Into the Streets

A glimpse of some of the homes
in La Carpio

Last Friday, the students traveled to La Carpio, a poor barrio of San José. They met with a handful of community leaders to hear a bit about the community before breaking up into groups to interview individual families. Since most of the residents of La Carpio did not speak English, the UPEACE group relied on its own student interpreters to communicate. Special kudos to Cynthia, Daurie, Juan, Carlotta, Daniel, Alma, Brenda, and Claudia for stepping up and making the day a success!

Although everyone seemed to regard the field trip as worthwhile, the visit elicited a number of responses from the group. For some, it was the first time in a slum, and, thus, the experience was rather emotional. For the more experienced students, La Carpio was nothing extraordinary. A few commented that they had seen slums several times worse than La Carpio and believed that the conditions were bleak but not despondent. This type of diversity in experiences has certainly proven to be one of the biggest strengths of the Summer Peace Institute thus far. There are cultural differences, age differences, socioeconomic differences, and experiential differences. With such variety in perspective, the students have been forced to be highly critical and mature in their thinking. No one, it seems, has been unable to learn from the stories of others.

Waste management poses
one of the La Carpio's
biggest problems

This dynamic held true during an especially interesting conversation in one home. A La Carpio family asked about conditions of poverty in other countries, which led to a very productive inter-cultural dialogue. A Kenyan student replied that conditions were far worse in many Kenyan slums, but that communities were far more active in forming groups to improve slum life. Professor Mahmoud Hamid shared stories of Khartoum, Sudan, which saw far more extensive poverty but a surprising lack of guns and violence. A student from New York mentioned slums in the Bronx and Brooklyn and the community projects that aimed to give children better opportunities. The commonalities seemed to be somewhat reassuring for the family of La Carpio, and the nuances among the various contexts sparked a creative discussion about how to empower communities and how to address root causes of important problems.

A Burundian student made one uplifting observation that was shared by all communities: children will play -- no matter where they are or how unfortunate their circumstances.

A La Carpio boy practices
soccer in the streets

Such conversations seemed to be the perfect way to follow-up Professor Hamid's lectures on "human security," "ecological security," and "vulnerability studies." This balancing of academics with hands-on work has been a very valuable aspect to the Summer Peace Institute model, and promises to be even more influential during the two-week field placements.

By the end of the week, look for another post that wraps up the academic component of the program. Also, please don't forget to check out the YouTube channel, which will have more video interviews every day!