Youth in cross-cultural exchange

In a generation of youth where it seems like international volunteering has become a rite of passage for many, there are groups that seek meaning beyond the length of the trip. For them, it becomes a journey...

By Joel Badali
March/April 2012

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Every year, Global Youth Network (GYN) has the pleasure and privilege of being hosted by Scarboro Missions in debriefing month-long cross-cultural exchanges. A mutually inspiring and empowering experience, the debriefing gives GYN leaders a chance to discuss and share stories with veterans of international volunteer work.

On his volunteering experience in Cambodia, Joel Badali and Sareth became friends, and from this Buddhist monk, Joel learned about living simply.

Each May, GYN dispatches a couple dozen teams of students from Canadian universities for a month of cultural exchange and social justice education. In the months leading up to their voyage, the team leaders organize meetings to discuss their upcoming month together, create bonds as a group, and raise funds for their flights through bake sales, raffles and even band nights.

While abroad, strong team dynamics help foster humility, empathy, and compassion in the pursuit of social justice education. The lack of everyday luxuries often taken for granted such as hot showers, familiar food, and air conditioning, are compounded by the lack of personal space. In rural Cambodia, a single bedroom may house a team of 10.

Teams forge powerful and inspiring relationships with community members and actively participate in day-to-day life and community initiatives. Throughout May 2010, our team was billeted in homes in three First Nations communities across British Columbia—two communities on Vancouver Island and a community in Bella Coola. We participated in preparations for potlatches, learned about the community’s history through stone carvings, and hung out with the children at the homework club. On Vancouver Island, we ate at and contributed to elder lunches and got to know the people by inviting them for dinner or taking walks in the neighbourhood. At one meal, the simple question of how the community had changed over the years led to a heartfelt four-hour story.

Relationship-building also occurs among members of the team. Team members choose a night to share their life story, divulging experiences and moments that have shaped their lives. It is not uncommon for both speaker and listeners to cry from laughter and understanding.

Like Scarboro Missions, Global Youth Network’s principles are strongly rooted in simple living and faith. Dave Skene, GYN founder, describes the organization’s principles with the often quoted words, “live simply so others may simply live.” Simple living helps us to create relationships with communities by building on commonalities as opposed to differences.

Participants at the Global Youth Network debriefing weekend developed by Dwyer and Sheila Sullivan to help young people integrate their cross cultural journey. Scarboro Mission Centre. Toronto.

On a trip to rural Cambodia in 2009, I felt a strong friendship with the people because I packed lightly and lived with them, learning to dance to their music and cook with their foods. Simple living also helped me to transition home. What I was taught in the communities were tools to live my life with a global consciousness. I learned to live ascetically as I witnessed Buddhist monks doing, with less material attachment. I believe I now live with less anxiety and with less burden on the Earth. My joys are no longer tied to material possessions, but to communal activities such as cooking and sharing meals with friends, and understanding how the food came to be on my plate by purchasing food at the farmers’ market or by growing a vegetable garden.

Almost immediately upon our return from Cambodia in 2010, members of the team met to reflect on our experiences and two years later, we still meet. This dramatic shift in my lifestyle inspired my faith that as one person I could make changes in my life that reflect solidarity with others. And I looked forward to sharing with my Cambodian friends the impact they had on my life.

Many, if not all, communities visited by the teams are strongly connected to their faith. In order to foster healthy and compassionate relationships, it is critical that teams learn to appreciate faith as an avenue for building friendships and ultimately bridging cultures. While Global Youth Network started as a Christian organization, it has always been non-denominational. In our preparation, we learn the virtues of interfaith relationships by wholeheartedly embodying the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule helps integrate faith into the exploration of social justice and further the development of meaningful relationships. It does this by highlighting the common dogma practiced internationally across faiths. Even the act of going on a GYN trip itself is an act of faith, as team members must at least believe in themselves and their capacity to bring change to the world around them.

Overall, the team’s faith and simple living helps participants to integrate open mindedness, vulnerability, and a thirst for social justice while abroad and back home. As well, the retreat weekend at Scarboro Missions is an opportunity for GYN’s leaders to extend what they have learned. These discussions, often difficult to put into words, are facilitated by “elders”—members and friends of the Scarboro Missions community who are cultural exchange veterans. In my group, I had the honour of sharing with Kathy Murtha and Dwyer Sullivan who helped us reflect on our experience in the context of our own communities and reality.

For both elders and GYN leaders, the passion to share these experiences remains the same. Perhaps this is why the elders and their new contemporaries can so easily connect in a weekend of storytelling, song and poetry.

Thanks to the elders, the weekend is a reminder that the passion the youth brought with them on their journeys can be harnessed for the benefit of their own communities. This passion can in turn be used to inspire family and friends whether through storytelling, simple living or faith. My experiences with Global Youth Network have shown me above anything else the value of friendship in cultivating a tolerant and compassionate global community.

Global Youth Network is now called Global Youth Volunteer Network

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