What is the group going to be doing on this trip?

As a member of the organizing committee for this Cultural Odyssey (and an adult advisor planning to go on the trip) I often get asked, “What is the group going to be doing on this trip?”. The answer is simple and at the same time, not. As you may have read below we have identified an organization, Amizade, to host us in the Navajo Nation. They will be providing us with food and lodging for the week and will be giving us work assignments. We do not know yet exactly what the nature of that work will be but they have pointed us to two writings that provoke thought on how they view service. I've shared them here in the following links. The first is “What We Don't Talk about when We Don't Talk about Service” and it gives some perspective on the nature of the question posed above. The second is an excerpt from the book  “Beyond the Four Corners of the World: A Navajo Woman's Journey” by Benedek, Emily. It is a chapter entitled “My Mom Always Says,‘Never Trust a White Person’”. It gives some insight into the cultural perspectives of the people with whom we will be working. 

What is the group going to be doing on this trip? We will be volunteering at a Navajo boarding school in Tuba City, doing whatever is asked of us. But more importantly we will be trying to close the distance between ourselves and those we serve.