and you could tell they hadn’t really had that kind of thing happen before. I didn’t think or even imagine we could have that kind of experience on a trip from school.”
-Matthew Schwab
The Argentina trip was an amazing and enriching opporttunity that allowed me to experience a totally different culture and opened my eyes to the world’s vast diversity. We met so many great people, like those from our home-stay and from the native Mapuche tribe. We went on many fun excur- sions, one of my favorites being the mountain-bike ride through the Andes. In addition, we formed close bonds with one another by the end of the trip.” - Lauren Allen ‘10
Working with the Mapuches was amazing, and a definite highlight of the trip for everyone. The language and cultural barriers were almost invisible as we bonded with these great kids over a task as simple as building and painting signs for their village and school.
-Alwyn Lansing