Each year that FYCE travels we purposefully recruit for youth who have never traveled internationally before. And we bring youth who have ongoing and current challenges related to their trauma from before, during and after foster care. I mean, really, I would argue that nearly all former foster youth are dealing with trauma issues from being fosters.
FYCE doesn't advertise as a treatment for trauma, but I feel comfortable saying that teaching youth to travel is a method of combatting the symptoms of trauma. In order to successfully travel, you have to build resilience. And building resiliency helps not only manage post trauma symptoms but also builds strengths to handle future challenges. Where a foster youth may have been told literally or figuratively that they would never amount to anything-- so they shouldn't event try-- FYCE says ah hell naw, TRY and try and try and wow, look at all the beautiful things in the world, and the ways your community of travelers master a challenge together, and how you can taste and view and smell and feel gorgeous things that you never knew existed.
We are a community of foster youth and allies, age/race/sexual orientation/gender diverse, that say, hell yes you can do this!
Yes you can walk through Soweto and make community with students in Africa. Hell yes you can learn from feminist organizers in the Philippines who are saying no to domestic slavery. Hell yes yu can be amazed by mothers in Guatemala supporting their families and claiming more education! Hell yes you can watch how men are teaching men to change nappies (diapers) as a way to reduce domestic violence in South Africa, and how indigenous farmers are teaching the world how to farm with little external resources and use natural practices to produce the most delicious coffee ever. And by the way, you can taste that coffee each morning when you wake up to learn from these beautiful farmers who have welcomed you to their land.
We are saying, hell yes you can learn a new language and focus long enough to understand ancient Inca agricultural experimentation and resistance to colonization. We are saying, yes you can make friends with people internationally. You can talk to someone from another part of the world with a story totally unlike yours, or surprise, maybe a lot like yours.
We are saying, you can ask your community for money to support a project that you will benefit from and they will be happy to do it. Be happy you asked. Give again and again. We say, asking is not begging, you are not a poor foster with a hand out, you are a community organizer giving opportunities for others to participate. You are giving an invitation to join.
And fosters need joining. We need safe joining. We need endless examples of yes, I can count on you. And through travel you do. You count on tickets being purchased on time. You count on research happening. You count on weather and seasons and wellness and travel safety being examined. And you may need a hand to get up a hill, or someone to hold your shoulder while you walk atop a stone fence, or someone knowing you are allergic and to keep the hostel cat away from you.
You need an experienced traveler to ask a question you might be too uncertain to ask. You need that role modeling of how to do it. You need to watch it be done. You might do it the next time. You need to witness a fellow traveler moving through emotions and handling themselves.
Last night and this morning a few of us witnessed a couple having a meltdown and going bonkers at the staff of the hostel. We involved ourselves as much as could be helpful and we backed away when we realized our sense of outrage at the angry/rude couple made us want to punch something (or someone). Look at that... affect regulation in practice. What d'ya know?
Before, during and after our travels, we learn mastery through sharing responsibilities, sharing appreciations, taking turns as leaders, speaking transparently about travel struggles (occasional snaffoos about transportation, hostel bookings, events, etc.) We face discomforts together and wonder aloud how we got to be in such a cool and powerful project.
Six of our group wanted to wander through Ollantaytamba today. We had lunch together and then decided that one person should be the leader and that we would follow them! We ended up walking on a beautiful hillside, on cobblestone fences, above modern farms, amidst Eucalyptus, in glorious cool wind and peacefulness. I am not sure that any of us would have taken that adventure alone, but as a group, we did. We took a random walk in Peru and laughed and talked and clapped and danced and smiled and took pictures and one of us even saved a wild cow from starvation by removing a cactus that had become lodged in its mouth! The cow was so grateful, that before diving in to eat grass that it previously could not do because of the cactus, it licked her affectionately in some form of thank you.
Let that sink in for a minute. An urban youth who had never traveled outside of the U.S. before, took a random walk in Ollantaytambo, came upon an injured cow, built trust with that cow and saved it from future injury and received gratitude through affection. Now let it also sink in that four other youth watched this happen with wonder.
After that adventure we met up at a chocolate museum and learned how to make chocolate like the Mayans. No shit. That all just happened in a few hours of one day of our travel. Later at dinner we heard stories of the three travelers who challenged themselves to walk up an ancient Incan ruins and forts and how they marveled at profound engineering and architecture.
Through adventure, we are healing together. We show up for each other's weak moments, we talk about our amazement, we mirror and honor and appreciate each other for strengths and empowered moments. We try new things, we walk a little farther, we learn that we can overcome fears. We trust. We build our social bonds. We believe more deeply in ourselves and others.
If you are reading this blog and have never traveled far, we hope you will follow our stories and see in each one, that hell yes you can!
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