It's a Small World After All

Over the past several weeks I have been interviewing women from the State of Mexico who make a living by making and selling clothing. Most of the women live in government housing built several years ago and started their trade with less than several hundred dollars. As I listen to them tell their stories of working in factories or learning from their mothers, and marvel at how they balance a busy family life with a (often struggling) business life, I feel farther from home than ever. I remember that there are dozens of other Haverford students carrying out other amazing projects around the world, but that only reminds me of how far away people like Emily Horn '09 and Clare Adams '09 are, who are currently working at an orphanage in Tanzania.
Still, there are just as many clues that perhaps this world is not so big. Several weeks ago, the Casa prepared to host 15 high school students on a community service and language immersion trip. Of course, I awaited their arrival at the front desk having no idea that they were all from my county in Maryland, several students and one teacher from my high school. Two weekends ago, Noel, Lea, Professor Krippner and I made the trek up the pyramids at Teotihuacan. On the top of the Sun Pyramid, a woman asked if we would take a picture of her and her daughter. Of course, where else were they from but Pennsylvania.
Last week, I interviewed three women and two men with microbusinesses in clothing production at a center called Amextra in a town called Chalco. The Amextra office is painted bright green and yellow, making it stand out against its neighboring gray and aging apartments and stores. In areas like the one where Amextra is located, it is rare to find a single person who speaks English. You can imagine my surprise when I walked in last Wednesday morning, expecting to see the normal crowds of Mexicans waiting for credit approval, the dentist's office, or their health class, and I saw eight Americans speaking English. They belonged to a group that planned to work on various Christian missionary projects and were very interested in the work I was doing. There must be so many people working on social justice projects this summer throughout the world, I suppose it was just a matter of time before I ran into some Americans. Just when I thought I was as far as I could possibly be from my home or Haverford, I was quickly corrected and reminded of what a small world we live in.