Students for International Mission Service (SIMS)

Outlook 2002
editor’s
.......letter

The challenge remains, how do we make the human connection despite the material gap? For years, we have examined the developing world--reporting on the joys, horrors, and habits of other cultures--but has it really made a difference in our behavior?

I think the way in which we describe our experiences abroad tells us more about ourselves than it reveals about the society we describe. The way we choose to frame our stories, tell of our experiences, and the words we use to describe the people and their culture--these choices are made as we see them through our own lens.

Trying to understand a culture with a different lens requires an act of “creative imagination.” Trying to understand life from another’s perspective, trying to put myself into someone else’s shoes or skin, their situation, inside their head, is one of the most important and exciting challenges I’ve faced abroad.

Last summer I spent time in India, a country of such breathtaking beauty, endless diversity, and abject poverty--an “enigma wrapped in a contradiction.” As I walked the streets of glamorous Mumbai (Bombay), I found a fascinating, charismatic city. Like all big cities, however, Mumbai has

its seamy side. I came across slum areas, streets lined with pavement dwellers--men, women, and children--most illiterate, all poor, who have been forced to make their homes on the street. If given the chance, with what lens would I tell their story? Would my lens see beyond the poverty?

If we take the same lens that we use to describe our own lives and use it to try to understand other cultures, we are likely to miss something quite valuable. Discovering our differences, how and why we are different, is fascinating. Realizing that we are inextricably linked in our humanity is the challenge.

Martine Y. Polycarpe, MPH

Editor

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