As the trip went on, I better understood what she meant. Not only could I pick out the many homeless people on each island, and furthermore, I don't know that I saw a single American face at work on the ship, though I did see plenty of Eastern Europeans and East Asians. On shore, the port area was extremely built up, pandering to the expectations of the "Northern" tourists, but the wealth disparity once one passed the inner circle was immense. I realized how insightful my friend's advice during the many moments of discomfort I felt. It raised a number of questions for me, the most important being: how does my life as a privileged American contribute to this disparity?
This ties into another significant aspect of my future a requirement for my Master's program in Social Work. I will need to do a practicum, or internship, however, and trying to select the site is a challenge. I know that I would like to work in poverty, homelessness, and economic equality, and in order to do this effectively, I've thought that I needed to get outside of my "first world" bubble and see poverty from an outside perspective. Something this past trip showed me, however, is that I will never be able to excape this bubble. There are a number of privileged categories that apply to me: white, educated, Christian, English-speaking, heterosexual. They always will. Even if I go live in community with the underprivileged, I will still be an outsider.
So instead of becoming like them, as though I'm from that community, perhaps there is another or a better way I can use my gifts, even though I'm an outsider.
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