Britney Villhauer is a senior at Greenville College and is one of the original members of what became the Dirty Roots Revolution. Britney has an amazing heart for God's people and desires not only to make a difference in this world for Christ, but also to get to know all kinds of different people as much as possible. She's spent many summers in Guatemala and spent this past semester in various points throughout South America. She's graciously provides us blog posts during her journeys and here is the final one. Thanks, Britney!!!
-Ryan Mifflin, DRR Director
I am back in the US now. I arrived home April 29th and I have been kind of sulking ever since. I am so sad that this semester is over because it really was the best semester of my life. I learned so much! I feel more on fire now than I ever have before about making a difference in the world.
My 10 day practicum on the Kekoldi Indigenous Reserve was great. It was quite challenging to try to embrace a culture that is so different from mine. They are MUCH more laid back and slow paced. But they are also very hard workers. I got to help out with taking care of the iguanas in their iguana conservation project. I also learned a lot about medicinal plants, how to live in harmony with the forest, and how to make use of the forest without exploiting it. I learned a lot about the Bribri culture and I even learned a little of their language. It was really interesting to learn about this reality that I have never seen before.
Then I joined back up with the rest of the group to head to Cuba for 10 days. I bet I could have stayed there the whole semester and I would have never run out of questions. It is such a complex, interesting, amazing place!
It was really cool to learn about Cuba from a Cuban perspective because when we've learned about it in school it has always been from a US perspective. Cuba has always been “the evil commies”. But this unique opportunity allowed us to interact with the Cuban people and hear their perspective on politics, economics, and social justice issues. It is not all bad!
The fact that everyone has free health care and education all the way through the university just blew my mind! Imagine if I could have gotten all of my treatments for free! And no one would have college loans! And Cuba is the safest place in the western hemisphere. That was something they were very proud of. Multiple people mentioned the fact that they never have school shootings in Cuba. It is illegal for people to have guns. We might see this as taking away their right to bear arms, but it also grants the people freedom in safety. Like I said: very complex. It's all about your perspective. Basically everyone we talked to did say that the mixed economy of Cuba needed to take on a little more capitalism in order to balance it out better. People are frustrated that they can not raise their standard of living above a certain level. We had the opportunity to live with host families in Cuba and see what their day to day life is like. We had a meeting at the Ministry of Education, the National Assembly for the People's Power with a Cuban Parliament member, we went to the International school of medicine where foreigners are able to become doctors for free, we had talks with an economist, participated in community outreach activities... And we went to THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACH IN THE WORLD! Our trip to Cuba was legal because we obtained a license from the US treasury department. What an incredible time I had!
Returning to the US was super hard. I was so sad to say goodbye to people who have impacted me so much. But I am very thankful for everything I have learned and I am excited to be able to share some new perspective with people back at home. Thanks for supporting me this semester. I really appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Next adventure: GRADUATION!
Love, Britney
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