Everything Happens For A Reason
Megan Woods, an American student currently studying at Syracuse University’s London Program, participated in the ‘7th Journey of Understanding’ in February 2009…
I just got back on Monday from the Encompass trip- A Journey of Understanding with other students from the UK, Indonesia, Israel and Palestine. I almost didn’t apply for this trip because of timing, but I sent an essay saying exactly how I felt about the issues of diversity and stereotypes, and I was invited back for an interview the day before I left for winter break in December. I was so excited when I got the email saying that I was one of the four American students chosen for this 10-day trip with students from around the world. I was scared in a way, but I knew that I would get so much out of it.
On the 13th, Ross, Emily, Amanda and I made our way to the Bali Memorial right by Big Ben and Westminster where we met everyone for the first time. Encompass was started by the family of a guy names Daniel Braden who died in the Bali (Indonesia) bombing in 2002. They wanted young people to get together and realize that tolerance and acceptance of people different from us is achievable.
We met Daniel Braden’s father and sister, Claire, who explained a little more about Encompass and got us excited for the week. We walked around the sites for a bit and then made our way onto the tube and to the Globetrotter’s Hostel in London. It was a huge hostel with a BAR in it and everything. I was put in a room with Nova, Dista (both from Indonesia), and Haifa, Niveen and Seren (all Palestinian). It was a little awkward at first, but we had a bunch of name game type of activities to get to know each other. Claire, Daniel Braden’s sister, is a documentary maker and actually interviewed me as the person from the American group. She will interview me at the end of the trip as well. We had some discussions and activities on Saturday before we made our way to Wales. The coach ride was really windy and two girls actually got sick! The drivers were insane and we al had to get out of the van and get a breath of fresh air. We finally got to the Wales Outwardbound Center late Saturday night after a 5-hour ride and pretty much went to bed. My roommates were Seren (Palestine), Fabrisha (UK) and Tamar (Israel)!
On Sunday we got up for 7:30 breakfast (like everyday we were there!) and split into our groups for the week. We had a group of 12 that we did activities with the whole week! We met our instructors James and Jen and the told us we were going on a jog and dip and to wear clothes that could get wet! The jog wasn’t too bad and we all held hands and went into the freezing cold Wales water- it was soo fun :)
We then did rock climbing the rest of the day, as well as other smaller team-building activities. It was a great day!
The second day we went with the other group to the shoreline to do rock climbing on the beach! It was really hard, but some of it was fun, and the views were fantastic. We did abseiling also, where we basically lowered ourselves over a cave on the beach. We also all went into a small cave that was completely dark, small, and wet! Crazy times…
The next day we built our own raft- Survivor style! We had six barrels, four pieces of wood and string. That’s it! We managed to build a raft that floated 11 of us down the water to the wharf. We were so impressed with ourselves! A nice water fight in the freezing water was a must at the end :) It was beautiful near the wharf and near the civilization in Wales! The pictures I took there and some of my favorite from the trip by far!
The next day we went hiking. So they didn’t tell us how far it was or the timing or anything, which was probably for the bests, because we hiked four hours up steep rocks and hills. We reached the top, but in order to get back down the mountain before it was dark, we only have 15 minutes for lunch! We then made our 2 hours trip down to the bottom. We were exhausted, but it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I didn’t say I would do it again, but I am really glad I did it ☺
We spent Thursday near the wharf again and competed with the other team to create a pulley type of system that would bring our team from one end of the jetty to the wharf on a little seat thing. Only me and Hodan, a girl from the UK, could see the instructions and we had to let everyone else know where to put things/directions to set it up, It was a lot harder than I thought it would be! We managed to get it all together pretty quickly and beat the other team across! WOO ☺ It was really fun! After dinner we did the trapeze. We had to climb up this log and then the idea was to get the top, stand on the top, and jump and try to get on the trapeze! I got to the top and sat down and peter-panned off- it was fun ☺
We cleaned up our “cages,” where our jackets, boots and rock sacks (backpacks) were, played a few more team building games, and made our way back to London on the coach around noon.
