Hi! My name is Morgan, and last month I participated in my second trip to Guatemala with School the World. This second trip allowed me to focus on two things that are very important to me: gender equality and photography. I strongly believe that service learning trips like this will continue to make a lasting difference in the world, if I keep sharing my experiences. To do this, I spoke at an event for the Winchester Multicultural Network and League of Women Voters to talk about women and education in developing countries. During my talk, I shared the experiences of girls and women that I had befriended, each of whom had suffered discrimination while trying to obtain a higher education. Through my anecdotes, I was able to transport those 60 spectators to a country and culture much different from their own, where girls are unlikely to receive the same level of education as boys. Specifically, I told the story of a young, intelligent girl named Ingrid, whose love for learning and self-confidence surpass that of many of her superiors. She was one of the girls in the community of Trinidad, where my group from Winchester High School was working last month. Ingrid amazed me with her ability to reach out to other people, and soak up every ounce of knowledge that came her way. A girl like Ingrid deserves to utilize her capabilities, however this will likely be exceedingly difficult due to gender inequality in developing countries. I hope to continue telling my story, or rather, their stories, through my photography. Given that I had 6 rolls of film, each with 36 shots, and a picture is worth 1000 words, that’s 216,000 words right there! I think that it is important to put other people in the shoes of different cultures, which can be done to a certain extent through photographs, but maybe those photographs will pique someone else’s curiosity and make them realize how amazing a service trip like that is. I have already had two journeys of a lifetime and I wouldn’t give them up for anything.
