Every Study Abroad program is a transforming experience, but there is something special about a service trip. On Friday I found myself just soaking up the joy that comes from serving others. The focus is on empowering at risk girls. We are building a wall, teaching swimming, English, softball, math and bicycling. We have taken walks through the community and heard stories of the residents. The best comments from the students have been the interactions and impact they are having on individual girls. The enthusiasm, hope and dedication of the international leadership at the center are inspiring and contagious.

There is just something about direct interaction with these girls that results in just as much benefit for the students as for the local residents. Experiences like this build connections not just with a place and culture, but with other persons. The resulting joy is in the air.

In Ethics, so many thinkers start with self-interest and hope to develop that into the interests of the community. As I watch and work, I think there might be a more interesting explanation.  In an international conference of Buddhists, neurologists and psychologist  (Goleman 2003), the Dalai Lama and Mattieu Ricard suggest that self-interest is not the most fundamental inclination. If, through cultivated meditation, we were to be able to go deeper, more at the core of humanness is compassion.

I think that is what we experience in serving others. As three schools and nearly 30 students work together in service of at risk girls, helping people we have just come to know, forming caring connections across cultures and socio-economics, we experience our own humanity in a powerful way. “We find ourselves in the service of others.” What an experience!

Goleman, Daniel, and Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho. Destructive Emotions: And How We Can Overcome Them: A Dialogue with the Dalai Lama. London: Bloomsbury, 2003. Print.