Freshman Sadie Lansdale won't drink a Starbucks grande-sized Caramel Macchiato. She also won't be seen at the mall buying new clothes. And she will avoid purchasing food that has had to travel a long distance from where it was grown to make it to the local Shaw's store.
Lansdale is not your typical, stubborn, anti-establishment nonconformist; however since she traveled with her Unitarian church to El Salvador two summers ago, her outlook and perspective on life have completely changed.
"I live my life more consciously after first taking the trip," Lansdale said. "My lens has shifted, and I don't see things just from the American point of view anymore."
Over this past winter break, Lansdale traveled to El Salvador again, along with 17 other Tufts students and three physicians. Under the guidance of the non-government organization Companion Community Development Alternative (CoCoDA), the Tufts group worked towards empowering a small impoverished community in El Salvador.
The community asked CoCoDA for help at a local coffee cooperative named Las Marias 93. They hoped to establish an Internet café, which would bring business to the local coffee industry while providing Internet to the community. The first step was to get the space ready, and almost every morning of the trip members of the group worked on constructing the building.
Trip coordinator junior Jessica Daniel, who goes to the same church as Lansdale at home, went on church trips to El Salvador four times before bringing the idea of an El Salvador cultural immersion trip to Tufts.
Daniel wanted to establish the trip at Tufts to give students the opportunity to experience social service first hand.
"These trips are the reason that I became active in social justice and poverty issues," she said. "Growing up in a suburb, I never really knew what poverty meant. This trip gives students an opportunity to help others of another culture."
In addition to working with the café, the cultural immersion trip also placed a large focus on a public health initiative. The physicians and students established a medical clinic for a day during which they saw around 100 patients, according to Daniel. Students tested patients' blood sugar and blood pressure, while the doctors handled locals' complaints that ranged from aches and pains to fatigue.
The students also brought Advil, de-worming medications, multivitamins, dental floss, toothbrushes, toothpaste and basic antibiotics for the community's use.
The public health component of the trip was very important, particularly for many of the pre-medical students who attended; however an interest in medicine was by no means necessary.
"The requirements to go on the trip were to be enthusiastic, and language skills were a plus," Daniel said. "The trip has so many different features. We advertised it as a medical service trip but made it clear there was a big community development and cultural immersion focus."
Through daily workshops or focus groups with locals, the students learned about El Salvador's rough history including a communist uprising, civil wars, and the effects of imperialism and colonialism. Students were housed with families from the community, and from their close interactions throughout the week. They also learned a great deal about the current political situation, healthcare and living responsibly.
"We get to know [the community] pretty well even though we only spend six days there," Daniel said.
Landsdale also found that she was most fond and proud of the cultural immersion aspect of the trip.
"I think there are a lot of great opportunities to do something like this at Tufts, but I don't know of a single one that puts as much of an emphasis as this trip on cultural exchange," she said. "Learning the worth of people who are different from you and who aren't as wealthy was an incredible experience and a necessary one."
By working in the coffee fields and seeing how locals re-use and recycle anything they can from the process of producing coffee, the students were also able to learn about sustainability and living responsibly.
"It wasn't like we're the wealthy Americans who will come save the day," Lansdale said. "It was an equal exchange of ideas."
Daniel hopes that next year, the trip will run over spring break, and by that time the café will have Internet so Tufts students can return with donated computers. She also intends to expand the program to help the community more broadly.
"I would love to see more students become involved and have a social worker or a therapist come with us," she said. "Since the civil war just ended, they have a large need of people to help deal with psychological issues in addition to physical ones."
