Before I get into my reflections and ponderings and whatnot, I feel like I need to give the background to how I reached them. It started last night when Professor Lo talked to me about the blog, specifically about how to make it less “touristy”. At first, I reacted a little defensively about how much fun everyone has had writing it but then I started to think a little more about what tourism meant. And, as usual, Professor Lo’s small statements opened up a world of introspective insights.
What is tourism? Is it spending 8 weeks in a foreign country? Is it exploring Cairo? What makes this blog “touristy”- is it our casual tone or our comparisons between home and here? If comparing the US and Cairo is touristy, then what is less touristy? Is there some deep insight that we (that I?) are overlooking? In a sense, we are actually tourists to Cairo. Eight weeks is not nearly enough time to make us natives of, or experts on, Cairo. So what is the difference between tourism and immersion – because, after all, this is an immersion program. Tourism is physically exploring a place but never becoming part of it. Immersion is exploring a place, in terms of its physicality, its culture, and its personality.
Circling back to the start of this entry, how has this physical, cultural, and personal immersion affected me so far? I don’t know. It’s hard to get perspective on something while you’re actually there, while you’re actually doing it, especially after just one week. What I can say for sure, though, is that DukeEngage has opened my eyes to a part of the world I would never have otherwise seen. Sure, I could have visited Cairo and the pyramids and the museums, but DukeEngage has opened me up to the people and individuals that enliven Cairo. Instead of hearing about poverty or imagining what street children look like, I can now say that the wool over my eyes has been pulled back.
As President Broadhead described in his address to the DukeEngage students, this service-learning project is a unique form of education. Personally, I’ve always found learning to be something you need to experience. I have trouble comprehending or understanding or believing something unless I witness it first-hand. Now I can say that I have done just that: I have seen Cairo. While there is a lot left to learn, and seven more weeks worth of experiences to have, I can see the problems that affect Cairo and I know my place in how to better serve the community. I guess I have just begun to see things in a different light.
