Mitra Mirpour & Ivan Hurtado
The trip is over now. We first met to discuss our ideas for potentially leading an ASB together March 29th, 2018. It has almost been an entire year, and now that it’s over, we’re feeling a lot of things. It’s hard to put into words all of the complicated emotions that we’re feeling all at once. They're hard to make sense of and, seemingly, are very contradictory. We are so relieved that the stress of the week is over. At the same time, we are sad that it’s over. This process has been long, sometimes tedious, and overall exhausting, yet at the same time we feel that every part was worth it, and we would happily go through the whole thing again. It was amazing to create the ASB trip that we both wanted to go on. We loved our ASB last year; however, both of us thought that it was missing a very key perspective: community. Policy is interesting, but we wanted to explore this issue from the bottom-up. We wanted to meet with community partners that were made by the community to support the community because in the end, water's impact on people is the most important part of the issue.. Talking about our shared vision for this trip almost a year ago and then being able to realize that into a week that exceeded all of our expectations has been surreal, and we’re so thankful to have had this opportunity.
During our pre-trip planning over the summer of 2018, the trip itself was very abstract. The trip didn't have a name and we had no idea about who we wanted to meet with or even where we even wanted to go. There were so many things to look forward to in the daunting project that was planning our trip, but we were always most excited about making a group and meeting our participants. We wanted to create a trip that would inspire a group of students that the world has many seemingly unsolvable problems, but there are people who are working tirelessly to make it a little better. And as the trip came and progressed, our participants exceeded every expectation in their capacity and willingness to learn and listen. They asked such thoughtful questions and lead such reflective discussions, and by the end, they all seemed deeply impacted by our trip. We are so grateful for our participants. We couldn’t have thought of a better group. Many of our meetings and discussions touched on difficult subject matter and evoked complicated feelings in all of us. However, our group helped create an environment in which we could openly discuss our feelings about the day’s events or just how hard it was to talk about certain topics. The bonding that happened was extraordinary, and the friendships that formed on this trip will go beyond just our ASB.
All of our community partners were, simply put, incredible. During the pre-trip planning, every single time a community partner was open to meeting with us, we were always genuinely surprised. When we were setting up these meetings, we spent a lot of time worrying about intruding on the space of these communities and unintentionally exploiting them for our own educational purposes. We knew that grassroots organizations are right to be wary of groups like ours, and we were unsure if this was something we could ever fully address. This fear persisted on the week of the trip itself, but every single partner we met with was so kind, gracious, and eager to share their knowledge and perspective with us. We’re in awe of these people who dedicate their lives to advocacy, organizing, and protecting the environment and marginalized populations. Despite investing time in what can often seem like an extremely uphill battle, time and time again we were met with kindness and optimism. To our partners: we sincerely thank every single one of you that took the time to meet with us. Without you, none of this would have been possible. Your stories and words of encouragement have given us hope that we, in our own ways, can affect change in small yet meaningful ways.
In closing, we wanted to end this reflection with a few of the takeaways our group discussed during our final reflection and during our time back in Houston. Social justice issues affect people - people who are complex and unique and changing. Because of that, you can’t look at social justice through a single lens. Every social justice issue is as complex and unique and changing as the people it affects. When examining social justice issues, such as water justice, look at the issue through the lens of people and its social context. Water is life. It is connected to everything, but there is a lot more at stake than just water. Our participants left the trip inspired to hope and to feel and to act and to remember. Hope for a better future. Feel because that’s what makes us human and connects us all together. Perform even the smallest acts of change. Remember the communities that shape you and give back to them. Moving forward we are planning on working with some nonprofits in Houston to continue our education. We know that learning about this issue doesn’t end in a week - we need to continue to educate ourselves in order to improve ourselves as allies. While we know that the majority of us will not work in water, this week has shown us that there is room for advocacy in any field. We will work to keep this lesson in mind forever.