Universities Archives - Page 14 of 27 - Shoulder to Shoulder, Inc.

June 9, 2015June 16, 2023

A Complicated Jigsaw

The most recent brigade team at Colomoncagua was certainly cause for great anxiety. It was our inaugural brigade for our new Honduran Brigade Team. Half of the team, Laura and Paul, were in the States for a brief vacation. The brigade itself was completely new to Shoulder to Shoulder, never having visited Honduras as a group in the past. Shoulder to Shoulder has never hosted a brigade in Colomoncagua, this municipality only added to our health care coverage area two months ago. Beyond all this, the brigade members themselves did not comprise a unified group. They consisted of the Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency, the pharmacy team from Long Island University, a mother daughter mental health team from California, and a nursing student from Bethel College in Indiana. All competent, well-qualified professionals, ready to serve, but unknown to one another in this unfamiliar environment, each must have felt a certain insecurity of how this experiment would turn out. At dinner at the first night, they sat silent, staring at the exotic food on their plates, perhaps escaping deeper into their own heads, focusing on the familiarity of their disciplines, but wondering how they would relate one to another, how would they come together. They were anxious and we were anxious. It seemed someone had dumped the contents of three different jigsaw puzzles on to the table and given us the task of putting all the pieces together into a cohesive whole.

But the first day of our actual clinic work seemed to change this reality, the heavy cloud of anxiety rose and the brightness of common goals of human service and dignity filled the air. A hundred persons waited to be seen at the clinic on that first day. Everyone rushed into action. The nursing crew set up their stations to take vitals. The physicians began seeing the patients, forming opinions, making consultations, and prescribing treatments. The pharmacists set up their medications, and read and filled the prescriptions of the doctors. The professionals assumed their roles with great ease and skill, they appreciated and respected their relationships one with another and the patients, and quality care and compassionate service flowed effortlessly.
By the last clinic day, with over 500 patient visits completed, the dinner table was no longer silent, but laughter, story, and the familiar banter among friends filled the room. A week ago, these people were strangers in a strange land being lead by other strangers to serve the needs of yet others unknown to them. Now they were all colleagues, sharing in common respect for their professional roles. Some of them had even found friendship among one another and among the Hondurans they came to serve. Compassion and service are universal ideals that quickly overcome our insecurities.

It certainly seemed that these puzzle pieces didn’t fit: too many pieces, too many diverse sizes and shapes; too many colors that didn’t blend. But somehow during the course of the week, the pieces found connection. Such a beautiful scene emerged – a harmony of service, commitment, and respect to produce a profound hope for health, well-being, and empowerment.

May 13, 2015June 16, 2023

Tangrams and University of Rochester

What does an ancient Chinese game called Tangram, the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, the University of Rochester, and thirty primary school educators have to do with sustainable development in the rural, isolated communities of San Marcos de la Sierra? Everything.
No one knows how many millennia ago the game Tangram was invented. Its genius is its simplicity coupled with its enduring applicability as a paradigm for life and learning. Seven geometric shapes — five isosceles triangles of three distinct sizes, one square, and a rhomboid or a parallelogram — are cut from a large square. Putting them back together is the first challenge. It sounds easy enough, but it is a brain squeezer without a diagram. Even with the diagram, it takes extraordinary concentration. The rebuilding of the square is the first, and simplest, task. There are thousands of geodesic designs of animals, persons, flowers, etc. that can be created by re-arranging the seven pieces. This game, this simplistically profound art form, is being employed as a motivational learning tool in a wide swath of disciplines and enterprises. Primarily, it is being employed as curriculum in primary, secondary, and university level educational institutions.

It teaches plane geometry. At the surface level, this is obviously true. But, subtlety, it teaches so much more. It teaches relational play between logic and creativity. It demonstrates spatial relationships and the use of symbol and design in making connections and communication. It unites logic, mathematics, and art to self-expression and self-understanding. The builder builds and at the same time the builder is built. This all happens on an individual level. When the dynamic of simple design creation is placed into a collaborative, team model, a great deal more is discovered. Some recognize their talents for thinking and problem solving. Others realize gifts for organizational skills. Yet another finds support as a motivator, a team builder. The articulate spokesperson, the story-teller, emerges from the group. As the simple game requires the rearrangement of the seven tiles into a cohesion, so too the players take note of their unique shape and how they fit into the whole. Besides all that, it’s fun.
Or at least I was having fun. I and Laura, about thirty primary school educators, a number of medical residents, doctors, and medical students from the University of Rochester brigade, and three or four translators packed into a small classroom to play Tangram. The First Unitarian Church of Rochester had developed the curriculum to share with the teachers. The church has been developing curriculum, teaching teachers, providing educational materials and supplies, and sponsoring students’ education for many years. The First Unitarian Church, the University of Rochester, and the people and associations in San Jose are all pieces of the Tangram puzzle. In relating one to another, they begin to discover their unique shapes and roles, and how they fit. The design they are creating might be called sustainable development.

