Globally Engaged: "We Sharpen one Another"

by Naomi (Spurrier '05) Smith

In May, Ndunge Kiiti '84, associate professor of intercultural studies, traveled with six Houghton students to Chilimarca, Bolivia, for a special topics class on "Foundations of Community-Based Health Development." For three weeks the students worked with a program run by MAP International, a development agency that focuses on "total health." MAP defines "total health" as the capacity of individuals, families and communities to transform the conditions that affect their physical, emotional, social, economical, environmental and spiritual well-being. In addition to meeting the immediate health needs of the Bolivian people, MAP works for justice, advocacy and mediation for the abused; provides health education and training for children and adults; encourages community concern for the disabled; and seeks to establish potable water sources and sound agricultural methods. The program also trains Bolivians to carry the work forward; over 800 people from Chilimarca and surrounding areas are now health promoters, improving the health of their own communities.

For the Houghton students who traveled to Bolivia, this chance to connect with a new model of medicine was deeply thought-provoking. "In the States, we often think of health as a purely physical issue—the absence of disease—rather than thinking about health as holistic, community-oriented and preventative, something we work together to promote in one another," reflected Katherine Cogdill '08, a pre-med major from Massachusetts. MAP's emphasis on Bolivians helping Bolivians changed the way that Madeline Arkin '09, a premed major from New York, viewed medical missions. "As foreigners, our role is simply to facilitate the development of minds, spirits and techniques," Arkin explained. "We can bring our ideas but we must also listen to theirs—what do they know? What can they teach us?"

Such questions are at the heart of what Kiiti wants to teach her students about effectively engaging with the world. Kiiti grew up in Kenya and attended Rift Valley Academy before enrolling at Houghton College. After graduating, she earned a masters degree through Daystar University in Kenya and her doctoral degree at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. For the past 16 years she has served with MAP, developing partnerships to enhance MAP's health education programs in Africa and Latin America. Kiiti's continued service with MAP allows her to remain involved in practical international development and opens opportunities for Houghton students to be a part of this global network. Kiiti regularly takes students to development conferences at Cornell or in Washington, D.C., where they can listen to experts raise questions and debate current issues. "This is what you will have to reckon with," she tells her students. "These are the kind of questions you will be asked." Kiiti aims to inform her students about the realities of working in difficult places and to prepare them to be thoughtful communicators in their works.

Overseas programs like the one in Bolivia can be excellent places for learning how to face challenges and communicate well. "Not all classrooms are the same," Kiiti affirms. She explains that experimental learning helps students see other peoples and cultures clearly, without the distortion that comes from the lens of media. By engaging face-to-face with other peoples and cultures, students start to see root causes of world problems instead of just the symptoms. They come to understand how issues like poverty and HIV/AIDS are intricately bound to larger systems of government and culture. Over time, students develop relationships and start to look at life from a different perspective. "Often a student will come back from an overseas program and talk about how the experience changed him or her," Kiiti says. "Experiential learning creates transformation on both sides—we sharpen one another."

The conditions and realities they encountered in Bolivia sobered the Houghton students. Between morning and evening classes, they worked on practical service projects. "We were constructing a simple house for a local family," Cogdill explains, "and I suddenly realized that 13 people would be living in a space the size of my living room." As she plastered walls and laid stone floors, Arkin was struck by the contrast between her life and the lives of the people she was serving. "I will never understand the true extent of poverty," she admits. "If I was in need, I would always have a place to turn… I am extremely privileged." As she interacted with the Bolivian people, Cogdill began to ask questions about the nature of poverty in the United States as well. "We generally think of poverty as the lack of material wealth," she says, "but could our communities be suffering from relational and spiritual poverty instead?"

Kiiti views this mutual education as an intrinsic part of global engagement. "We must realize the change that is occurring in the world and recognize that God is at work locally, nationally and internationally," she insists. Kiiti pushes her students—and indeed, all of us—to find ways to connect with God's work in all cultures, to look at issues from different perspectives and to find creative ways to meet difficult needs. She explains that one way to be creative in our approach may be to consider the call of Micah 6:8 to love mercy and justice. "Christ changed individuals, but he also changed systems," Kiiti says. "As Christians, we must strengthen our response to include justice as well as charity."

Since returning from Bolivia, the Houghton students have taken time to consider their own life work. Codgill now aims to earn a masters in public health degree as well as her medical degree, in the hope that dual degrees will make her a more flexible and effective doctor. Arkin has realized that her place of medical service may be in the United States rather than primarily overseas. "I can go and help," she explains, "but I can't go and do. There is need overseas, but there is also need here." Leanne Jones '08, a pre-med major from Hawaii, echoes her classmate's words. "To become globally engaged, now, is not to rush to ‘needy' countries with my stethoscope, confident in my ability to help. I have realized that it would be the height of hubris for me to assume that my only role in medical missions would be as a ‘savior.' In actuality, my role would be more as a means of support," Jones says.

Like most transformations, the process of becoming globally engaged does not happen overnight. As individuals and communities, we must constantly be challenging ourselves to engage in kingdom work strategically and effectively. "God is doing something bigger than we can imagine," Kiiti says with a smile. "Take your background and your passions and ask how you can join Him."

Naomi (Spurrier '05) Smith works in the Advancement Office of Houghton College.