facilitator

[Maura Santangelo]

I thought that I had said my last about this, but I want to share a
story with you.  I grew up in Italy but came to the US in 1964.  During
my first year I attended a Catholic high school.  During the Easter
break the students from the Latin class traveled to Rome.  On their
return they shared slides of the trip.  One photo particularly baffled
them and so they asked me to explain what they were seeing.  It  was
actually a beautiful photo of Italian school children in their school
uniforms running out of school, uniforms and school bags lifted up in
the air with exuberance.

The uniforms or the strangeness of them provoked a great deal of
laughter, some not so polite.  As I tried to explain further, I was
stopped by the teacher who was predicting an uncomfortable exchange, and
who thought she was protecting my feelings.   She wasn't, I was more
than capable of taking care of myself.  The result is that I was
stopped, but all I had wanted to point out is that all of us in that
room were wearing a uniform as well: the same shirt with peter pan
collar, the same maroon jumper down to the same pair of unbelievably
ugly green oxford shoes. At the time I felt that an opportunity to learn
something had been missed in the interest of 'making nice'.   I hope
that we realize in this group that the camino is an international
experience, it was always an international experience and that it is
appropriate to discuss some of these issues.

I have traveled extensively in the last 20 years and my experience with
tourists is that Americans are not the worst, not the best, they are
just like everybody else.

Maura




On Monday, January 27, 2003, at 02:27 PM, Becci Robbins wrote:

> Subject: Re: facilitator