 |
|
|
|
|
  
|
Students spend Christmas in India Nathalie Heiberg-Harrison Northern News Services Published Monday, January 16, 2012
"Every time I spend Christmas with my family now, I'm always going to refer back to that," he said. Gon, an 18-year-old student at Chief Jimmy Bruneau School in Behchoko, was one of five students to take part in a humanitarian trip to India this past December. Along with Jacqueline Gon, Teresa Weyallon-Zoe, Mercedes Rabesca, Dene Daniels and teacher Michael Botermans, Gon travelled to the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu for two weeks. During their stay, the group visited families that Botermans sponsored through the Save a Family Plan organization, and spent time at a leprosy hospital, orphanage, crisis centre for women and an indigenous school in mountainous Marayoor. For Christmas, they stayed at a home for retired nuns, ate pound cake and attended mass. The trip, which ran from Dec. 16 to Jan. 1, was an extraordinary way for students to get outside of their comfort zones and move life's lessons outside of the classroom, according to Botermans. "Our lives are very short, and we don't want our legacy to be sitting in front of the TV screen flipping channels," he said. "We want it to be where we're really trying to improve the dignity of people and share in their suffering to the point where it's not just a negative thing, it's actually you bringing joy to people." Before the trip, just one student had ever travelled outside of Canada. The furthest Gon had ever been was Edmonton. "I saw things I would not normally see in the NWT," said Gon. He said the trip and everything that came with it - elephant rides, a stop at the Arabian Sea, travels in rural Indian villages - gave him a newfound perspective. "The small things that we complain about here should not be complained about," he said. "Just appreciate the things you have because people have far worse." Botermans said that it was during the trip to the leprosy hospital that he saw students really come out of their shells. "It really was what you call life-changing, and they're improving these people's lives, because a lot of these people are never touched by other people. They're not really visited. They've been pretty much abandoned," he said. "These were people just weeping, wailing, because we had come visit them, and one women told us in her language, 'You are my father, you are my mother, you are my sisters and my brothers,' and I thought, 'Wow, what kind of lives are we touching? And they're touching ours as well.' It was really the true meaning of Christmas." The trip was made possible with funding from the Tlicho government and local parents. Vaccinations and medications for students were provided by the school board.
|