As I sat there playing the game, getting to know the teachers, brigade members, and translators, I thought of how utterly different these persons are. Some speak English, some Spanish, and a few both. Their cultures and environments are divergent, almost to the point of being exclusive. They don’t look alike. I doubt that they think alike. They have little by the way of shared references. How do they come together? Isn’t it our sameness, our commonality, that binds us one to another? But then again, a square doesn’t look like a triangle. A rhomboid is after all only a deformed rectangle. But putting these pieces together leads to discovery and creativity. That which didn’t seem to fit, fits extraordinarily. And the discovery of that fit yields harmonious beauty.

The University of Rochester brigade has been in San José, San Marcos de la Sierra, Intibucá, Honduras for the past two weeks. More importantly, they have been there for the past decade. Apart from the medical brigade work that they offer so generously, their development projects are building a Tangram of sustainable development. Micro-financing, micro-business, clean and reliable sources of water, nutrition, health care, and education are a few of the pieces of the Tangram. They bring people and resources to the community of San José who are perhaps of a different shape. But they find a good fit. The people of San José have found their fit as well. Divergent shapes find a unique means to mesh into a creative beauty.
When we build together, we are built. That which we create sustains us and empowers us. We overcome that which impoverishes us. We are enriched by our commitment one to another.
Read more at:
University of Rochester, San José Partners, initiatives: http://www.sanjosepartners.org/who-we-are/initiatives
The First Unitarian Church of Rochester, Honduras Partnership: http://rochesterunitarian.org/ministries/social-justice/honduras-partnership/

April 9, 2015June 16, 2023

Doing Good

April 9, 2015
The University of Wyoming saw over 300 persons at their clinic in Agua Salada last week. Being Holy Week we had some concern that they might not have as many patients as they would on a normal week. But, Wyoming’s clinic is well established with developed relationships of trust. Regardless of the week, the people turn out. Laura and I visit them twice, but because they are so busy, we have little time to engage with the brigade members. Mostly we just observed the coming and goings of the residents and their interactions with the students, nurses, dentist, and doctors.

We recognized an older woman who had also come to the clinic when Wyoming was last here in November. She would be memorable to almost anyone; that soft, grandmotherly look and manner that inspires you to want to care for her. She’s trying on reading glasses. She had done the same thing at the last brigade and I recalled that she didn’t have a need for reading glasses. Perhaps her memory is a little challenged. This time as before, two or three brigade members come to assist her. I inform them that she doesn’t need reading glasses. They ask her if she has difficulty reading and she answers that she doesn’t read. “What about sewing? Can you see the material and the thread?” “Yes,” she responds, “I can sew just fine.” She’s disappointed when they explain to her, as they had at the last brigade, that wearing reading glasses for her poor distance sight would not help her, and might even hurt her. Still, she and the brigade members are having a great time, laughing and conversing. Solicitous of her, the brigade members search out ways to help her. I think that they already had.

Laura spoke with one of the brigade members, thanking him for all the good work Wyoming is doing. He asked, sincerely, if in fact they really are doing any good. It’s a jarring question. A lot of brigades either never ask it, or answer it quickly and affirmatively to avoid their personal insecurity. But the question is the beginning of discernment, the beginning of mission. Everyone wants to feel helpful. It’s another thing entirely to actually be helpful. The former is about ego. The latter is about commitment. The question itself provides the map outlining the journey from ego to commitment.
On our second visit there was a meeting with the community leaders. The clinic has never been part of the Honduran health system and therefore has only been open when the University of Wyoming is present on brigade. The situation has changed now and there is a possibility for the clinic to be operational on a daily basis. This would mean regular health care for the inhabitants of Agua Salada and the surrounding areas. The community leaders expressed gratitude and praise for the committed individuals who have been coming to their village for years. They even spoke about memorializing them by hanging their photos on the walls. Then the community leaders expressed the fear they were feeling. If the clinic becomes part of the Honduran medical system would that mean that Wyoming would stop coming? Wyoming answered the question definitively. No, they would continue to come. They would continue to provide health care. They would stand by the side of the community as they developed. This response eased the fears of all present.

Is the University of Wyoming doing any good for the community and individuals of Agua Salada? Well, they built a clinic here. They’ve provided health care for years. The community is now poised to obtain regular, ongoing health care. They are known and respected by the residents. The community wants them to continue coming. Wyoming is committed to standing by their side. But even with all of that, the question is a scary one to ask, and even more elusive to answer. Though it is so tempting to document proof of our generosity, “good” is not subject to empirical measurement. It is only and always a thing of the heart.

When Wyoming next returns to Agua Salada, I suspect we’ll see the older woman return again. She will again search the reading glasses, again be dismayed that the glasses will not help her, and again find comfort in gathering around her two or three young Americans. They’ll talk and laugh and gently lead her about, searching out ways that they might help her. Once again, the question will be asked. Once again, the answer will elude us. The question, however, is so much more important than the answer.