{"id":2081,"date":"2016-06-13T18:20:03","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T18:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sosvolunteertrips.org\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2021-10-10T05:56:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T05:56:58","slug":"on-measuring-impact-not-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/on-measuring-impact-not-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"On Measuring Impact, Not Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Fiona Wong, Outreach Trip Participant, Santa Apolonia, Guatemala, May 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

Before I left for Guatemala, there was a lot of talk about \u201cimpacting\u201d the local community through our outreach trip. I had the intention of creating a positive one, but I didn\u2019t think the \u201cimpact\u201d of a school kitchen would extend beyond the local community that we interacted with in Santa Apolonia. Yet it did.<\/p>\n

On our returning flight from Guatemala to Dallas, while everyone else sat together, I sat beside a woman not part of our group. I\u2019m not usually one who enjoys making conversation with strangers, especially on the plane. I was so exhausted from the night before that I slept the entire journey anyway.<\/p>\n

When we landed, she probably heard me babbling to the other volunteers, about how excited we were to finally be one step closer to home after two weeks in Guatemala. I could hardly wait to deplane that I was already on my feet. I was eager to breathe some fresh air, to use the bathroom, and to enjoy a glass of ice-cold, unfiltered water at last.<\/p>\n

Curious, she started speaking to me in Spanish. I felt quite ashamed for not being able to respond to her in the same language (after having spent two weeks in a full-Spanish environment), so at best I could only shake my head with a polite smile.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Seeing this, she switched to English and asked, \u201cAre you all travelling in a group?\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, she speaks English<\/em>, I thought to myself. \u201cYes!\u201d I replied, relieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat for?\u201d Passengers in front of us were slowly retrieving luggage from overhead compartments and making their way down the narrow aisle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just spent two weeks in Guatemala \u2013 to be exact, Santa Apolonia, in Chimaltenango \u2013 if you know where that is, to build a kitchen for a local school. We also went to Iximche, where Mayan ruins lay, and Panajachel for a weekend trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She smiled. \u201cI\u2019m from there [Chimaltenango], and I was there to visit some family. I live in Dallas now. Thank you for what you\u2019ve all done in Guatemala.\u201d<\/p>\n

We never even exchanged names, but she wished me a good day and disappeared as I remained with the group.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know what to say in that moment. I didn\u2019t know whether I was more shocked that she happened to be from the same region (out of many across the country), or the fact that our actions in a foreign country just impacted a total stranger that sat beside me on the plane.<\/p>\n

Two weeks was not enough to build a school kitchen, and as a result I completely underestimated the effect an infrastructure project would have on local and their neighbouring communities. I was wrong. Impact can be far-reaching, and cannot be simply measured in terms of distance or time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fiona Wong, Outreach Trip Participant, Santa Apolonia, Guatemala, May 2016 Before I left for Guatemala, there was a lot of talk about \u201cimpacting\u201d the local community through our outreach trip. I had the intention of creating a positive one, but I didn\u2019t think the \u201cimpact\u201d of a school kitchen would extend beyond the local …<\/p>\n

On Measuring Impact, Not Distance<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentsofferingsupport.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}