Of the many visitors, we had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with, I found Mike Boudreau’s visit to be especially thought provoking. Considering we had spent much of the last term criticizing service trips and dissecting the impact of voluntourism, when I initially heard of Compas de Nicaragua, I was shocked to learn that they supported one to two-week service trips (even by members of the general public).

Although aspects of Mike’s approach conflicted with and called into question, many of my thoughts and beliefs surrounding sustainable development, I felt encouraged to further assess the potential negative and positive outcomes of our CCESP trip to Nicaragua and the ever-present limitations to “do[ing] good.”

Nevertheless, our discussion with Mike helped me realize that to fixate only on the negative impacts does us all a disservice. As a result, I have arrived at a place where I have found more value in our visit than I had previously perceived. Perhaps the significance of our trip is in engaging the selfishness and apathy that plagues modern day society. Or perhaps combating the arrogance of assumption, or seeing first hand the consequences of a single story.

Regardless of the purposes discovered by each of my peers, I have hope that we will each find ways to value and appreciate the opportunity of being visitors in Nicaragua.