At the end of these long days of physical activities, we would have discussions for a few hours after dinner. They were all so good, ranging from topics of nationality, culture, media, stereotypes, etc. and I walked away from all of them learning more and more. None of them felt like a waste of time at all, and as corny as it sounds, I learned a lot about myself as well as other cultures. Sometimes the conversations got heated, especially surrounding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but overall everyone was pretty open. We also had warm-ups before all of the discussions, where we played games like “bang,” we learned a French dance, we played “Sheep, Boinnnggg,” and fun things like that ☺
We got back to London on Friday evening and spent pretty much all day Saturday doing discussions and finishing up the program really. We had all day on Sunday to do site seeing stuff! We pretty much did whatever the out-of-towners wanted to do…but I hadn’t done much of the stuff yet either!
We started off by going to Platform 9 and ¾.HARRY POTTER!!… went to the British Museum to see a few exhibits… went to Camden Markets where we got real good Chinese food and shopped around a bit (it reminds me of south street in Philly!), went to Abbey Road where the Beatles recorded (think of their album cover where they are walking across the cross-walk…right there!)…went to Buckingham Palace for a bit and Trafalgar Square…and finished up in Notting Hill where we didn’t get to see anything from the movie or whatever but it was still nice!
We got back to the hostel and had cultural night, where we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for everyone and wrote new words to “I like the flowers…” song we learned on the trip ☺ Good time! I forgot to mention that Claire Braden interviewed me again when we got back. I am interested to see how much I changed since before and after. It will be really interesting to watch! They are apparently making it into a movie and Syracuse will get a copy! I’m such a celeb.
On Monday morning we checked out of the hostel early and split up to go speak at two high schools in London. One was a basic public school like you would find in America, but the other was the Westminster School, on the same grounds as the Westminster Abbey. It is also known as the Harry Potter school, because it really looks like it and some parts of the movie were filmed there I believe!
I was lucky to be one of the 12 to get to Westminster, so we got there and went right into the Westminster Abbey for their service that they have in there every morning. This Abbey houses the bodies of soooo many famous people, including Sir Isaac Newton for example, and it was insane to be there again! (I went for my architecture class field trip a few weeks back).
So we were a little early and got to listen the choir perform. I felt like I was in a dream! The service started and we heard some announcements before a woman spoke to the school. She talked about a quote in the recent media that I will never forget because I think it is so great and powerful.
“Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk. MLK walked so that Obama could run. Obama ran so that our children could fly.” How great is that!?
We then spoke to some students that were interested in the Encompass program. Tom and Alex, two UK participants, go to school there, and I have a feeling the school may give money to the program or something, so some of us spoke about our experiences. It was short and sweet!
We then met with everyone for our banquet. Daniel Braden’s mother and sister Claire were there. The mother spoke, and it was adorable. The uncle was also there, a big part of the Encompass program. We received little awards, and it was really nice. We then had some lunch, talked some more, took pictures like they were going out of style, and made the sad walk down to the bus. The Indonesians, Israelis and Palestinians were making their way to Heathrow to fly home!
We had our last Israeli dance/big group hug and prolonged saying goodbye until the last minute possible. I thought I wouldn’t tear up, but saying goodbye to Tamar I lost it. I also had people telling me that they hated me because I made them cry too! We watched the bus pull away, and it was so much sadder than I thought it would be. Even though we are all on facebook and all in the process of friending each other and putting up pictures from the trip, it’s very weird to think that we may never see each other again. A lot of people got close on the trip, and even though the Americans are lucky to have more time to spend with the UK participants, it’s just weird.
I was talking to Amanda and was saying that its so crazy that I don’t know some people’s last names on the trip but I could tell you their morals and what they stand for. It was such a great opportunity, and writing it down does not even do the trip justice. I am still trying to analyze everything that happened in those 10 days, but I have the feeling it had a huge impact on me. I can’t believe I almost didn’t apply for this trip. I feel so lucky!
That’s why I think that everything happens for a reason.
Posted Tuesday March 3, 2009
