Lab 7: Trip Preparation
This class period is devoted to final preparations for the spring break trips to Nicaragua and El Salvador.
It includes a class discussion about various challenging situations that might arise on a field trip, for instance:
- As a token of gratitude, or as a cultural exchange, you’re offered food or drinks, and you are concerned about food safety.
- A community partner asks you for money or gifts.
- A community member proposes a project idea that seems utterly ludicrous to you (e.g. bike powered lighting).
- A community member proposes a project idea has no relation to D-Lab Energy (water quality testing).
- A community member in an area known to have a high AIDS prevalence needs help dressing a wound.
- You’re asked to do something you are uncomfortable with: for instance, ride in the back of a pick-up truck, shower when there’s no privacy…
- Because of conditions (e.g. heat, bugs, food & water issues), you feel sick, exhausted, homesick, and just don’t want to deal.
- Your host family won’t let you help them with any chores, and you feel uncomfortable.
- The charcoal burn goes terribly, the charcoal comes out barely carbonized, and community members seem very unimpressed.
- Your host family offers you meals that are way too big to finish. You don’t want to waste the food but you don’t want to eat that much either.
